Tiger Bite: BBW Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance (Shifters Everafter Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

locking his animal into a small back corner of his mind. It didn’t work.
    His tiger blasted through his mental defenses and pushed Alek to a small, dark corner of his mind. He was powerless to stop himself from transforming.
    The powerful tiger stalked Jessica through the trees. Alek screamed at the animal and tried to regain control, but it was no use. The tiger soundlessly crept up on Jessica. She didn’t even see it coming.
    Alek watched with horror as his tiger pounced on the unarmed woman. The forest was deadly quiet as the tiger’s jaws clamped down on Jessica’s shoulder. She screamed loudly and beat the animal on the head, but it wouldn’t let go. It held her down with a paw and opened its jaws. It licked the wound it had just created until it had stopped bleeding. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, the attack was over. The giant tiger got up and bounded off into the trees.
    He didn’t even try to take control back. He didn’t want anyone to see his face.
    That was it. His life was over. He would never be able to keep Jess safe again. He was going to have to leave town and head for a shifter sanctuary. All he could hope was that he hadn’t ruined her life too.
    Maybe she wouldn’t turn. Maybe his tiger had only wrecked his future.

Three
    Jessica lay on the ground in shock. She had to get up. No one knew where she was. If she stayed on the ground, she was going to die all alone and no one would ever find her body.
    The tatters of shirt that were still clinging to her torso were soaked in blood. She sat up gingerly and put her hand to her shoulder.
    The wound didn’t go all the way through. She couldn’t get a good look at it, but it didn’t appear to still be bleeding. She opened her backpack and took out a granola bar and a bottle of juice. She ate and drank slowly while she continued to cry. By the time she’d finished the food, she wasn’t shaking anymore. She could stand up, and she had stopped crying.
    She focused on the sounds around her as she tried to calm her mind. She could hear rodents scurrying around and there were birds flitting around the treetops. She listened hard, but there was no sign of the tiger. But then, she hadn’t heard it coming the first time, either. The animal could still be out there, waiting to pounce again. It could be toying with her. It wasn’t safe out here.
    She would have to go back home. There was no way she could try to walk to Rose Valley in her current condition. No one would accept her at the next town covered in blood, either.
    She started the walk back to town with only one thought on her mind. Was she going to turn?
    Tigers weren’t native to the area. There was no way that one wasn’t a were-animal or a shifter. Being bitten by a were-animal didn’t guarantee that she’d turn; there was still a chance she’d be fine. Either way, she needed to know before she left. She would be a danger to anyone near her when she first turned. She didn’t want to hurt someone while traveling to Baghera because she was so anxious to leave. She had to be safe about it.
    She snuck back into her room without being spotted. Her father’s night guards weren’t that good at their jobs. She’d expected to have a hard time getting back inside in her current state, but there wasn’t anyone around to see her.
    When she looked in the mirror, she realized how lucky she was. Anyone who saw her would have known she’d been attacked. Besides the blood and torn clothes, she was pale as a ghost. She took a shower and got into bed with another bottle of juice.
    All of her clothes were going to have to go into a dumpster. No one could know what had happened to her. Jasper wouldn’t want to marry her if he knew she’d been attacked—but that wasn’t a good thing. She wouldn’t put it past her father to actually lock her away if he knew. He would come down hard on all the shifters in Penicalla and the Wasteland, but there was no telling what he would do to her. What if he