Tiger Mate (Silverlake Shifters Book 3)

  TIGER MATE

  (Silverlake Shifters Book 3)

  by

  Anastasia Wilde

  Tiger Mate

  Copyright © 2016 by Anastasia Wilde

  Copyright © 2016 by Anastasia Wilde

  First Electronic Publication: November 2016

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning, uploading, or distributing via the internet, print, or any other means, without written permission from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Published in the United States of America.

  Cover by Jeanne Gransee Barker

  Come to Silverlake Mountain and fall in love…

  Smokin’ hot shifter men with hearts of gold; the strong, passionate women who love them; secrets, lies and danger; naughty, steamy love scenes—and happily ever afters.

  Silverlake Shifter Series:

  Fugitive Mate (Book 1)

  White Wolf Mate (Book 2)

  Tiger Mate (Book 3)

  The Enforcers Series:

  Silverlake Shifters – The Enforcers: KANE (Coming in December)

  Chapter 1

  Jesse Travis sat in the Nashville wolf pack’s conference room, trying to resist the urge to smack the living shit out of everyone in the meeting.

  Unfortunately, he was the Silverlake pack’s Negotiator. In the midst of the raging storm of testosterone and alpha dominance surrounding him, he was the one who was supposed to calm things down, keep them on track. Keep everyone from solving problems with their teeth and claws, like the bad old days.

  Sometimes he longed for the bad old days.

  Especially when he’d had to deal with two days of adrenalin-charged meetings in a row, and his head was throbbing like someone was pounding it with a sledgehammer.

  “Don’t try to dictate terms to me, Monroe.” That was Lorne “Nash” Jenkins, longtime alpha of the Nashville pack. “Y’all are the ones who came to me for help.”

  Jace Monroe, Jesse’s alpha and leader of the Silverlake pack, leaned forward with his palms on the table, alpha dominance oozing out of him.

  “I came here to warn you, Nash,” he said. “Alexander Grant isn’t just the kingpin of a criminal empire here in Nashville. He knows about shifters and he’s targeting them. You and all your people are in danger.”

  Nash waved his hand negligently. “So you keep saying,” he said. “But I ain’t seen any proof. Just a hearsay claim that some mercenary hunter said Grant hired him to track down one particular female shifter—for reasons that y’all seem kinda unclear about. A claim which can’t be substantiated, I might add, since y’all’s pack eliminated the mercenary in question.”

  Jace growled. “He helped kidnap my mate,” he said in a deadly voice. “And nearly killed my Second and his mate. Are you saying that’s not proof of anything?”

  “Of course not, of course not,” Nash said, as if he were humoring a child. “But that little human mate of yours was guilty of stealin’ business secrets from Grant when they broke up—”

  “She stole information that proves he’s a criminal—”

  Both men were leaning forward now, gazes locked, flecks of gold beginning to appear in their eyes. Meaning they were getting closer to going wolf. Time for Jesse to step in.

  “Gentlemen, we’ve been over this ground,” he said.

  He could still sense the energy building in the room. It was a talent he’d had ever since he could remember. To him, it felt like separate currents of air coming from each person, all different temperatures and intensities.

  There was Jace—hot, and ready to explode over insults to his beloved mate, Emma. Then there was Kane, their Enforcer, ranked third in the Silverlake pack along with Jesse. His energy was angry, too, but with the icy cold that was Kane’s hallmark. Nash’s smug dominance felt warm and humid, with an underlying heat of anger that Jace was defying him. Nash’s Enforcer, hot and spiky, loyal to his alpha and busting for a fight just because. And the Nashville negotiator’s energy, pale and lukewarm—he hadn’t done much except take notes and nod whenever Nash spoke.

  Jesse gathered the different currents together in his mind and pictured them moving in straight lines instead of swirling, their heat cooling. It was a mental trick he’d learned as a cub to calm and defuse angry, volatile situations—which was pretty much any situation which included too many dominant wolves and a disagreement. Wolves liked to fight—it was how they established their dominance. Beat someone into the ground, you won your point.

  The problem was, you ended up with a lot of dead wolves, and more unsolved problems than you started with.

  Jesse went on, “I think we can agree that it’s in everyone’s best interests to investigate the threat from Alexander Grant more fully. If he is targeting shifters, unbeknownst to the Nashville pack, then that’s not something you want to have take you by surprise.”

  “If he’s targetin’ our enemies, that’s not really a concern to us,” Nash said. He raised his eyebrows at Jace. “He ain’t targetin’ my pack, and I’m not going to antagonize him over something that your mate—your human mate—started. You’re lucky I agreed to let you come here at all. That in itself is a risk for me, considerin’ how Grant feels about your pack.”

  “And in return for temporary access to your territory, you’re expecting me to let you dump all the young males you can’t keep busy into Silverlake—permanently—and make them my problem,” Jace said.

  That was Nash’s offer to them, for allowing them to access his territory so they could go after Alexander Grant. He held a huge territory—all of Nashville and the surrounding area—and his pack comprised hundreds of wolves. And even so, he was running out of space. Too many aggressive young males, and not enough room to run—or enough ways to burn off their energy. Wolves weren’t made to live in cities and sit in boardrooms.

  But the last thing they needed at Silverlake was a sudden influx of aggressive males who were loyal to another alpha. They’d risk losing their pack from within, after they’d worked so hard to build it.

  Not going to happen.

  “Well, if you can’t handle a few rambunctious young ones…” said Nash’s Second derisively.

  Kane raised one eyebrow and said coldly, “If you could handle them, you wouldn’t be trying to dump them on us.”

  Testosterone and dominance swirled through the room again. Jesse stifled a sigh.

  He said, “Of course, Nash, we remain aware of and appreciate the risks you’re taking.”

  He smoothed the energy again, taking control of it, and everyone relaxed a fraction. Damn, alphas and dominants were exhausting. “However, I’m sure that there is a reasonable solution that will satisfy both parties. For example—”

  “For example,” Kane broke in, “we would be willing to consider a mating alliance between our two packs. I understand that you have daughters of mating age…Amanda, Charlaine…”

  Jesse barely stopped himself from kicking Kane under the table. What the hell was he doing? This wasn’t part of the negotiation strategy Jesse and Jace had laid out. It was crazy to go off-script like this—they could end up backed into corners even Jesse couldn’t
negotiate them out of.

  Nash leaned back in his chair and gave a big laugh. “So, now we’re gettin’ to it,” he said. “Well, well, Monroe, you’re not the first young alpha to want to ally with one of the biggest, wealthiest packs in the country. We’ve got a lot more business opportunities to offer y’all than the manual labor you’ve been doin’. And a mating alliance might alter my opinion on which of my young bucks I’d like to send out to those wide open spaces y’all are so fond of.”

  Jesse was looking down at his notes, pretending to be writing, but inside he was carefully tracking the feel of Nash’s energy. It felt like this was something the other man wanted—maybe what he’d been aiming for all along. But why? He glanced at Jace and gave him the briefest of nods. Pursue this; see where it was heading.

  Jace said coolly, “It’s true that our pack population is skewed toward the male, because of the physical work originally needed to settle Silverlake. However, we’re now in a position to consider alliance requests.”

  Nash sat back, slapping his knee and laughing.

  Jace growled low in his chest, and Jesse reached out toward his alpha’s energy, calming and focusing it.

  Nash was still chuckling. “That’s good—comin’ at us like you’re doing us a favor. Well, let me tell you, alliances with Nashville are valuable. Y’all have plenty of land, which is nice, but it ain’t worth Amanda or Charlaine. I’m in talks with other packs about them. Sophia ain’t spoken for, though. She’s adopted, not blood, but I treat her like one of my own.”

  Jace narrowed his eyes. “Sophia? Isn’t she a tiger shifter?”

  Nash waved his hand again. “No, no. Her mama was a tiger, for sure, but her daddy was one of my best Enforcers, and the wolf genes are the ones that came through. She’s all wolf—she don’t change to tiger. But you know, some people are prejudiced, so if they got other choices, they don’t offer mates for my littlest girl. Offer her a good home, a high-ranking mate, and maybe we’ll see what else we can work out. She’d sure add a touch of class to your logging camp, seeing as all you got out there in the way of females is that human gal.”

  At the words high-ranking mate, Nash’s eyes had moved casually over Jesse, dismissing him, and fixed on Kane. Now he said, “What about your Enforcer, here? You mated yet, boy?”

  It was all Jesse could do not to emit a growl at being so quickly dismissed. He and Kane were equal in pack rank, and yet people were always passing over Jesse in favor of the bigger, more powerful wolves. He knew he ought to be used to it—he was the omega pup in their generation, after all. It was only because of his friendship with Jace that he had any status in the pack at all. But as hard as he’d worked to earn his position, that dismissal stabbed at him like he’d stepped on broken glass.

  Which was why he almost missed Kane getting half out of his chair at being called “boy,” and Jace doing the same thing at the insult Nash had aimed at Emma.

  Shit. He needed to get his mind on the job before this turned into a brawl.

  “Well,” he said, stacking his notes together. “That’s a very intriguing proposition. Since it’s lunchtime, why don’t we take a break, and we’ll discuss it before this afternoon’s meeting?”

  He reached out with his mind again, trying to soothe the energy in the room once more. Kane and Jace settled reluctantly back in their seats.

  Jace said stiffly, “Good idea. Nash, my boys and I will move this out to the balcony, if you don’t mind.”

  “Sure, sure,” Nash said. He was lighting a fat cigar, puffing on it. “Make y’selves at home.”

  The smoke stuck in Jesse’s throat. He didn’t see how any self-respecting wolf could smoke those things, but Nash seemed to pride himself on being the cliché wealthy southern gentleman.

  The three of them rose from the table and went out the nearby French doors to the balcony. The day was warm, being early summer in Tennessee, but not oppressively hot. The balcony looked out over the side of the house, where there were formal gardens, a huge sweeping driveway, and multi-car garages.

  Jesse knew Nash Jenkins was a multimillionaire, head of a business empire at least as big as Alexander Grant’s, but he still couldn’t comprehend how a wolf pack could be comfortable in this very formal, very human setting. The house was a mansion, with a pool, a gym, a movie theater, and a tennis court. It was also outside of Nashville proper, and surrounded by acres of wooded land perfect for wolves who wanted to run. But Jesse still found it claustrophobic, and he knew Jace and Kane did too.

  Even though they were outside, Jace waited until Nash and his men had left the conference room before he turned on Kane.

  “What the hell were you doing, bringing up mating alliances without talking to me first?”

  Kane gazed at Jace with his usual stone-faced expression. Even though they’d all known each other since they were cubs, no one could ever tell what Kane was really thinking. He was totally closed off from the other pack members, except his second-in-command of the Enforcers, Israel. Something had happened to those two while Kane was separated from the rest of the pack, and they’d never told anyone what it was. But it made a wall around the two of them that the pack hadn’t breached.

  Still, Kane was pack, and loyal in his own way. And he was a good Enforcer, so Jesse managed to put up with him.

  But this was crazy shit that he couldn’t be allowed to do. He hoped Jace completely reamed him out for it.

  Kane sneered. “With all due respect, alpha, your little buddy Jesse was getting nowhere with the negotiations. I keep telling you we need to make mating alliances with powerful packs, or Silverlake is going to be nothing but a back-country settlement forever, scratching around for cash to build log cabins and buy generators.”

  That pissed Jesse off. The computer apps he wrote actually made a lot of money, and the pack had a number of other small business ventures that put them well into the black. They sure as hell didn’t need a fancy, claustrophobic estate like this.

  Jace folded his arms and stared Kane down. “That still doesn’t excuse you unilaterally taking charge of this negotiation. Especially over something like this. You know how Emma and I feel about female wolves being used as bargaining chips or sold off like corporate assets.”

  Kane had sneered again at the mention of Emma’s name. “With apologies,” he said, sounding not at all apologetic, “I think it’s a mistake for pack policy to be set by a human woman who has no idea how shifter society and politics work. Especially since she herself brings no assets or status to the pack.”

  Jace growled.

  Jesse wondered tiredly why Kane seemed compelled to insult Jace and Emma at every opportunity. Kane had always been obsessed with status—he’d bullied Jesse mercilessly when they were cubs, and had challenged Jace, the alpha’s son, at every opportunity. Although Jesse had to admit Kane wasn’t a bully now; he never overstepped his authority as Enforcer. But there was no warmth or caring in him, just meticulous attention to duty. And he couldn’t seem to stop needling Jace, especially about Emma.

  Jace ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “Financial assets and status aren’t everything,” he said, more patiently than Kane deserved. “And I will not run a pack where women are treated as objects. If we consider a mating alliance—which I have to agree would be more beneficial than taking on Nash’s problem wolves—this Sophia would have to be willing. And, I’d have to find someone in the pack who truly wanted to mate with her. Unless you’re going to take Nash’s suggestion and volunteer,” he added drily.

  Jesse stifled a grin at that. The last thing Kane would want was a mate—all up in his business, leaving her lingerie drying over his shower rail and wanting him to share his feelings.

  Kane said, “Of course I’m volunteering. That was the point.”

  Say what? Jace and Jesse both gaped at him.

  Jesse said, “You’re offering to mate with a half-tiger city girl you’ve never even met? Why?”

  Kane said, “Because I don’t thi
nk with my dick and my wolf instincts, the way you all do. You’ve deluded yourselves into thinking that the pack bond is some kind of magic, when it’s only mass psychology. And you talk about ‘fated mates’ like it’s a real thing, instead of desperation and overheated hormones. Somebody has to mate rationally and strategically, for the good of the pack, and I guess that’s me.”

  He looked at Jesse. “If the alpha approves, make the deal.”

  Jesse remained on the balcony after Kane and Jace left—Jace still trying to find out what the hell Kane was thinking, and Kane being silent and stone-faced as usual. Jesse pulled a small bottle of over-the-counter painkillers out of his pocket and swallowed two of them dry. He hadn’t wanted to show any weakness in the meeting—to either side—but his head was still pounding like a drum.

  And his mind was still blown by Kane’s proposal. Kane. With a mate. Sir Stick-up-his-ass was actually talking about getting hitched, for the supposed good of the pack.

  Jesse shook his head. Bizarre.

  But from a negotiating point of view, it was true that a mating alliance with Nashville could bring them all kinds of additional business opportunities, not to mention the security of a powerful pack behind them if Alexander Grant attacked them again.

  Jesse leaned on the railing, letting the breeze clear his head, and trying not to think about the way Nash had casually dismissed him earlier. Not only was Silverlake not good enough for his favorite daughters, apparently Jesse wasn’t even good enough for the afterthought daughter.

  He was so damn tired of trailing around after Jace and Kane—ignored because he was smaller and less dominant. Not that he wanted an arranged mating; that was just humiliating for everyone involved. He wanted what Jace and Emma had—what his best friend Rafe had with his new mate, Terin. That feeling of belonging, of being the center of someone’s world, fully accepted despite your faults and flaws.