A Tigers Stripes Never Change

Chapter 8

Jack

We left the cabin fed and fully dressed, although we looked like we obviously are wearing someone else’s clothing. I tugged at the too tight shirt around my neck and the waistband of my shorts was digging into my hips. The dryer sheet smell was starting wear off as I sweat; leaving a weird mixture of laundry and decay. I looked down at my mate who was struggling to keep her balance in her too big shoes. Her T-shirt tied tightly around her waist to help keep her shorts up. Even though she looked like a little kid wearing her dad’s too big shirt, she was the most beautiful creature. She tripped over her shoes and almost face planted before I caught her.

“f*****g shoes,” she cussed under her breath. She looked at me and smiled. “Thank you.”

“Always,” I said and lifted her up to kiss her. “Do you want to take a break? We’ve been walking awhile.”

I hadn’t been able to remember where I was parked. I don’t know how far I was from the road when I ran into the beast and everything looked the same. I know I hadn’t been running long and I had stopped by a river to drink. We followed the river past the bend. According to Cat, we were almost to the place where she had met Andy.

“Sure,” she said and plopped down by the river without hesitation. “Do you want to keep going or should we try to find a place to sleep for the night? It’s getting dark, but I know it’s been a really long day for both of us.”

“I don’t think I’d be able to sleep here; not knowing where he is or when he’ll be back. You know he’ll be back.”

I had filled Cat in on what I remembered from my time with Andy. I told her about how he took shifters and performed some fatal surgery on them; cloning their genes and probably performing unspeakable acts of torture. I had told her about the freezer. I didn’t want too, but I knew she needed to know exactly what we were dealing with. Her eyes narrowed when I told her what I saw and what I thought it meant. I thought she’d be scared, but something different happened.

“Somehow,” Cat said slowly and she looked off into the distance as if seeing something that wasn’t there. “Somehow I’m not surprised by that. Like I kinda knew he was capable of that, but then not at the same time. I don’t really know how to explain it. It’s like the feeling I had when we were first saw the clearing. When he was talking and I felt like I knew him from somewhere all of sudden….maybe, I think I’m getting my memory back!”

She hugged me tightly at that moment and I felt the wonderful warmth of her body against mine. My tiger purred contentedly. I was excited for Cat that she’s getting her memory back. I want to know everything there is to know about her. But I was worried about the beast, I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to take him. I had a suspicion he wouldn’t come back unless he was stronger. I knew he wasn’t as strong as me at my best, but I wasn’t sure about my strength right now. Shifting last time took a lot out of me. I’ve been eating and drinking water to replenish myself and keep hydrated; I can feel it helping, but is it enough? I squeezed her tighter to me.

“Helllloooooo?” Cat called to me; waving a cracker in front of my face to bring me back to the present. “Earth to Jack, did you hear me?”

“Sorry,” I said shaking my head. “Just thinking about you hugging me.”

She smiled as a blush rushed over her cheeks. She handed me a sleeve of crackers and a bottle of water. I stared at the crackers. They were the most delicious things when I had found them earlier in the shed. They had been the first untainted thing I had consumed since arriving in this forest. But now after I have eaten probably three boxes since then I wasn’t feeling it anymore.

“Did we find anything other than crackers?” I asked; opening up the plastic. She shook her head and popped some into her mouth. “Man I can’t wait to get a cheeseburger with onion rings!”

“French fries for me,” she said. “And bacon. Lot of bacon.”

“You really are the woman of my dreams,” I sighed. “But what’s wrong with onion rings?”

“Nothing really,” she said with a shrug. “I only like onion rings from Stanley’s Burgers.”

Her eyes got big after she finished her sentence and she looked at me. “Stanley’s! There’s a burger place called Stanley’s in the town where I live! Holy f**k I remember!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her proclamation at the end. She looked down at herself and tears started to fall down her cheeks as her memories unlocked and flooded back to her. She sat back down as if too overwhelmed to stand as she looked around her surroundings.

“My name isn’t Cat,” she said after several quiet minutes. I was starting to get worried as she sat silently. “My name is Nova. I’m 27 and I live in Cantu, Georgia. I work for an agency who has been investigating a man under suspicion of kidnapping shifters.”

“Nice to meet you Nova,” I said as I sat down beside her in the grass. I pulled her into my lap and wrapped my arms around her. “What else do you remember?”

“Everything,” she said. “It all just came rushing back in an instant. You mentioned onion rings and it was like I could see Stanley’s. I could taste their onion rings and then the floodgates opened and it was like I was seeing my whole life flash before my eyes.”

“So you were in the woods that night because you were looking for Andy?” I asked and she nodded.

“Ironically, Andrew is his actual name. We learned about his research and had been tracking him. We didn’t know how he was selecting his shifters and we weren’t sure what he was doing with them. We’ve never found any bodies.”

“Probably because he has them in the freezer,” I replied. “Those poor shifters.” Nova nodded solemnly.

“We didn’t really have anything concrete on him just suspicions and hunches. I don’t know why, but that night I had decided to do a little recon mission on a property I suspected he was using. I just wanted to sneak in, see what I could see, and get out. If I knew what to look for I could have tried to track him down officially. No one even knew I came. They’re probably freaking out right now and I’m half surprised my dad hasn’t sent helicopters to search over the entire state.”

“Dad?” I said surprised. “You have a family?”

“Well sorta, it’s just my dad and I. My mom kinda drifted off after I was born like most tiger shifters do. But my dad always wanted a family so he stayed. He joined the agency to make money as a single dad and when I was old enough I joined too.”

We sat quietly together for several minutes. I played with her hair as she snuggled into my chest. I had so many questions I wanted to ask her about her life; her father. I knew we’d spend hours talking and learning about each other. But we didn’t have that kind of time. It was already dusk and we were losing daylight. Things would only get more dangerous the longer we stayed in in this forest.

“How about we find our way out of here so we can get you home?” I said, kissing her head. She purred against me.

“2 more minutes?” She asked in a tiny voice.

“Okay, 2 more minutes,” I said with a chuckle.

Nova

I nuzzled closer to Jack as we sat there. Memories continued to wash over me. I basked in them; even the unpleasant ones like fighting with my dad as an angsty teenager or getting my first speeding ticket. Tears welled in my eyes as I saw my dad’s face. I miss him so much. It feels like I haven’t seen him in years. So much as happened in the past 2 days. He’s gonna be furious when I get home. A snort laugh burst out of me at the thought of explaining myself to my irate father, causing Jack to jump and growl. I rubbed my hand on his arm to let him know its okay. His growl turned into a purr again. I really liked doing that.

“It’s been 2 minutes my love,” he whispered into my hair. “As much as I love to hold you, we should really get going.”

“Okay,” I sighed. I hopped out of his lap and stood up. I stretched out my arms and legs as Jack sprung to his feet. He wiggles his toes in the shower sandals.

“Do you happen to remember how you got to the forest? Did you drive?” He asked as we picked up our stuff from the ground and packed it up.

I stopped to focus on it, but all I could remember was getting dressed. I didn’t remember how I got here or where I parked. It seems the drug Andy had dosed me with erased the few hours before I was injected.

“I know I must’ve driven here,” I said. “Nobody knew I was coming or where I went. That’s why nobody’s come storming in here. But I know my dad, if anyone shows up it’ll be him. So if you see a silver tiger, don’t attack.”

“Silver?” Jack asked with an open mouth, his hand half in the backpack holding a sleeve of crackers. “I’ve never seen a white tiger in my life and now you’re telling me there’s a silver one? And he’s your dad?”

I chuckled at his expression and nodded. We were a very rare tiger. My dad kind of felt that was part of why my mom left. She knew I would take after my dad (I was the spitting image of him and still am) and she didn’t want to compete with me for his love and affection. My parents weren’t mated. They had fallen for each other when they were young and promised to love each other no matter what. Perhaps she found her true mate after I was born and that was the real reason she left. My heart ached for my dad being alone all these years. I shook off the random thoughts of my parents and finished packing up.  

“You ok?” Jack asked; I turned towards him to find him standing with the back pack slung over one shoulder. 

“Yeah,” I nodded and gathered up the empty water bottles. “Just got a lot going on in my head right now. I’m gonna fill these up in the river. No point in wasting them.”

“Whenever you’re ready, I’m here to listen,” Jack said as I walked toward the river. I paused before bending down and looked into the forest. Something didn’t feel right.

“Jack!” I called when I saw it. I heard him come running as Andy turned to face me. He had been hiding amongst the trees. His eyes looked wild and his hair was dirty and sticking up all over; twigs and leaves stuck to the tips.

Andy raised a gun up and before I could see him pull the trigger, Jack slammed me into the ground. I didn’t hear a shot, but I felt Jack go limp on top of me. His head lulled to the side and I saw his eyes moving around trying to focus. I called his name over and over but he couldn’t hear me. I looked around his body; trying to see where he had been shot. I couldn’t see any blood! Then I saw a red feathered dart sticking out of his back. I tried to reach it, but Jack was too heavy. I heard Andy crashing and stomping through the woods from where he had been to get to us. I rolled Jack off me and pulled the dart out of him. I turned him onto his back and checked his face. His eyes were still rolling. His mouth moved as he tried to speak but he was only making gurgling sounds.

My body stiffened as I heard Andy approach and I quickly crouched over Jack. I heard Andy curse and he jumped out sight behind a tree. My need to stay to close to Jack and protect him warred with my desire to shift and rip Andy to shreds.

“Andy!” I screamed his name. It sounded guttural and angry; more like a roar. “You’re going to pay for what you’ve done. It’s over! If you stop now and come quietly it’ll be better for you. I can’t promise it’ll be great, but they’ll take it into consideration”

I heard Andy laugh a loud maniacal laugh. Even I knew that was bullshit. But hey, it was worth a shot. I could at least go on record as trying to convince him to come peacefully, but left me no choice but to rip him limb from limb. My teeth grew long and may hands curled into claws. My tiger dangerously close to shifting. I eased her back some. I wanted to get Andy talking to buy us time to find a way to get Jack to safety.

“Seriously Andy, why? Why did you do this?” I asked. I sniffed the air and tasted it on my tongue. His scent drifted towards me from the left. I slowly positioned myself so I could see into the trees; easing back into a protective crouch over my mate. “I know you’re a good guy Andy, that whole time in the forest together couldn’t have been a complete act.”

Silence. Not even a breath besides Jacks ratcheted breathing. I looked down at him from my crouch. White bubbles were forming at the corners of his mouth. I gently rolled him to the side in case he got sick. I didn’t want to worry about him choking in case I got distracted. I looked back up and saw a brief glimpse of Andy moving to a different tree.

“Come on Andy, you know this is over. If you keep this up, you won’t make it out of these woods.”

“No!” He roared at me from the woods. “It’s not over! I’m not done yet!”

“Whatever it is you are is not what you want to be. You will never be a true shifter. You won’t ever be welcomed into our community and we will not recognize you as one of us,” I replied.

He was silent again. I stared through the trees hoping so catch a glimpse of him. Then I heard laughter. Slow at first but it quickly built and it turned more into a cackle. He sounded insane, like he’s completely lost his mind.

“I suppose you are correct,” he called to me. “I’m not a true shifter. I’m something more. I will be powerful when I’ve completed the process. I’ll be more powerful than you. And when it’s perfected I can sell it whole world. Everyone can be a shifter. And I will have the world at my hands.”

He appeared from behind a tree, his mouth morphed into an ugly wide toothed grin. His teeth were long and sharp like a wolf. His eyes were black and patches of fur sprouted from his bare chest and arms. His hands were at his sides. I could tell he had something in both of them but I couldn’t see what it was. I figured the black thing was the gun he had used before. A tranq gun. Whatever was in his left hand had a black handle and a strap wrapped around his wrist.

I felt my tiger push against me, white fur pushed through my skin and my teeth grew longer. Easy, I said to her. We don’t want to lose control right now. We need to keep Jack safe. I spared a quick glance down. He was still on his side, his head resting on his arm. Spit dribbled from his mouth and his eyes were closed. I saw him breathe slowly as if he were asleep. In my peripheral, I saw Andy jerk his hand up during my pause. My legs bent quickly and lunged. I saw a red dart fly through the air and stick into the tree that had been behind me.