A Healing Love Read Free Page B

was determined to put an end to him, family connections be damned.
                Tigers in the wild were solitary creatures, and their shifter counterparts weren’t a hell of a lot different. However, family units lived and traveled in the same general area. Every year Luka had crossed the Bering Strait into Russia for the summers, then back to Alaska for the winters. It was his family’s territory. The tigers swam, while the mates crossed in a boat, guarded by at least three of the shifter men now. Every male in his family had hunted Gleb at one time or another, but no one had ever gotten this close.
                At one time Gleb had been Luka’s beloved uncle. A sad tiger who had lost his mate through no fault of his own. No one ever suspected how bitter time without the woman nature gifted to be his one and only had become. There had been no warning, no signs. Because the homes they all dwelled in were so far apart from one another, no one had seen Gleb’s gradual descent into madness. No one could have ever predicted Gleb would slaughter Luka’s mother, but not before setting a very young Luka up to kill his own mate slowly.
                Thinking of the idiot cub he had been made Luka sick with shame. No matter how many times Luka told himself he was just a kid, that he couldn’t have known better, impotent rage still ate at him. Thinking of that beautiful, trusting little face who had only been trying to help him... God, she had been like something out of a fairy tale. Almost too pretty to be real, with gloriously dark skin, her hair usually in a braid twisted like a rope crown on the top of her head. He used to watch her, fascinated by her laughter. Such a tiny little thing who had braved the snow to free him from a wolf trap. Not once had she hesitated, even though she hadn’t been more than seven.
                Luka hadn't been that young, but for a tiger, he might as well have been younger than she. At thirteen in human years, he looked more like a three or four month old when he shifted to tiger form. That was one of the reasons he wasn’t supposed to ever shift unless he was with an older male member of his family. He’d thought his uncle was so cool because he had encouraged him to shift as often as possible. He had encouraged Luka to shift that night and led him to the big stone house where the captivating little dark fairy-girl lived. Funny, but that cool uncle was nowhere to be seen when Luka had walked into a wolf trap.
    The pain had been a shock. Luka and his brothers had always been protected, surrounded by adults that were maybe a little too cautious when it came to the cubs. Unlike so many other families, they weren’t expected to learn on their own how to survive. The metal teeth that had penetrated his fur, right down to his bone, was a pain unlike any he’d ever felt. All he’d wanted to do was watch the little girl for a little while, and instead he’d been caught, and it had felt as if he might lose his paw. It hadn’t been the first time Gleb had led him to the house, but he had never seen the monstrous thing threatening to take one of his limbs before. All he had ever noticed was that enticing scent that seemed to surround the little girl. It smelled better than fresh-baked cookies or even roasted deer.
    All he had wanted to do was watch the little girl. Maybe even stand guard over her. His uncle had warned of wolf shifters in the area, and everyone knew you couldn’t trust a wolf shifter.
    But it had been a horrible setup. While Luka had been caught in the trap, crying pitifully, Gleb had gone back to tell his parents Luka had been trapped by humans. Of course his father had rushed off to save his son. Gleb had doubled back and slaughtered Luka’s mother viciously. And Luka, in a mixture of confusion and pain, had bitten his mate, who had not been ready for such a claiming.
    Because Luka hadn’t reached the age of shifter puberty, no one had