“The money, the house, everything they had was to be split evenly between the two of us. You were just a baby though. Four years old, and I was just out of high school. I had to take care of you. It wasn’t fair,” she sniffed.
“Wait, what? You always told me I had nothing. That you and Glenn gave me everything I had,” she said, disbelief ringing in her voice, “You made me write down everything I ever spent. You kept a running tally my whole life and made me pay it back!”
“You stole from your sister,” Lance growled.
He was right. That was exactly what she did. Pain squeezed Anna’s chest.
“All those years you were so mean to me,” she wondered aloud, “Told me I was too fat to find a man. Told me my job was unimportant and trivial. Said my art was nothing!”
Anger infused Annalia’s voice as she faced off with the one person who should have always loved and protected her. Sandra was her family. This kind of betrayal was beyond her scope of understanding.
Only Lance’s steady presence made it bearable. She sucked in a breath despite the tightening of her lungs. An unfortunate side effect whenever she became too angry.
She felt something being pushed in her palm and looked to see Lance had handed her the pump. Annalia nodded and took two puffs before answering her sister.
Sweat had started to bead on her forehead, and her stomach clutched in anger. She was positively nauseous. But Anna was far too angry to let this go.
“You lied to me. Stole from me. And made me feel like shit for the last time,” she told Sandra, “I don’t want to see either of you again. At least not for a good, long while. Send my lawyer all the documents you have regarding my half of the inheritance from our parents,” she instructed them.
In all honesty, Anna did not care about the money. But this was her legacy from her parents. Sandra and Glenn had tried to rob her of that. They needed to make amends.
“But, well, we have nothing left. We’ve been living off yours for years-”
“Then I suggest you both get real jobs and figure out how you are going to move forward with paying me back. And Sandra, have my things returned. You can keep that check to get you back home and add it to the principal of what you owe me,” Anna said.
“But wait,” her sister said, “that’s it? You’re going to just leave with that animal?”
“I am going to go home with my mate. It might sound ridiculous to you. I mean, I only met him a day ago, but I feel better about myself when I am with him than I ever had in my lifetime of being near you. I suggest you and your husband leave now before his Tiger comes out to play.”
Lance growled on cue, and Annalia stifled the nervous laugh that bubbled up inside. She allowed Lance to pull her along the corridor, grabbing her coat along the way. She was about two seconds from hyperventilating.
The pressure of his hand on her back kept her moving though, and she walked through the quickly increasing snowfall to his SUV. For some reason, she didn’t even feel the chill. In fact, she felt warm. Like really, really warm.
Nine
“Are you okay?” he asked once situated inside.
“I don’t know,” she tried breathing, but the pain in her stomach was too strong, “I don’t, I don’t feel well.”
“What is it?”
It was like something inside of her was biting and scratching against her skin. The tearing and burning sensations were growing. Her nerve-endings screamed as the feelings intensified. Even her gums ached. Hell, her nailbeds hurt.
“What is happening?” she looked down and screeched.
Her usually short fingernails now resembled three-inch-long, black claws, orange and black fur began to sprout out along her skin. Something inside of her was pissed. It wanted to hunt her sister down and smack the bitch for what she’d done. The animalistic instinct seemed to intensify, as did the pain.
“Oh shit, it’s the Puspa,” growled Lance, “Baby, are you okay? Fuck, I didn’t know!”
She knew instinctively that extra grrrr in his voice was his beast. When he glanced at her, she saw the animal in his eyes. Worry and concern, along with other, deeper emotions flooded her.
It was almost overwhelming, but that pain she felt still held her in its grips. It wouldn’t allow her to be swept away by the tide of emotions that was her mate’s own feelings.
Mine. What the? A voice inside her seemed to be calling out. It wanted to claim him. To mark him.
Mine. Yes, mine.
“Okay, Annalia, you must listen to me,” Lance cursed and slammed the steering wheel with his hands, “This is too fast, but Gerri explained you were my mate, right? Well last night when we made love, and I bit you, that was my animal side claiming you as mate. In doing so, I started to seal the matebond because the universe blessed me with you. Shifters know their mates. You are mine. But my bite did something else-”
“What the fuck did it do? Ow!” she roared, like really fucking roared in pain.
The highway was only semi-crowded, a good thing for the Garden State Parkway. The snow was coming down faster, but the roads were salted and clear for now. Lance pressed the gas pedal hard.
“Aghhh,” she tossed her head from side to side. It was too much.
“Easy, love, hold on a few minutes more,” he cajoled, but it was no good.
Whatever was happening, it was happening now. She heard the metal in the seat bend as she pushed back against the passenger side chair. Fucking hell, she was breaking his car.
“I don’t give a shit about the car,” he grunted.
“Fuck, baby, I am so sorry,” his fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white with the strain.
Then she knew. Deep inside, she understood they were connected. Lance was right there with her, feeling her pain, going through whatever this was that held her tight in its relentless grip.
“It’s the Puspa,” he said that strange word again, and she waited for him to continue, “it means awakening in Bengali. You see, when we made love and I bit you,” he chuffed and grunted, trying one more time to explain, “I awakened the beast within you, love. It’s your Tigress.”
“Lance?” she growled his name in disbelief.
Holy fuck! Yes, that sound was her. She was growling at him. Like a fucking Tiger.
“You have to let her in,” he was saying, “your animal wants to push through, baby. It’s happening fast cause of that business with your sister. Sandra made you mad. Tiger wants to protect.”
He was reduced to barely understandable sentence fragments. But she knew exactly what he was saying. It all rang true. Deep in that place inside her, Anna felt her animal spirit trying desperately to make contact, to connect. All she had to do was let her.
She’d been through so much with Lance in such a short time. Who would believe all this could happen in only a couple of days? But it was happening regardless of belief. Anna had mistakenly trusted her sister and Glenn to do what was best for her when she’d been growing up. And that was a mistake.
It was her turn now to decide. From the photo albums and her mother’s diary, she knew her parents had shared an intense love. Her mother claimed she’d fallen for her man at first sight, and Anna had always dreamed of the same thing happening to her.