Lone Star Tiger (Shifters in the Heart of Texas Book 2) Read online

  Lone Star Tiger

  Shifters in the Heart of Texas, Book 2

  By Sloane Meyers

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Similarities to actual people or events are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Sloane Meyers. All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  More Books by Sloane Meyers

  Thank You For Reading!

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Max Brooks surveyed the crowd sullenly as he took a long, slow sip from his whiskey. The atmosphere was festive, but Max’s mood could not have been gloomier. All around him, his former classmates were drinking, laughing, and dancing.

  Max was only participating in the drinking.

  He should have stayed home instead of coming here and subjecting all of his former classmates to his awful mood. But his best friend, Theo Wilson, had convinced him to come.

  “You can’t just miss your fifteen year high school reunion,” Theo had said. “It only happens once in a lifetime.”

  Max had rolled his eyes and asked what happed to just doing reunions in ten year increments like normal people. Ten year, twenty year, thirty year…that made sense. What was the point of a reunion when they’d just had one five years earlier?

  Besides, it’s not like everyone here didn’t see each other all the time, anyway. Max could count on one hand the number of his Persimmon Springs classmates who had actually moved away from Persimmon Springs. Most of the crowd here still lived down the street from the high school. Not much had changed, except that most of the crowd was now fatter, had a few more wrinkles, and had become parents themselves.

  Not Max. Max was a long way from becoming a parent. He didn’t even have a girlfriend, and he hadn’t dated anyone seriously in a long time. It was better that way. His tiger nature was stubborn, intense, and ferocious. Most girls couldn’t handle him, and Max had long ago decided that he was better off living the bachelor lifestyle. Every time he tried to make it with a girl, the relationship ended up going up in flames. Max was tired of putting his heart through that.

  But things had gotten pretty lonely lately. Until recently, Theo had been living the bachelor life with Max. Theo was a dragon, and didn’t date much either. He hadn’t wanted to deal with having to explain his shifter side to anyone, so he avoided women like the plague. That all changed when Maddie Anderson showed up in town. Maddie somehow managed to sneak her way into Theo’s heart, and now Theo and Maddie were inseparable. In fact, right now the two lovebirds were dancing up a storm together in the area of the high school gym that had been turned into a dance floor.

  Max’s scowl deepened, and he turned away. He should have known that would happen when Theo convinced him to come to this stupid reunion. Everywhere they went lately, Theo was fawning over Maddie, and Max felt like the third wheel.

  Max went to grab another whiskey. He knew he should slow down, but the burning liquid eased the agony of the moment.

  He shouldn’t be so unhappy, really. He had a good life overall. He had a good job as the assistant football coach at Persimmon Springs High—and the team had just won the state championship a few months ago. Not only that, but Theo was the head coach, so Max got to work with his best friend every day. Life in Persimmon Springs was good, and Max had plenty of time to pursue his hobbies, which included woodworking and hunting. Hey, he might only be half tiger, but he loved the thrill of the hunt. It was in his blood.

  Besides that, things had been quiet lately in the shifter world. Occasionally there were flare-ups of old feuds between different shifter factions, and shifter wars would break out. Theo had lost his dad in the last really big shifter war, but that had been decades ago now. Peace had been around for a while, and it looked like it was here to stay. Max was glad for that. Hiding your shifter side from the humans when a war was going on could be tricky. You never knew when you might be attacked and have to shift suddenly.

  Yes, on the whole, life was good. But Max couldn’t quite squash down the ache in his own heart. He knew what it was. His tiger heart was thirty-three years old, and it was restless. His beast wanted a mate. But Max wasn’t about to find someone in this small town, and he had no plans of moving away. Starting over somewhere new and leaving behind Theo would be too painful. His best friend might be acting like a lovestruck teenager lately, but he was still like a brother to Theo. He still understood Theo in a way no one else ever could.

  Even if he was an awful dancer and acting annoying as heck right now.

  Max downed another whiskey, and then another. The clock on the wall showed the hour getting later and later, but this crowd knew how to party. Put a bunch of small town friends together, give them good music and good drinks, and they could go all night. It looked like they might.

  Max eventually took a seat on one of the folding chairs that lined the side of the gym. He leaned back and squinted up at the lights. He loved the way they blurred when you were drunk and squinting. It made him feel like he was in some sort of fantasy land.

  “Hey, big guy. What’s with the long face?” a familiar voice next to him asked. Max deepened his scowl as he looked over at Cassie James.

  Most of the people in the room had left him alone tonight. They had known Max for a long time, and they knew that when he was in one of his moods, it was better to leave him alone. But Cassie had never been one to shy away from Max when he was grumpy. Ever since they were in grade school on the playground, she’d had a knack for seeking him out when he was in a bad mood.

  “I’m just not in a party mood,” Max said, and left it at that. He knew it was pointless to try to convince Cassie that he was fine. She’d known him too long, and she knew better.

  “Maybe if you actually got off your ass and danced, you’d be in a better mood,” Cassie said, crossing her arms.

  Max sighed and gave her an annoyed look. But she just kept smiling back at him brightly, a challenge in her eyes. Max suddenly had a flashback to when they were in high school, and he’d been upset because he hadn’t made the varsity basketball team. It had been an unfair tryout, and Max had been ready to just give up on basketball. He wasn’t about to join the junior varsity team when he knew he deserved a spot on the varsity team. Cassie had found him and chewed him out with a smile on her face, telling him that there were a lot of things in life that were unfair, and if he just quit basketball then he wasn’t the man that she thought he was. She encouraged him to play his hardest and make himself indispensable to the coach, so that the next time a spot on the varsity team opened up, the coach would have no choice but to give it to Max

  Max had done exactly as Cassie had recommended, and it had turned out even better than he thought. The head of the sports program at Persimmon Springs High had approached the head basketball coach, and told him that not having Max on the varsity team was a mistake. The basketball coach had agreed, and had not only moved Max to the varsity team, but had also apologized to Max, admitting that he was wrong.

  Cassie had always been the kind of girl to push people to be better versions of themselves. Which is why Max was surprised that she had never left Persimmon Springs. If Ma
x had put his money on anyone getting out of here and doing something big in the outside world, it would have been Cassie. She’d talked a lot about going off to college and getting a job in Austin, working for the state of Texas. She’d had a long list of things she wanted to change about the way the state was run. She had ideas on how to improve just about everything. But, by the time Cassie graduated from a local university in Dallas, her mom had fallen ill with skin cancer. Cassie moved back home to take care of her mom. Two years later, after a long battle, her mom had passed away. Cassie was working as a bartender at a local bar by that point, and seemed to have settled into that life. A certain fire had gone out of her eyes, and she never talked about moving to Austin anymore.

  But tonight, as she sat across from him with her arms crossed, Max saw a glimpse of that old fire in her eyes. Maybe being around everyone from high school had stirred up that old passion she used to have for life back in their school days. Whatever it was, she was looking more excited than Max had seen her look in a long time. And more beautiful.

  Back in their school days, Max used to think that if anyone in their town could have handled his wild tiger, it would have been Cassie. She was sweet as honey, but she had a spicy side. She wasn’t afraid to tell people what she really thought about a situation. At least, she never used to hold back.

  She was as lovely on the outside as she was on the inside, too. Her dark brown eyes were almost black, as was her dark brown hair. Her skin was olive-colored, and always looked tanned. She had an almost exotic look about her, while still managing to have a girl-next-door aura. And her curves…her curves had only become more voluptuous and beautiful with time. Max couldn’t keep himself from letting his eyes slide down them as she sat next to him now. If she noticed, she didn’t say anything. Instead she tapped her foot impatiently.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Max forced his eyes to slide back up to her face, making eye contact with her.

  “Well what?” he asked.

  “You gonna get up and dance with me or what?” Cassie asked.

  Max hesitated for a moment. The last thing he felt like doing right now was dancing. He was tired and tipsy, and he was kind of enjoying just sitting here and squinting at the lights. But he knew Cassie wasn’t going to give up until he danced with her. She had that familiar tenacious look in her eyes.

  And, if he was honest with himself, he wouldn’t exactly mind being close to her for a little longer. She was radiant tonight.

  “Fine,” he said, keeping his voice as sullen as he possibly could. But Cassie didn’t even notice.

  “Excellent!” she said. “Come on, hurry. This song has a really good dance beat.”

  Then she grabbed his hand and dragged him off his chair and toward the dance floor. Max kept the scowl on his face, but he couldn’t keep from noticing the little thrill that ran through his core when Cassie’s hand touched his. Her hands were so soft and warm.

  His sour expression might be fooling others, but there was no way he could fool himself.

  He was going to enjoy the heck out of this dance.

  Chapter Two

  The beat of the song was really great for dancing. The problem was that the song ended about thirty seconds after Max and Cassie entered the dance floor. And, of course, the song that followed was a slow song.

  “Guess that was a short dance,” Max said with a shrug, starting to turn toward the edge of the dance floor.

  “Not so fast,” Cassie said, grabbing his hand and dragging him back. “Don’t think you can get away with calling that a dance. The rule is that if the song has less than a minute left, you have to stay for the next song.”

  Max rolled his eyes. “Who made up that rule? You? Just now?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Cassie said. “It’s the rule. Now come on. Dance with me.”

  Cassie dragged Max in close, and wrapped her arms around his neck. Max sighed, and gave in, slinking his arms around her waist. The problem wasn’t exactly that he didn’t want to slow dance with her. It was more that he wasn’t sure he could handle the intensity of slow dancing with her.

  His old crush on her was definitely flaring up. Blame it on the whiskey, if you want. Blame it on the festive atmosphere, reminiscent of high school. But whatever the reason, Max could feel his heartrate increasing and his palms growing slightly sweaty with anticipation.

  Shit. His tiger wanted her. He shouldn’t have been surprised. His tiger had always been a little bit partial to her. But he couldn’t let himself show her. He wasn’t about to start dating her. Besides, she might not even be interested in dating him. She was just being her usual spunky, friendly self by inviting him to dance. He couldn’t read too much into it. He just needed to get through this song, and then go back to his safe little folding chair with his strong glass of whiskey.

  But something other than the whiskey was intoxicating him now. Cassie let her head rest against his chest, and he felt another thrill of excitement run through his body. He wanted her. Her touch was driving him crazy, building up desire within him even as he tried to close his eyes and deny that he was feeling anything for her. He couldn’t stop the waves of passion, though. He was feeling something. There was an undeniable electricity between them, and, from the way Cassie sighed happily in his arms, Max was willing to bet that she felt it, too.

  When the song ended, Max didn’t make another move to leave the dance floor. Instead, he held his breath and waited, hoping that the next song would be a slow song as well. It was, and Max and Cassie continued dancing, neither one of them looking at each other, but both of them feeling the growing desire. As the song continued, Max moved his hands to the small of Cassie’s back, tracing little circles while they swayed.

  They danced for another song, and another. The DJ seemed to sense that the couples on the dance floor were getting cozy, and he continued to play slow songs. Max didn’t notice any of the other couples around him, though. All he could focus on was the beautiful woman in his arms. Everything else in the room faded into a blur.

  Max’s whiskey buzz was starting to fade, but he was high on Cassie. He saw her all the time at the bar where she worked, but, somehow, he felt right now like he was seeing her for the first time in ages. In the middle of one of the songs, she looked up at him and smiled, causing her hair to flow in soft waves around her face. Her skin glowed in the dim lights, and her dark eyes sparkled. She was always beautiful, but Max couldn’t remember her ever looking more beautiful than she did right now. His desire for her overcame him, and he slowly lowered his mouth toward hers. He felt like he was moving in slow motion, like he was in the middle of a scene from a movie or something. Cassie didn’t pull away. In fact she tilted her head upward to move her lips closer to his.

  When their lips connected, Max felt sparks flying through the air. The electricity between them was so strong that Max was surprised that he couldn’t actually see the fireworks. Cassie’s lips were so soft and warm, and Max felt like he was finally giving in to a lifetime of passion that he’d been holding back.

  He’d always wanted her. He’d always wanted a moment like this. He’d spent so much time thinking that he needed to be alone, and maybe he was destined to spend most of his days without a mate. He couldn’t just expect Cassie to accept him for the tiger he was, no matter how great the chemistry between them. But he would worry about details later. Right now, he just wanted to enjoy this moment, this kiss.

  The music continued, and Max forgot that they were still in a room surrounded by dozens of other people. He let out a low growl, and then slipped his tongue past her lips. Their tongues danced in her mouth, and he felt a thrill go through him as she again sighed with happiness. Max would have loved for that moment to go on forever.

  But the DJ broke the moment. He was done with the slow songs, and as the last note faded from the slow song, a new song came on with a rapid beat. The DJ started yelling at the crowd to get pumped up, and all around Max people started cheering. But Max didn’t wa
nt to dance anymore. He was desperate to keep the moment with Cassie going as long as possible. From the hungry look in her eyes, she was, too.

  “Do you want to get out of here?” he asked, his heart beating rapidly within his chest.

  Cassie nodded, and that was all the encouragement he needed. He grabbed Cassie’s hand and started snaking through the wildly dancing bodies that now filled the dance floor. They made their way out of the high school gymnasium and into the balmy March evening, which was brilliantly lit up by a full moon. Max bit his lip with excitement as he led Cassie toward the parking lot where both of their cars were parked.

  Looks like this was going to be a reunion to remember, after all.

  * * *

  Cassie insisted on taking her car and going to her place. She was worried that Max had been drinking too much whiskey to be safe to drive, and Max wasn’t going to argue with her. He didn’t care whose place they went to. He just wanted to get her alone somewhere.

  His tiger was rising up within him, demanding to mate her. The feeling was so strong that it scared him. How had he spent so many years with her and never realized how attracted to her he was? He felt as though something that had been lying dormant within him had been awakened. He not only wanted her, he needed her. She seemed to feel something similar. Her eyes were fixed on his with an intense gaze as she pulled him through her front door.

  There was no discussion. No question of “should we really do this?” or “what will the fallout to our friendship be.” They both knew that trying to stop at this point would be useless. They wanted each other too badly.

  Cassie grabbed Max’s hand and pulled him toward her couch. The house was large for a single girl like Cassie, but it was the house Cassie had grown up in. After Cassie’s mom had died, and Cassie inherited it, Cassie hadn’t been able to part with it. Max didn’t blame her. He would have kept the place, too. It was so full of memories, even for him. He couldn’t imagine how Cassie felt about it.