Free Here There Be Tigers by Kat Simons Page B

can’t, can you? I mean, seeing Vlad
shift…”
    “ I never even knew there was such a
thing as real shapeshifters until that guy tried to kidnap me. And
I didn’t fully believe Mitch until I saw it with my own eyes
yesterday. No. I can’t change into anything but new
clothes.”
    Irina grinned. She faced Max again. “See? I can
help even in human form. In fact, it might be better that I can’t
shift. I’ll be able to protect her while you two hunt.”
    Mitch raised a hand before Max spoke again. “I
am not here to put you two in danger. Especially not you, Irina.
Don’t argue. You know how we all feel about this. There’s no way
I’ll allow you to risk that precious new life. We’re not staying. I
was just hoping you’d be able to point us toward a hiding place.
Somewhere isolated. And not in either of your names. I need to use
cash, so cheap is good, too.”
    “ Do you have enough cash? We’ll give
you what we have here.” Irina rose and hurried down the
hall.
    Nila noticed Mitch didn’t argue and wondered
how tight their budget was. She couldn’t even help, despite the
fact that she had plenty of money sitting in her bank account,
because she didn’t have so much as a driver’s license on her
anymore. She made a mental note to pay Mitch back everything he had
to spend keeping her alive. That was, if she managed to stay
alive.
    “ Petrov will be able to find mine
and Irina’s retreats,” Max said. “Irina’s in particular. Every male
on the east coast knows her territory.”
    Irina came back out at that moment and said to
Nila, “My territory is where I go when I need to…be my other self
and can have privacy from the males. They aren’t allowed there
without my permission. Which means every single one of them knows
exactly where my cabin is located. All female territories are
common knowledge.”
    “ All territories? That must
be a lot. Do you mean here in the US? How many are there?” Nila
knew females were rare, but knowing all the female
territories in an entire country were well known started to put the
limited numbers into perspective.
    “ All female territories around the
world are known,” Irina clarified.
    Nila felt her mouth drop open and had to
consciously close it. “That can’t be good. How many females are
left?”
    “ Worldwide, exactly five hundred and
sixty-seven—including young, mated, and old.”
    “ In the entire world? How many here
in the US?”
    “ A hundred and forty-seven in total.
Of those in the US, ninety-one are unmated.”
    “ And how many males?”
    “ Around three thousand in the US.
Very roughly fifty-five hundred to sixty-five hundred worldwide.
But male numbers aren’t monitored as precisely.”
    “ Holy shit.”
    “ Exactly,” Mitch said with feeling.
“You see the problem.”
    Nila let out an audible breath. “Yeah. Not even
six hundred females to six thousand males worldwide? That
really isn’t good. Is this creating a genetic
bottleneck?”
    Even if they managed to keep making babies,
limited genetic diversity could make extinction unavoidable. Real
tigers were facing a similar problem—though their decreases in
numbers were the result of poaching and habitat loss. And real
tigers were down to just over three thousand in total. But given
the low numbers of tiger shifter females, the shifters might
actually be closer to extinction.
    “ Our scientists think we’re okay for
the moment.” Max answered her question. “But…well, there’s
debate.”
    Nila’s stomach hollowed out. This species she’d
only just found out about were struggling against extinction, and
according to Mitch, she might be their salvation—or at least a new
hope for alternative ways to breed— if she was able to have
kids with a tiger shifter.
    The possibility was so mind blowing, so
overwhelming she couldn’t even comprehend it. She was an ordinary
woman—or had thought she was just two days ago. How the hell did
this happen?
    Mitch leaned closer and put a