Free Ravaged by Her Weretiger Prince (Steamy Paranormal Weretiger Shifter Romance) by Meghan Archer Page A

the long trek up toward the delivery loading area where I could only assume I’d be meeting the “big critter” Harvey had been talking about. Knowing my luck, it’d already be running amok and have killed the delivery crew.
     
    At least that would get me out of going to work, I thought, a sardonic smile creeping onto my face as I pushed open the door to the main building and the loading area for our deliveries.
     
    Sadly, when I got to the loading dock, everyone was still very much alive and the crate was intact. I silently cursed as I approached the men who were transferring the rather large container from the truck and onto the loading dock proper. A frown creased my face as I looked at them. They were all wearing a strange, military-style uniform with a distinct look of not at all what you’d expect from a bunch of truck drivers.
     
    “So, do I get to know what’s inside?” I asked, but immediately wished I hadn’t. No sooner had the words left my mouth when the crate gave a huge lurch accompanied by a breathtakingly loud roar. Immediately I could tell it was one of the big cats I was dealing with, but the only question now was which one?
     
    “Tiger,” came the curt reply from the man who I could only assume was the supervisor of this fiasco. “A very dangerous tiger.”
     
    “And why the hell are we getting it?” I asked, my voice rising in anger. This was a new low, even for this place. Bringing an aggressive tiger into a woefully underprepared facility was just asking for trouble.
     
    “You have an opening, do you not? A—how do you say—empty enclosure?” he asked, and he wasn’t entirely wrong. His accent was so thick, but what kind it was, I had no idea. I didn’t like the look of this one bit.
     
    “We have one open, yeah, but we still have—” I began, but before I could explain, he held up his hand.
     
    “This is good,” he interrupted, the smile on his face growing wider. I wanted to smack it right off of him. “You will take the tiger and we will be going on our way, yes? That is what your employers agreed to—free tiger for no questions. A fair deal, I think.”
     
    I stared into the man’s dark eyes, my hands clenching into tight fists. I had known something strange was going on, but this sounded altogether illegal. But what could I do? I had no proof that the tiger was obtained illegally. Even if no money had actually been exchanged, there was no guarantee that it had been moved into the country without the proper paperwork, none of which I was versed in.
     
    I let out a helpless sigh, rubbing my temples as I felt the makings of a stress headache boiling up into my skull. I watched as the men moved the ventilated crate deeper into the building to the quarantine area where the tiger would be housed before being set into its enclosure. The strangers slid the crate up to the small gate used for releasing the animals into the moderately-sized temporary enclosure, lifting the thick, metal barrier up before opening the crate’s own metal door.
     
    I heard a low growl emanate from inside of the crate before the sound of slow, methodical footfalls signaled that the cat was moving quickly out of its confines and into the more spacious prison it would be held in.
     
    I moved to the observation window, holding my breath as I caught my first glimpse of the magnificent creature. The hulking cat padded silently into the plain, white room, making everything inside of it seem so small by comparison. I had never seen a tiger that big, its muscles rippling like a flowing river beneath the luscious orange and black-striped fur. My mouth fell open as its luminous green eyes turned with its head, locking straight onto my own.
     
    I saw so much sadness in those eyes, a deep well of what I almost thought might have been regret swimming before me. I told myself that couldn’t be what I was seeing. What animal feels regret? But I knew the sadness had to be real. It was around that time that