Free Trusting the Tiger: BBW Tiger Shifter Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant

coincidence. My family used to live here – generations of us, until the mine failed when my father was a kid and they had to sell up to keep bread on the table. As soon as I had the money, buying this place back was the first thing I did.”
    “So this isn’t the conservation trust’s land, it’s yours. Your dad must have been so proud, to see you get the family land back,” Toni said warmly.
    Jack had to look away from her.
    “My parents died when I was in high school.”
    “Oh, Jack, I’m so sorry,” Toni gasped, her voice full of concern. She reached out one hand and cradled his cheek. “That was thoughtless of me, I shouldn’t have…”
    “You couldn’t have known,” Jack interrupted, putting his arms around her. She was so warm, and soft, the perfect weight against his body. He sighed. If his parents hadn’t died when he was still so young, might they have been able to help him figure out how to deal with his mate being human, not a shifter? His parents had told him a little about shifter abilities, and the mate bond – a child-friendly version of it at least.
    But not enough. Jack could only imagine that his parents had meant to tell him more once he was older, but that had never happened. His mother and father had been killed in a car crash when he was fourteen. Jack had been sent to live with his mother’s family, who didn’t want to hear anything about shifters, despite the fact that his mother had been one.
    As an adult, he’d met many other shifters, but had been embarrassed to ask questions about knowledge they seemed to take for granted. How a non-shifting family could produce a shifter like his mother. How his tiger was a part of him, but it sometimes felt stronger, more powerful, and other times was quiet.
    How the mate bond worked.
    How having a mate bond with a human worked. If it could work at all.
    “I didn’t mean to bring back any bad memories,” Toni was saying, concern in her voice. Jack held her tightly and kissed the top of her head. He could feel her heartbeat against his chest, and her concern for him wasn’t only evident in her voice. He felt her love in that warm glow in his own chest, growing to enfold Jack like an embrace.
    Maybe he would never know more about being a shifter. Maybe he would have to hide that side of himself, ignore it, put it away. But if things worked out today, he would have Toni. And that would be worth it.
    Wouldn’t it?
    He kissed her again. “It was a long time ago. And not really the sort of thing I’d usually bring up on a first, um.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “A first um ? Is that what this is?”
    Jack knew Toni was deliberately steering the conversation back to lighter topics, and he was thankful for it. “Er … picnic? Is that the word I’m looking for?”
    Toni rolled her eyes and flopped back down on Jack’s chest.
    “Today has been … I mean, I normally wouldn’t do anything like this, but it’s been wonderful,” she mumbled into his chest. “Thank you. Seriously, at this point you could probably straight-up tell me that you secretly arranged the whole de Jager creepiness just to get me on this um picnic , and I’d be happy. Even without him freaking me out yesterday, the last few months have been … well, not great. It’s nice to have a break.”
    Jack stroked her back, and felt her sigh again.
    “Really? You’d forgive me for tricking you?” he asked. But even as he said it, he knew he was venturing onto thin ice.
    “Well … no, that was more what some people call ‘exaggeration for comic effect,’” Toni teased. “You lying to me would make all the um a bit awkward, wouldn’t it?”
    “Right,” Jack replied, trying to smile back at her. Inside, he was cursing himself. He knew that any relationship he had with Toni would mean lying to her about his true nature, so why punish himself further by proving how cruel a betrayal that would be?
    Lost in his own guilty thoughts, Jack barely noticed Toni roll over.