Free Mounted By Her Weretiger Mate (Steamy Weretiger Paranormal Romance) by Meghan Archer

MOUNTED BY HER WERETIGER MATE
    (Steamy Weretiger Paranormal Romance)
     
     
     
    I’d never thought I’d be on an adventure. I grew up in a town with only one street light, where the church had more say in teaching the local kids than the teachers did. My life there was what you’d have called ordinary and boring, but the one thing that gave my world life was the thing I loved the most—my photography.
     
    Eventually, once I’d graduated high school, I made the big decision to follow my dreams and go to school for a degree. My parents had been furious, not wanting to lose their little girl to a world of sin and excess, but I knew my life lay much farther than that one-horse town. I just never thought I’d end up in the jungles of India, capturing pictures of some of the most exotic wildlife on earth.
     
    From the moment I stepped off of the plane, something within me stirred, my heart racing as I began to realize just how far from home I’d gone. I was afraid, terrified even, but above all of that, I was excited, ready to see what I’d find out there in the wild, unexplored jungles.
     
    When you live your entire life in America, you come to accept a certain image of other countries. For example, India was supposed to be all jungles and hidden temples with intricate drawings on stone walls. Walking into Dehli, however, reminded me that while other places are certainly much different than home, they could still bear a startling amount of similarities to the United States.
     
    They had apartments and shops and streets, and I wasn’t sure what else I should have been expecting. A jungle growing right out of the McDonalds, maybe?
     
    But as I started to internally kick myself for being ignorant, my translator nudged me toward the all-wheel-drive Jeeps waiting for us just off the runway.
     
    I climbed down the staircase that had been rolled right up to the door of our small jet and made my way over to the cars, my luggage in hand.
     
    “Lana!” came a familiar voice from inside one of the cars, the window rolling down to reveal the face of my best friend, Sasha. She was the one who had recommended me for the project, and I was more than happy to see another part of the world.
     
    “Sasha!” I cried, pulling open her door and embracing her. “I’ve missed you so much!”
     
    “I’ve missed you, too!” she said.
     
    I looked into her face and realized just how much the last year had changed her. Her skin was tanned from her days out in the sun and her hair looked wild despite her best attempts to tame it with a messy ponytail. I knew humidity would be a big issue here, but it hadn’t hit me until then how little conditioner I’d packed.
     
    “Go ahead and get in the car,” she said excitedly. “We’ll talk on the way out to meet our new guide.”
     
    I climbed into the car on the opposite side of Sasha, stowing my bags in the hatchback and idling up close to my best friend for another hug.
     
    “Did something happen to your old guide?” I asked.
     
    “He got really sick on our last trip out,” Sasha said, her face etched with concern. “He had to be brought to a hospital and then airlifted out to somewhere they could give him the treatment her needed. His wife is worried sick.”
     
    “I’m so sorry to hear that,” I said, my eyes catching on the buildings behind her thought the windows as we moved through the city. “Is this new guide any good?”
     
    “From what I’ve heard, he’s one of the best. His name is Jake, and he probably knows the jungle better than some of the animals that live in it.”
     
    “Jake doesn’t sound like a Hindi name,” I said, adjusting my seatbelt to give me a little more breathing room.
     
    “That’s because he’s an American.”
     
    “Really?” I asked, raising my eyebrows that a foreigner might be a better guide than one of the locals. “He’s really that good?”
     
    “Some of my colleagues swear by him, and not have to have everything