The Tiger's Forbidden Mate: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance Read online

  THE TIGER'S

  FORBIDDEN MATE

  A PARANORMAL SHIFTER ROMANCE

  ANGELA FOXXE

  Copyright ©2016 by Angela Foxxe

  All rights reserved.

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  About This Book

  In a dystopian future full of monsters, mutants and shapeshifters, curvy Shawna was just trying to do what she had to do in order to survive.

  She knew it was hard to find anyone she could trust and so she was pleasantly surprised when she met a handsome WereTiger called Winston. For the first time ever, it seemed like she had found someone who genuinely cared about her and was not after something for nothing.

  However, it was totally forbidden for a WereTiger to even be seen talking to a scavenger like Shawna.

  So when it transpired that Shawna had actually fallen pregnant with the Tiger's baby there was going to be hell to pay.

  In more ways then one....

  This is a paranormal love & pregnancy romance with a forbidden mates theme. Enjoy the tantalizing tiger action and awesome action scenes!

  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

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  Shawna Parsons pushed a strand of limp brown hair out of her face as she rummaged through her old brown canvas pack. She wanted to make sure she had all that she wanted to trade before heading on out to Ross’ settlement. Rumor has it they managed to domesticate some mutated cattle and they were about to slaughter a couple in the next few days. Maybe she could trade for some fresh meat to bring back to Scavenger’s Landing.

  The sound of rain pattered on the ramshackle steel and wood hovel she had built with her own two hands. The roof leaked in places, and where it did, she placed buckets to collect the precious water. The water might still be irradiated, but it was still better than dying of thirst.

  Two hundred or so years ago, the timeline is a blur, there was the big war to end all wars, and it literally did. All the major nuclear powers launched all their warheads at one another, and in one fell swoop, they set the human race back to nearly the stone age, those that survived anyway.

  There were shelters and towns far away from any major targets. Little bastions of humanity clinging to survival as the nuclear holocaust raged around them. The amount of radiation kicked up poisoned the world, killing off people and wildlife alike; those who didn’t die mutated and became stronger and better than their predecessors. Even after two hundred years, the radiation in some places was still fatal to many.

  Shawna was the descendant of many of such hardy souls that managed to survive long enough to produce a living child without defects. She rummaged through her bag once more and noticed a beautiful glass tiger sitting near the top of it.

  “Where did you come from?” she whispered aloud as she picked up the delicate figurine. “I don’t remember picking you up anywhere… You might fetch a nice price, maybe not. Not much use for trinkets anymore,” she said as she put it back in her bag.

  She then filled her canteen from one of the buckets, strapped her pack to her back, slapped on her leather cap, and stood in front of the dimly polished steel that she used as a mirror to inspect herself. Her amber skin glowed in the makeshift lamp light that illuminated the small one room shanty. She noted she could have built it taller as her head nearly grazed the leaking ceiling. Six feet was almost too small.

  She opened the door to her dwelling, and on the other side of the door was the mayor of the settlement, John Brown, and the Sheriff, Monty James.

  “Sorry to bother you, Shawna,” Monty said as he removed his weathered Sheriff’s hat. “May we come in?”

  “Sure, what’s the problem?” Shawna asked as she looked into the rheumy eyes of the old mayor.

  “We’ve been told you stole something,” the sheriff said as he looked around Shawna’s descript hovel. “It’s a glass tiger, not really worth much in the way for trade, but it’s sentimental value for the owner is pretty high. She’s pretty upset that it’s gone,” he said as he poked around.

  “Well, I’ve never seen anything like that,” Shawna lied.

  She knew that the tiger was in her pack. She didn’t know how she got it, but if she was found with it, even if she told the truth about not knowing how it got there, she would still be banished.

  “Really? Let’s search your pack. The fact that you’re heading out on a trade run so soon after a theft has been reported is very suspicious,” the Sheriff said as his dirty hands ripped the pack off of Shawna’s bronzed shoulders, nearly ripping her old grey tank top off of her body.

  She just stared straight ahead as the sheriff rummaged through her trade pack. “Let’s see… Scrap metal, a toy monkey, pots and pans, some tape and… Aha! The glass tiger belonging to Emmy Pine. I knew it,” he said as he pulled the delicate glass creation from her pack. “You know the punishment. You have until sundown to pack what you can and get out. You are allowed three days’ food and water, and that’s it. You’re banished from this settlement and I’ll send runners to others on the coast to warn them of you. Don’t expect to find anywhere to stay from now on,” the Sheriff said as he walked out.

  The mayor looked at her sadly and shook his head. “Shawna, I thought better of you,” he clucked.

  “I didn’t take it and you know it,” she snapped as she picked her bag off of the clapboard floor.

  “It was in your possession. You know the penalty; best to go before others find out and hang you,” he said sadly.

  “Sucks that there’s no court or anything. You know back in the old days, they had that,” she said as she started stuffing her meager belongings into her trade pack.

  “How did you know that?” the mayor asked.

  “Well, I’m a scavver. I find things and trade them. Sometimes I find books. I taught myself how to read them a while ago. Not much else to do during those week long rad storms in the winter,” she said as she filled more canteens up with water and strapped them to her bag. “Honestly, this whole thing is bullshit. You know Emmy never liked me and wanted my house since her man kicked her out for cheating on her.”

  “Yes, I know, but my hands are tied. The law is the law,” the mayor said sadly. “Look, once you leave town, there’s a spot not too far to the east. It looks like a burnt-out trailer, but I keep things out there for emergencies, like if I’m locked out of the gates at dusk. Go there, I’ve left a gun and some ammo in the safe.” He ripped a chunk of plywood off of one of the walls and scratched a few numbers on it with hi
s pocket knife. “That’s the combination. Sun’s going down in an hour. You should get going before Emmy sets her gang on you.”

  “I still think it’s bullshit,” she snapped as she pulled her pack back onto her shoulders. “You know I would have just shot her in the face if I wanted it bad enough.”

  “Yes, and we would have hanged you and fed you to the vultures if you did. You know as well as I do that there’s hardly any law, so what few we do have, we need to enforce without question.”

  “Well, thanks for what help you’ve given. I won’t let this kill me, you know,” Shawna replied as they walked through the empty lanes between the ramshackle shanties.

  “I know it won’t,” the mayor said. “You take care, Shawna. You’re like the daughter I never had,” he said as he hugged her. His wife died in childbirth eighteen years ago. The baby didn’t survive either, due to the hideous mutations it had. “I raised you since your mom was killed in that raider attack when you were five. It was the least I could do to honor her memory. Took me a week to find the group that took you away to sell you.”

  Shawna swallowed hard as tears filled her eyes at the memory. A Raider was holding her down trying to… well… she didn’t want to remember that so she pushed the agonizing pain out of her mind, then she heard a loud bang and felt warm blood cascade over her as the raider fell down dead from a well placed shot to the skull. She heard four more shots ring out as she scrambled out from beneath the cooling body of the raider and tried to escape the carnage as best as she could.

  She crawled behind a crumbling cement wall as she heard the loud popping of gunshots ring all around her. She plugged her ears and closed her eyes as she tried to will herself away. Suddenly, all was quiet except for the sound of soft foot steps crunching the gravel as they approached. It was all she could do to not scream and let out her position. Her young mind couldn’t comprehend what was going on—first her mother was killed then she was grabbed by these angry, stinky men and hurt badly.

  “It’s all right,” she heard a soft male voice whisper. “They’re gone now. They won’t hurt you anymore.”

  Shawna opened her bright green eyes and was met by the gaze of a grizzled, dark skinned man dressed in a beat up rain coat and cowboy hat.

  Those same brown eyes were looking at her now full of sadness and compassion. “You’re a survivor, Shawna. You always have been. You’ll find a way to beat this. Now get,” he said as he looked at the darkening overcast sky. “Gates are gonna close soon.”

  She nodded and gave the old man a warm hug before she left the sanctuary of the settlement for good. “So, turn east and find the old trailer?”

  “Yep. At least you can sleep there and be somewhat safe from the wildlife,” he said.

  Shawna nodded. “Well, thanks. I would say see you around but…”

  “Yeah…” the mayor said as she shifted awkwardly.

  Shawna decided to end the awkwardness so she turned on her heel and marched out of the makeshift wooden gates with her head held high as she was observed by the sentries posted in the platforms above.

  She turned east and strode down the beaten path that led away from the ramshackle walls of the settlement that had just turned her out due to the false accusation of a jealous rival.

  “That bitch never did like me,” she said out loud to herself. “Always jealous that I had no problems finding good scrap and getting the best deals. Not my fault I know how to play my customers,” she said as she trudged through the growing darkness.

  The black rain resumed as she walked. It coated her with an oily slick as it fell from the sky. She sighed as the deluge washed over her, chilling her to the core.

  “How far is that damn trailer?” she asked out loud, wiping black water from her face so she could see.

  Shawna felt as if the entire weight of the world was on her shoulders as the realization finally hit her. She couldn’t live in a settlement ever again. Not on the west coast anyway. Maybe if she went east she could find somewhere to settle down before the runners got to them. There was so much danger out in the wastes that runners got attacked and killed regularly, so if she walked far enough, the stigma of the false theft would never be found out.

  That’s if she could survive. Ferals were everywhere. People whose brains were so poisoned by radiation that they had gone mad. Most humans that have lived up until now have developed some kind of immunity to the ambient radiation, thanks to the rapid evolution given by the same radiation.

  She looked through the gloom and saw a glimmer in the remaining light. “That must be the trailer,” she said to herself as she picked up her pace. She didn’t want to run because of the uneven terrain. The last thing she needed was to fall and break her leg; she would be done for if that ever happened.

  She stopped before the hulking metal trailer and took a look around. She grabbed a hunk of sharp-looking rusty metal and wielded it like a primitive machete as she kicked open the trailer door in case some of the local wildlife had made a home inside.

  Shawna breathed a sigh of relief as nothing came charging out from inside of the trailer, so she cautiously stepped inside.

  The interior was stripped bare of anything salvageable, and all that was left was the metal shell with spots rusted out in places. She looked at the dirty tile floor and found a battered bedroll next to an old safe. She pulled the wood out of her pack and knelt down to open the safe. She dialed the combination and heard an audible click as she put the last number in.

  She pulled the door open, pulled out an old ramshackle pipe rifle and multiple boxes of ammunition.

  “Well, John kept this place pretty stocked,” she said to herself as she placed the ammo into one of the pouches attached to her belt. She also found some dried meat from who knows what kind of animal stashed in the back, along with another canteen. “That should keep me going for a little bit longer,” she said as she stuffed it into her pack.

  After she was done looting the safe, she put a few rounds in her rifle and unrolled the sleeping bag. She was no stranger to camping out in the wastes away from the settlements, but this time she felt more exposed, knowing she had no home to go back to.

  Shawna put her gun next to where her head would lay as she crawled into the musty smelling sleeping bag. Tomorrow she would start heading east in hopes that she could find a safe place to settle down.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Shawna was startled awake by the sound of snuffling and growling at the door of the trailer. She grabbed her pipe gun and scrambled to her feet in case the creature outside caught her scent and knocked the door down.

  It sounded like a pig mole, a creature the size of a large dog but three times as heavy. They didn’t attack people unless provoked due to only eating the desiccated vegetation that made up the wastes. How anything could survive on such scrub was beyond her, but as long as it wasn’t going to attack her, she could breathe easy.

  Some settlements even domesticated the pig mole to help break the scorched, baked earth in order to grow crops. There were a few of the irradiated creatures that were capable of domestication – mongrels, cattle, and pig moles – but the rest were just too far gone to do anything with other than put them down and harvest what meat you could.

  Shawna peeked out through one of the rusted holes to see if her suspicions were correct. She saw the greyish pink, wart-covered hide of a pig mole and sighed with relief. At least she wouldn’t get attacked today.

  She started to slowly open the door when she heard something come crashing through the bushes. The pig mole let out a loud painful scream as the unknown predator noisily ripped it to pieces just outside her door. Shawna’s mouth went dry and her heart began to pound, hoping that the creature outside would be satiated with just the pig mole as a meal.

  After what seemed like hours, the noise outside subsided and Shawna decided to take a peek through her spy hole to see if the predator had left. She stifled a scream as she saw the hulking black form of the most fearsome predator of the
wastes.

  It stood ten feet high and had long spiral horns emerging from its heavy reptilian brow. Its long, powerful arms ended in massive dagger-like claws that could rip a person to shreds in seconds. Its muzzle contained serrated teeth that dripped a venomous green ichor and its baleful red eyes nearly glowed with intensity. Realization came crashing down on Shawna that she was just inches away from a wastewraith.

  They were smart as they were deadly. It knew that she was in the trailer and it was just a matter of time before it burst through the flimsy door to tear her limb from limb. She had no chance. Shawna debated using the pipe rifle on herself to spare herself the suffering, but she wasn’t like that. If she was to go down, she would at least try to take this beast out with her before it found the settlement near by.

  Shawna double checked to see if the rifle was loaded and pulled the safety lever off. She then put the metal stock to her shoulder and poked the pipe barrel out of her spy hole. She knew she was about to take a blind shot, but it was a risk she had to take. There would be no way she could get a round off before the wastewraith saw her if she just barged out there.

  She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pulled the trigger. The loud bang resonated through the empty trailer, temporarily filling her ears with a loud ringing noise. She pulled the muzzle of her gun out from the hole and scampered away toward the back of the trailer where the safe was.

  She didn’t hear the wastewraith scream in pain as it rushed toward the trailer. All she felt was the trailer shaking hard while the monster clawed at the feeble metal, peeling it like an orange to get at the irritant inside.

  The trailer began to shake more violently as the wastewraith clawed its way through the opening it had made. Shawna was breathing heavily now, knowing there was no escape from her fate. Hopefully, she wounded it badly enough that it would go back to its cave and lick its wounds for a while. By then scouts would find the trailer, see the destruction, and John would send out a hunting party.