Chase, Zara - Tigers' Temptation [Impulse 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Zara Chase Page A

Philo explained. “As did we.”
    “Rafe and Vilas are alpha panthers and leaders of the colony. Vadim and Zayd are alpha jaguars in charge of security, and…well, I’m sure you get the picture.”
    “Did you cure those kids?” she asked breathlessly, the desperation in her eyes willing him to say yes .
    “Yes. A combination of Philo’s herbs and my powers made it possible.”
    “I understand why you don’t want any publicity,” Layla said. “If this got out, you’d be inundated with desperate people and those out to profit from your abilities.”
    The guys shared a glance. “Precisely. We can’t cure the ills of the world. Besides, the planet’s already overpopulated and underresourced. We choose the most-deserving children, bring them here because we can only do this within Impulse’s atmosphere, and try to help them.”
    “How come they don’t remember anything afterward?”
    “We have the ability to wipe their minds. Vadim slipped up with Billy. We give the kids those globes to play with while they’re here. The rain is actually healing atoms that help with their recovery. Vadim should have made sure Billy gave it up before he left.”
    “I’m glad he didn’t,” she said softly. “And I’m not thinking about my daughter when I say that.”
    “Then what?” Mikael asked, unsure if she was playing him.
    “If I hadn’t seen that globe, I never would have come to Impulse and wouldn’t have met the two of you.”
    Mikael searched her mind for signs of insincerity, but could find none. He flashed a full-wattage smile her way for the first time. “Thanks for that.”
    “My pleasure,” she responded, holding his gaze.
    Christ, she was killing him! The haunted expression in her eyes when she thought about her sick daughter tore at his heartstrings and he knew that, regardless of the cost to himself, he would do what he could for the little girl. The deep sense of oneness he felt whenever he so much as looked at Layla had hit him in the gut the first time he saw her. Nothing had changed in the interim. Philo was right. She was the one for them. He felt it in his tiger soul, and in his human one, too. Under different circumstances he would have gone all out to persuade her to marry him and Philo and stay in Impulse for the rest of her life. Hell, he wanted her so much he carried it with him like a permanent physical ache.
    But the circumstances were the way they were, and Mikael couldn’t ask it of her. She’d say or do anything it took to get her daughter well, he understood that, but he also knew he’d never be sure if she loved them for the right reasons. Besides, once she realized how things really were here in Impulse, the reality of their daily struggle to hold on to the place, she’d run a mile. Mikael would rather lose his powers than allow himself to fall in love—or any more in love than he already was—with Layla, only to lose that love when she came to her senses and had time to think about it. Given Philo’s personal history, he was astonished that his buddy didn’t feel the same way.
    “I’ve helped a few kids, but that’s as far as it goes,” Mikael said. “I don’t have the strength to try the cure on adults.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “Mikael uses my herbs,” Philo said, “but has to literally drag the disease out of the child by placing his hands on him or her and absorbing it into his own body.”
    “You can really do that?” Layla gasped. “But that’s incredible!”
    “Yeah, it is,” Philo said, frowning. “But it’s also killing him.”
    “Oh.”
    “That’s another reason why we don’t want word of this getting out. The herbs might help, but only someone with shifter powers can pull the disease out.”
    “Not only that,” Philo amended. “It takes a special kind of shifter, and only us tigers seem to have the ability. Medicine and botany are in our souls, you see. I can’t do it, but a few of the beta tigers have some skill. Not up to