Panthera Spelaea
Liger

I’d put a lot into Melanie’s head on the flights home, so I wasn’t surprised when she went silent halfway through the flight to the airport in Houston. I’d had a lot longer to get used to the idea of a lion, and it was still a shock. Thank God I had the girls to help me through it until I could meet the others.

“She’s going to need coaching from us,” Svetlana said as she tucked her head into my shoulder. Anna and Melanie had fallen asleep in the executive chairs behind us. Duncan had been kind enough to arrange a charter jet without a flight attendant for us, which allowed us to talk freely during the flight. “Perhaps we should take Duncan up on his offer?”

Duncan and Olivia invited us to stay with them on their remote Montana ranch. It would give both of us a safe place to change into our animals. “It’s not a bad idea. I trust them more than Art and Edward, but not completely.”

“They were all too willing to use us as pawns,” my blonde Russian observed. “Just because it worked out doesn’t mean I have to like it. Still, Olivia told me she didn’t know. Edward and Art hatched the plan on their own.”

“We don’t need to make a decision for a few days. I don’t think Melanie’s Eagle will force herself out, and we need to have a long talk with my family.” I wasn’t looking forward to that. We’d talked about how to handle our parents and brother. Both of us were young enough that the lack of aging could be hidden for a decade or more. I wasn’t willing to fake our deaths and take away two of Mom’s three children. We also didn’t have the will Duncan had to orphan his children and relocate every twenty years.

The only option left for us was brutal honesty and family loyalty. It was going to take time and effort to keep our secrets. We’d lay it all on the table, and get their help in hiding the truth from the world. In the end, we’d have to establish a trust-based system like Art did.

“What do you think will shock them more? The two of you being Switchers, or you marrying two knocked-up Russian nurses?”

Good question. “Are they smoking-hot Russian nurses?” She smacked my chest. “The switchers, because Mom will be thrilled to have grandchildren on the way.”

The pilot informed us over the intercom that we were thirty minutes out. “Perfect,” Svetlana said. “That’s enough time for a top-off before we meet your parents.” The armrest was already out of the way as she kissed me deeply. She moved her left hand down my chest to my slacks, pulling the zipper down and reaching in for my bait and tackle.

“My sister is right behind us,” I said nervously.

“Then you better be quiet.” She leaned over and took my rapidly hardening tool into her warm mouth, licking and sucking it to maximum hardness.

I closed my eyes, my right hand gripping the armrest by the window while my left fingers caressed her hair and neck. She alternated licking around the head to taking it fully into her throat, making little ‘gack’ sounds every time I penetrated her willing throat. I hoped like hell Melanie couldn’t hear them over the aircraft engines; hearing your older brother getting a sloppy blowjob in flight was probably not something she’d appreciate.

Svetlana had become quite good at this, and I was powerless to resist her ministrations a few minutes later. “I’m close,” I whispered to my fellatrix. She smiled as she swallowed my shaft, reaching out with her tongue to lick my balls. That was too much for me, and I lifted my hips as I started to shoot my seed deep into her throat.

My mate backed off, catching the potent elixir in her mouth and swallowing it down. She barely kept up, but none escaped. She cleaned off my cock and sat back up with a smile. “Tasty good,” she told me.

“My turn when we get home,” Anna said from behind me.

“I can’t believe you guys have to give him blowjobs to stay young and healthy,” Melanie said. “Whoever started this switcher thing was OBVIOUSLY a guy.”

The girls snorted as I zipped up my pants. “We think you’ll have to mate with a cunning linguist if he wants to stay young,” Anna replied. “Of course, Ekatarina never found her mate, so we don’t know for sure. You’ll have to experiment.”

“I have to replace him first,” Melanie said in a huff.

There was the obvious. “What about Hunter? You two seemed to get along well.”

“He’s a great guy, but he’s forty-three and widowed. I can’t help but think I’m just a vacation fling for him.”

“What does your heart say,” Anna asked.

“I miss him already.” She looked out the window at the city; as the sun dipped below the horizon, the lights of the buildings shone brightly. “Is he my mate?”

“He might be, or not,” I said. “My feelings for Svetlana, and later Anna, built with time. It wasn’t until I opened my mind to my Lion that I felt his acceptance of them as his mates. Becoming one with your Eagle is the most important thing for you now. Only with that relationship can you control your switches and experience what she does.”

“I’m nervous,” she said.

“You’ll be fine,” I said. “I wouldn’t have nominated you if I didn’t think you had the right makeup to handle an Eagle. I’m a little jealous, I’ll have you know.”

“You? Jealous of ME? You can switch into a nine-hundred damn pound LION!”

“Yes, but I can’t do it just anywhere; it’s too dangerous. Other than being larger than other Golden Eagles, you can pass for a wild bird. As long as you switch out of sight, you can fly around all you want. Flying is MUCH cooler than running around on four legs.” I had a thought. “Stay clear of wind farms. I don’t want you taken out by a birdshredder.”

“Flying will be cool,” she admitted. “Still, you get to hunt deer and antelope and tasty things. What do I get? Rabbits, voles, and mice. Yuch.”

We didn’t talk more as the jet went on final approach. As soon as we taxied off the runway, I turned my phone on. It blew up with messages and emails.

I found one from Marina, my lawyer back in Moscow, and opened it up. “You need to see this,” she said. The link was to an English-language Russian news broadcast. “KILLER LION GUNNED DOWN IN MOSCOW STREETS,” the crawl read.

Holy crap! “Listen to this,” I told everyone as I turned the volume up and hit play on the link.

“Officers of the Moscow Police, assisted by military units, responded to reports of a lion wandering near a pond at the Mitino Landscape Park. The first officers to arrive discovered and fired upon a large male Liger, or lion/tiger hybrid, when it charged their patrol cars. ‘It was scary,’ one officer said. ’Pistol bullets just pissed it off. It jumped on our car, then ran off into the park.”

Svetlana got pale. “Liger?”

“Additional units with rifles were able to surround the dangerous animal, eventually killing it to protect the public. The Police Chief praised his people’s response but blasted the unknown owners. ‘Letting a large, dangerous animal like this loose in a major city is reckless in the extreme,’ he said. ‘This animal killed more than a dozen people months ago and could have done the same if we hadn’t stopped it in time. We are going to replace the owners and put them in jail for a LONG time,’ he promised.”

“Police hope they can replace new evidence in last night’s incident that can lead them to the people responsible. For Moscow News Morning, this is Irini Svenchenko.”

The girls looked at me with tears in their eyes. “Was that the same Liger that saved me,” Melanie asked.

“I’m sure it was,” I said with a sigh. “Art’s people bought it because its size, coloring, and short mane looked similar enough to my Cave Lion to be a substitute. Zach must have had it shipped to Russia and let loose in the park.”

“Why? They MURDERED that animal!” Melanie was getting emotional, and I couldn’t blame her. I owed the Liger a debt, and this wasn’t a reward.

I let out a breath. “Art did this because it closes the chapter on my sightings in Moscow. No one will believe two different lions are wandering around in the park. The Liger is dead. The police will look for the owners and eventually close that part of the investigation. As smart as Zach is, I bet he’s left bread crumbs leading them to a black-market big cat ring or something.”

“They could have let it live! Find a place in an animal preserve or something!”

I looked at my sister with sadness in my eyes. “That was never going to happen,” I told her. “Zach told me a drug dealer used to terrify his enemies by having the Liger rip people apart. He’s killed more people than Vasili, many more, and that made him unadoptable. What legitimate shelter could accept a known maneater?”

Melanie thought about that as we coasted to a stop outside the small terminal of the commuter airport. “I don’t like it.”

“I know. There’s a lot of things that have happened I don’t like. I accept them because the animal’s sacrifice clears me as a suspect in the first attacks. I wasn’t even on the continent when this happened, and I can prove it. The Liger got to be free for a day, and he helps me stay free. Maybe someday, we can return to Russia again,” I said.

We had to stop talking as the engines shut down and the cockpit door opened. “Welcome to Houston,” the co-pilot said as he started opening the door.

“Thanks for a smooth flight,” I told him. We exited the plane as the limo driver parked near the base of the stairs. Two minutes later, we were on the road home.