A Healing Love by Shara Azod

he had wooed her. In the brief five years they had together, he had been careful never to allow his animal out of the cage. Not too much. He’d believed she had come to grips with being mated to a shifter. But she never had.
                Two years after giving birth to his young, his beautiful Katya had walked off a cliff into Taui Bay. She had screamed at him that morning, claimed she was cursed because she had lain with an animal. No matter how much he had loved her, she could not accept him for what he was. She never accepted her own sons. Instead she had chosen death over an extended life, extended youth—with him.
                Somewhere along the line, Gleb had lost hold on his sanity. He’d known it, but couldn’t stop it. Day after day, year after year he’d suffered silently, the piece of his soul swept away in arctic waters while Valeri, the golden son, lived happily with his mate Lilya. It was Lilya who raised Gleb’s own sons, who had toweled their hair after they shifted for the first time, who made sure their bellies was full and their childhoods had laughter. All Gleb could do was watch, unable to express love, unable to tell them their mother really was a beautiful soul who had been warped by rigid ideals of right and wrong. He couldn’t tell his beautiful Ilya and Ivan it wasn’t their faults their mother had killed herself.
                It had been Valeri who had told them their mother had been killed in an accident. Smart. Gleb could’ve thought of that if given the chance. But instead the perfect Valeri with his perfect family had taken his sons and made them their own. All the while Gleb had been left to rot, to fester alone.
                Ahhh, but he had repaid Valeri! It had been so easy. Little Luka had found his mate far sooner than any tiger. It was such a simple thing to trick the little brat into a claiming bite long before it was time. Killing Lilya had been the icing on the cake. In one fatal move, Gleb had ensured at least one of Valeri’s sons would never mate, never have young, and had taken away Valeri’s own sanity at the same time. His brother was probably no better off than he was by now.
                How long had it been? He couldn’t tell. He had stayed away, knowing what time would do to Valeri. The loss would have eaten him alive. Now it was time to go witness Valeri’s fall. And possibly Luka’s. Annoying little cat hadn’t known to leave him alone in peace, always trying to make him smile, to bring him back into the fold of the family. Luka deserved what happened to him. And his mate. The beautiful doe-eyed little girl with a smile like fucking sunshine. Disgusting. She was dead now. As well she should be.
                Just beyond the ridge that led to the village in the territory where Teegrs wintered, Gleb shifted into his male form. Even through the heavy snowfall he could see his skin was pasty white. His hair hung to his shoulders. It had been far too long since he’d walked as a man. Clothes. He should’ve thought of clothes. No matter. All he had to do was pick up Valeri’s scent—
                What was that sound? It sounded like...mating. The cries of a woman in the throes of passion were unmistakable. But the smell was something he couldn’t place. It was a tiger, of that there was no doubt. One male and one female ? But that wasn’t possible! There was no such thing as a female tiger shifter. Yet the smell, although he had never experienced it before, was unmistakable. That was a female feline. Feet moving of their own accord, Gleb was drawn to the smell. Surely he was mistaken. Maybe after staying in his tiger form for so long, his senses as a man were off. Just as the man bellowed his own completion, Gleb saw them.
                No! No, that just couldn’t be!
                And yet, right before his eyes was Valeri, completely sane and mating with a female