Tigris was being packed into a cage, ready for transport. Tigris was smiling and her tail twitched with anticipation. She heard the businessman's voice again. It was muffled outside of the cage and the van she was in but she was sure it was him.

Tigris didn't know the man's name but she liked him. His name was Josh Andrews. He was a 20 year old man with his own business. He was extremely wealthy with a large estate with lots of surrounding land. He wasn't a stereotypical businessman; he hated black suits and briefcases. He quite liked paperwork; it gave him something to do.

He was a tall, thin man with a nice sense of humour. He had always liked pranks when he was younger, but knew when he was going too far. He was lonely on his estate, although he had maids and gardeners that worked for him. When he received the letter from Dirbyh – a company with such an intricate lie surrounding it – he jumped at the chance of buying one of their creations.

Everyone thought Dirbyh was a company set up in an Arab country that dealt in computers and technology, everyone thought the company was about to go under and fall apart. In truth it was the richest company in the world with the most advanced technological resources. Everyone who owned a share was rich, richer than anyone but themselves and the company could imagine. The company specialised in hybrids of different species. The founders were twisted scientists who just wanted to delve deeper into science and change the way the world saw things.

The hybrids they created were expensive, so expensive to create - but so worth the money spent when the hybrid was sold on to anyone with enough money. Josh Andrews was one such man.

And now he had one. But he had no idea what to do with it. Her, he corrected himself. She had told him that. That she wasn’t an ‘it’, she was female. Her voice was raspy and hoarse, like when you haven’t spoken for a few hours.

She was more beast than human. A tigress in human form, that’s the only way he could describe her. Starr St Angel had told him the basics of her ‘keeping’, as she had called it. Meat whenever she seemed hungry, although Josh thought she should be fed more often than that.

Apparently Tigris Claw liked to bathe on occasion although it didn’t appear to bother her if she didn’t. Josh thought this was neglect of the girl. Starr had also told him more about the human girl inside the animal. Tigris Claw – true name Bella Ridings – was 17 years old and didn’t like contact from those she didn’t know. She slept in a sitting position with her back against a wall and her knees to her chest.

When she was 3 she’d accidentally killed her mother’s husband – her ‘father’ – and so she became an orphan by her own hand. She had killed her mother at birth. She’d torn her way through the skin of her mother’s belly. She was a test-tube baby, formed from the sperm of a tiger and the egg of her human mother.

Her mother – Narcissa Ridings – had no idea of her child’s father. She’d not signed any forms at all. She’d considered IVF because she didn’t seem able to conceive but tests had been run and she wasn’t infertile. She’d made her husband take the test too, he too was fertile. So they both decided on IVF.

Narcissa’s husband was a scientist and carried out the fusing of the tiger’s sperm and his wife’s egg himself. It never occurred to him how beastly the child would be. He wasn’t even sure it would work.

We’ll return to Tigris now. She was sat in a cage in the back of a van. Her tail flicked all over the place. She was lying down on her front with her legs bent and her knees in the air.

Tigris heard the doors slam and the van rumbled. A smile crossed her lips in eagerness as she looked forward to her new home with the businessman.

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