Kitten Kisses by Lynn Hagen

Alex already hates working night shifts, but when three men enter the gas station and make things more interesting than he would have liked, he accepts Deputy Kingsman’s offer to teach him self-defense. But there is something primal lurking beneath the deputy’s gaze, a beast with raw power and hunger calling to Alex. Had he truly felt its pull or was it all just a figment of his imagination?
From the moment Slater meets Alex, he knows the human is his mate. What confuses him is the sudden lack of control he has over his tiger. That’s never happened before. Now it’s a constant battle for dominance between man and beast, with the beast determined to get to Alex even before his mate learns the truth about what Slater is. When Slater is injured and needs to heal, his grip weakens on his tiger, allowing his beast to break free from its restraints at last.