by Layla Nash
He watched as Kira slid through the undergrowth and foliage, fussing around with the blind, and retrieved the cameras. She unpacked some of her equipment, a frown wrinkling her forehead as she opened the camera and checked everything. Ethan loved watching her work. He didn't understand it, even with a half-completed degree in biology, but the amount of concentration on her face fascinated him.
Ethan studied the map, trying to find the closest camp site that still gave them a reasonable chance of reaching the third camera the next day without needing to keep up Kira's breakneck pace, but he glanced up as she took a sharp breath. He launched to his feet. "What's wrong?"
"Look," she said, and held up the black viewer box. Her hands shook, and she almost dropped it before he got there to study what it showed.
And then it was his turn to curse. More photos of the suspicious men. He flipped through the contents: at least six different men, carrying weapons and more equipment, dressed in fatigues to blend in to the forest. He didn't like the look of it. And there was no telling where they were headed or what they were doing. Or worst of all, what they had planned.
"Who do you think they are?" Kira looked pale, uneasy, and Ethan's bear started growling. He didn't like that expression on her face. She should never look that worried. "What are they doing?"
"I'm not sure," he said. Ethan clicked through the pictures again, tilting the viewer as he studied the equipment. "It's hard to tell what they're carrying. They've definitely got weapons, so they're not out here for anything good. It's not hunting season, and in this part of the park... They shouldn't be carrying that type of gun."
He took a deep breath and sat on his heels next to her. "These pictures were taken the day before yesterday, so they can't be far from here." He hesitated, not sure he wanted to suggest they just turn tail and head back for where they'd left the truck, but he wasn't about to risk her safety with half a dozen armed men in the vicinity.
Yet Kira, chewing her lower lip, massaged her temples as she stared at the viewer in his hands. "We shouldn't go to the last camera. I need the data, but... I don't think it's worth it, if these guys are so close."
"I agree." Ethan shook his head as he handed the viewer back, though he patted his pocket where the beacon waited. It might take Simon and the guys a day to get to them once Ethan pressed it. He considered activating the beacon and heading for the truck anyway, so at least a crew of bears would meet them at the road. Just in case. He scratched his jaw through the beard, disappointed that their afternoon snuggle would have to wait. "The river is right here. That's the shortest distance back to the road. If we follow the river east, it'll dump us about half a mile north of where we left the car."
Kira nodded, also getting to her feet and picking up her pack. "I remember the bridge. Can you call the park rangers from here?"
"The sat phone is broken," he said. "I... landed on it."
A wicked smile curved her lips and Ethan laughed, holding up his hands. "Come on. You can't make fun of me for that."
"Clumsy," she said, trying to smother the smile. "Fell down the hill, knocked your head around, crushed all our food, and broke the phone?"
He didn't mind. She could have laughed at him every day for the rest of his life and he would have reveled in the sound of it. But he reached out and swatted her butt. "All right, all right. Let's get moving. We need to get to the river."
Kira nodded and tightened the straps of her pack. She started toward the trail and Ethan caught her arm. He squeezed her hand and tilted his head toward the rifle he still carried. "I'll go first, okay?"
"Sure," she said. "Just don't mosey along like you did this morning."
"I like moseying," he said under his breath. But he leaned down to brush his lips against hers. "Especially with you. But I'll turn it up a notch until we're in the clear. Tell me if you need a break."
Kira only smiled, winked, and gave him a gentle push back toward the trail. Ethan headed down the trail toward the river, and his heart started to drum a steady, faster beat against his ribs. He sensed danger ahead, or at least the possibility of danger, and with his mate behind him...
Ethan stopped short so fast that Kira ran into his pack. She sputtered and backed up. "What the hell?"
"Nothing," Ethan said, shaking his head as the bear tried to shake off the revelation. She was his mate. Kira was absolutely his mate, the other half of his soul. "Sorry, I just... remembered something. We're good. Let's go."
She laughed and teased him a little as he strode off, but Ethan's head was still spinning from the realization. His mate.
And they walked in a forest full of strange men. He set his jaw. Whoever those men were, they'd never faced a grizzly defending his mate.
Kira
Ethan led the way, and Kira followed, though her thoughts were elsewhere. Even teasing him didn't completely alleviate the panic the jaguar felt. First he said he loved her, then he kissed her and talked as if he wanted her to stay, and then they had to worry about strangers with guns in the forest around them.
The second blind had looked as if someone tampered with it — maybe an animal chewed on the case, or maybe those men realized they'd been photographed and tried to get to the camera. She shivered, even with warm sunlight trickling through the leaves, and wished there was more than one rifle.
Ethan didn’t walk fast enough, but it still seemed like just a blink before they heard the music of the river flowing over rocks. He exhaled and looked for the safest way down the river bank and through the heavy trees and bushes that lined it. Kira wished she could just shift into jaguar form to run back to the truck, but settled for following Ethan as he made his way slowly down the bank, holding the branches aside so she wouldn't get hit in the face. Again.
Kira bit back a smile as she rubbed her jaw. Hard to believe it was only a few days ago that he'd wrenched open the car trunk and nearly knocked all her teeth out. What a way to start a relationship. Or a friendship. Or whatever sort of -ship it turned out to be. She hadn't seen him do a single clumsy thing since — except for falling down the hill in the rain — so she knew Ethan must have been flustered when they met.
He stopped abruptly, his arm out to keep her back, and Kira balanced on her toes to keep from pitching forward and losing her footing completely. Ethan sank into a crouch, motioning for her to do the same, and went so still she wondered if he still breathed. He waited in silence, staring down at the river, and as the quiet stretched, Kira started to hear things from the river that weren't just water noises.
The jaguar froze as she strained to hear what was going on. Ethan gradually moved a few branches out of the way and Kira sucked in a breath — the men from the camera stood in and around the river, large pieces of equipment set up all along the banks on either side. She managed to whisper, "What are they doing?"
"Looks like mining for gold," he said. Ethan shook his head, and Kira could almost hear the thrum of his speeding pulse. "Which is illegal like this. But that explains the guns, I guess."
"Gold?" Kira's eyebrows climbed her forehead and she peered through the foliage at where the big men moved around the complicated equipment, searching through a sluice pan and a conveyor belt of dirt and rocks. "I didn't know there was gold out here."
"There's not much," he said. "People found most of it a couple hundred years ago, but there are still some flecks here and there. Very rarely do people find nuggets anymore."
"So what are we going to do?" Kira started to think she needed to reveal that she was a shifter, so at least she could run back to the truck to call for help. Ethan could hole up in the cave and wait things out, and she could stay in the tree-tops in case anyone threatened him. Jaguars were ambush predators, after all — they preferred to drop from the trees instead of chasing their prey.
Ethan took a deep breath, then tilted his head back the way they'd come. "There's another trail for us to use. It will take longer, but at least we know where these guys are."
Kira didn't like it. The m
en had camping equipment with them and had clearly been at work for a while. There was no telling when they would finish up and head back out to re-supply. She didn't want them showing up behind Ethan and her as they hiked back to the truck. At least not until there was a crew of armed park rangers heading in to hunt them down. But Ethan knew those woods better than she did, so she braced herself for the rough climb back up the river bank.
He waited and boosted her up a little, about to climb up after her when Kira looked back. She froze. Through a small window in the foliage and the gently-waving leaves, one of the gold miners stared at her. Stared directly at her. Her heart jumped to her throat and she tried to grab Ethan's hand. "We've been spotted."
"What?" Ethan looked back, caught sight of the miner giving directions to his friends, then launched up the bank. "We've gotta move."
Kira gritted her teeth and started climbing, wishing she could use her claws instead of worthless fingers. They got to the trail as someone shouted behind them, trying to sound reassuring and friendly, though Kira knew it was a lie. She and Ethan would end up dead and buried, somewhere in the trees, and no one would be the wiser.
She jogged after Ethan as he started down the trail, holding that strange pager thing in his hand and clicking the button on it over and over. They moved fast, though he looked over his shoulder often, and Ethan managed to sound almost normal as he spoke. “Stay on this trail until it forks, take the right fork, and keep going until you reach the road. Run. Don't look back. Take this," and he handed her the pager. "It's a GPS beacon that Simon will track. They'll get you back to the Lodge."
"What about you?" She didn't take the beacon, and tried to jog faster. They had a long way to go, so she couldn't flat-out run, but there wasn't any reason for Ethan to think...
"I'm going to distract them." Ethan checked the rifle and then racked it. "So you can get away."
"Don't be ridiculous." Kira cursed as another shout broke the stillness of the forest behind them, and she heard running feet. She sped up, shoving Ethan to get him to move faster. "We're better off together. We can hide or set up an ambush or —"
"There's at least six of them, maybe more. All armed. I'm not going to risk your safety." Ethan's expression hardened until she had no doubts that he was still a professional soldier. "You're going to run down that trail and meet Simon at the truck. I'll meet you there when I can."
"Ethan —"
"Go," he said, and stopped on the trail to face where the men would no doubt try to attack them. Ethan moved into the trees and didn't look back, though he repeated himself before disappearing completely. "Go, Kira. Run."
Kira gritted her teeth and ran, but she didn't have any intention of heading all the way back to the truck. She pocketed the beacon and scrambled through the undergrowth, heading toward where the cave waited. She wasn't going to let Ethan put himself in all the danger. The jaguar wanted to play, and it had been so long since Kira shifted, she could feel the claws almost bursting from her fingers. She listened for any sign of pursuit and tried to plan. They'd have one chance, maybe two, to deal with the gold miners. She took a deep breath. There they were, hunted by criminals with help at least a couple hours away, depending on how fast that burly ass Simon could run. Not as auspicious a start for her and Ethan as she'd hoped.
Ethan
Ethan's bear nearly tore free when he sensed the miners on their heels. He wanted to shift to protect Kira, kill the miners, and carry her to safety. All easily accomplished as a bear, but more complicated when he stayed a man. At least he had the rifle.
He moved off the trail after telling Kira to run, and his Legion days returned in a flash as he slid through the undergrowth. It wasn't an ideal location to use as a choke point, but it would do. He dropped his pack and pulled out the extra ammunition. He didn't have much left after the rain ruined some of it — he hadn't expected to face half a dozen armed men.
Ethan concentrated on breathing evenly as he moved through the trees, carrying a few articles of clothing with him to make decoys, and headed back toward the river. The miners moved slowly, taking their time as they tried to track Kira and him down. Ethan disturbed some branches and part of the trail, made it look as if they'd turned away from the river, and slid deeper into the trees to wait. Hopefully the miners gave up. If they stopped searching, returned to the river, and didn't keep hunting after Kira, Ethan would let them go. He didn't want to shoot them, but he'd kill every last one if they threatened his mate.
He didn't have to wait long before two of them walked down the trail, scanning the forest and placing their feet with care. They looked like rough men, the kind who lived on the fringes of society and didn't play by its rules. They also carried weapons — one a shotgun, the other a rifle. Ethan bared his teeth in rage, but tried to keep his animal side under control as the miners drew even with where he hid.
One peered at the tracks Ethan left behind and the broken branches, then glanced at his partner. "What now?"
"Keep looking," the older man said. His eyes glinted hard and unyielding in the afternoon sunlight. "Can't risk them getting back to the rangers. There's no telling what they saw. We can't lose this claim; we're going to hit the mother lode any day now. I'm sure of it."
The younger man shook his head and shouldered his shotgun, but he started toward the fake path than Ethan had created. Just as Ethan decided to tackle the man on the trail, two more men approached. Their radios chirped, and a voice crackled from the devices. "They split up. The girl headed north."
The older man scowled as he held up his radio. "Take care of it, then get back to the river. Make it look like an accident."
Ethan choked on a growl as the bear wanted to rage free, but he gritted his teeth. He had to wait. He could charge all four of the men and end up dead from the shotguns and rifles, or he could wait, pick them off one by one, and ensure that Kira made it safely to the road. As the men continued their hunt down the trail, Ethan eased closer to the river. He would go north and set his trap for the two hunting Kira. The other four could wait.
Kira
Kira's pulse raced as she struggled back up the embankment to the cave. She stashed her pack inside, concealing it with the shrubs, and shed her clothes so she could shift. The freedom of her jaguar form almost distracted her from the task at hand. Well, the task at paw. Ethan faced those armed men for her, and she sure as hell wasn't going to let him do it alone. For the first time in a long time, Kira felt like happiness was just a breath away. She and Ethan could have built something amazing. Could still build something amazing, if they both survived.
The forest came alive as her senses sharpened in jaguar form, and she sneezed. She stalked down the trail until she heard the miners talking in hushed voices, searching for her. A radio crackled and someone told them to 'make it look like an accident.'
Kira bristled, a growl starting in her chest. She retreated only a short distance until she found a sturdy tree with branches overhanging the trail. The perfect location for an ambush. She climbed the tree easily, claws biting into the bark, and eased onto a branch that would give her the perfect launching point to attack both of the men.
She waited.
She would talk to Ethan about it later. She'd have to come clean about being a shifter, particularly if he caught sight of bite marks on the men she ambushed. And that was okay. Kira shifted her weight on the branch and peered down the trail. She was tired of hiding her true self. She wanted at least one person in the world, aside from her family, to know the truth about her. To see her in jaguar form and appreciate what she could do.
But she held her breath as the two men approached, both nearly silent. She had to respect their ability to move through the forest so quietly. But to a jaguar's ears, they might as well have been wearing bells. She tensed as they stopped to examine part of the trail, then one gestured up the trail and headed off to where she'd left a few tracks. The other remained on the trail, scanning the trees for anything suspicious.
&nb
sp; Too bad he didn't look up.
Kira dropped from the branch, her front paws landing on the man's shoulders and dropping him right into the dirt. He made a muffled sound, somewhere between a scream and a groan, right before he cracked his head on a rock and went silent. Kira grabbed the back of his shirt in her teeth and dragged him into the undergrowth. He weighed more than she anticipated and broke a lot of branches and little shrubs as she pulled him off the trail.
She was still debating what to do with the unconscious man when his partner returned to the trail. Kira froze as the man clicked his radio and called to the other, and the radio squawked right under her paws.
The man frowned. "Joe? What's up?"
Kira would have cursed, if jaguar mouths worked that way, but she remained frozen, crouched over the unconscious miner. The other man spoke into his radio, staring hard into the trees as he searched for his partner. "Guys, I think we have a problem."
The jaguar didn't like it. He'd spotted her, or would soon. Kira eased forward, away from the man she'd tackled, and crept forward paw by paw. She knew the exact moment he spotted her, because his eyes widened and he clutched the radio and his rifle with equal measures of panic and desperation. He managed to say, "There's a fucking tiger —" into the radio before Kira snarled and leapt.
The rifle went off but didn't touch her as she slammed into his chest and knocked the man into a tree. Hard. He crumpled to the ground, eyes rolling back, and Kira swatted the rifle away from his hand, sneezing at the sharp scent of the ammunition. Her jaws made short work of one of the radios, and Kira spat out shards of black plastic. Yuck.
She dragged the second man off the other side of the trail, leaving him tangled up in a nest of prickly briars, and carried the rifle and the shotgun up to the cave. She shoved them behind her pack, then stalked back to where the first man's radio still beeped and buzzed. She sneezed again at the smell of the two men, swatting at the one in front of her, and debated what to do with them. There was no telling when they'd wake up. She'd hit them hard, but not hard enough to kill them. Kira took a deep breath, ready to go back to the cave to get dressed and head for the road, and froze as the radio's noise cleared.