Sistine whispered the equivalent ofwhat the hellwhen it happened again and went on longer. An answering call to the challenge came a few seconds later. I could hear stomping, hooves digging into earth, probably running.
Yeah, I’d fucking run toward that instinct, too, if the woman next to me was waiting and watching.
“Mariano!” she hissed at me.
“It’s elk, Annie,” I said. “Mating season. He’s bugling.”
“This means he is a bull.”
I had to hide my grin. She saidbullwith an extremely heavy Italian accent.Booool-ah.
“Yeah, he’s the bull, Annie.”
“Does not sound too bullish to me.” She shrugged, but her eyes were wide, even in the faint darkness. The bonfire was still burning outside, and the tent was glowing softly.
“Doesn’t have to sound like much when he has antlers that’ll spear a man to death.”
“Does the cow respond to the size of his…ah, antlers?”
I laughed quietly. “She responds when two bulls fight over her. She wants to mate with the strongest bull. So, yeah, of course she fucking does.”
“Mariano!” She went to grab me. “Where are you going?”
She held me by the back of my jeans, refusing to let go.
“To check and see if they’re close, Annie.”
“You are leaving me?!”
“No fucking way. I’m just going to look outside of the tent. We might have to leave, depending on how close they are. They’re concentrated on each other, but if the fight extends out, or when one of them loses, and we’re here when the cow shows up, he might get overprotective. It’s mating season,” I repeated.
“In here as well.” She mumbled something, going for her bag as I stuck my head outside of the tent.
Two bulls were close, one pawing at the ground, antlers down, readying to charge. They were about to ram their antlers in a fight that might kill one of them. The cow was not far off, watching from the sidelines. When I stuck my head back in, a phone was thrust in my face, its light a blast to my retinas, then pulled away. Spots danced in my eyes until they adjusted to the dimness again.
“I have never encountered one here,” Sistine said. “This is what Google says we should do.”
Rio was able to track our phones out this far, even though, on the regular, we were too far off the grid to have access to the Internet. Sistine read off a few points quietly, then looked at me and narrowed her eyes, wagging her finger at me as she read the last piece of advice.
“If we cannot find shelter, we shouldrun.”
“What do you think I’m going to do?” A hard laugh was stuck in my chest, but I could see she wasn’t having it, so I held it in.
“Challenge it,” she whisper-hissed at me.
“Do I look like I have antlers to you, Annie?”
“You are hardheaded!” She knocked on my head and made adunk dunk dunknoise. But she was being fucking serious.
“That I fucking am.” I sighed. “But while they’re fighting over their cow, I’m going to take my lady and get the fuck out ofantler reach.” Even the fire wasn’t deterring them. Their need to mate was stronger than the threat of heat. The heat that was consuming them was instinctual.
Sistine went to open her mouth, but I cut her off by hauling her up, her bag dangling from her fingers, throwing her over my shoulder, and racing toward a place of safety.
Chapter 19
Sistine
In hindsight, I should have expected how fast he was. However, I never could have imagined just how fast he could run, even while carting me over his shoulder. The lion might have been his spirit animal, but I also thought he had cheetah in his blood.
