She couldn’t have said how she knew. The tremble of aleaf; a brush of air against her whiskers. She moved without thought, lunging for a particular patch of shadowy undergrowth.
Light exploded in her face.
Blinded, she recoiled, only for something to swoop at her from behind. The air was abruptly full of feathers and angry screeching, owls mobbing her from every side. Dazed and disorientated, she leaped, instinctively trying to get away.
Gravity yanked her back down. She landed badly, all her weight slamming onto one ankle. Pain shot up her back leg. She couldn’t see, couldn’t fight, couldn’t fly?—
“Leonie!Leonie!”
Even lost to panic, she knew that voice. She stilled, panting.
“It’s all right.” Shan’s gloved hand stroked her flank. “I’m here. You’re safe. Can you shift?”
Taking a deep breath, she pushed down the flood ofhurtpanicfightfleeuntil her lioness settled back into her soul. Wincing, she sat up, blinking to try to clear her vision. “Did you see it?”
“Not clearly.” She still couldn’t see Shan, but she could feel him supporting her, his arm around her shoulder. “Just a pale blur, moving fast. It’s gone now.”
Her ankle felt like it was on fire. “You should go after it.”
“I’m not leaving you.” Shan’s tone did not leave room for argument. “Are you hurt?”
“Just my ankle.” For all their furious screeching, the owls hadn’t actually touched her. She cautiously flexed her foot, biting her lip at the jolt of pain. “I landed on it badly.”
“Don’t move,” he ordered, laying her back down. “Let me see.”
His gloved hand slid down her bare calf, finding her hiking boot. She felt him fumble with the laces, trying to undo the double knots. With a muttered curse, he yanked offhis right glove, thrusting it into his pocket. Gently, he loosened her boot, sliding it off her foot.
“I don’t think it’s broken,” he said, fingertips exploring her ankle. “But we should keep it immobile, just in case. I’ll find a...”
He froze, staring down.
“Shan?” she asked, propping herself up on her elbows. Her night vision was still wrecked from the weird flare of light, so she couldn’t make out much more than his silhouette. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He stood, thrusting his right hand into his pocket. “I’m going to find a stick for a splint. Then I’ll carry you back to camp.”
“You don’t have to do that. It doesn’t hurtmuch now.”
Shan gave her a level look through his sunglasses. “Leonie.”
She sighed. “Okay, okay. It hurts like a motherlover. But I’ve got three other legs. I’m sure I can manage to limp back to camp on my own. You should stay here to follow the trail while it’s fresh.”
“I am not leaving you,” Shan repeated, more emphatically. “I’ll fly you home and come back afterward.”
“But it could be gone by then. Whatever that was, it knows we’re looking for it now, Shan.”
His gloved hand clenched. She abruptly realized that, for all his apparent calm, he was very, very angry.
“I will find it,” he said, and his voice was a tiger’s low growl. “I promise.”
CHAPTER 16
Even over the crackling, low signal phone connection, he could hear Min-Seo’s exasperation. “Shan, you know I can’t authorize that.”
“I need more resources.” He’d waited until everyone else had left the cabin for breakfast before calling his superior, but he lowered his voice anyway. “You said yourself the security of this camp was of primary importance.”
“Yes, it is. Which is why I sent you. What I can’t do is deploy another…” Tapping noises in the background, as if she was checking the email he’d sent earlier. “Eightagents? Seriously, Shan?”
“The situation has changed. We have an unknown individual, possibly a feral shifter, who appears to have been secretly living in the woods near the camp for some time. My request is proportional to the threat.”
