“Yes.”Elias slips his hand around my waist.“Your most precious cargo to date.”
“I agree.”He touches the wide-brimmed hat he wears.“I thank you for your service, ma’am.”
“You are welcome.”I smile and suppress a shiver.It’s so cold.
“Get up there, and get warm,” Elias says.“Under the furs.”
I do as he asks and find a hot water bottle to rest on my lap.I pull up the hood of my jacket and snuggle into my scarf and the piles of fur.
“Which way?”Harvey asks.
“We want to check around the zoo,” Elias says.“Perhaps the poor creature has been drawn to the scents there.”
Harvey sniffs.“Her scent is strong.He might seek her out.”
“Which is why you have to keep your wits about you,” Branson says sternly and his eyes narrowing.“Guard her with your life, Harvey.Or you’ll have me to answer to.”
“I will, panther.”Harvey purses his lips.“Not because you told me to, but because I owe her my life and the lives of our clan.”
“You do.”Branson looks at me.“Be safe, we’ll be near.”
I nod.
He slips into the shadows, his comfort zone, the place he knows he can watch and hunt unobserved by humans.In a moment he’s gone and I know he will have transformed into his panther form.
“Warm enough?”Harvey asks me.
“Yes, thank you.It’s quite cozy back here.”
“Good.Walk on, Princess.”He flicks the reins and the horse begins to move.
Elias watches us go as though convincing himself he is happy with the plan, then I see him melt into the undergrowth in the same direction as Branson.If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have found it hard to believe that such big creatures could sneak about undetected in the city.They are silent creeping shadows who see and hear everything humans can’t.
Princess breaks into a trot and I get the feeling Harvey knows just where my men are and is keeping pace with them.
My men!
A warmth fills me despite the cold and dangerous mission we are on.I’ve been alone for so long and now I have two guys to lean on, to walk with, to laugh with, to go through life with.Because yes, that’s how it felt.We are permanent.I don’t know what could change that.I don’t want anything to change that.
“You okay, ma’am?”
“All good, Harvey, thank you.”I was jostled as we moved, but not uncomfortably, and Harvey slowed Princess as we went over a small arched bridge.But then we were moving at speed again through the middle of the darkening park.A lone jogger crossed our path and to my right I saw a dog walker rushing along, obviously keen to get the chore done on this cold night and back to the warmth of home.
The sky is clear, the stars silver stitches on a black velvet sky, and the moon peeks behind a skyscraper.
Harvey’s silhouetted shape sits huddled in front of me and I pull up the furs and survey the trees, boulders and blackness seeping in.
My heart does a little flip when an owl ducks low over us, soundless and graceful.The horse, Princess, is strong and steady and doesn’t seem bothered by a wolf and panther close by.I wonder that she must be used to her shifter owner and the underworld so few New Yorkers know about.
A rustling to my right.
“What is that?”I ask, peering into the undergrowth.
“What, ma’am?”
“There is something.”
“I think we’re okay.”He looks to the right and then flicks the reins.“Nothing of note.Maybe a squirrel.”
