Not the worst odds. Hitting the ground, he began to weave through the trees, moving at an angle that would intercept the moving sled.
The whoosh proved move of a feeling than a sound that drew his attention. Despite the falling snow and trees in the way, he saw her cottage ablaze.
The urge to race and check inside hit him hard. What if he was wrong and she wasn’t in the trailer?
If he’d fucked up, then he was already too late. He prayed his gut didn’t lead him astray.
The snowmobiles couldn’t move very fast in this weather, which worked to his advantage. He managed to get ahead and let the first machine, with its single rider, chug past and waited for the one with cargo.
From his hiding spot, he timed his leap and knocked the driver clean. He couldn’t stop the shouting of his companion though. He had to work fast. He leaped into the snow and landed atop the driver. Having caught the man by surprise, he had no time to pull a weapon, and he had no time to fool around.
The helmet made it tricky, but a human was no match for a tiger.
Crunch. The first threat stopped moving, but the second had time to arm himself. Bang.
Bang.
Fire sliced over a shoulder blade as a bullet skimmed too close.
“Rawr!”
The next shot went wild, the man panicking but, worse than that, drawing attention. It wouldn’t be long before the other rider came back to help.
The snow helped hide Mateo, the white shit clinging to his fur and whiskers, concealing him until the moment he pounced. The gun was no more.
At that point, he had two choices. Hop naked on that sled and ride for safety, in a storm. Probably crash and freeze a bunch of important body parts off.
Or, he could do the unexpected. He grabbed the key on the sled with his teeth and shut it off, plunging them in pure darkness. It would make them harder to spot.
The strap on the trailer gave way when he grabbed it with his teeth. He flipped off the cover, and if a tiger could have sighed, he would have, as he perceived Rilee within, wrapped in a blanket.
He heard a voice and glanced over at the body quickly accumulating snow. The helmet was talking and not getting a reply. He nosed Rilee, willing her to wake up.
She grumbled in her sleep.
“Rawr.” He tried to nudge her awake, but she didn’t stir.
Fuck.
He heard the hum of the other snowmobile. He couldn’t stick around. Shit was about to get cold. Despite the danger to his dangling parts, he shifted. He took the blanket she was wrapped in and swaddled it around his naked shoulders, before scooping her into his arms and tucking her close. Then he took off, the direction not as important as getting her away from the enemy.
The good news was the snow would cover his tracks. But at the same time, he’d left the enemy behind.
An asshole who’d tried to take Rilee.
He didn’t go far. Didn’t have to because of the thicket he encountered. A previous snowfall that partially had melted and then froze had welded the branches at the top, meaning once he shoved in through the middle, by cracking a ton of small branches, he could make a temporary nest, where he deposited Rilee. Tucked that blanket around her.
Then, once more wearing his fur, he went hunting.
Chapter 10
She shivered. Cold. Always so cold. It didn’t help he’d finally returned to taunt her.
It had been many days since she’d had to deal with his torture. Blessed relief. While she hated the cage, it provided a form of safety from the kicks and the punches. The cigarette burns. All the things he did to try and force her to his will.
He raged because she wouldn’t change for him on demand. It took only once, one stupid time, to realize what a mistake that was. She’d given in, appeared as herself, crouched in that cage, naked and clinging to the bars, pleading. “Please, you have to let me go.”
He replied, “So it is true. Do you know what kind of prize you are?”
The guy she knew as Shayne stood outside her cage once again, fingers tucked in his pockets and not poking at her through the bars. Apparently, he’d learned since the time he’d needed seventeen stitches to close the gash. She’d learned, too, with the seventeen lashes meted by a silver barbed whip. The whip hung on the wall behind him, as did the other tools that could inflict pain.
What Shayne never understood was she preferred the pain of refusing his wishes to the apathy if she gave in. She would never let him win. Never give him what he wanted.
Shifter babies. His and hers. He’d discovered to his annoyance that implantation using human sperm wouldn’t work while she was in her lynx shape. So long as she stayed an animal, he could do nothing about it.
“I see you’d still rather be a beast in a cage,” he stated, as if she chose to be imprisoned. “How much longer are you going to be stubborn? Used to be you didn’t mind my touch.”
That was before she knew him to be a monster. Before the betrayals. Even the name she knew him by was false. She bared a fang.
“Still feisty. Glad to see it because I got an offer for you.”
As if she’d take any deal. She growled.
He laughed. “Not that kind of offer. Someone wants you. Very badly. Even more than I do. And they’re willing to pay for it. They’re also not as bothered as I am when it comes to the whole animal-fucking thing. Not to mention, he’s already got a lynx stud waiting for you. I hear he’s hoping for a whole litter of kittens. You’ll get to be a mom. What do you say to that?”
She threw herself at the bars of her cage, only to yelp. The electricity running through them sent her to the dirty floor.
“Rilee. Rilee. Rilee,” Shayne cajoled, kneeling so he could gloat in her face. “You should have been nicer to me. Not that it matters anymore. You had your chance. My friend has promised me pick of the first litter. I’m thinking I’d like a girl. One I’ll raise to be obedient.”
If she’d had anything in her stomach, she might have vomited. But she’d not eaten in days and, by the next morning, was passed out in her cage. There was consternation among her handlers. No one wanted to be the one to tell the boss his prized lynx had died.
It made them clumsier than usual. Less careful as they opened her cage door to check on her vitals.
She sliced the jugular of the first attendant, effectively killing him before they realized she feigned her unconsciousness. By the time one of them ran to sound an alarm, she was out of her cage and pouncing.
She’d had time to figure out how she’d escape because she knew she’d only get one chance.
One chance to live, which was why she closed her ears to the screams, shut her eyes to the blood. The bullet wound that skimmed her as she scrambled up and over the gate of his estate eventually healed.
The anxiety never left.
Because she’d always worried one day she’d open the door and he’d be there.
Waiting to bring her back.
And then he was there. Damning her. Laughing. “I’m back, Rilee.”
“No!” The word whispered on her lips as she woke suddenly, still caught in her nightmare, where she opened the door to her cottage and encountered those eyes. The eyes she’d never forget.
Her biggest fear come to life.
Shayne had found her.
And the very thought froze her.
She kept still to assess her situation. She wasn’t in her bed, and yet she felt warm and comfortable. A blanket covered her. Her blanket, she realized in the dim gray light, and yet the real heat came from the furry body lying wedged beside her. Her breathing quickened.