Hour of the Lion

Calum floored the gas pedal, and the car screeched around a logging truck. The oncoming car’s horn blared as he whipped back into his lane.

Irma had been alive, a wretched lump handcuffed and lying in the corner of the bedroom. Blood everywhere and discarded syringes. Tortured. Drugged.

She’d opened her eyes when he touched her, staring as he’d called for an ambulance. Then had motioned him closer. “He wants your people, child. And…” Her brows had drawn together. “My head is all foggy. I think I told him about you. And Jamie.”

Jamie. They were going after his child. The car skidded around a corner, tires squealing. No one answered at home.

He’d just passed the first houses in Cold Creek when his cell phone rang.

* * *

Vic staggered to her feet and rubbed her bruised butt as she scowled at the god-help-me shortcut she’d come down. Under all the snow, the slope had been steeper than she’d realized. Like a damn ski jump, and she’d skied the last half on her ass.

Brushing her jeans off, she squinted into the blizzard to get her location. Not bad. The path on the ridge led to the public park behind Thorson’s Books. By abandoning the trail and sliding straight down, she could circle around town and get her car without being seen.

Her chest squeezed at the thought of running into Calum or Alec. Maybe when she’d put an ocean between her and the men, she’d not anticipate seeing them every moment.

Shaking her head, she pulled a cookie from the sack in her pocket. As she stuffed it into her mouth, she tried not to remember the warmth of Helen’s house. At least the sugar revved her up, something she damned well needed, considering she’d run out of coffee two days ago and other food yesterday. She’d better not meet anyone, or she was liable to bite their head off. Cranky much?

So, she just needed to get to the car-damn thing better start-and head out. Her walk quickened as she remembered the next town over had a Starbucks. Yes!

A noise caught her attention. Running footsteps. Sobbing?

With a huff of exasperation, Vic stepped behind a tree. Honestly, couldn’t a person take a quiet walk in a nice blizzard without being interrupted? She edged out far enough to stare up at the ridge high above her. Someone was running up the trail from town. Through the trees and snow she could see the flash of a girl’s shape. Naked?

Vic choked on a laugh. Alec had mentioned how young shifters tended to pop back and forth before they established some control. This little shifter’d freeze her ass off if she didn’t get into animal form. But why was she headed away from town?

A minute later, the smile froze on Vic’s lips.

Jamie?

* * *

Crying and whimpering, Jamie staggered up the trail. Somehow she’d gone back to being a girl, but using two legs didn’t work after having four, and she kept falling. Snot and tears ran down her face. Daddy. Alec. Help. Please help me. She shivered, her feet burning with the cold, as she grabbed a tree. The rough bark scraped her palms as she pushed off, trying to run again.

She looked behind her and a whine broke from her. No no no. The men were gaining on her. Two of them. She was breathing too hard to scream.

A black van had chased her through town, and she’d run and run and finally come to the park. Thinking the van couldn’t go up the trail, she’d gone into the forest, but two men got out and followed her. One a blond. And the man with the pitted cheeks whose jeans she’d clawed. Blood had turned his pant leg dark red, and he was so mad, his face was scary-ugly.

They were so close. She staggered forward. Too slow. No choice, I have no choice. Have to go faster. She closed her eyes, forced herself to open the door. Tingling. Trawsfur. Dizzy. She shook her head, tripping on her feet. Paws.

“Jesus, we have her! Shoot, dammit!”

Something stung her shoulder like a wasp, and she snarled, the sound horrible. She sprang forward up the trail. Almost to the top. She could… The trees spun in a circle around her. Her legs-too many legs-tangled, and she crashed into the ground. She tried to stand, scrambling uselessly with her paws, but her head felt like a boulder.

With blurry eyes, she saw a pair of boots walk up to her. When the man kicked her hard, she could only snarl helplessly.

Daddy-I want my Daddy…

* * *

They shot Jamie! Climbing frantically, Vic was only halfway back up the steep slope. She stopped to listen, cursing silently. The trail that Jamie was on curved out of sight. Thank God the two men following Jamie hadn’t gotten close enough to the cliff’s edge to spot her, but they’d surely hear her scrambling up to them.

Vic slowed, moving more quietly, every muscle screaming to hurry. Okay, okay. Jamie’s down, but she isn’t dead. There’s time. She pushed up to the next step. Her foot slipped. What a cluster-fuck. Stay the fuck calm, Sergeant.

Where the hell were all those shifter townspeople? What were they thinking, leaving Jamie alone? Where the hell was the kid’s backup?

As the wind died for a moment, she heard them.

“Swane said, on these beasts, the tranq wears off in ten minutes or so. Way before we can get it down and into the cage.”

“Then shoot her again when she wakes up, dumbass. Fuck, she’s heavy.”

“That was the last dart, dirtbag. You got rope?”

“Hell no.”

“Jesus. The guy wants it alive.”

“Fuck that, I’m not going to let that hellcat claw me again. Bash its head in. The daddy don’t need to know that his kid’s dead-he’ll still do fuck-all to get her back.”

Silence. “Yeah, that’ll work. I’ll find a fuckin’ rock.” Footsteps. “You s’pose they change to people when they die?”

Vic looked up at the distance remaining to the top. It was too far. Too steep. I can’t make it in time. She closed her eyes in despair.

And there, in the back of her mind, the little door glowed.

* * *

The patrol car bounced as Alec drove it up and over the curb, across the snow-covered park, following the new boot marks in the snow that led directly into the forest. He braked to a skidding stop at the tree line and jumped out. As he ripped his clothes off, he heard a heavy engine start up-and a black van raced away down the street.

He hesitated. One would escape. But he could smell more here. And Jamie. Fear. Ahead in the mountains.

Calum’s car roared up behind him as Alec shifted. He didn’t wait. Fresh blood made garish red marks on the white snow. With a low growl, he sprang forward.

Not a minute later, Calum shouldered past him. As they tore up the trail, from the mountain above them came the high shriek of a female cougar.