“Is there such a thing in a place like this?” Hannah looked around them wondering if Karl had been faced by a storm or injury, or a wild animal.
“There’s a section of cliff a little farther along the trail. Just before it joins the main section. We should be able to find shelter there even if it’s just a shallow cave.” He tipped the poker chips into her pocket before he kissed her cheek. “We won’t stop looking.”
Hannah nodded, unable to answer. If Karl had lost the chips, had he also lost his life down there? A wild animal might have carried of his body…or bones. Was she wasting even more of her life by continuing to search, by continuing to hold on to hope?
They reached the cliff as the sky overhead darkened and the sliver of sunlight was finally swallowed up by the clouds. O’Malley’s expression hardened and the tension in his jaw was obvious to someone who had spent the last couple of days staring at him far too often.
“It’s going to be a bad storm, isn’t it?” she asked.
“I think it is.” He continued along the edge of the cliff, ducking down to look for a safe place for them to shelter. Occasionally he moved closer, leaning down to place his hand on the rock face before moving on.
They were running out of cliff. They were running out of time.
“We’ll have to pitch the tent.” O’Malley turned to face her, his expression anguished before he smoothed it out. “We’ll go back a little way and pitch it in the most sheltered section of the cliff.”
“Why don’t you shift and go and find somewhere better to shelter and I’ll stay here?” Her suggestion was met with a short laugh.
“I am not leaving you here. We’re in this together. If I need to, I’ll shift, and my cougar can cover you with his body and keep the worst of the weather off you.”
“I thought cats hated the wet.” A splatter of rain hit the back of her jacket, a warning of what was to come.
“For our mate, he’ll cope.” O’Malley grinned but it wasn’t his usual charming expression. This was forced, as if he were trying to make her believe everything was going to be all right.
“Okay. Let’s pitch the tent.” A gust of wind buffeted her, and she took a couple of steps forward.
“Wait!” He put up his hand and raised his head as if he were sniffing the air. “There’s someone close by.”
“Someone? Karl?” Her heart pounded and her breath came hard and fast. “Where?” She turned in a circle, looking all around them.
“Along the trail.” His eyes locked with hers. “Stay here.”
He ran forward, shifted in midair, and kept running back the way they had come.
“O’Malley,” she whispered.
If anything happened to him, she’d never forgive herself.
As she waited, she conjured up images of a hunter with a gun who might shoot the cougar as a trophy. Or maybe it was a truly wild mountain lion who might take on a creature he saw as a threat to his territory.
Or perhaps it was O’Brian and Elvie come to warn them about the coming storm?
All these questions raced through her head as she stood there waiting. Waiting, just like she had been waiting for news of Karl for weeks.
Hannah took a step forward and then another. She was done waiting, it was time to face life head-on and take back control.
She just didn’t know if she was strong enough to do that. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to let O’Malley face danger alone. They were mates and mates stuck together through whatever life threw their way.
Chapter Seventeen – O’Malley
He could sense them moving up the trail. Four. Four what? His cougar tried to focus on them, but his attention was pulled away by the nearness of his mate. She was coming this way.
Damn it, O’Malley cursed. He had to protect her.
His cougar ran down the trail toward the approaching animals. They were cougars. Just like him.
Shifters, his cougar hissed.
That’s what I meant. O’Malley couldn’t fight them all. He knew his limitations.
What if they don’t want to fight? His cougar had a point. Perhaps if he turned around and went back up the trail and moved out of the way with Hannah, then these four shifters might just move on.
A snarl carried on the wind told him it might be too late for that. They knew he was here.
O’Malley stopped and waited for them to approach. He’d chosen the section of the trail where Hannah had climbed over a slab of rock. It would make it difficult for them to come at him as a group. One at a time, he might have more chance of fighting them off.
Perhaps we should just talk, his cougar suggested.
O’Malley had never been the aggressor. When he served with the Special Forces, he always preferred to a situation with words rather than weapons. His cougar flexed his claws, reminding O’Malley they were the only weapons at his disposal, aside from his teeth and so talking might be a good idea.
But shifting into his human form would render him weak and vulnerable against four large cats.
He could see them now. Heads down, one of them was sniffing the ground, following a scent. Hannah’s scent.
This is a fight we cannot win, his cougar told them.
O’Malley knew he was right but as Hannah ran toward him down the trail, his need to defend her overrode caution. He would fight to the death to defend his mate.
“O’Malley.” Hannah was close, she slid down the trail and landed on her bottom before scrambling to her feet. “Oh.” She saw the four cougars and stopped trying to rise to her feet. “Well, this is unexpected.”
She was right, there had been no signs that other animals used the game trail, but then these cougars moved with a lithe graze on light paws that
