Luis peered into the dim interior. In the farthest stalls, Emerald, Topaz, and Pearl shifted and grumbled. But in the stall nearest the rear door, separated from the females by a double-thick stall partition, was Diamond—six thousand pounds of muscle.
Di spun to face the door, his three-foot tusks weaving dangerously over the wooden stall partition.
I should be afraid. Di’s trunk was packed with forty thousand muscles, capable of tossing a man like an empty beer can. Each of Di’s legs was stouter than Luis’s waist; the flat feet could kick and crush. And the tusks . . . The dense ivory spears were pointed in Luis’s direction.
After hours of imprisonment, the sight of the open door seemed to inflame the bull. He raised his trunk in a screaming cry. A wet streak from the glands on his temples stained the fur lining his broad forehead.
Holy shit. He’s in musth. A bull in rut was the last thing they needed.
Di slammed his tusks into the stall partition, splintering the top rail. The three females squealed in fright.
“Easy, Di. Easy,” Luis called, but the bull was in no mood to be soothed.
Bam! Di hit the barrier again. Shards of the broken barrier flew. Bam!
To hell with this. It looked like Di wasn’t going to wait for Luis to open the stall.
Luis slipped down the ramp and ducked for cover behind the transport’s massive tires.
In a final, frenzied crash, Di destroyed what remained of the barrier. With a triumphant cry loud enough to freeze the blood, three tons of woolly mammoth thundered down the ramp, inches from where Luis crouched.
Brandon peered out of the window of the truck’s cab. “You all right?”
“Yeah, I’m under the truck. Stay where you are.”
“No problem.”
In the glare of daylight, Diamond paused beside the transport. His long-furred sides heaved, his trunk raised to test the air.
“Why doesn’t he run?” Brandon asked. “He’s free—why doesn’t he run?”
“He’s in rut, looking for a receptive female. He’ll calm down once we release the girls.”
Brandon snorted. “And how do you propose to do that, with him ready to run down anybody in his way?”
One of the females inside the transport trumpeted.
Diamond pivoted, his hot glare falling on Luis peeking out from under the ramp.
“Stay there,” Brandon called. “I’ll distract him while you get the girls out.”
“No! Don’t . . .”
But Brandon had already left the safety of the cab and was waving his arms over his head. “Here, Di, look at me!”
Diamond spun, concentrating his sex-fueled frustration on Brandon. He stamped a foot, flaring his ears like flags.
Luis held his breath. Brandon knew as well as he did, that was prelude to a charge.
Brandon took a step backward. “Here, mammoth, mammoth, mammoth! Damn it, even bullfighters get a freaking cape.”
Diamond raised his trunk and trumpeted.
Brandon dived under the truck as Diamond, head lowered, made a feinting pass.
Luis dashed up the rear ramp.
Emerald, Topaz, and Pearl stamped and growled in their impatience to be released. Five years old and four thousand pounds each, Anjou had dubbed them the “troika” for their tendency to stick together.
Luis took one of the harnesses from the hook on the wall. Kicking broken shards of stall partition out of the way, he approached the first of the females’ stalls.
“Brum-rum, brum-rum, brum-rum.” Luis made deep rumbling noises, mimicking the way elephant mothers soothed their young.
Emerald blew hay-scented breath at him, her muscular trunk caressing his face and arm and generally getting in the way. Her fur was coarse, foot-long hair overlaying a soft undercoat. Her tusks, a foot and a half of dense ivory, rubbed against the wall of the transport.
“I love you too, Em,” Luis murmured, pushing her trunk off his shoulder. He climbed the partition to throw the harness over her six-foot-high back, then crouched beside her to buckle it across her chest and under her belly, cinching it tight over the long fur.
Luis had trained the girls since infancy to carry burdens, all in preparation for this one journey to freedom.
Bam! Di was taking his anger out on the other trailer.
“Luis! Hurry it up!”
“Coming.” He unclamped the stall partition and pivoted it out of the way. “Go on, Em,” Luis urged. “Tcha.”
At Luis’s move-out signal, Emerald strolled cautiously down the ramp.
In her stall, Topaz cried querulously at being left behind.
“Don’t worry, Topie, you’re next,” Luis crooned.
She stamped impatiently as he buckled on the harness, this one with stirrups for a rider and a thin pad that rested over her shoulders. When he opened the barrier, Topaz paused long enough to stroke her trunk over his back before racing down the ramp.
“Brandon?” Luis called. “Are you all right?”
“Still under the truck. He won’t go away. Shoo, Di. Damn it, go play.”
Pearl occupied the last stall. Usually docile, she grumbled and swayed and shifted her feet like a kid waiting for recess, making it awkward to get the harness on.
“Luis!” Brandon shouted. “Look out—Diamond’s coming your way!”
CHAPTER 7
Musth
Bam! Bam! Bam! Huge, flat feet pounded up the ramp. A huffing, furred form blocked the light from the door, long tusks ready to skewer anyone who stood in his way.
Pearl squealed in fright, twisting in the stall as if trying to find an avenue of escape.
“Easy, Pearl. Brum-rum.” Luis was in danger of being pinned against the wall in her panic. Squashed by an extinct elephant—what a ridiculous way to die.
“Move, girl.” He poked her flank hard with his fist, the sort of correction an elephant mother would administer to a pushy calf.
Pearl shifted over far enough for him to straddle the
