Christine Feehan

Just past sunset, a cool breeze slipped through the canopy as Sarika Silva stood on a boulder and peered up at the umbrella of branches far above her head. There was little light on the forest floor, and few plants thriving on the forest floor, yet there were hundreds of years of debris. Ferns and some smaller bushes managed to grow in the dark, dimly lit atmosphere.

She could hear the scurry of lizards and mice, of voles and beetles as they hurried back and forth preparing for the night and the host of predators emerging. She drew in a deep breath, taking in the amazing scents surrounding her. Scores of tree frogs of various species called back and forth to one another.
          
She held herself very still, trying not to attract attention. She had an unfortunate trait she hadn’t yet found a way to rid herself of. All manner of wildlife found her fascinating. She reciprocated the feeling, which was fine at home when dogs and cats sought her out. Or the occasional bunny. But in the various rainforests she’d visited, the animals had been diverse and often quite dangerous.
           
It wasn’t in her best interest to draw attention to herself. She’d had monkeys, sloths, capybaras and even gorillas seek her out. There had been ocelots, orangutans and countless other animals that showed up in camp or found her on the trails. Once a Bengal tiger. Herd animals followed her.   
          
The rainforest was moody. Eerie. Mysterious. Beauty and danger went hand in hand in the rainforest. Sarika had spent time working in several around the world. This was her first visit to Peru, and to her shock, she felt as if she’d come home. The emotion was overwhelming, so much so that when she’d first stepped off the boat onto solid ground and made her way to the designated meeting place with her guide, she had felt tears welling up. Her heart accelerated, and every single nerve ending came alive.
           
Alive. That was the true feeling. She felt intensely alive. It was such a weird, unexpected reaction when she’d spent several years studying the various rainforests. Her interest had begun when she was a little girl. She would read everything she could get her hands, reading far above her grade level on conservation and especially jaguars and the way they were slowly going extinct. She wanted to find a way to save them and it became the driving the purpose in her education. Never once had she regretted her decision to save the jaguars.
          
Her hero was T. Smolnychki Sr., the leading expert in the field she was most interested in. She read everything he wrote, every paper he had produced. He was a conservationist, a biologist and mammalogist. No matter how long she’d searched, she never managed to find a photo of him—or his son. His son went by T. Smolnychki Jr. When his father retired, he took over his work and became her new hero.
          
The father and son had worked tirelessly to establish conservation for the rainforests, but more importantly, to her, they were passionate about the preservation of large cats, including jaguars. That passion came through in the various articles they had written and the worldwide organization they had founded. She found it interesting that Smolnychki Jr.’s papers sounded so close to his father’s writing. They had the same turns of phrase, the same eloquence. The research was always impeccable and had held up through the years, as had their conservation ideas.
           
When she was eight years old, she wrote to Smolnychki Jr. To her shock, he had answered her. They had established a correspondence of sorts over the years. He had always encouraged her in her dream of saving the jaguars. He seemed to take her ideas seriously, never chiding her for suggesting various plans to him. At times he would point out very gently why a particular idea wouldn’t work, other times he seemed excited about an idea she’d come up with.

T. Smolnychki Jr. often disappeared for months at a time. He would emerge from the wilderness to write another paper or pertinent article or spearhead the drive for the jaguar corridor spanning countries across the globe. His father had been her idol, and while she respected and admired him, she felt Smolnychki Jr. was more of a friend and mentor.
           
Sarika had gone into the same field as the two men. As she furthered her education, she became a veterinary for exotic animals specializing in cats. Along the way, she rounded out her education by becoming a biologist and conservationist. In the years she was getting her education, she made numerous trips to rainforests around the world, volunteering, studying and working, but she’d always avoided Peru.
           
Peru was home. Peru was where she’d been born into the world of jaguar shapeshifters.  She should have been raised there, but instead, when her mother died in childbirth, her father had kept his son but sent her to be raised by his older brother, who lived in the United States.
          
Her Uncle Alois and Aunt Gemma had never been able to have children and they’d welcomed her. Surrounded her with love. Given her every advantage. They had raised her in Maine, far away from others. To get to their main estate, they used a Cessna to fly in and out, landing on the lake for access to their home. In a dense forest, they were surrounded by old growth, the little that was left from the days of intense logging.
           
She knew how to fly the Cessna and often would view from above the abundance of the many varieties of trees. There were heavy stands of fir, spruce and pine. Yellow birch, paper birch, sugar maple and aspen dominated the stands of hardwood. What she loved most was the diversity of wildlife making their homes in the heavy tree-rich forest surrounding them.
           
She often flew the plane low enough to catch sight of moose, black bears, foxes, bobcats, deer and lynx. There was an abundance of raccoons, coyotes, porcupines and fishers. She always got a thrill when she spotted wildlife. When she backpacked and camped in the forest, many of the animals sought her out. Even then, she had to be careful that no one else witnessed the way animals seemed to want to be with her.

Mostly, what she loved about her life was the way her aunt and uncle taught her to shift from early childhood. She was a jaguar shifter, and her female, Coh, loved to run free in the haven of the forest. That was the reason her aunt and uncle had chosen to live in such a remote location. As jaguar shapeshifters, a very secretive species, they were careful never to allow anyone to see them shift. As jaguars needed the forest to roam and stay healthy, her aunt and uncle had found the perfect place to live so their animals could thrive.

She’d lost them both, first Alois and then Gemma. She loved them dearly and missed them every single day. Without them, she was lonely and felt vulnerable without the stability of a home. She’d traveled all over the world, was away for months, but they had always been there waiting for her. Now she was alone. She felt compelled to come to Peru and seek out her last remaining relative, hoping they would make a connection with each other.

Sarika inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of the Peruvian rainforest. So many. The earth smelled raw and musky. The flowers climbing the trees were fragrant and exotic. The explosion of color against the bark of the various species of trees was stunning. So many vivid colors of green interspersed with the brilliant colors of trumpet-shaped flowers, spidery flowers, orchids and so many others.

Despite the waning light, she found herself drawn to the interior. While the dense canopy overhead protected the forest floor from wind and, even to some extent, storms, the interior felt heavy with moisture. It seemed as though the drone of the crickets and cicadas never stopped. The darkness turned the jungle into an eerie, moody world.

She knew better than to walk too far into the interior. She had a very good sense of smell, especially if she shifted—which she was prepared to do. If necessary, she could utilize all the jaguar’s abilities as well. Still, walking into an unfamiliar rainforest was sheer madness.

It was possible remnants of the male shifter jaguars were still around, men her adopted parents had warned her to always be leery of. She knew better, but she couldn’t stop herself from moving deeper into the jungle, drawn by the magnificence and the feeling of coming home. She’d never once experienced that nearly euphoric, wonderous feeling of belonging until that moment, not a single time in all the various rainforests she’d visited.

The dark, moody interior called to her. Buttress roots formed giant fins nearly as tall as she was, beneath the trees, anchoring them against the winds.  Above ground, the storms could be wild, but the thick canopy kept the forest floor dark, humid and calm.

She took her time, going from tree to tree, examining the draping orchids and wild trumpets winding their way up the trunks. Sheer beauty. She was familiar with the various plants and their uses. So many were able to be used to make medicine. Others were poisonous. All of them held a beauty that drew her like a magnet.

A sudden chill slid down her spine, and she froze in place. Something—or someone—was watching her. Her radar went off, and it was never faulty. She judged how close she was to the riverbank. She’d wandered quite a distance examining the plants and trees, lost in her world of discovery when she should have been concerned for her safety.

From deep in the interior, a throaty cough sent adrenaline rushing through her veins. Her heart instantly began to pound. There was something about that sound that had goosebumps rising all over her skin and the tiny hairs on her body reacting. She became aware of every sound. There was a rustle in the leaves littering the forest floor straight ahead of her, and she remained unmoving, straining to hear whether it was a small rodent, a lizard or the whispery tread of the jaguar.

The jaguar, whether a shifter or a true cat, was the fiercest predator in the forest. Sarika found the formidable, elusive cat elegant and stately. It was also watchful and extremely wary. One didn’t walk up on a jaguar and surprise it. It was the same with the jaguar shifters. Both species had excellent vision and hearing. The large cats and their shifter cousins hunted by sight and sound. In any case, that strange attraction animals had to her could be the reason the jaguar was closer than it should have been.

Sarika glanced behind her uncertainly. The jungle had closed behind her, cutting off her view of the riverbank. She knew the way out. She had an excellent sense of direction. As a shifter, she had that same ability to hunt with sight and hearing. She gleaned information from everything around her, but knowing a jaguar was on the prowl, most likely hunting this time of day, filled her with trepidation.

She’d spent far too much time studying the large cats to dismiss a hunter, although there were very few unprovoked attacks on humans. Still, they were deadly predators and certainly capable of hunting a human. Scary and fearless, the jaguar has the strongest bite of all cats, including tigers and lions. They have the ability to pierce through bone with razor-sharp teeth.

The intensity of the silence was broken by a sawing call. She was well aware both the male and female jaguar could roar. When they greeted one another, they made a sound similar to a snuffling. They hunted day or night and killed with a powerful bite, usually to the back of the skull. The sound abruptly turned into a snarl that lifted every hair on her body. Then came the growling roar she most feared.

An apex predator, jaguars were at the top of the food chain with no natural enemies, other than their own species, being a danger to them. Sarika was well aware she wasn’t the largest person in the jungle. Even if she tried to make herself appear bigger, she doubted if that would work.

Going forward, if this jaguar was female and she had a den nearby, that could get her in trouble. It would be far better to get out of the trees. Sarika found herself hesitant to do that. Shifters were a secretive species. It had been drilled into her from the time she was a toddler that she could never reveal her true nature. Better to shift if she needed to defend herself there in the rainforest out of sight.

It was just that…she had no fighting experience. That sawing roar was troublesome. It wasn’t a greeting. It was a clear warning. She had a healthy respect for the powerful cats, and she would never want to endanger one, hurt or kill one. She also thought it would be impossible for someone as inexperienced as she was to defeat a fully grown cat with fighting experience.
She was well aware jaguars could easily climb trees and leap long distances. She wouldn’t be any safer in the water than she was on land. Jaguars were excellent swimmers, loved lakes, rivers and wetlands. They hunted in water.

“Not the smartest thing I’ve ever done,” she murmured aloud.

“No, it wasn’t,” a male voice came from the darkened interior.

The unexpected reply set her heart pounding. She had concentrated so much on the jaguar that she had no indication a male was anywhere in the vicinity. She should have scented him. Sarika inhaled deeply, expecting to find out how close he was to her, but she got…nothing.

“I told you to stay out of the forest. To wait by the river for me.” Now that voice was pure male, quiet but powerful. Velvet soft and compelling, but there was no mistaking the absolute authority.

“Luiz?” She asked. “Luiz Silva?”

“Luiz De La Cruz,” the voice corrected.

Her heart skipped a beat. Fear washed over her. She certainly knew the name De La Cruz. They were notorious in both Peru and Brazil. They owned more land than legal, their ranches expansive and guarded carefully. It was said they were ruthless. Enemies of the De La Cruz family tended to disappear.

“I thought I was corresponding with my cousin, Luiz Silva,” she said, imposing strict discipline on herself. For some unexplained reason, she felt threatened. She couldn’t say it was the voice exactly. He spoke in a low tone. It wasn’t even the words he spoke or the fact that he’d identified himself as a De La Cruz. He felt dangerous. Powerful. She hadn’t even seen him yet, but the warning that had preceded the jaguar came through just as clear. Maybe more so.

Sarika stood her ground, doing her best not to shake. The atmosphere had grown heavy. Threatening. The insects suddenly ceased their continuous noise. Monkeys screamed warnings and raced away, using the treetops.

“I have gone by the name of Silva,” the voice informed her.

She blew out an exasperated breath. He could have just said that in the first place and not tried intimidating her with the De La Cruz name. Okay, he’d succeeded in intimidating her, which just annoyed the holy hell out of her.

“Seriously? You couldn’t have led with that?” After all, if he was telling the truth and his name was really Luiz Silva, he was her cousin. She might be intimidated by the name De La Cruz and even a wild jaguar, but if he was her cousin, she wasn’t going to allow him to scare her into submission. She wasn’t that easily intimidated.

There was no real sound to warn her, not even the whisper of boots on leaves, but Luiz De La Cruz was suddenly standing in front of her, almost as if he had teleported, like in some science fiction movie. What was wrong with her? She should have been better prepared. She didn’t like using a weapon, but she knew how and always carried something on her to protect herself. She’d traveled all over the world, studying in many different, very dangerous environments. Being a conservationist had taken her into many situations such as this one, and she’d always gone prepared.

Around her waist, she had her belt with a sheath containing a very sharp knife. While she was proficient in the use of it, the blade was her failsafe, the last resort, should she be attacked by human, shifter or wild predator.

His eyebrow raised. “If you were going to use that, you should have already been prepared. What possessed you to come all this way and meet me alone?”

She didn’t need him to ask her that question; she was already asking herself. She decided to be casual. “I travel alone to many countries and meet guides.”

He studied her face, feature by feature, with a predator’s stare. His eyes were intense, a vivid green flecked with gold, the irises ringed with amber. He had presence, appeared rugged, but there was something about him that was charismatic. Some quality that drew her to him, and she knew that same magic would work on others, male or female, he was around. At the same time, the predator in him was so strong that she knew he was far more than a man standing in front of her.

Luiz De La Cruz was mesmerizing, and that was scary. She felt almost frozen, the way one did when looking into the eyes of a large cat hunting. Her body reacted on its own, recognizing the extreme danger, yet couldn’t move. Every hair on her body reacted, goosebumps rose. She had to work to keep her heart and lungs under control. A predator smelled fear. Hearing was acute. He would know she feared him, he most likely already did.

“Do you think that’s such a good idea?”

She tried a brief smile, hoping to connect with her cousin. She was certain he was her uncle’s son. She’d never met his father or this man, but it wasn’t like she had much in the way of family. As far as she knew, Luiz was all that was left after the death of her adopted parents. “Not at this precise moment.”

“You’re safer with me than you’ve ever been in your life.”

Arrogant much? She didn’t say it aloud. And she almost believed he could make her safer than anyone else she’d ever been around—unless he changed his mind and decided she was a threat. Then, all bets were off.

“You were raised by Uncle Alois, my father’s oldest brother and his wife Gemma. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

For some reason, that simple sentiment had a lump rising in her throat. She choked it down. It was an odd way of expressing sympathy. Other than her, Alois and Gemma had been his only relatives. She decided to address the issue immediately.

“Yes, my father sent me away when I was not yet a year.”

“You were happy?” He sounded as if he really wanted to know. 

“I have absolutely no regrets, although it would have been wonderful to meet my father and brother. I have always been extremely happy in my life with my aunt and uncle. They surrounded me with love, even during my rebellious teenage years. They allowed me to pursue all my interests, get an excellent education, and gave me as many advantages as they could.”
“Perhaps they should have instilled a deeper sense of self-preservation in you.”

There was no reprimand in his tone, but she took great exception to his critique of her aunt and uncle. She narrowed her eyes at him. “They took me in when my father didn’t want to keep me. I was surrounded by love. They gave me everything. Don’t you dare say one word against them.”

Silence followed her outburst. It seemed as if the jungle itself held its breath right along with her. It wasn’t as if his expression changed. He didn’t appear angry. He simply watched her with the intense focus of a jaguar. He might say he was a De La Cruz, but he was also a predatory cat. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind. Luiz might be her cousin, but he was a stranger to her, and she was hissing at him like an outraged female jaguar—which she was. But she had brains, and she was alone. It wasn’t the smartest idea to challenge a male jaguar shifter. He was at the top of the food chain there in the rainforest and very used to being the complete authority. That was stamped into every line of his face.

“Perhaps there is a small misunderstanding between us,” Luiz said. “I didn’t mean to imply my uncle and aunt hadn’t given you a good life or education. It’s clear to me that you feel at home in the rainforest. My comment was more about you and your lack of self-preservation.”

She couldn’t argue that she’d taken all the safety precautions possible. She hadn’t. She’d allowed the jungle to close in behind her. She wasn’t as prepared as she could have been to shift. She’d even come alone to meet a guide she had never met. None of those things were intelligent.

“It is also necessary to correct a misconception regarding your father, Uncle Javier. I was eighteen when you were born, so very aware of what happened during that time. Your brother was sixteen. Your mother had difficulty with pregnancies and no one thought she would have another child after sixteen years, least of all Uncle Javier. Our world was ruled by a very savage and clearly insane shifter. We referred to him as Brodrick the Terrible. He changed the entire history of our people and nearly drove us to extinction. He was aided by vampires and mages, but he was responsible.”

Sarika lifted an eyebrow at the word vampire. She wasn’t about to interrupt him when she wanted to hear the history of her family. She wanted to be ready to learn everything she could about who she was and how she could help her people as well as the wild jaguars slowly facing extinction. That was the reason she had waited so long to come to Peru. But vampires? Her uncle and aunt had never once mentioned vampires to her.

“Please continue.”

“The women were being rounded up and killed if they didn’t have the genetics Brodrick felt they should have. It didn’t matter the age of the female or if their jaguar had shown themselves.”
“What was his reasoning? Without females a species would die out.”

“He felt too many females had mixed children. Many of the male shifters weren’t staying with the females to help raise their young. Many of our women turned to human males to have a stable home. Brodrick wanted every child of those unions killed if he could prove they couldn’t shift. He either forced the women to have shifter children or he killed them. It was a very brutal time, and you were born right into that mess.”

Sarika knew there had been some kind of conflict going on with the jaguar shifters. She thought it was a power play to take over leadership. She didn’t know a great deal about the politics of the shifter world. She was raised with a strict code of honor and discipline. She assumed most jaguars were raised with that same code. Evidently, she was wrong.

“Your mother died in childbirth, leaving your father with a newborn child. A female. Uncle Javier and my father were part of a small coalition trying to stop Brodrick. That put you in direct danger. As a female, you were the one most at risk, and Uncle Javier knew that. He didn’t want Brodrick to know of your existence. Our lineage was one Brodrick sought for females.”
“So my father sent me away to protect me.”

Luiz nodded slowly. His gaze never left hers. Never left her face.  Looked directly into her eyes. It was impossible to think he was being dishonest. The thing was, there was no inflection in his voice, just that soft, velvety purr that was mesmerizing. He was dangerous in so many ways. He could make anyone believe anything he said—yet she knew he was telling her the truth.
“Your father and brother tried to rescue several females being held prisoner, and they were killed on that raid. My father was killed two years later on a similar raid. I spent months healing from wounds. I wasn’t the only one, but after those battles, fewer males would join us. Things were very ugly for several years.”

She had been safe in the United States, living a good life. No, a great life. Here, in this beautiful rainforest, a war had taken place. Worse, it was an internal war, their species being destroyed from the inside out.

“Many of the jaguar males became aggressive and felt it was their right to take any female they wanted. Brodrick’s example gave them permission to become worse than animals.”

“Is it still going on?”

“Brodrick is dead, but there are still a few jaguar males who haven’t realized they are going to be hunted if they attack one of our females.”

She couldn’t detect a change in his voice or demeanor, but she shivered. A cold chill went down her spine. She had the feeling he would bring jungle justice to any jaguar he found attacking a woman. That should have made her feel safe with him, but he gave off a vibe that was just plain scary. She also didn’t like the way he put that—still a few jaguar males who haven’t realized they are going to be hunted if they attack one of our females. As if those males didn’t know right from wrong and would only avoid attacking a female if someone was watching and willing to hunt them down to administer justice.

It wasn’t as if a female shifter could go to the police. Shifters lived under shifter law, not human law. The women couldn’t go outside their species for aid. That left them at the mercy of their rulers. If the ruler was corrupt, his people would follow his example. She tried to hide the delicate shudder his revelation produced.

“On a happier note, you came at just the right time,” Luiz continued.

“I did?” She pounced on that. She needed a safe, happy subject to regain her equilibrium.

“There’s a large celebration being planned right now, and several of the women have arrived to help with preparations.”

“A celebration?” She echoed his announcement, mainly to give her mind time to process the switch from dangerous jaguar males to celebrations. “Shifters?” She would really welcome meeting others. She had so much catching up to do. She had counted on her cousin to give her the history of the shifters and jaguars in the Peru rainforest, but Luiz didn’t seem as if he was going to be that accommodating. In fact, he seemed as if he would give her lectures and leave her to her own devices. Or force her to leave.

“One of the women, Solange Sangria Dragonseeker, is pregnant. She’s shifter royalty, and her lifemate, Dominic, is...” He broke off abruptly for the first time giving her the impression he was at a loss as to how to explain Dominic Dragonseeker.

Sarika wasn’t positive why she thought he was exasperated with trying to impart information to her because his demeanor hadn’t changed at all nor had his tone. Still, she was good at reading people, and he was a bit at a loss.

“Did Alois talk to you about Carpathians?”

Was there a note of resignation in his voice? Or judgment of her uncle? Alois had been his uncle as well. She detested admitting she knew nothing of Carpathians because she was certain Luiz would disapprove.

She tilted her chin at him. “I’m aware of the Carpathian Mountains, but no, we never spoke specifically of their inhabitants.”

Luiz held up his hand and examined the surrounding forest in a long, slow perusal. Sarika hadn’t detected a change in the drone of insects or the fluttering of wings as birds settled in for the night.  Several monkeys screamed but then fell abruptly silent, sending chills down her spine.

She’d always had an awareness when she was in a jungle. She was a shifter, regardless of living most of her life as a human. Her jaguar was always on alert in a rainforest, yet she didn’t feel the warning until Luiz alerted. Suddenly she was very certain there were eyes on them. All along, she thought the threat emanated from Luiz, but now she felt that same warning blaring through her body, her cells going on alert. Luiz hadn’t been the threat. There was something else out there watching them.

“We’ve stayed here too long. I’m going to take you to my home. I don’t stay there, but you’ll be safe and able to rest. Tomorrow evening I will take you to meet Dominic and Solange.”
She looked carefully around. “Something is out there.” She was absolutely certain she’d felt the danger all along and attributed it to Luiz.

“A male jaguar. He’s been creeping closer for the last fifteen minutes. He was stalking you as I came up on you. I warned him off, but he didn’t leave.”
That had been the sawing roar she’d heard. Luiz telling the jaguar to back off. It hadn’t.

“Is he animal or shifter? Is it possible for you to tell the difference?” She didn’t think she could, but it was clear Luiz was at home in the rainforest. He’d lived his entire life there. He certainly could have developed a way to tell. Scent didn’t give it away, and she didn’t know any other way that might discern the difference unless she... Her hand crept up to cover the amulet she always wore against her skin.

“Yes, I can even identify him specifically. His name is Percy Rios. I’ve had my eyes on him for some time. He’s been prowling around very close to Dominic and Solange’s territory. Solange has relatives who visit her often. In fact, they’re expected very soon. Juliette Sangria is lifemate to Riordan De La Cruz. They’re on their way. Her cousin Jasmine is married to Jubal Sanders. Both women and Jasmine’s daughter, Sandrine are jaguar.”

“And you think this Percy Rios is looking to acquire one of them for himself.” She made it a statement.
“He’s stalking you.”

That was his answer? That made no sense. “How would he know I’m a jaguar shifter?” She wasn’t challenging his judgment so much as really needing to know. She thought she’d come prepared, but she was fast learning she didn’t know the first thing about the environment or the species she’d been born into.

“You smell like a female shifter.”

She winced. She didn’t like the sound of that. “That’s just lovely.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

He didn’t so much as smile. She had the feeling emotions like humor or sarcasm were lost on him. There was no faint smile in his eyes. Nothing at all. No emotion. Just those flat, cold eyes that were so intense that, although they felt like ice, the ice burned wherever his gaze touched.

“No disrespect intended, Sarika. Were you aware Sarika was your mother’s name?”

She had been, but her aunt and uncle had never really talked about her mother, other than to mention in passing that her birth father had named her after her mother.

Luiz’s attention appeared to be centered solely on her, but Sarika knew it wasn’t so. He no longer scanned their surroundings for evidence of the male jaguar. He knew exactly where the large predator was. Deliberately, she raised her face to the canopy and inhaled the scent of flowers, shrubs, trees and the forest floor. Along with those scents came the information on a multitude of wildlife. The monkeys. The birds. A snake. All were in the canopy above them. Rodents, mice, lizards and insects stirred the forest floor.

The jaguar male had to be downwind, but she caught enough hints of him being close enough to raise the alarm. She couldn’t pinpoint his exact position.
“How do you know where he is?”

“I smell him as well.”

“He’s downwind,” she protested. “He has to be, or I would smell him.”

Luiz didn’t look impatient, but she felt his impatience. “I am not only a jaguar shifter, I am also Carpathian. We will discuss what Carpathians are once I have you safe in my home.”

Did that mean Carpathians could smell even better than shifters? Carpathians were born in the Carpathian Mountains, weren’t they? He wasn’t making any sense. She could believe that he was of another species entirely. Was that what he was implying? That Carpathians were another species?   It wouldn’t be so difficult to believe, after all, no one would ever believe in shifters, yet she was one.

Luiz Silva De La Cruz was her only living relative. She wanted to have a decent relationship with him. It made no sense that she was irritated with him. What had he said or done to cause her to be so nervous in his presence?

“I have all my things in my backpack,” she announced, deciding to risk it. She hadn’t come all this way to be a coward.

“I will carry you. It will be much faster that way.”