Lion in the Shadows

by Delilah Devlin

  If she’d blinked, she would have missed the transformation it happened that quickly. Transfixed with terror, she watched the cat leap from the porch and pad to the edge of the forest where it blended into the trees and underbrush.

  Lani stood for long moments, numb to pain. Then her mind kicked over, and her heart lurched in her chest. Where was he going? If he crossed into any of the ranches in the area tonight, he’d be killed.

  Where had he gone? To feed? To return to his lair?

  Every fork in the road her mind took led back to one place. The place everything had started.

  Something within her told her he was returning to the cave.

  She rushed back to her room and threw on her clothes. Then she stuffed Rafe’s clothing into a rucksack and headed to her truck. She prayed she was right, and she’d find him safe inside the cave. But to get there, he’d have to cross onto Danny McKelvey’s property.

  As she pulled out of her driveway, Lani sent up a prayer that the rancher would keep close to his homestead that night. The mountain lion might be a mystical creature, but he had substance, a form. He could be killed—and Rafe, right along with him.

  The drive seemed endless. A storm was brewing, and the wind picked up, battering her truck with gusts that jerked the steering wheel in her hands.

  She almost missed the turn onto the gravel road that led up the winding track to the cave but breathed a sigh of relief once she pulled up close to the entrance. The wind nearly tore the vehicle’s door out of her hands as she slid from the bench seat to the ground.

  Cloud cover cloaked the moon and stars, and Lani had to prepare her ropes with a Maglite held between her teeth, while the relentless wind whipped her hair into her face.

  All the while, she wondered if her instinct was correct. The cat could have wandered off in any direction, but her gut told her it would return here tonight. She hadn’t a clue what she’d do if it did come, but she’d be there waiting. Somehow, she had to find a way to reach inside the creature for Rafe.

  She wouldn’t abandon him to the spirits inhabiting his skin. Rafe wasn’t the monster—he wasn’t responsible for what was happening to him. He wasn’t like her father. She’d fight for him.

  She anchored the rope to the same oak offset from the entrance of the cave and bent low to enter the cave. Once inside, she fed the line through her hand and walked to the end of the spill of gravel, her flashlight seeking the path that was familiar to her now. When she reached the precipice, she stared down into the darkness.

  Now that she knew the mystical origins of the spirit inside Rafe, she accepted that a higher power had a hand in crafting this cave. The anomalies that had intrigued her no longer required explanation. This place had never been meant to be explored or categorized. The acoustics and density of the darkness simply were.

  Lani was breaking a cardinal rule—descending into the darkness without backup, without another living soul knowing where she was. This was a leap of faith—her faith in Rafe and the power that had crafted their destinies.

  She stepped into her seat harness and adjusted the fit, and then slipped her arms through the straps of her vertical pack. Then she leaned back against the rope and stepped off the edge.

  Dogs barked, the sound carried on the wind. Excitement made their voices whine. Winded from the chase, the cat paused at the edge of the long white road, careful to stay hidden in the foliage. He lifted his nose to scent the air. Had he outdistanced his hunters?

  A familiar aroma wafted in the wind. The woman. His mate. And she was nearby. He followed her scent up the track. He knew where she waited. She’d followed him home.

  The other yearned toward her as well, trying to push through. The cat ignored his pleas and raced alongside the trail.

  Lani unclipped her harness from the rope and walked toward the pale pile of bones. The man she had seen on her porch with his broad shoulders and gleaming, night-colored hair lay here. He’d been devoured while he lay dying, and Lani could grieve for his pain, feel sorrow for his loss—but she wanted her man back.

  She squatted beside the bones and sifted among them with her fingers. She found the stiffened, soiled remains of the moccasin and picked it up. The boot had been worked by loving hands. Bright turquoise and pale shell beads bordered the top and hung from tassels in the front. Someone who’d loved him had made the moccasin.

  He’d known a woman’s softness, a woman’s love. She knew it because even through her own terror, she’d recognized the care with which he’d touched her. Guilt for the pleasure she’d taken from him warred with her anger over being tricked and used. She loved Rafe, but how could she reconcile her love with the heat the Indian had raised in her? The depth of her pleasure would be a secret she’d have to keep from Rafe forever.

  The crunch of movement alerted her she was no longer alone. Gravel skittered and fell around her, raising dust from the floor. As she slowly stood, her helmet lamp caught the golden reflection of cat’s eyes on a ledge just above her.

  Lani held her breath and returned his gaze. The cat was no longer a sexless creature to her—he had revealed his true nature, made love to her. When he leapt to the floor in front of her, she didn’t flinch.

  The purring started deep inside his chest, rumbling with each exhalation. He padded toward her, his head down, his fangs concealed.

  She took that as a good sign, and wished she’d actually made a plan for what she’d do next, but all she could think to do was to stand as still as a pillar.

  The lion greeted her—it was the only way she could describe his actions. He rubbed his muzzle against the fingers she clenched at her side, rubbed the back of his head on her calves as he slowly circled her. When he came in front of her again, he nuzzled the juncture of her thighs. The purring grew louder.

  Lani trembled, not so much with fear, but an abundance of emotions that swirled inside her—regret, desire, sadness. When the cat’s body shimmered with light, she waited, holding her breath, watching as he transformed into the Indian.

  The light didn’t dim, but glowed around his naked body, warming the color of his skin to a burnished gold. His face was an implacable mask, but his narrow eyes held longing. Her love for Rafe couldn’t supplant her compassion for this man. Their essences had merged. When he opened his arms, she didn’t resist his invitation and unclipped her helmet, pushed it off her head, and then stepped toward him.

  His strong arms encircled her, and the light leapt between their bodies to surround her as well. Heat and a quivering awakening broke like sunrise inside her.

  She rubbed her cheek on his shoulder and felt the rise of his chest as he drew in breath. Her hand rested just over his heart, and she felt life thundering beneath her palm. His body ripened, his sex hardening against her belly, but she couldn’t recoil. She was safe inside his arms.

  His mouth brushed her forehead, and she turned her face upward to accept his kiss. When he drew away, his fingers touched her lips. She closed her eyes. His hand trailed lower, cupped her breast briefly, and then his palm caressed her belly.

  “You want my child,” she whispered, and tears filled her eyes.

  His hand cupped her head and pulled her back to his chest. Lani pressed her face into the crook of his neck. “I don’t even know your name.”

  “You know my name, baby,” Rafe whispered.

  Lani jerked back her head and stared up into his face. The light was fading around them, but Rafe’s face shimmered while it reformed. As darkness fell around them, his lips claimed hers. She clutched him, thankful for his return.

  A rumble shook the cave, loosening rock and sand to rain down from the ceiling. Rafe pushed her back and swiped her helmet from the floor, shoving it on her head. Together, they slipped beneath the overhang of rock to wait for the last shudders from the explosion to die away.

  “Who the hell is dynamiting in the middle of the night?” Rafe shouted.

  Lani cocked her head to a sound that murmured and cracked in the distance, and th
en grew louder. “There’s an underground river beneath us. I think it’s breaking through.” She unbuckled her pack and dropped it to the ground. “Shine the helmet lamp inside my bag. We don’t have much time.” Lani drew out the spare harness she’d packed the day Matt Costello fell. “Put this on.”

  While Rafe slipped the harness up his naked thighs, Lani found her ascender clip. She took a moment to check his rigging then hurried to the rope. “We have to go up together. You’re stronger, you’ll have to pull us both up.”

  As the sound of water washing through the back of the cave closed in, she clipped the ascender to the rope and his harness then attached her harness to his. “Put your hand inside this,” she said, holding the ascender, “slide it up the rope, then take up the slack in your rigging. Got it?”

  He nodded, his face set in a determined mask.

  “Hurry!”

  Cool, rushing water swept them off their feet, and Lani fought the urge to grapple for the rope. She floundered, fighting the rushing water to hold her face above the surface and gave her trust over to Rafe as he reached up the rope, sliding up the ascender, then taking up the slack. What could only have been seconds felt longer as Lani bobbed on the surface, then she felt the drag on her harness as Rafe pulled them free of the roiling water.

  Slowly, Rafe pulled them up the rope while the water rushed by beneath them, accompanied only by the rasp of the ascender and the clink of metal from their harnesses.

  At last, Rafe reached behind him and grabbed her arm. He pulled her up his body.

  Lani unhitched her carabiner from his rigging and climbed over him to the ledge. Then she turned to help him up.

  Rafe collapsed on top her, his chest heaving, his head sagging against her shoulder. Lani clung to him, her hands running up and down his back. Once his breaths slowed, Rafe lifted his head. His gaze swept over her face, and he pushed her helmet off. The lamp blinked off.

  With darkness wrapping around them, Lani gauged the direction of his lips by his breaths and sealed her mouth over his. Her hands gripped the back of his head as her mouth glided against his lips. Her tongue lapped inside, skimming his teeth, stroking deeper.

  It took a moment for her to recognize he accepted her kiss but didn’t participate.

  She dragged her mouth away, but without light, she couldn’t read what was in his heart, in his eyes.

  Oh, God! Was he angry over the embrace she’d shared with the Indian? “Rafe?”

  “This harness is pinching my dick,” his voice rasped.

  “Oh!” Lani’s hands smoothed over his bare hips until she felt the straps. “You’ll have to lift up.”

  He raised his body off hers, and Lani’s hands slipped in front of the harness. She felt for the buckle but encountered something much more enticing. His cock was hard, the satiny skin stretched taut over his rigid staff. Lani’s heart raced, but she moved her hands up his shaft and reached beneath to unbuckle and remove the straps.

  Rafe’s hands shoved the harness down his hips. Then he felt along her chest until he found the top of her shirt. He made short work of unbuttoning the front and jerked the cloth from inside her jeans to lay it open. All the while, he didn’t utter a word.

  Then his palms glided up her belly to her breasts. He cupped them, plumping her flesh. His thumbs scraped over her nipples, which were already beaded from the cool water. But the shiver that racked her body didn’t have anything to do with a chill.

  He shifted above her, and suddenly his lips closed around a nipple.

  Lani arched her back, pushing her breast deeper into his mouth, but he resisted and pulled away.

  “Take off your clothes.” He said it without inflection—flat, hard.

  Lani’s hands shook, but she quickly complied, the task made awkward because he straddled her thighs and didn’t budge. “You’ll have to push my pants the rest of the way off,” she said, anxiety making her breathless.

  He did so, silent throughout. Then he lifted a knee and nudged it between her thighs.

  Lani didn’t consider this wasn’t the time or place, or that his behavior scared her. She obeyed immediately, letting him slip first one then the other knee between her legs, and widening her legs further when his hands pushed them apart.

  His fingers found her opening, stroked inside once, and without any preparation or warning, he drove his cock up her channel.

  Lani gasped but didn’t protest. She waited, her heart on the verge of breaking.

  Rafe’s breath gusted above her lips. “Do you even care whose hands are touching you? Who’s fucking you?” he asked, his voice so harsh she flinched.

  “Yes,” she whispered, shock constricting her throat.

  “Liar!”

  Lani opened her mouth to deny it but knew her words would sound hollow. He’d been there. He’d seen how she’d welcomed the Indian’s kiss. She wrapped arms around his back, offering her apology the only way she could, and lifted her knees in acceptance of his storm.

  Rafe’s body tightened in resistance, but his hips pulled back. His breaths were loud, harsh, his body trembling as though he was fighting himself. She prayed he’d stop—or offer a gentler word, but he rammed forward, shoving the breath from her body.

  He thrust deep again and again, his gasps ragged, his body poised above hers, meeting hers only where their flesh merged. At last, he shuddered, and his come jetted inside her. He pulled out. “He’s gone now. Do you wish he’d been the one to stay?”

  Tears slipped down her cheeks, but Lani remained silent beneath him.

  Hovering over her, his cock resting on her belly, he waited until the tremors of his release ended. Then he rose to his feet. “Get dressed,” he said, his voice hard.

  Lani fought the sobs that choked her. Her pride demanded she hide her agony. Too, she didn’t want his pity—didn’t want to add to his pain. After all, she’d betrayed him.

  However confusing the past hours had been, she still believed deep inside that Rafe wouldn’t abandon her. She’d give him however much time he needed to sort through his issues. Her own heart needed time to heal.

  She’d grieve for the Indian later, when she was alone.

  After Lani dressed, she led them out of the cave with the light of her helmet. The wind had died down, and the clouds had cleared. A full, yellow moon lit the night. She gave him the clothes she’d brought and waited beside the pickup truck while he dressed.

  The passenger door jerked open, and Lani took that as her cue he was ready to leave. Together, they drove to her home in silence. The length of the bench seat might as well have been miles for the distance between them.

  Before she cut the engine, he was out the door, heading for his squad car.

  Lani wanted to call him back, but she remained frozen behind her steering wheel, watching through her windshield while he drove away.

  Chapter 10

  Rafe stood on the banks of the creek, overlooking the muddy remnants of the dam. Chunks of concrete and broken limbs from nearby trees clogged the creek bed now. Water burbled past, carving out new bends to skirt the debris.

  But this tangled mess wasn’t any worse than the mess he’d left in his wake last night. All morning his actions replayed in his mind. Guilt weighed heavy on his shoulders.

  The construction foreman for the golf course carried his anger like an ugly red flag. His belly strained against his waistband, and his ruddy face was animated as he voiced his litany of complaints. “Do you see this mess? These bastards set me behind a month!”

  Rafe had listened to him rant for a good ten minutes. He was ready to put an end to it. “People around here are blaming you for the loss of their livestock when you dammed this creek,” he said quietly.

  The foreman’s face grew redder. “I had the proper permits, and only excess water was diverted to the pond.” Swearing under his breath, he kicked a block of broken concrete.

  Rafe had written up the details of the damage and what little the crew could guess about what had happened
. “Still some folks won’t be unhappy you lost your dam.”

  “May I remind you a crime was committed here,” the foreman said, shaking his finger angrily.

  “Yes, sir. I’m well aware of that. And with your dynamite, no doubt. By the way, was it properly secured?” Knowing full well the company had already been fined for that oversight, Rafe bit back a black grin at the scowl his jibe produced. “ATF’ll be out here this afternoon. They’ll have questions, too. Make sure your crew’s available. No one goes home until they’re through.”

  “Lot a damn good that’ll do. I’ll lose another day of work.”

  Rafe left the worksite in no hurry to get to his next destination. Besides, he was pretty sure he knew who was responsible. Kate Massey had already told her Danny McKelvey’s alibi didn’t hold water. The crusty old woman might have agreed the dam had to go, but she wouldn’t conspire to save the other rancher’s hide.

  Danny had told Rafe earlier that he’d run his dogs all night after they’d caught the scent of the mountain lion on his property. It was strange to Rafe, hearing about the hunt when he’d been the quarry.

  The dogs had been run all right, but Danny had made an error. The dogs had crossed onto the Massey ranch, and Kate’s husband had joined the hunt led by Danny’s brother. Danny hadn’t led the hunt. He’d lied about where he was. And he had plenty of motives for wanting the dam removed and the construction halted. The man’s hatred, no doubt based in his gut-deep knowledge his ranch was failing anyway, had spilled over on the golf course.

  However much Rafe despised Danny McKelvey, he wasn’t eager to be the arresting officer. He’d pass the information along and let another make the arrest. He had bigger problems on his hands to address.

  Rafe drove west of town toward Lani’s place, but he was relieved when he didn’t see her truck parked out front. He wasn’t ready to face her. Didn’t have a clue what he could say to make things right between them.