Grief was overwhelming. She mourned for what she couldn't have. But there was this—her other self. It fought to aid her, fought to free her, to protect her from pain in a world she couldn't control—or have. Her skin itched and her fingers curled. Fur burst through her pores, her muzzle extended to accommodate teeth. Her legs bent, stretched, her injured calf and ankle burning. Hooked nails sprang from her fingers, leaving her clawing at the wooden floor.
There should have been fear. It wasn't a pleasant sensation to jerk to the floor, every muscle and sinew popping and crackling. It didn't matter, she embraced the change, the opportunity to be something different. To have a chance at something else. The forest sprang to vivid life, a new world when she had no other. When she belonged nowhere
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else; The leopard lifted its head for the first time and surveyed her realm. Sounds poured in from all directions. Information transmitted by her whiskers. Scents and intriguing rustles. She could actually feel the distance from one object to another. It was exciting, exhilarating even.
Raphael got unsteadily to her feet, collapsed and tried again. She stretched languidly, feeling the enormous strength running like steel through her body. It had taken only a brief minute, yet it seemed a lifetime to shed her other self. She took several cautious steps, staggered and fell. The murmur of men's voices was loud behind her, their scents filling her lungs. The pull to Rio was strong, overwhelming even, so that for a moment she hesitated. Grief welled up, sharp and black and all-consuming. Rachael wrenched her thoughts from him. She couldn't have him. Heart pounding, she leapt to the branch below. Her injured leg burned but it held. She could ignore the throbbing pain and embrace what the leopard had to offer.
Sharp claws dug into bark as she teetered precariously, and then she felt the rhythm. The perfect rhythm of nature. The rain. The birds. The continual rustle of the leaves. The hum in her muscles. The beat of her heart. She felt strength flowing through her like a gift. Joy flooded her, replacing despair and anguish. She leapt from branch to branch, feeling the power within her growing. And then she was on the forest floor, running for the sheer joy of it. Running to feel her sleek muscles stretching and her legs reacting like springs as she bounded effortlessly over fallen tree trunks. She splashed through puddles and small streams and leapt up embankments that would have been impossible to climb.
Sunlight dappled the floor in places and she pounced on the ever-moving rays, slapped at leaves and pine needles, sending them up in a shower of vegetation just because she could. She chased deer, climbed trees and ran along the overhead highway, disturbing birds and agitating the gibbons on purpose. Laughter bubbled up, a well of happiness. She turned to tell him. Rio. She remembered this. She
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remembered the joy of taking this other form and running with him. Sharing the forest paths with him. Of rubbing her muzzle along his great head in affection. They had shared a life together, one of intense love and compelling sexual attraction. She knew him in this form just as she knew him in their human form.
Rachael stopped suddenly, her heart pounding in terror. She was alone. Rio was not in her life and he could never be. Whatever life they may have shared in another time, another place, they couldn't have it in this one. He couldn't take this form and give up his human side as she had chosen to do. He had responsibilities. She knew him well enough to know he would never let his people down. Sorrow was a heavy burden and she felt it equally in both forms. She lay in the branches of a tall tree, far from his house, put her head on her paws and wept.
Rio listened politely to Kim, glancing every now and then toward the verandah. Rachael had moved away from the open door and he could no longer see her. She had looked so defeated, so unlike Rachael. He wanted to go to her, felt he needed to go to her, but Kim wanted to tell him of his father's vision, stressing the importance of it, warning Rio that something was not right with the party searching the forest for medicinal plants.
"He knew the names of all the plants and their properties," Kim explained, in his slow, deliberate way. "My father does not know why he had such a vision when the man clearly knows the ways of the forest."
Rio took a step toward the door, shifting slightly in an effort to try to see Rachael. "Many men come into the forest knowing its ways but not respecting them, Kim. It's possible this man is one. Could he be a poacher, after fur or the elephants?" The more information he had the better to judge if more trouble was coming their way.
Kim followed his single step. "Perhaps. He had weapons enough."
'Tama would never lead him this way, especially if the
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party is a group of poachers. The debt of honor would never extend that far."
"No, but if he is more than a poacher, if his game is larger, if it is the woman or you, Tama won't know until it's too late."
"Was there anything in the vision to make your father think either of us are in danger? If there was more to it, tell me, Kim." Rio took another step toward the door. His heart was beginning to pound and his mouth went dry.
"My father was disturbed by what he saw, so much so that he sent me to you. He could not interpret the vision fully. He felt that there was much danger, but he didn't know if it was to the man, to you of to the woman. He said I must come and let you know."
"Thank you, Kim, tell your father he is much honored and I appreciate his warning and that I'll heed it."
It was far too quiet on the verandah. There was a sudden hush in the forest and then creatures began calling frantically. Rio stiffened, swore softly, eloquently, repeatedly. "She's gone." He uttered the two words to taste them. To make them real. Black anger swirled, rioted, destructive and mindless. He fought it back. "Rachael." He said her name as a talisman, to help him think, to bring back intellect when he needed a cool brain.
"What is it, Rio?" Kim asked, taking a step back, recognizing danger when be saw it When he felt it. Rio's face was a mask, his eyes glittering, and danger emanated from every pore.
"The Han Vol Dan. Damn it all to hell, she went through the Han Vol Dan. Her leg isn't even healed yet. I told her not to do it, but, she just has to do whatever the hell she wants whether it's logical or not." He was furious. Absolutely, completely furious. It had nothing to do with fear for her, for her safety or her injured leg or that he might have lost her. Or that she might have left him. He clenched his fists hard, trying to keep the roaring from his head. "She isn't safe in the forest by herself."
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Kim merely looked at him. "She has become her true self. She will know how to care for herself."
"It isn't that easy. We can't stay in the form too long." Rio stripped off the jeans he'd so hastily pulled on. "Thank you for the warning. Stay away from this man. If he's who I think he may be, he's very dangerous. Give your father my thanks. Good fortune to you, Kim." He was being impolite with a man raised on tradition, ritual and above all else politeness, but it didn't matter. Nothing else mattered except to find Rachael and bring her back safely.
"And good hunting to you." Kim looked away courteously as Rio leapt to the branches above, shifting as he did so, claws out for traction. He began to follow the sounds and silences of the forest. He knew every tree in his realm. He would find her. He had to find her. The burning black temper swirled in the leopard, making him doubly dangerous, so animals shifted out of his way, immediately sensing his mood.
He nearly flew across the trees, hurdling branches and shrubs. He stopped only to lift his face and scent the wind. There were no signs of humans in his territory, but that didn't mean they weren't coming. Tomas was bound to send a party in after him. He did it every so often, hoping to find his home. Poachers often came to the area, sweeping the forests of Malaysia, Borneo and Indochina for the sun bear, the leopards and elephants, even the rhinos, the most protected of their animals. And the research teams came, s
tudying the rain forest. The environmentalists. The veterinarians who trailed the elephants and counted them. And the latest party of researchers who were probably not researchers at all. He moved stealthily through the forest, knowing from the chatter in the trees and sky, she wasn't that far ahead of him.
He leapt over the same fallen logs, inhaling her scent, splashed through the same streams. Saw the scratches in the leaves and needles. He knew what she felt, the indescribable joy of freedom through the senses, allowing the wild nature to escape and dominate. It was a seductive
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temptation to live untamed and without responsibilities. Each of them had to face the lure of the forest and choose to be what they were. Neither one nor the other, but both. A species capable of shifting from one form to the other with obligations and responsibilities.
He padded softly through the trees, knowing he was gaining on her. Her scent was heady, provocative, so Rachael. The forest grew silent as the shadows lengthened. They had slept a good portion of the day away and now dusk was falling. He wanted to find her before the seduction of the night could touch her.
Rio felt her presence long before he ever came upon her. She lay in the cradle of tree branches, looking sleek and elegant and every bit as alluring in leopard form as she did in human form. She sat silently staring down at him, her eyes lost in the sea of dots across her face, but he felt her focused stare. Her ears were upright, alert, her body tense. He widened his eyes and deliberately pressed his ears forward, arching his back as he pounced on a pile of leaves and twigs, sending them scattering in all directions. To entice her further, he curled his tail as he sidestepped toward her, rolled over and held his tail in a hook position.
A long-buried instinct remembered the playful invitation. Rachael got slowly to her feet, and, ignoring the warning throb in her leg, leapt to the ground below. At once the large male leopard nuzzled her, rubbing his head and body along hers. His tongue licked over her fur. He pawed her, even bit at her gently with his teeth. Rachael returned the signs of affection, rubbing her smaller, sleeker body along his. She touched her nose to his and licked his fur. The sensations were amazing to her, even her rough tongue provided her with information.
She turned and ran, looking over her shoulder in a blatant invitation to follow her. He was fast, a blur of motion, nearly crashing into her as he matched her pace, turning her so that she ran in a different direction. Rachael, deep inside the leopard's body, laughed and cleared a fallen tree trunk,
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waited until he joined her and pounced him. They rolled over in the soft vegetation, scrambled to their feet and raced off again. The male shouldered her several times, knocking into her so that she ran in the direction he chose.
They splashed through two puddles, sending up wide sprays of water. They nuzzled each other beside a large fruit tree with a hundred flying fox watching them from above. The two leopards rolled in the shadow of tall trees and chased a herd of barking deer for a few minutes. Always he rubbed his body along hers, nuzzled and licked her fur, urging her to keep moving when she would have lain down.
Her leg was burning, her sides heaving from the wild, playful fun. Twice she tried to crouch on the ground, indicating the need for rest. Both times his heavier shoulder struck hers. She snarled at him. He snarled back and pressed into her, nearly knocking her down. He was enormously strong. Rachael began to grow apprehensive. She was limping, doing her best to keep weight off her injured leg. Still he pushed her on. She looked around her and realized she recognized the area. Rio had brought her back home.
Snarling, she whirled around, ears flat, swiping at him with her paw. He was lightning fast, dancing away from her, and then running flat out, knocking her off her feet so she lay on the ground trying to regain her breath. At once he was on her, pinning her down, his teeth driving into her shoulder. He held her still and simply waited.
Rachael knew what he wanted. What he was demanding of her. He wanted her back in her other form. Stubbornly she growled at him, grimacing to show her displeasure. The position of submission angered her, but it also left her feeling vulnerable and afraid. She tried to wait, but she knew he wouldn't give in. His teeth bit down harder into her shoulder, his hot breath fanning her neck.
Furious, Rachael reached for her intellect, her human brain, her human body. Rio might have the upper hand as a
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male leopard, but he wasn't going to boss her around as a human woman. She should have seen that he was circling back to the house. She should have recognized what was in his mind and taken steps to stop him.
Already she could feel the change start. She didn't want it. Didn't want to go back to human form and face whatever was going to happen in her future, not after running free in the forest, but it was already too late. She felt it first in her head. The need for her human body. She felt the contraction of muscles, the sudden burning in her leg. She heard a cry escape her throat, half human, half animal as the pain in her shoulder increased.
Rio released her immediately but didn't make the mistake of stepping away. The huge leopard stood over her as she thrashed for a moment in the miracle of the change, then sprawled beneath him in human form. She lay on the ground, facedown, her shoulders shaking slightly, and he knew she was crying. He touched her with his muzzle, rubbing along her back to reassure her.
Rachael rolled over, punching him hard, her eyes blazing with fury. She pummeled the male leopard, uncaring that he could rip her throat out. Uncaring that leopards were notorious for their tempers. Rio leapt sideways away from her, shifting as he did so, catching her wrists when she followed him. He swept her feet out from under her, tumbling her back to the ground, going down with her so that his larger body pressed hers into the thick mat of vegetation.
"Calm down, Rachael." He bit back laughter. The last rays of the sun hit her face, the soft sheen of sweat on her body. Leaves and twigs decorated the riot of curls and she was surrounded with a bright aura. She radiated fury and sex. He couldn't help seeing her that way. She made him happy, even when she clearly wanted to scratch his eyes out. "Did you really think I was going to go crawl in a hole and live a miserable life without you? What kind of a man do you think I am?"
"You're an idiot, that's what you are," she spat back,
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although his words took most of her fury. She hated that, hated that he could defuse her justified anger with a few charming words, his brilliant eyes, so intensely hungry when he looked at her, and his blazingly sinful, wicked mouth. "Damn you, Rio." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Lightning streaked in his veins, sizzled through his bloodstream. He was alive again, his heart beating and his lungs working. He lifted his head, his green gaze burning over her face. "Damn you back, Rachael. You left me. You made me feel and then you just left me. You didn't even have the guts to talk it over with me first. Damn you to hell for that." He caught her head, held her still and devoured her. Kiss after kiss.
She tasted his anger. It was hot and spicy and ferocious. She tasted his love. Tender and hungry and consuming. And she wanted him. Forever. For all time. As short a tune or as long a time as she could have him.
Rachael lay in the pine needles staring up at his beloved face. "I'm sorry, Rio. I didn't mean to hurt you. I should have had the courage to talk it over with you. I thought I could live here in the forest, in my other form. I thought they wouldn't find me if I was a leopard. At least I could still be close to you."
He shook Ms head. "If you're one of us, then so is your brother. The sniper, the one they called Duncan, he had to be the one who put the cobra in your room before you went on the river. And he had to be the one who tried to kill you a couple of nights ago. He shifted into the form of a leopard. Only a few of us around the world can do that. He had to have known you're capable. They would bring in hunters. Eventu
ally they would kill you. We can't run scared. If I've ever learned anything in this life, it's that we have to think something all the way through."
The needles poked into her bare skin. She stood up gingerly. It was far easier maneuvering through the forest in leopard form than human. "I don't want you hurt."
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"And you think your brother will try to hurt me?" He took her hand, tugging until she walked with him toward the house. He pulled twigs and leaves from her hair and tossed them aside.
She flashed a small smile. "I feel a bit like Adam and Eve."
His hand tightened on hers. "You have to talk to me about him. I don't want to harm the man, but you have to give me something to work with, Rachael. You either trust me or you don't."
She stood at the bottom of the large tree, staring up into the canopy where his house was hidden. "Do you think it's a matter of trust?"
He rested his palm on her bare bottom, helping her up to the lower branches. She pulled herself up using the creepers hanging like streamers. Rio stood back watching her body, the flexing muscles, the curves and hollows. She had a beautiful butt He grinned as he leapt up to the lower branch easily, caught the creeper, his hands above hers, his body caging hers between his and the tree trunk. He pressed against her, much in the way of a dominant cat, his teeth nipping her shoulder, his breath teasing her nape. "I know it's a matter of trust."
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