“Let’s see how far we can get without touching the ground,” he said.
She sat at ease, unconcerned with the height or the rushing waters beneath her, and held out a hand in invitation. “Lead on.”
The forest was dense enough to make it possible for them to climb from tree to tree. There was something catlike about her confidence and grace as she caught and released handholds, occasionally leaping from one branch to the next.
The scent of pine and mist, her presence beside him, and her visible cheer made their journey feel more like a game than a desperate attempt at evading pursuit. His panther was content within him, enjoying the climb. And the farther they made it through the trees, the less likely it became that anyone would pick up their scent. A pursuer would have to search all along the riverbanks, think of climbing a tree, pick the exact right one to climb, and sniff right where they’d touched. It seemed unlikely.
To his surprise, Shane found that he was enjoying himself. He’d never before been with a woman who could keep up with him. In fact, once they were in the trees, he was the one trying to keep up with her. Though she lacked his upper-body strength, she could climb more freely than he could, able to stand on branches that wouldn’t take his weight.
Finally, they came to the end of the dense woods. They were still in a forest, but a sparser one, the mossy ground broken up by boulders and stretches of bare granite. Cave-pocked hills rose up beyond the woods, and Shane could hear a river rushing somewhere below them. They’d hiked and climbed all day; the sun was sinking over the mountaintops, gilding everything in rich golden light.
Catalina nudged him. “Should we try to work our way through more forest in a different direction?”
He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure we’ve lost them. And it’ll be night soon. We need to make a camp. We shouldn’t be wandering around the woods in the dark.”
“Yeah.” Catalina cocked her head at the river’s roar. “We might fall over a cliff. It sounds like there’s one nearby.”
Shane nodded. “I think this is bear territory, too.”
“Bear-bears? Or werebears?”
“I wish it was werebears,” Shane said. “They all know each other. All I’d have to do is say I’m a friend of Hal Brennan, and we’d get dry clothes, a home-cooked meal, a warm bed, and a ride out of here. But I meant real bears.”
Catalina grinned. “I still can’t get over werebears and werepanthers and weredragons and all being real. Well, if a real bear turns up, you can turn into a panther and scare it off, right? Or could you just stare at it and scare it off? Does your fear power work on animals?”
“Got me. I’ve never tried.”
They climbed down from the tree, and Shane surveyed the hills. “Let me check out those caves. I’ll go as a panther, just in case any of them has a bear or mountain lion inside. Yell if you need me. I won’t go out of earshot.”
Catalina sat down on a flat rock. “Go for it.”
He undressed and handed Catalina his discarded scrubs. The wind was cold on his bare skin, but her open appreciation made him turn around slowly to give her a full view.
She applauded. “You naked against these hills... It’s like a pin-up calendar.”
“I’ll have to make you pose for my pin-up later,” he said with a grin. “Curvy Paramedics of the Woodlands.”
Then he turned his focus inward.
To stalk, to hunt, to climb into the foliage and lie in wait...
Shane became a panther. His thick coat protected him from the cold, and his sense of smell sharpened. He sat up, sniffing the air, but smelled no other humans. There were bears in the area, but the scent-traces were old. None were nearby. He could scent deer and rabbits, but no large predators.
He bounded up the hillside, his paws sinking into the mossy ground, and began exploring the caves. Some he discarded for being too easily seen from outside, and others were dank and musty, the roofs covered with red-eyed bats. Some were too shallow, barely more than hollows in stone, and others were too deep, leading far into the depths of the mountain where anything might be lurking.
Then he found a cave neither too deep nor too shallow, with a dry stone floor, no bats, and an entrance concealed by a boulder and a thicket of large shrubs. No one could see it from the outside. They’d even be able to build a fire. He took a last sniff around, making sure he didn’t miss anything, then ran back to Catalina.
She’d changed back into her jeans and T-shirt. She must have been freezing, but he regretted missing the sight of her naked. Catalina smiled as he approached and held out her hand, making an encouraging sound that he bet she used on her cats. He rubbed his head against her palm, and she scratched behind his ears. This time he wasn’t surprised when he felt himself begin to purr, and he didn’t rush to shift back, either.
A gust of wind sent dry leaves flying across the ground, and Catalina shivered. Shane shifted back. He knelt naked before her, with her hand on his head. She stroked his hair, and he turned his head to kiss her fingers. Shane heard her quick inhale as he ran his tongue over the smooth ovals of her nails and the soft pads of her fingertips. They were sticky with sharp-tasting pine sap.
Reluctantly, he pulled away to stand up, open the medical kit, and put his shirt and jeans back on. Catalina had replaced the security guard’s uniform in the kit, but Shane strapped on the holster and tranquilizer gun.
He took her hand. “I found us a new home.”
Shane led her up the hill, then past the boulders and
shrubs and into the cave. It was dark inside, lit only by a few scarlet rays of the setting sun.