Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
TAVIAN
Malek had told me to stay hidden.
I was hidden.
Mostly.
Your shoulder is visible, Malek told me from beneath the exposed roots across the clearing, his golden-brown eyes fixed directly on the fern concealing most of my body while the tip of one ear angled backward in irritation.
I glanced down at the shoulder in question. A narrow strip of golden fur showed between two broad leaves, hardly enough to matter as far as I was concerned.
Then stop looking at my shoulder, I told Malek, shifting farther behind the fern until one of the leaves bent against my side and dumped a collection of cold water droplets across my coat. A quiet huff came from somewhere to my left.
Your tail is moving too, Luca told me from beneath the darker shade near the creek, where his coat blended so well with the broken patches of sunlight that even I had to concentrate to make out the shape of him.
I looked behind me and discovered that my tail was, in fact, moving. I stopped it immediately.
Better? I asked Luca, settling my chin onto my front paws while trying to keep the rest of my body unnaturally still.
Not particularly, Luca replied, opening one green-gold eye long enough to glance toward me before closing it again. I shifted my back leg, and a dry twig snapped beneath my paw. Across the clearing, Malek's ears flattened.
If you cannot remain still for five minutes, go home, Malek warned me, lifting his head from his paws while the muscles along his shoulders tightened beneath his spotted coat.
I've been still for at least ten, I told Malek, offended enough to straighten before remembering that apparently moving any part of my body was now forbidden.
Three, Luca corrected me, his calm voice drifting from the shade while water slipped quietly around the stones beside him.
I stared toward him.
Whose side are you on? I asked Luca, flexing my claws into the damp earth because that was apparently the only movement neither of them planned to criticize.
Mine, Luca told me, sounding perfectly content with his answer as he shifted one paw beneath his chin.
Pack loyalty was clearly dead. I was preparing to explain that to both of them when a scent moved through the trees, and every complaint disappeared from my mind at once.
My head lifted before I thought about doing it.
Omega.
Not the faint trace I'd been catching on Malek for nearly a week. Not her scent tangled through his coat with rainwater, forest, and whatever else he'd brought home after an afternoon at the creek.
Her.
I breathed in again, letting the humid air move over my tongue and nose.
The blocker was easy to identify, a medicinal layer laid over everything else, but it didn't erase what sat beneath it.
Warm skin, field soap, damp cotton, crushed vegetation, and the softer sweetness of an Omega reached me as she came closer.
So that was Evie. I looked toward Luca and found his head raised too, his green-gold eyes open and fixed on the trail. Then I looked toward Malek.
The bastard hadn't moved.
Of course he hadn't. He already knew exactly what she smelled like. He'd apparently been enjoying it every afternoon while Luca and I were expected to demonstrate maturity and pretend we weren't curious.
The sound of boots reached us several seconds later.
Malek's ears turned toward the trail. That was his only obvious reaction, but I'd known him too long to miss everything else.
His body had been relaxed before. Now there was a quiet readiness to him, as though some part of him had been waiting for that exact rhythm of footsteps.
Which, apparently, he had.
Interesting.
I edged slightly forward. Malek's eyes immediately shifted toward my fern.
I stopped.
Then Evie appeared between the trees.
My first thought was that she carried entirely too much equipment.
There were straps everywhere. One camera rested against her chest, another smaller one hung near her hip, and a dark field bag crossed her body before knocking lightly against her thigh with each step.
Her long black hair had been pulled into a braid over one shoulder, though the humidity had already freed several strands around her face.
Dirt marked one knee of her cargo shorts, and a faint smear of something green crossed the inside of her wrist.
She looked as though she'd spent the morning crawling through half the forest and considered that a productive use of her time. Then she saw Malek, and her entire face brightened.
“There you are. I was starting to think the monkeys finally convinced you to move,” Evie greeted Malek, smiling as she adjusted the camera strap digging into her shoulder and headed toward the creek without the slightest hesitation.
I glanced at Malek. His expression remained annoyingly controlled, but his scent didn't. The change was subtle, a hint of satisfaction warming it as she approached.
Our Head Alpha was in serious trouble.
And miss lunch? Malek asked Evie, lowering his chin onto his paws with enough casual indifference that I might have believed him if I hadn't spent the last ten minutes watching him listen for her.
“I'm so glad I know where I rank,” Evie told Malek, laughing as she tested the first wet stone with one boot before carefully transferring her weight onto it.
Evie didn't use the careful voice humans usually adopted around something large enough to kill them.
She wasn't trying to sound soothing or nonthreatening.
She spoke to Malek as though he'd been irritating her for years instead of less than a week, and Malek answered her with a familiarity I'd never heard him use with a human before.
She crossed the final stone, stepped onto our side of the creek, and dropped her bag beside the roots.
I shifted one front paw.
A branch beneath the fern cracked.
Evie's fingers stopped on the zipper.
Malek closed his eyes.
I chose to interpret that as support.
“What was that?” Evie asked Malek, straightening slowly while her gaze moved toward the vegetation hiding me. Without seeming to realize she'd done it, she shifted a little closer to his side.
Nothing dangerous, Malek told Evie, opening his eyes and staring directly into the leaves where I sat.
Evie's eyebrows rose.
“That answer somehow made it worse,” Evie informed Malek, squinting toward the ferns while one hand remained curled around the strap of her bag.
I could have stayed hidden longer. Malek almost certainly wanted me to.
I stepped out instead. Evie went silent. Her gaze moved over my face first, then down the line of my shoulders and across the rosettes covering my coat. The caution in her posture lasted only a moment before curiosity pushed it aside.
I approved.
Then Luca emerged from the shade on the opposite side of the clearing. Evie's head turned toward him. She stared for a moment, looked back at me, and then very slowly turned toward Malek.
“Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Cat, there are three of you,” Evie told Malek, lifting one hand as she gestured between us with open disbelief.
I almost forgot the entire reason I was there.
Cat.
Hearing it from a distance yesterday had been funny. Hearing her casually call our Head Alpha Cat directly to his face was considerably better.
Malek's ears twitched.
I can count, Malek told Evie, delivering the dry response without so much as lifting his head.
Evie narrowed her eyes at him.
“You know them. You absolutely know them,” Evie accused Malek, pointing first toward me and then Luca while she looked between all three of us.
Yes, Malek told Evie, remaining infuriatingly unhelpful while his gaze slid briefly toward me.
I probably should have waited for some kind of introduction, but then I noticed her bag.
Dozens of scents came from it—leather, plastic, metal, cloth, food, something citrus, several different chemicals, and at least three things I couldn't identify. Naturally, I walked toward it.
Malek made a low warning sound behind me.
I ignored him.
What's in this? I asked Evie, lowering my muzzle toward one of the loose straps while trying to determine what she had stuffed into the outer compartment.
Evie moved faster than I expected.
“Excuse you. Personal belongings,” Evie told me, dropping into a crouch and dragging the bag out of reach before my nose reached the zipper.
I followed it anyway. There was definitely food inside, possibly dried fruit, and something wrapped in plastic that smelled far more interesting than whatever equipment she was apparently protecting with her life.
There are a lot of smells in there, I told Evie, stretching my neck toward the bag as she pulled it behind one bent knee.
“There are also several thousand dollars' worth of things in there, so back up,” Evie told me, planting her palm firmly against my muzzle when I tried to follow the bag again.
I stopped, partly because I hadn't expected her to touch me and partly because standing that close made everything about her clearer.
The blockers were strong, but the warmth beneath them wasn't difficult to find.
I liked her scent. That wasn't particularly surprising.
What interested me more was the woman currently pressing her hand against the face of a leopard she'd met less than a minute ago.
Evie stared directly into my eyes.
No trembling.
No attempt to retreat.
Just irritation.
I leaned forward a fraction. Her eyes narrowed as the pressure against her palm increased, and then she pulled her hand away.
“You are already annoying,” Evie informed me, wiping her palm along the side of her shorts while I sat neatly in front of her.
I liked her.
Bossy, I told Evie, tipping my ears forward as she gave me the sort of look that suggested she'd already formed several opinions about me.
Then I turned toward Malek.
I like her, I told Malek quietly, deciding after nearly a week of his secrecy that he deserved an immediate answer. Malek's eyes narrowed. That improved the entire experience.
Evie looked between us.