Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EVIE
By the next morning, I had discovered there was one major downside to being told three leopard shifters were interested in me: sleep became considerably harder when my brain had three attractive men to think about.
I had gone to bed at a reasonable hour. I’d checked my batteries, set out what I needed for the morning, taken my blockers, and even managed not to stare at the ceiling for the first twenty minutes.
Then my mind started replaying yesterday, and strangely enough, the fact that Malek, Tavian, and Luca could turn into leopards wasn’t what kept me awake.
Somehow that had already been pushed fairly far down the list of impossible things I was dealing with.
What stayed with me was what happened after they told me they were interested.
Nothing dramatic had followed. They hadn’t spent the rest of the afternoon hovering around me waiting for an answer or trying to turn every interaction into something romantic.
They had let me work. When I needed space, they gave it to me.
When I stopped to photograph something, they stopped too.
They asked questions because they were genuinely curious about what I was doing, not because they were waiting for me to put the camera away and pay attention to them instead.
I liked that more than was probably convenient.
Their confession followed me back to the station anyway, lingering through dinner, through checking my equipment, and eventually into bed.
They were interested in me. All three of them.
They hadn’t asked me to make a decision yesterday, and I was glad they hadn’t.
It gave me time to decide what I actually wanted instead of reacting while three Alphas stood in front of me waiting for an answer.
By breakfast, I still didn’t have every answer, but I did know I wanted to see them again, and for the moment, that was enough to get me moving.
I ate, checked the weather information posted near the station office, and packed enough water and food to stay out most of the day if the wildlife cooperated.
My radio went onto my belt beside the small medical pouch I always carried, and I checked my blockers and emergency heat medication before adding another charged battery and two empty memory cards to my camera bag.
Mara was already at the main table when I approached, one knee tucked beneath her chair while she worked through a notebook with a mug of coffee cooling beside her. The overhead fan pushed loose strands from her messy bun without doing much for the heat.
“Different route today?” Mara asked as she reached for the field log, glancing at the camera hanging against my hip before uncapping her pen.
“Eastern fork first, then northeast toward one of the smaller streams feeding into the main creek.” I rested one hand against the edge of the table while Mara wrote, mentally checking my gear one last time.
“I’ve noticed quite a bit of bird traffic toward that side whenever I’m near the fork, but I haven’t spent much time there yet. ”
“Back by?” Mara asked as she wrote the route beside my name, the tip of her pen hovering over the page while she waited for a specific time.
“Before six unless I radio otherwise.” I tapped the handset clipped to my belt before settling the camera strap more comfortably over my shoulder.
“Good. Ground’s still slick from last night, so watch the lower sections near the water.” Mara closed the log and slid it back toward the middle of the table, already reaching for her coffee again.
“I will.” I promised Mara as I headed toward the steps, adjusting the bag against my back while the familiar exchange settled me into work mode before I disappeared beneath the trees.
The morning air was already thick enough that my shirt clung between my shoulder blades before I had gone fifteen minutes.
Overnight rain had darkened the trail and softened the soil beneath my boots, while droplets collected along broad leaves and fell whenever birds or monkeys disturbed the branches overhead.
Everything smelled wet—earth, bark, crushed vegetation, and the faint mineral scent of water somewhere deeper beneath the trees.
I took my time. A tanager flashed red and black through the lower canopy, and I stopped long enough to take several photographs before it disappeared behind a curtain of leaves.
Farther east, two toucans were loudly disputing ownership of a fruiting tree despite there being more than enough fruit for both of them.
Neither bird made any attempt to involve me in the argument, which I appreciated enough not to tell either one how ridiculous they were being.
The eastern fork came into view another half hour later, and all three men were already waiting beneath the shade.
Tavian stood with one foot braced against the fallen log, dressed in lightweight field pants, worn trail shoes, and a dark shirt that had already started sticking slightly around the collar from the humidity.
Luca sat against a wide tree trunk in loose field pants and a lighter shirt with the sleeves pushed partway up his forearms, his longer hair tied at the nape and simple trail shoes planted in the damp soil.
Malek had stationed himself farther down the fork in dark field pants, a lightweight shirt, and worn boots, positioned where he could see both approaches without standing directly in the path.
The clothes should have made them look more ordinary. Somehow, seeing the three of them waiting beneath the trees in perfectly normal clothing only made the knowledge of what they were feel stranger.
“Morning.” Luca rose from beneath the tree and brushed bits of damp bark from the back of his shirt, an easy smile appearing when I stepped off the narrower section of trail.
“Morning.” I returned Luca’s greeting while settling the camera against my side, though my eyes had already wandered toward Tavian and whatever he was tossing into the air.
“You’re late.” Tavian caught the object in one palm and curled his fingers around it, his amber eyes brightening with the satisfaction of having found something he could complain about.
“I gave you no time to meet me.” I stopped in front of Tavian and tipped my head toward the hand he had suddenly lowered beside his hip, already suspicious of the way he was trying to hide it.
“You came later than yesterday.” Tavian leaned one shoulder against the tree and delivered the argument with enough confidence that someone who didn’t know him might have believed it made sense.
“That is still not how being late works. What are you hiding?” I moved sideways when Tavian put his closed hand behind his back, which only made me more interested in whatever he had.
“Nothing.” Tavian tucked his hand completely out of sight and tried for an innocent face, but the smile threatening his mouth ruined it.
“You are terrible at that word.” I stepped in the other direction when Tavian tried to turn with me, refusing to let him use his body as a shield.
“He found something.” Luca supplied from behind Tavian, loosely crossing his arms while Tavian twisted around to give him a betrayed look.
“I was getting there.” Tavian complained to Luca before finally bringing his hand around, opening his fingers with considerably more ceremony than the situation required.
A small feather rested across his palm, deep blue along one side and fading almost to black near the tip.
The edges were clean, suggesting it had been dropped naturally rather than pulled free.
“I found it near the fork. You don’t have to keep it.
” Tavian held the feather toward me, some of his teasing disappearing as he watched my face instead of the small gift in his hand.
After yesterday’s camera-bag incident, I was no longer entirely willing to assume that anything they gave me was simply a random object.
Still, the fact that Tavian had found the feather, thought of me, and carried it around until I arrived made something pleasant tighten beneath my ribs.
“It’s pretty.” I took the feather carefully between two fingers and turned it until the morning light caught the blue, noticing Tavian following the movement with considerably more interest than the feather probably deserved.
“You’re keeping it?” Tavian asked as he leaned forward slightly, his attempt at sounding casual ruined by how closely he watched my hands.
“I have a side pocket where it won’t get crushed.
” I opened the camera bag and tucked the feather into the narrow section beside my notebook before closing the zipper.
Tavian’s whole face brightened, and the immediate pleasure in his reaction made me smile before I could stop myself.
That particular expression was definitely going to become a problem.
“Where are we going?” Malek asked as he stepped closer from the trail, checking the route map visible through the clear sleeve on my bag before lifting his golden-brown eyes to me.
“Northeast today.” I pointed toward the narrower path branching away from the route we had taken yesterday. “There’s a smaller stream farther in that feeds into the main creek, and I want to check that area. I’ve already spent enough time along the southern creek for now.”
“Then northeast.” Malek gave a short nod before moving out of my way, accepting my route without trying to replace it with one of his own. The fact that I still noticed every time he did that probably said something about me that I wasn’t ready to investigate.