A rumbling sound heralded Hector’s return with the gurney, and together they carefully lifted the small leopard onto it. Her new home seemed to be about as far from her family as was possible, a medium sized enclosure at one end of the sprawling Sanctuary, which itself took up almost twenty acres. This pen featured a rocky terrain, a small waterfall pouring into a stream before running off into a pond. Spreading trees of some sort provided shade, as well as a place for arboreal cats, such as the clouded leopards, a place to climb.
Once Beth had been lifted from the gurney and placed to lay beside the stream, Hector returned to his regular duties, while Liam turned his attention to the clouded leopard. Through all this she hadn’t moved, nor given any sign that she understood what was going on. Not even the twitch of a whisker or the flick of an ear. Liam wondered if maybe they hadn’t left it too late. At any rate, she was far too weak for her to be a danger to him even in his human form, much less his Changed form.
On that thought, Liam undressed, laying his clothes across a boulder, and called the Change, feeling the familiar zing of shifter magic around him. He needed to be able to have Beth communicate with him, if he could coax her to do so. He landed on four paws, shaking out his heavy coat, its weight welcome in the chill of early winter. His Pyr sensed no danger from Beth, none of the darkness he’d felt even in his human form when he’d first arrived, watching Beth’s mother and sisters, or Beatrice, whose flat black stare made his hackles rise.
He lay down beside Beth’s leopard, his heavy white coat not quite touching her, panting lightly.
I’ve been asked by the local Warden to come talk to you. To see how you are, and if there is anything we can do to help.
No response. Well, he hadn’t expected it to be easy. He considered the best way to reach her. Running his mind back over the conversation he’d had with Naomi, he thought that was his best path. Being so close, she might respond to news of her sister.
Naomi has told me about you,he ventured.She said you grew up very close.
Ah! Her ear twitched. She was listening, then. He continued.She lives in New York, just a few hours’ drive from here. There’s a large shifter community in the Hudson Valley, north of Manhattan.
There was a faint stirring in his mind.“She is well?”The mental voice was shaky, and so low it barely registered, but he heard her.
“Yes, very well. The area is semi-rural, and she’s putting pressure on the county library to start up a Bookmobile.”He let amusement thread through his voice, then added deliberately,Naomi is my Chosen, although I haven’t had that discussion with her yet. She is still learning to trust herself.
Curiosity shimmered in her mind.Chosen?
Amongst our kind, shifters, that is what we call that one person whom we love, our mate, that we wish to spend the rest of our lives together.
The leopard shifted a little, her eyes opening at last to look at him.
She did not become Rogue, then?
No.
She closed her eyes again, and her flanks heaved in a heavy sigh.I am glad for that.
What happened in that other enclosure? With your mother and aunt and sisters?
There was a long pause, until he thought maybe she had retreated once more, but finally she answered.
They hate me because I am not like them. Because I don’t revel in being a killer. I know I am one, I murdered the man that I loved.There was such despair in her voice, he knew she would have been weeping if she’d been in her human form.They taunt me about it constantly, that I killed him. Ripped him to shreds while he slept.
A chill ran through Liam’s body at the gruesome imagery her words evoked.
Naomi tells me that you don’t remember killing him.
The small leopard made a soft, distressed sound.No. And yet, I did.
Liam found that he was beginning to have suspicions about that, but this wasn’t the time to delve into that.
So they attack you?he pressed.Your family?
They are angry that they are imprisoned. That they cannot Change. That they cannot kill. They need a target for their rage, and they already hate me. I am a good target.
Liam lowered his head, giving her neck a reassuring swipe of his tongue. No doubt about it, his Pyr was feeling protective.No more. I have had you removed from their vicinity. We moved you out of telepathic range, as well as out of their sight.
Thank you.
Beth lapsed back into silence, while Liam considered what he had learned so far.
What do you mean, they cannot Change? Only Beatrice is collared with the warded collar, preventing the Change.
He got the mental impression of a shrug.I only know they cannot.
