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Deacon had meant to try to ease her, but he cursed himself for frightening her even more. She scrambled back and then turned and bolted.
Fuck!
He looked at Thayer, who continued to beating the shit out of the guy. Blood poured from his mouth and nose and mouth, and his eyes were rolling back in his head.
Deacon could see the flash of white behind his brother’s eyes, and knew he was precariously close to shifting. At this point he didn’t give a shit if Thayer tore the asshole limb-from-limb.
What he was more concerned about was Jessa running into the woods.
Deacon sprinted toward the tree-line. Lifting his head, he inhaled deeply, caught her scent, and took off in that direction.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
It felt like fire burned in Jessa’s lungs. She pumped her arms and legs as she ducked and dodged low hanging tree limbs.
The snow was thick, and it was like making her way through mud, but she didn’t allow that to slow her down.
Did she really see what she thought she saw? Shaking her head, she narrowly dodged a branch. She stumbled on the ground and clawed at the snow to right herself.
Jessa couldn’t hear anything aside from her beating heart and the air leaving her lungs. It sounded loud in the eerie darkness of the forest.
Had that really been Deacon, as a leopard? God, she’d lost her freaking mind, but it had been real. She had seen his body contort from a man to an animal.
Even though it sounded so absurd, she knew what she saw, and it had been horrifying. Even the low growl he had directed toward her had been so fearsome. One of the men she had grown to love was not really a man at all.
And when she had looked at Thayer, who had been destroying Paul, she had seen the same supernatural flash of color that seemed to glow in his eyes.
She didn’t believe in the paranormal, but she trusted her eyes and her instincts, and what she had seen had been something out of a nightmare.
Her foot caught on a strip of ice, and she fell forward. Palms smacking on the hard, cold ground, she cried out. She froze when she heard the heavy panting of an animal very, very close, and directly behind her.
She didn’t move, didn’t even breathe as she tried to make herself as small as possible. Praying had never been something she did, but she closed her eyes and prayed to whoever would listen to help her get out of this.
Hot, humid breath was practically on her neck, and a small sound left her. She had always heard animals could sense fear, and if that was true then he had to be able to bathe in it.
The fear of a bite from a beast that large had her whole body tense.
With her eyes still closed she pictured Deacon shifting right in front of her eyes. His already big body had morphed into the biggest fucking cat she had ever seen.
White fur so sleek and thick had rippled across once smooth, tanned flesh. Black spots popped out along the pristine fur, looking like spilled ink. His body had been huge, more like a small horse than a normal leopard.
The sight of his teeth, so sharp they could easily rip her flesh from her bones, flashed through her mind. He was frightening and intense, and when he stalked toward her with his pale blue eyes, ones that she had looked into while he made love to her, she knew everything she had ever known about the world was false.
The sound of purring had her opening her eyes and panting in fear. He was so close she could feel the intense body heat pouring off of him.
The sound vibrated through her whole body, and the soft, coarse hair on his body brushed her cheek. Another sound left her, and she curled her hands into the snow.
She opened her eyes and saw his massive body step into her line of sight. The wind stilled, the snow stopped falling, and her heart ceased beating. The blue eyes that stared back at her had dizziness washing through her.
“No, this isn’t real.” She shook her head and blinked away her tears. “It can’t be.”
The massive beast purred loudly, and she cried harder. He moved closer and butted his head gently against her shoulder.
Her vision blurred from her tears, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Deacon, or the leopard, or whatever the hell he was.
“Deacon…” His name fell from her lips on a whisper, and the animal in front of her made a low sound in its throat.
