“He can kiss my ass.” Eric growled. “I’m with my mate.”
“And those poor Shifters who were abducted.”
Eric’s humor evaporated. “Yeah, we’ll have to deal with that.”
Iona pressed a kiss to the hollow of his throat, a feather touch. “Kellerman was lying when he said he didn’t know anything about it.”
“I know. I’ll get the truth out of him.”
“At least the cubs are all right,” Iona said. “Aren’t they?”
“They are. Thank the Goddess.”
Iona touched his Collar. “I’ll have to wear one of these eventually, won’t I?”
Eric gently lifted her hand from his Collar, then he brushed his fingertips across her bare neck. “Maybe not.”
“You’ll have me keep passing as human? The other Shifters know now, and you said they might say something…”
Eric stilled her words. “A different solution. Collars that look like Collars but aren’t.”
“Fake Collars? How can that work? Won’t that be obvious?”
“I don’t know how they work, but they do. Some of the Shifters already have them, but that’s not common knowledge. The Shifters in Austin, the Morrisseys, they’ve figured out how to make these Collars, and they’ve offered to share.”
Iona frowned. “Let me see if I understand. You’ll have me wear a Collar that doesn’t work, and you’ll have the databases or whatever changed to make it look like I’ve lived in your Shiftertown all my life.”
“That’s it.”
“Won’t my friends and family notice? And the people I’ve worked with for years?”
“I guess you’ll have to learn who you can trust. The records will show the humans that you’ve always been Shifter, no matter what anyone says.”
“No blowback on my sister or mother?”
Eric covered her hands with his. “I’ll do my damnedest to prevent that. You have my word.”
“It’s my whole life, Eric.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” He looked into her eyes, which were blue and anguished. “Spend that life with me.”
“Do I have a choice?”
Eric swallowed, his throat tight. “You do. You don’t have to pick me. You don’t have to pick anyone. Live in Shiftertown, and I’ll keep you safe, like I do the rest of my Shifters. It’ll be tough for me to keep all those males off you, but I’ll do it. You’ll be under my protection. It’s your choice, Iona.”
She watched him with a stunned look. She’d expected him, he knew, to throw her over his shoulder and drag her home, to sex her until she admitted she was his true mate.
Which sounded very appealing, but Shifters weren’t feral anymore. As much as it killed him, Eric had to let Iona choose.
Iona let out her breath. “I still want a run. A nice long one.”
Eric’s excitement kicked in again. A chase. Yes. “You and your mom have a cabin up in the mountains, right? Is it off the beaten track?”
Iona nodded. “Nice and isolated. We love it.”
The excitement escalated. Eric rose with it, lifting Iona and setting her on her feet at the same time he came to his. “Then let’s go.”
Iona ran. Her panther stretched and flowed, paws pounding through the soft pine needles, the sharp chill drying her sweat.
Eric came behind her, his leopard’s breath loud in the still air. They ran under soaring trees, leaping over frozen streams and snowbanks that cut through the woods.
Iona always marveled how different the world was up here. They were only short miles from the desert floor, but the mountain climate was alpine—cool summers, snowbound winters, vast pine forests that opened into surprising meadows of flowers in the springtime.
Iona’s family’s cabin was a little way from the clusters of cabins that filled Mount Charleston and the surrounding area. She loved it up here, where she could shift and run, run, run.
Now she was being chased. Eric sprinted behind her, running flat out, and Iona stretched to keep ahead of him.
He would catch her. She sensed his determination, felt the earth trembling under his stride.
Eric would catch her, and then…Iona shivered and increased her speed.
The air was thin at this altitude, Mount Charleston reaching about twelve thousand feet at its peak. But Iona had more or less grown up here, spending her summers at the cabin to escape the heat, part of her winters up here skiing. She knew every nuance of this mountain, every cranny and place to hide.
But she couldn’t ditch Eric. He’d driven them up here in her pickup, Iona still too frenzied to get behind the wheel. She’d cuddled next to him in the front seat, and he’d held her with his arm around her as he drove, like they were in love.
Once inside the cabin, while Eric laid a fire in the big stone fireplace, Iona had given him an impish grin, thrown off her clothes, and dashed outside. The minute or so it had taken her to shift lost her the advantage though, and she’d had to run fast to get ahead of Eric.
Now he closed in on her. She heard his growls, felt his paws swat at her back feet. His breath touched her tail, and she flicked it out of his reach.
Iona doubled her speed. Her long panther legs should have been able to outdistance Eric’s compact leopard body, but Eric was fast, and he was strong.
Eric leapt, pushing off with his powerful hind legs, and landed on Iona’s back.