The scream of a cat, a big cat, echoed through the mountain now. She paused, breathing roughly, her eyes wide as she attempted to see through the darkness. Okay, what was it Kiowa said? If you didn’t smell like a cat, they would eat you.

Oh God. This was just great. Wild wolves and big cats, a mating heat that was making her crazy and God only knew what else was coming. She didn’t need any of this. She moved faster, no longer worrying about silence or stealth. What the hell was the point?

“Kane, we have unauthorized movement in Sector Three C,” the female Breed communications expert, Tamber, reported quietly as Kane and Kiowa worked on the quirky program they were trying to install to intercept web traffic from blood supremacist members.

Kiowa’s head came up, his eyes narrowing. Three C was the area the small cabin he and Amanda were using was located.

“There’s no electronic indicator and the cats are heading that way.”

“Fuck!” Kiowa came quickly to his feet. “It’s Amanda. Call them back.”

He should have known her easy capitulation earlier that night had been no more than a ruse. He had smelled her fury, her sense of betrayal at his refusal to allow the tests or to explain why. How was he supposed to tell her that the sight of her enduring such pain stripped him of pride and nearly brought tears to his eyes? That his chest had tightened and rage like nothing he had never known had filled his mind?

“Have Dawn’s unit intercept,” Kane ordered quickly. “We’re heading there now.”

He threw Kiowa one of the comm units they used as he attached his own to his ear.

“Dawn is moving to intercept, Cabal and Tanner are joining for animal control. The cats have been restless, Kane. They might not obey standard commands,” the young female Breed at the communications table reported.

“Have Merc ready the cycles,” he snapped back at her. “We’re heading out.”

Kiowa tensed as he followed Kane at a run, fury building in his mind with each damned second. Damn her, he hadn’t expected her to run. How had she had the energy to run?

“The cycles will make quick work of the distance,” Kane yelled as they approached the sound of powerful motors revving inside a metal shed on the other side of the compound.

“I’m going to beat her,” Kiowa muttered. “Dammit to hell. I warned her.”

“Goddammit, Kiowa,” Kane cursed as they burst into the well lit shed, the wide doors shoved open.

“How easy do you think this is on her? We should have expected it.”

But they hadn’t, and because of his lack of foresight, Amanda was in danger. They jumped on the readied, powerful little cycles. Built for speed and mountain runs, the motorcycles were specially designed by Mercury, the towering lion breed who oversaw their care like a mother hen. They shot from the shed at full throttle, spinning recklessly as they took a sharp turn around the driveway that led to the shed and headed up the graveled road into the mountain.

“She’s made it more than a mile from the cabin,” Kane yelled into the comm link. “Heading for the main road. Cats are moving in fast so let’s make this quick.”

The big cats were getting closer. She could hear their throttled screams echoing around her as though calling out to each other, working in coordination to track her down. Amanda was running, stumbling over brush and logs as she fought to keep from falling and rolling down the mountain. God only knew what lay at the bottom of some of the ravines she had detected. She was fighting to breathe as fear raced through her body and her own weakness slapped her in the face. Surely it would have been easier to steal a cell phone. She wouldn’t be eaten at any rate. She tripped over something. Her own feet maybe as another savage feline scream sounded behind her. Landing on her stomach, she struggled to get back to her feet, coming to her knees and then eyeball to eyeball with the biggest meanest-looking lion she had ever laid her eyes on. He roared. Opened his powerful jaws, displaying a mouthful of razorsharp teeth and roared right in her face.

“I taste really bad,” she snapped, too scared to try to move as he leveled that eerie amber stare at her.

“And I don’t have any meat on my bones. Dad is always telling me I’m too damned skinny… I bet rabbits taste really good…” she whimpered. “Oh God, go find a rabbit.”

He growled, lifting his lip and displaying the brutal teeth at the side of his mouth. His head was huge, the thick mane that grew from the back of it indicating a mature, able creature in his prime.

“He doesn’t care much for rabbits. His favorite treats are dumb little girls who like to disregard measures set up for their own safety.”

The female voice had her jerking around, only to earn her a sharp nip on her back from the animal at her back.

She jerked back around, staring in surprise as he roared again.

“Can you call him off or something?” she gasped. The little bite hadn’t hurt, but she would prefer not to have a chunk taken out of her.

“Tiny pretty much does what he wants,” the woman drawled softly, her voice soft, almost melodic as she came around Amanda and hunched down beside the animal. “Don’t you, Tiny?”

The lion butted against the woman, her features too dim and Amanda’s gaze too filled with sharp teeth to pay much attention to how she looked.

The huge animal made a soft snuffling sound as he rubbed against the woman’s leg, obviously content for the moment.

“Good boy.” She stroked his mane and then amazingly enough, purred with a kittenish soft sound. “Go lay down and I’ll talk to our visitor a minute. Tanner will be here soon with your treat.”

The lion’s head swung back to Amanda, the look he gave her one of pure male aggravation, but he turned and moved a few inches away, plopping down on the ground and watching her closely.

“I can’t connect with them very well,” the woman kept her voice pitched to that melodic, almost mesmerizing tone. “Just stay quiet and nice and unthreatening and he should be fine until Tanner and Cabal arrive. They’re right behind me.”

Amanda wasn’t taking her eyes off the lion.

“Was I close?” she asked, her voice barely above a breath.

“Not even close,” she sighed. “Actually, another twenty feet or so in this direction is a hidden ravine. You might not have survived the fall.”

Amanda lowered her head dejectedly.

“Is it so bad?” the woman asked her then, her voice reflective. “My sister mated with Kane, he’s not a Breed, but he should have been one. Is the mating horrible?”

Amanda flicked a surprised look to the dark form. Still kneeling on hands and knees, she was terrified to move. The lion wasn’t taking his eyes off her.

“Umm. No,” she said carefully.

The mating was great. The dumb male that thought he was suddenly her lord and master was beginning to suck though.

“Then why are you running?” A dark head tilted, pale features barely discernable in the darkness as she stayed hunched between Amanda and the animal. “Kiowa is the most honorable Coyote I’ve known. He’s not like the jailors we had, trained to mercilessness. He has the scent of truth, of gentleness. Why are you running from him? Are human males more worthy?”

Amanda blinked back at the other woman in amazement. Her voice was soft, somber, as though the question held more importance than she wanted to let on.

“How the hell should I know?” She swallowed tightly. “Look, this is really weird. Can you tell that monster to let me sit down?”

The monster growled.

“I would really stay still a few more seconds,” the woman advised. “I can smell Tanner and Cabal approaching. They’ll come in easily to keep from upsetting the cats. There are several around us you know. My lionesses will try to protect you if Tiny attacks, but I would prefer they not be hurt. And you didn’t answer my question.”

“Ask me when I’m not about to become a lion snack,” Amanda suggested. She chuckled. “I was merely curious. Perhaps you were right to run. Sex isn’t a pleasant act.” Her voice was filled with shadows then.

“A mating could be no better.”

“He doesn’t hurt me,” Amanda had no idea why it mattered that the woman know that. Amber eyes, much like the lion’s, regarded her quietly.

“I’ve heard you scream.”

Amanda could feel the flush heating her body further.

“Yeah, well. Sometimes screaming is good.” She cleared her throat nervously. “This is a really weird conversation, you know?”

“I understand.” The other woman’s head nodded before she rose carefully and spoke again. “Tanner, Tiny is more upset than usual. This woman’s scent isn’t the one bothering him, but he’s becoming more agitated by the night.”

“What of your lionesses?” The male voice was as carefully soft as the female’s. Amanda had only a vague impression of sliding darkness, a shadow that passed by her. No sound heralded the stranger’s arrival until the lion began to purr roughly. Darkness shielded the animal then, only to be joined by another form.

“They can’t find the disturbance,” she reported, her hand gripping Amanda’s arm and urging her up as the sound of motorcycles grew nearer.

“He’s settled for now,” the man she had called Tanner said softly before crooning to the animal again.

“Shit,” Amanda whispered as the throb of the cycles began to shatter the night. “Kiowa’s coming, isn’t he?”

“Yes. Kiowa is coming.” A slender hand tightened on her arm. “If he’s hurting you, I can help you Amanda. Don’t lie to me.”

“Dawn,” the man behind her said warningly. “This is none of your concern. Kiowa has the right to his mate. You know this.”

“Not if he hurts her,” her voice deepened. “I and my lionesses will protect you, Amanda, if he’s hurting you.”

“Goddammit, Dawn…” A rough curse, but one filled with pain, not anger filled the night. “Seth won’t hurt you.”

Amanda shook her head in confusion. There was more going on here than this strange woman’s concern.

“He doesn’t hurt me…” The motorcycles lit up the area as they slid around the bend, coming to a bonejarring stop that had the lion on his feet, a roar ripping through the night as a dozen women stepped from the trees and surrounded the nervous lion.

“Amanda, I’m going to paddle your ass,” Kiowa’s voice was furious, hot. Amanda’s buttocks clenched at the thought. And it wasn’t in fear. She watched him swing from the motorcycle, broad, muscular, his expression dark and forbidding, his black eyes glittering with hunger and anger as he strode to her. Her pussy wept as he neared, her womb clenched spasmodically as her thighs tightened in reflex.

He would have drawn her even in a more civilized setting. He would have starred in her fantasies, he would have been a man she would have gravitated to, heedless of his genetic makeup. In that moment, she realized it might not be love, but it could have been. Would he have courted her?

Hell no, he would have barreled right over her, just as he did now. He would have taken her and made her love it, and her cunt would have wept at his touch, even without the fire burning her alive now. He stopped in front of her, staring down at her with brutal, naked lust.

“Do I need to tie you down?” he snapped then, the fury burning in him echoing in his voice. Amanda smoothed her hands down her jeans and stared up at him as she admitted to herself that just as he had said, there would be no escaping him.

“Will you still spank me?”

He blinked. Once. Then narrowed his eyes on her.

“That’s a given,” he growled.

“Might as well go for broke.” She shrugged then. “What’s a few ropes into the bargain?”