It was a crying shame.

Danstared down at the body of the mangled hiker, willing the image of a vibrant, living Stacy Bruce from his mind. If he started to feel too much, he wouldn't be able to think straight, and now more than ever, he needed his mind right.

But it wasn't easy. Stacy was one of the good ones. Smart, quick to laugh, and the first to volunteer for any committees or charity events, she'd been a teacher in town for way longer than he’d lived there.

Now, here she was, totally unrecognizable, looking like she'd been put through a meat grinder. If not for the fact that they'd found her cell phone nearby, they would've been forced to wait for labs to ID what was left of her.

He sucked a breath in through his nose, the smell of death souring that of damp earth and fresh, Montana air.

"Boss?" Rip's low voice was warmer than it had been all day as she pulled up beside him and patted his shoulder. "You good?"

He turned from the gruesome scene and faced his deputy.

"Yeah, fine. Let's start by walking a grid, dozen yards in all directions, all right?"

She snapped to it, striding off toward her squad car to get a camera and some evidence bags, shoulder-checking Mina "by accident" as she passed. To Mina's credit, she didn't react, but there was no question she felt it.

"Sorry about that," he said stuffing a hand into his pants pocket. "I don't know what's gotten into her."

"Seriously?" A baffled frown wrinkled Mina's smooth brow. "And you call yourself a detective?"

"No. I call myself a Sheriff."

"Well, either way, you need to get a clue. She's in love with you, Sheriff. And she sees me as a threat."

He heard the words but they took awhile to sink in.

Rip? In love with him?

That was insane. Sure, she cared about him, and respected him as a boss. And of course there was a deep level of trust between them like with any small crew tasked with handling difficult or dangerous situations at times. She felt the same way about Jimmy.

Didn't she?

His chest went tight as he recalled the expression on Rip's face earlier in his office. Then, he thought back to the night before.

She'd disliked Mina on sight. And she had seemed hurt when she realized he'd followed Mina back to her motel. Dan had assumed it was just irritation at the idea that he'd fallen for the pretty face despite the fact that Mina was trouble from the start. That Rip was disappointed in him.

Could it be more than that?

"You'll get there eventually, sport," Mina said with a mirthless grin. "And when you do, pay her the kindness of letting her know you're not interested. Until then, she'll think there's some hope. And hope that things will change when they won't is what gets people stuck in a holding pattern. She deserves to move on and find someone who will love her back."

Despite the lack of judgment in her tone, the words hit home like an arrow to the gut. He was saved from responding as she brushed past him toward the body, but the damage was done.

He'd had some tough days in his life, but the past two were ramping up to be in the running for top ten worst for sure. He'd failed to protect two more of his citizens, and had actively hurt one of his best friends.

But as it stood, there was no time to dwell on it now. He had another body on his hands and, he suspected, a shit-ton more trouble coming down the pike. Sometime soon, though, he'd have to prep for an uncomfortable talk with a woman he had no desire to hurt.

He watched as Mina circled the scene, keen, blue eyes seeming to take in every detail. Her shoulders stiffened as she stared down at Stacy's remains but beyond that and a barely suppressed grimace, she didn't react. Major improvement from the night before. Sad how quickly people adapted to horror when pressed.

Or was it more than that?

She stood for a long moment, lips moving wordlessly in what he could only assume was a silent prayer, before turning away, gaze locked on the ground.

She moved slowly, purposefully, eyes flitting this way and that. Every so often, she'd pause, drop to a squat and touch her fingertips to the ground. Less than a minute later, she came back to where he stood, stopping a few feet from him.

"Mountain lion," she said flatly.

Not a question. She'd said it like it was fact.

And it was.

He'd lived in Montana now long enough to know mountain lion tracks when he saw them. As much as he'd only allowed her to come along so he could gauge her reaction to the scene, she'd been telling the truth about her knowledge of tracking. The only question now was whether or not she would tell him the truth about the rest of it.

Because there was more to this story than just the animal.

The muscle in his jaw began to twitch as he waited for Mina to say something. To mention what he'd recognized almost instantly. But the longer she remained silent, the more his instincts clamored.

Dimly, he heard Rip in the distance radioing for the M.E., but he kept his gaze on Mina.

"So, what do you think happened, exactly?" he asked, irritated with himself for even showing that much of his hand.

She pursed her lips and looked off in the distance as if the mountains held the answer to his question.

"What's there to think?" She shrugged and then leveled him with those tortured blue eyes that said so much more than she realized. "It's a cut and dried case of wrong place, wrong time mixed with the unpredictability of a wild animal. Tragic."

It was tragic. Only this wasn't some unlucky happenstance resulting in an easy meal for a hungry predator, or a mother protecting her young. This was something else. Something he'd seen before more times than he'd cared to count, and he knew Mina had seen it too. It was written all over the forest floor around them, in the broken branches, trampled saplings, and muddy prints.

A goddamned trap. A sophisticated ambush that, if his instincts were right, would have required the cunning and forethought only one beast on this earth possessed.

Man himself.

God help them all.

* * *

Mina stared out the passenger side window, the dank gray of the wispy clouds in the early evening sky a perfect match for her mood.

The scene in the forest had been grim, to say the least. They'd been there for hours collecting samples and measuring prints, all under the guise of tracking the animal responsible and locating it for capture. But Mina knew better.

And, worse? She was starting to think Dan did too.

"How are you holding up?"

His quiet concern derailed her thoughts and she turned to peek over at him through her lashes.

He was exhausted. Even in the fading daylight she could see weariness in his profile. They’d gone straight from the scene back to the station and worked for another three hours before he finally called it quits. Even then, she was pretty sure if he wasn't saddled with her he would've stayed longer, but she imagined she looked about as rough as he did. What he didn't realize was that sleep wouldn't fix what was ailing her.

"I'm hanging in."

"You should grab a slice of that pizza before it gets cold."

They'd stopped by Rosie's pizza joint on their way out of town when Dan remembered his cupboards were bare. Too drained to argue, she reached back into the neat white box on the seat behind them and tugged open the top. The mouthwatering smell of tangy tomatoes and olive oil filled her senses.

"Oh my god, that smells good."

She tugged out a still warm slice and handed it to Dan before getting herself one and closing the box.

She closed her gritty eyes and bit in, humming with relief as warm, gooey cheese hit her taste buds.

Things were bad right now. About as bad as they got, but the power of a hot meal was strong magic, and she couldn't deny that her misery lessened a notch.

"Christ, I was starving," Dan murmured as he navigated the country roads with one hand. "I didn't even realize it."

For the first time since they had gotten into the car, the silence was companionable as they ate. Once they'd polished off their slices, she got them each a second without prompting, which Dan took with a nod of thanks. It all felt so easy and comfortable for once.

Which was why she was totally unprepared for Dan's next words.

"When were you going to mention that all the mountain lion tracks led into that clearing, but none came out?"

A chunk of crust wedged itself into her suddenly dry throat and she swallowed hard to dislodge it.

Rage filled her, and the false sense of momentary calm she'd allowed herself to be lulled into faded in a flash.

Those bastards had been so cocksure, so full of themselves, that they hadn't even bothered to try to clean up their mess aside from a cursory swipe at the human footprints the lion shifter had left behind when he'd shifted back into a man after his meal.

Or was it more than carelessness? The Council used to pride itself on secrecy. Making sure that shifters under their regime kept a low profile whenever possible. Now, only two days into their hunt for her, they'd done the exact opposite with one bloody murder and a suspicious-looking animal attack. Were they making a point? Letting her know there truly was nowhere to run...nowhere to hide, nothing they wouldn't risk to get to her?

One more thing she promised herself she would make them regret.

"Mina?"

Dan's tone had an edge to it now and he shot a glance her way. There was no way she was getting out of answering him somehow, but damned if she knew what to say.

She'd opened her mouth to try to stall for time when a sharp crack echoed through the car and the windshield buckled as a large rock bounced off the glass. Dan bit out a curse as he yanked the wheel hard to the right. Mina slammed against the center console, gripping the armrest to stay upright.

"What the hell?" Dan snarled as the tires skidded to a halt on the dirt and grass shoulder of the winding road. He popped the car into park and scrubbed at his jaw as he craned his head toward the window. "What was that?"

Mina leaned forward and peered upward at the surrounding skyline. There were no peaks close enough to them to account for a rockslide. So where had that--

A blast of adrenaline pulsed through her and she gripped his forearm. "Jesus, Dan. Drive, drive, drive!"

He paused like he was about to argue, but the urgency in her tone combined with the expression on her face must've been enough to kick-start him into action. He slammed the car into drive and nailed the gas, hard.

Mina's heart beat a tattoo against her ribs as she tried to corral her scattered thoughts.

Surely this couldn't be happening. Especially when the sun still hadn't fully set.

Especially not with a witness in law enforcement.

But a piercing cry rent the sky, belying her thoughts. It was loud enough to hear over the growl of the straining engine and set the hair on the back of her neck rising.

Dan shot her a hard look before turning his attention back to the road ahead.

"Start talking, Mina."

What could she possibly tell him? She could try the truth, but somehow it felt like the whole "I can't say for sure, but I think we're being attacked by shape-shifting assassins and an eagle shifter just dropped a rock onto our windshield" thing might not go over well.

Even on the off chance that he believed her, just that knowledge could put him in more danger than he was in already. There was no question her enemies were making a statement with this latest attack. So fine, they weren't going to let human interferences stop them from getting to her, but that didn't mean they were going to show themselves for real.

She'd barely completed that thought when another stone the size of a tennis ball connected with the windshield. This time, it gave in, and the rock completely punctured the shatterproof glass. The jagged projectile protruded through the other side of the windshield, aiming straight at Dan's head like a warning from the gods.

His vision was totally obscured now by the ruined, crackling glass, and he took his foot off the gas. The car shuddered and slowed as Mina fumbled to unlock her seatbelt. It would be near impossible to drive like that, but unless Dan kept going, Mina had no doubt that he wouldn't survive this attack.

"Listen to me," she demanded. "I'm getting out of the car. And I need you to go. Stick your head out the window to see if you have to, but fucking go and don't look back."

She used every ounce of energy she could muster to make him hear her. To make him see. But she knew the outcome before he ever answered and her stomach sank, leaden with guilt.

"I don't know what's happening, Mina. But if you think I'm the kind of man who would leave you here, in danger, you've clearly misjudged me." His gaze burned with a fire so fierce, it rocked her to her core. "I don't expect you to explain it all to me right now, but if you give me some direction that makes actual sense, I'll follow your lead. Just don't ask me to leave you again."

She released his arm and reached for the door handle, wrenching it open. There was no time to argue.

She moistened her lips, and nodded, stunned to find her throat was too achy to respond. For someone with less friends than thumbs and more enemies than the rest of her fingers and toes put together, his chivalry was oddly touching. On the off chance that they survived this mess, she'd have to remember to thank him for that.

"We're going to run like hell," she said simply.