A huge group of humans stomped through the woods with their bows, but my sensitive hearing painted an unfair perception of them. Unseen by the gang, I prowled low and to their rear with a great distance between us, using the waist-high brush and unkempt grass to my advantage. With my white fur, I’d stand out like a sore thumb if I didn’t play it safe.

I’d been shadowing them all day. Thanks to keen senses, I didn’t need to be close to eavesdrop on their conversations, and since this was Ian’s property, I knew the lay of the land like the back of my hand. Mostly it had been friendly banter and plotting for the hunt.

One of the younger men, Ignacio, paused to scan the surrounding foliage. I ducked down and pressed my belly to the grass. “Dude, your friend was cool to let us hunt on his property like this.” He was heavyset, baby faced, and as tall as Esteban. College age at the most.

As I stalked the group, I’d learned most of their names already, identifying one of the men among them as his brother Sergio and a few as subordinates on his crew. Angelo and Lalo were also his younger brothers.

Esteban chuckled. “Not my friend, Nacho. Friend of a friend. I guess the guy owns a few hundred acres out this way.”

“Ohhh, that rich buddy of Nadir’s, right? You struck it lucky, dude. Rich friends and a fine woman.” He whistled.

“I can’t believe you looked her up on Facebook,” Esteban muttered.

“Hey, it isn’t my fault that the ‘In a Relationship’ status change blasted your business everywhere. If I had a honey that fine, I’d be glad to show her off to everyone. You need to bring her around.”

I grinned mentally. That had been my idea. Last night while at the computer, a mischievous whim urged me to claim him. If I couldn’t mark him with a bite, I had to settle for some other way.

Esteban cleared his throat and changed the subject. “I see a hog up ahead. Looks to be a decent-sized boar.”

“Think you can get him?” Sergio asked.

“Not at this range and angle. Wouldn’t be a clean kill.”

They moved closer, and I respected that. With roughly a forty-yard distance between the hunters and their quarry, they had little chance of providing their prey a merciless kill. Once Esteban was in range, he nocked an arrow to his bow and aimed.

I held my breath. No guns. Not a single rifle in sight.

A trophy hunter with a gun had claimed my father’s life. I didn’t hate firearms, but I loathed men who slew their unarmed prey from afar using scopes and tools instead of skill. Esteban took his time aiming, waiting for the perfect shot before the arrow flew. He hit his mark with skill and precision, taking the pig down without more than a squeal.

A hunter. A real hunter. A man I could respect and track beside. I watched one of the guys clap him on the shoulder.

“Y’all can go ahead while I handle this. I’ll dress my own pig.”

“Make sure you cape him all the way back to his cojones, hermano. When Sergio did your last one for you, he fucked it all up,” Angelo said.

Esteban chuckled. “Why do you think I’m doing it myself?”

“Don’t take too long,” Sergio grumbled.

“You know me. I’ll have him quartered before you can spot a buck worth shooting.”

Jesús laughed. He was one of the older men among the group, dark-haired with a thick handlebar mustache and a deep brown laborer’s tan. His face reminded me of a bloodhound, all droopy and creased with wrinkles. “Right. We’re moving up ahead, then.”

“I’ll catch up.”

“If we don’t catch up to you with another one,” Sergio said, a challenge in his voice.

I followed Esteban back to their camp. The men had arrived in two double cab pickups loaded with gear for an overnight stay. They’d filled coolers with ice and had tents raised.

Within minutes, the scent of pig’s blood filled the air. My mouth watered and the animal side of me wanted to advance. I crouched low, my tail swishing, and reigned in my baser instincts.

He cleaned and washed his hands with the tap from their kegged water source on back of the pickup. Then he sat on the bed and took out his cell phone to make a call.

It rang and rang without an apparent answer.

Is he calling me? My clothes, phone, and vehicle waited for me at Russ’s place. Licking my mouth, I watched him write a text then hesitate with his thumb over the send button. He sighed and put the phone away.

“She’s probably busy at the hospital.”

He was calling me!

While his pig bled, Esteban set up his supplies on level ground. I observed from the shadows as he skinned the boar with concise, confident slashes. Watching him nurtured a whole new respect for the man. His hands were skillful, strokes of the knife delicate, and he made the work of butchering seem like art.

I crept forward a little closer, hungry for more than the scent of fresh meat. Just one smell of the man I had claimed as mine would be enough to satisfy my craving for him.

I made a wrong step, distracted by the sexy Latino enough to lower my large paw on a branch. It broke beneath my weight.

His head snapped up, and he reached for his nearby compound bow in a single, quick movement. I froze. Our eyes met across the distance and his widened.

Shit. He spotted me. Following my desires over caution, I stepped out from cover and revealed myself. Esteban backed away with slow, unthreatening movements, smart enough not to run in the presence of a predator. As if he could outrun me if I wanted to give chase.

I wouldn’t ever hurt you, I thought. His failure to nock an arrow to the bow and aim at me proved the thought to be mutual.

My hesitation granted him time to retreat to the cab of the truck. The door drew shut. Then I prowled around to the driver’s door and gazed up at the man behind the wheel. Without extending my claws, I rose to my hind legs and set my paws on the door. I rubbed my cheek against the glass, wishing for the first time in my life I could purr like a true kitten and prove I didn’t mean him any harm.

Trust me. Please.

“Nice kitty… there’s scraps in the pan for you.” His muffled voice reached me through the window.

I don’t want the damned scraps. I want you.

We watched one another for a while longer, his brown eyes trained to my face. When he didn’t open the door, I hopped back and retreated.

Not now. I couldn’t share our secret with him yet. Not now, but soon.

But for now, I guess I would settle for the damned scraps and pretend they were a gift from him to me.

---

“I know what the hell I saw, man. It was a lion, a female lion, right over there watching me.”

My younger cousin Xavier snickered. “Maybe you saw a cougar, homie. You know, a puma or something. From a distance, they can look like a female lion, right?”

“No. They don’t look anything alike. This was a lion, like safaris and gazelles in the bush. But she wasn’t the right color, and she had blue eyes. I can’t forget that. She came up to the truck and stared at me through the window.”

With the most beautiful set of blue eyes I’d ever seen in a feline face. I wasn’t a cat person, I preferred a dog any day, but something about the breathtaking creature had made an impact on me. I couldn’t forget her.

“Yeah, sure. I know we’re out in the boonies, but unless your friend is into exotic animals, I don’t think you saw a lion on his property,” Sergio said.

We argued until a phone call interrupted our talk.

Sasha Vogt, the glowing caller ID revealed. I answered it on the third ring and raised the phone to my ear. “Sup, Sasha?”

“Hi. Sorry, I missed your call. Is this a bad time now?”

“Not at all.”

“So how did it go?”

“Good. I downed a boar, and my little brother, Sergio, took a stag a few moments ago. We’ll have a freezer full of meat to last the winter at this rate.”

“I make amazing venison chili, just to let you know.”

“Dude, this isn’t date time,” Xavier complained. “Can’t you do that shit later?” I made a threatening gesture with one fist, effectively shutting him up.

“I didn’t mean to hold you up, Esteban. I can call you back another time.”

“I’ll call you when I get back in town tomorrow night, sound good?” The guys kept quiet, but it didn’t stop them from making crude gestures. I flipped them off.

“That’s great. You boys have fun.”

“Night, Sasha.”

Xavier spoke up the moment I disconnected the call. “You didn’t tell your honey about your lion sighting.”

“Yeah, because she’d think he was losing it, too,” Sergio said.

“Why didn’t you photo it through the window?” Alejandro asked.

“My phone was in the back. I set it down there after making a call. It wasn’t exactly a priority when a safari predator was creeping toward me.”

“Uh-huh. I think whatever they gassed y’all with over there during the Gulf War did something to your head, dawg. You’re seeing things. There ain’t no lions in these woods, and whatever you saw didn’t leave any sign of it being here. Look.” Alejandro nodded toward my boar. “If there was a lion, a real lion, she’d have taken that shit.”

I grunted. He had a point. Could I have hallucinated the entire thing? There had been a brief period following my honorable discharge when I hadn’t adjusted to civilian life right away, and self-medicating with the occasional joint had been a comfort. Unless those joints were laced with LSD, they shouldn’t have affected my mind today.

“No. I know what I saw. Follow me over here.”

I led them to the pan where I’d dropped the entrails. A few spots of blood glistened there, but the liver, heart, and kidneys were gone. She’d left only the intestines, and I couldn’t blame her for that. No matter how Mamá cooked it, I’d never been a fan of the tripe she stewed for Thanksgiving.

Sergio stroked his chin. “Could have been anything, Esteban. Even a coon would run off with that.”

“I know what I saw.”

“Or a possum,” Angelo said.

“Goddammit, I know what the fuck was outside of that car staring at me.”

When my voice raised, the others quieted and stared at me. Claiming he’d give my story the benefit of the doubt, Angelo pulled up the news on his phone and searched for recent articles or breaking reports about an escaped lion from a zoo.

“Could have been an illegal exotic. You know how people are about setting shit free,” Sergio finally relented.

“Yeah, maybe so. I’ll let Nadir know so he can warn his friend.”

Gut instinct said my lioness hadn’t meant any harm. She could have mauled me at any point and might have been watching for several minutes before I even noticed her.

Looking back, I wished that I’d had the balls to stay outside the truck.