Shifters' Storm Read Free Page B

approached the carcass. His graceful head topped by a massive rack hung as if he was reluctant to acknowledge what couldn’t be denied. It took effort for her not to touch Songan in sympathy, but experience had taught her to have patience when he was like this. Shifting her gaze, she noted that the dead elk had been shot in the side behind its front legs. Seeing lacerated flesh where its sex organs had been again made her sick to her stomach.
    “Who did this?” she muttered around clenched teeth. “What kind of bastard…”
    The bull elk she’d come here in hopes of finding stepped between her and the carcass. She wondered whether he was more concerned with protecting one of his kind or shielding her. His eyes darkened, and he again lowered his head as if the weight of his antlers was more than he could bear.
    “I’m sorry. This was the work of poachers, damnable killers. I can’t call them human.”
    Until now she hadn’t had time to consider that whoever had shot the young elk might still be around, but with the grizzly no longer constituting a threat, if it was, she was able to concentrate on other things. If the hunter or hunters hadn’t put considerable distance between themselves and what they obviously had no more use for, they’d heard her shoot. They might have even heard her cry out. Songan and she were vulnerable. Maybe as much as her mother had been.
    “It’s too late to wish I’d been quiet,” she told Songan as he continued to regard her. “The damage is done. Oh, I’m so sorry I said that.” She jerked her head at the carcass. “That’s real damage.”
    The magnificent elk, who was much more than that to her, looked down at what could have been one of his offspring.
    “Do you know what I’m thinking?” she continued. “Do my words make sense?”
    With her attention fully on him, she searched her memory for what Songan had looked like the last time she’d seen him like this. Her mother still lived—had lived—in Forestville, and Rane had tried to see her every few months. Each time she did, Songan and she hooked up , but if her memory was right, she hadn’t seen him as an elk for a couple of years.
    “You’ve matured,” she told him. “All bulked up. You’re also full of fire because it’s that time of the year.” She reluctantly nodded at the inert form. “I’d hoped I’d find you here. The meadow’s a favorite place for the herd this time of year. But I wasn’t sure—I know what bulls are like during rut. Nothing takes them from the females. Not even death.”
    The elk continued to study her. His eyes made her think of wet and impenetrable obsidian. Suddenly weary, she lowered her rifle to the ground. Then she pressed the base of her hand to her forehead. Memories of the days and nights with Songan washed over her, and pressure of another kind ground into her. Maybe her sexual awareness was nothing more than needing to distance herself from the nightmare she’d been living and responding to Songan’s high testosterone level. Maybe.
    “I’ve been looking for you. I need your help.” Feeling exposed by her admission, she ran her hand into her hair, disrupting the thick, shoulder-blade-length mass as she did. “Maybe human concerns mean nothing to you this time of year. Maybe you don’t know what happened.”
    Only a few minutes ago, she’d considered herself part of the world she’d grown up in. Now she felt as if she’d lost touch with everything except pure male animal. She’d stare at him as long as he stared at her, and when that was over and he’d gone back to being nothing except a bull elk, what? Return to her mother’s empty house? Continue to be alone while the desire for justice overwhelmed her.
    “Songan,” she whispered. “I need you.”
    The elk shuddered. She’d seen the transformation and knew what to expect. Still, it had been awhile, and she’d forgotten how much power was involved.
    Even though she knew it wasn’t true, as he jerked