Hunting the She-Cat Read Online Free PDF Page B

looking watch buzzed like
a cell phone.
    After reading something on the screen,
Lugar said, “I must leave you for now. I will return in the
morning.”
    Mindless of the watching eyes of
Bronson, Sala and the stragglers, he pulled her out on the balcony
and kissed her hard and fast on the lips. Then left the same way he
came. Via the balcony fire escape steps. Her heart pounded as she
realized she heard no sound of footfalls on the metal
treads.
    She knew he left her as a
cat.

Chapter Four

    The next morning early, Misha
ran.
    And damn it all, she wished the rest of
the world would hurry it up a bit to match her urgent need of
escape. Time seemed to creep as she went through airport security
lines, her carry on bags disappearing inside the scanner’s black
rubber strips at last.
    O’Hare was large and urban, but Misha’s
senses clanged, warning her of many dangers just as they did when
she was in the open wilds. But here it was overload, painful. Like
any other cat, alert senses gave her an edge, kept her
alive.
    Pursued. She felt pursued.
    She had the creeping, itching feeling
the large cat followed her, silently padding along behind her. The
fine hair at the back of her neck seemed to stand at attention.
Silly, silly imagination. Impossible. No man, not even one as
forceful and demanding as Lugar could follow her today. She’d been
careful to see to it. Well, no normal male could.
    Heavens, he was no normal mortal male.
She might even be falling into his hands or, that would be, claws
and fangs.
    The urge to leave her belongings and
run past the airport guards was nearly overpowering. She forced her
self to relax, be calm. In her life, she’d faced worse threats than
a male who made her want sex. Hadn’t she? Maybe not.
    Casually, she turned, looking all
around behind her. No one there.
    She sighed and smiled politely as they
let her into the boarding gate concourse area.
    Minutes later, when she settled into
her seat on the small commuter express plane, the same fight or
flight feelings washed over her in waves, sharpening her senses.
She could hear every word the pilots said in the
cockpit.
    She sank into her seat, staying low, as
if she were the prey and not the predator today. She forced herself
to close her eyes and rest, lulled and quieted by the steady hum of
the engines. She preferred that to eavesdropping on the
pilots.
    Two hours later, she walked into the
arms of Uncle Joseph Red Bird. He’d aged. His walk was stiff, his
shoulder popped as he hugged her close.
    “It has been too long my Misha girl.
Too long you have stayed away from these hills of home.” He patted
her with the awkwardness of a father. “We’ve missed you,
love.”
    “You too. You too.”
    “Then why stay away?”
    She shrugged. Damned if she knew. Other
than her work and a handful of friends, or the purring excitement
of Chicago days, why indeed?
    “You will stay at Bear Track Cabin, as
always? I can not talk you into staying in my home?”
    She grinned weakly and nodded. “I love
my cabin. Thank you for taking care of it for me. I need to think,
Uncle. I can think and unwind there.”
    “You need to hide and lick your
wounds,” he refuted. “You will come by for a good meal with all the
family before you go back to the Wild City?”
    “That’s Windy City, Uncle. Yes. If I
can. I’ll try.”
    “Good. If not, we’ll come to
you.”
    When she said nothing more, he went on,
“The big cat walks again, Mish. Saw the tracks by the creek myself.
Take my dogs up there with you.”
    “You mean the one they say is
unnatural, oversized tracks?” She blinked rapidly. “That was a
kid’s prank. Years ago.” How could the cat walk the woods when
she’d been in Chicago all last week?
    “Right, bigger tracks.” His dark eyes
pierced her. “Always believed in the cat myself. Felt it. The beast
learned to cover its tracks and hide better. She was a baby then.”
Did his eyes carry a warning?
    “Listen, Mish. These are even