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for my kind, it's a miracle what the earth does for yours."

"She welcomes us as her children." He tried to put it in words she might understand, although he could feel her acceptance.

He would cover them with dirt, but not their faces. Unlike him, Solange would need the air to breathe. He moved, and the aching demands of his body moved with him.

"I could . . ." She stopped when he put his hand on her head and held her to his chest.

"You cannot tempt me, Solange. I battle with my honor. Honor is important to me. And you--you are my most precious gift. I could never live with myself if my selfishness placed you in danger. Go to sleep and it will be enough to hold you in my arms."

He had sung to her in their shared dream, and he did so now, his song to her, the haunting melody, all the things he'd always wanted to say to his lifemate.

I was half-alive for a thousand years. I'd given up hope that we'd meet in this time. Too many the centuries. All disappears As time and the darkness steal color and rhyme.

Chapter Eight

Can you find beauty in this rough-hewn woman? Can you come to love a shapeshifter like me?

SOLANGE TO DOMINIC

The female jaguar smelled blood. The scent was in her nostrils and she quickened her pace, working her way along the branches, careful not to slip. She ignored the animals scrambling to get out of her way. She had no time to hunt them, all she cared about was getting to her mother. She had finally picked up the trail after four long years. Aunt Audrey was with her, and Juliette followed, keeping her eye on Jasmine, still so young.

Solange had argued with her aunt for hours, but after all, she was only twelve, and Audrey the adult. She knew they shouldn't have brought Jasmine on the rescue mission, but they had nowhere safe to leave her. Audrey was right about that, but the cub's presence doubled the danger to them all.

Already, Solange's jaguar was a fierce fighter and she had learned to handle weapons, particularly guns. She practiced night and day. She went through hundreds of rounds of ammunition, which was difficult to get. She threw knives when she wasn't shooting guns. And she practiced in the forest, stealth and tracking, sometimes coming so close to a male jaguar, she could have reached out and touched him, but he never knew she was there. Audrey often punished her for that, but Solange didn't care. It was all for this reason. This moment. Getting her mother back.

Solange leapt from one branch to the next, and finally to the forest floor. The scent of the male jaguar was strong throughout the entire area. Her heart beat so fast. Her mother. Solange loved her fiercely and she had sworn, standing over her stepfather and brothers, that she would get her back. She'd snuck out so many times, disappearing into the interior of the rain forest for days, tracking the jaguar-men. They moved constantly, and she knew that once she'd picked up her mother's scent, if she missed this opportunity, they would never recover her.

Audrey had been torn between protecting the children and getting her sister back. In the end, Juliette and Solange had persuaded her, or perhaps it had been the knowledge that Solange would have gone by herself. Her childhood had ended there in the clearing with the bodies of her loved ones surrounding her. She never went to sleep without hearing the cries of the dead and dying, or the sound of her mother's anguish as the jaguar-men tore her daughter out of her arms and dragged her into the house to torture her.

She knew where the trail led now. The men moved prisoners often, but they used existing structures when they were on the move. Nearby was an old hut built into the trees, off the forest floor. It was rarely used, but the jaguars would know about it and they were most likely using it. Her jaguar was small still, moving through the forest along the game trails, slipping beneath large umbrella leaves as she unerringly moved close to the two trees supporting the structure.

Somewhere behind her was her aunt Audrey, ready to protect them if Solange were right and her mother was held captive in that house. Her heart beat loud, too loud, as she left the safety of the foliage and took to the