trees once more. She spotted a sentry in the branches high above the wooden shelter. A jaguar lay in the shadows of the canopy, sleepy, nearly dozing, only the tip of his tail occasionally twitching.
Solange kept a wary eye on him as she crawled along the twisted limb. She was shaking with fear and anticipation. She had dreamt of this moment, prayed for it, spent the last four years preparing for it. Now that the moment was at hand, she could barely control herself. She needed every ounce of stealth she'd worked on to maintain the slow, inch- by-inch freeze-frame of her kind to keep from drawing the eye of the sentry. The closer she got to that tiny house, the more the scent of her mother filled her lungs. She dragged herself across the two feet of sparse cover to gain the porch. She was now out of the sentry's sight. She pulled herself up and peered into the dirty window. A woman half sat, half sprawled on the floor, a collar around her neck, her hands tied behind her. Her face was swollen, one eye closed. A cut on her lip oozed blood and there were bruises on her face and neck and down her arms.
Solange didn't recognize her for a moment. She was thin, like a skeleton, her once glorious hair hanging in matted dreads. She raised her head slowly and opened her one good eye. They stared at one another, Solange afraid her heart would shatter. The fire was long gone from her mother, leaving a broken shell of a woman.
Solange looked around the room. Her mother was alone. It was now or never. She slipped inside and rushed across the space. She used her teeth on the ropes binding her mother. Sabine Sangria shook her head, tears leaking from her eyes.
"You shouldn't have come, baby," she whispered.
Solange thrust her head against her mother, the only way she could convey her deep love. They had to hurry. There was no time to throw herself into her mother's arms. They had to go before the others returned. She watched her mother struggle to her feet and limp slowly across the floor to the door. They both peered out. Solange started to push her way out of the room, but her mother dropped a restraining hand on her shoulder. Solange paused and looked up.
" Never let them take you alive, Solange. Do you understand me? They are worse than monsters, and you can't let them get their hands on you."
Solange nodded. She'd seen them. She had seen too many women after the jaguar-men had gotten their hands on them to not realize the brutality of these men.
"Audrey? The girls?" There was anxiety in Sabine's voice.
Solange indicated with her head they were waiting outside. Sabine nodded and Solange slipped out the door, her heart nearly bursting with joy. She couldn't wait to put her arms around her mother and just hold her close. Four years of working toward this one moment and she was so close. She forced herself to go slow across that open space.
She turned back to watch as her mother shifted. She could hardly bear to take her eyes off her mother. It was shocking to see the effort it took to shift, the gasping pain for both the human and animal. Did her mother have internal damage? Broken bones? Only that kind of pain could affect the cat. Solange tried to keep an eye on her mother as they carefully crossed that nearly open space on the branch together and made their way stealthily through the canopy toward freedom.
As they put a good mile between them and the jaguar sentry, Solange allowed joy to burst through her. They'd done it. They had finally brought her mother home. She wanted to weep with happiness. The little cub suddenly squawked and shifted into human form, and Jasmine nearly fell from the canopy. She didn't make a sound, a child already well versed in the need for absolute silence. She had never been able to hold the jaguar form for long. Her father had been human. Had she been in the village the day Brodrick had come, she would have been killed with the others.
They waited while she awkwardly crawled onto her sister's back and, because she was in human form and it was too dangerous to continue moving through the canopy, they made their way to the forest floor. Audrey had the weapons stashed in a bag