landing, laughing when Heath cursed behind me at the same bump. Haley was right. It wasn’t an easy ride and, while I wouldn’t tell her, it was harder than I was used to.
No one else noticed it but Heath and me. I slammed on my brake about ten minutes into the winding ride and narrowed my eyes at an invisible line.
“What?” Haley demanded from in front of us.
“This is a territory boundary,” I said softly. I had expected to find it much earlier, like when we were bringing up the cars.
“And?” Heath pulled along beside me. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Its placement doesn’t make much sense to me.”
“They roamed all of these mountains. There’s no way this is the line,” Haley snapped. “What are you talking about?”
“This is where their territories technically stop,” I snapped back. “You’re human, so you don’t feel it the way I do.”
“How big would you guess by the map?”
“Smaller than mine?” I sighed. “Where are we right now, technically?”
“North Cascades National Park,” Gina answered as she and John stopped behind us.
“There’s a chance they made multiple territories,” I commented, still thinking about it. “Or smaller territories that didn’t require much maintenance and commonly roamed outside of it. Jabari would have noticed this too. It’s not common, but in an area like this, it makes sense. They wouldn’t be too worried about another werecat coming for them. While werecats are reclusive, not many of us are this reclusive. We like to live on the border of human society, not completely removed from it. I’ll have to explore more to figure it out, but by your description, their territories, especially Titan’s, should have been passed into much further south. We should have noticed on that road. The 20.” I tapped my foot. “Did Titan spend most of his time down South?”
“Yeah, but he came up here often to visit Gaia.”
“Then we’re visiting her territory and definitely not still in his own.” I looked at Heath. “It’s going to be a long day.”
He leaned closer. “Are you avoiding crossing into the territory?”
“A little,” I admitted. “I’ve only ever been in one werecat’s territory, and that was Hasan’s. There are…things I have to pay attention to.”
“Is there a chance their territories have gotten smaller since they died?” He ignored the humans waiting impatiently around us. Haley perked up at the question. Part of me wondered if she didn’t like not knowing everything about the werecats who had lived here. Now, she was getting the education of her life.
“No. The magic doesn’t work like that. It fades with time, either because we’re dead or not in it, refreshing our connection to the land, but it takes a lot of time or another werecat claiming it for the magic to truly disappear. And it’s not a shrinking. It just fades and fades until it’s all…free.” I shrugged. “At least, that’s how I was taught.”
“I would trust your education on the matter more than anyone else’s,” he said with a small smile. “What are you looking out for? All I can tell is that werecat land is right in front of me. I know when I’m in your territory or when I’m about to enter it but that’s it.”
“The feel of the land,” I whispered. “Let’s get to it.”
I slid off the bike and let Heath go ahead of me, pushing it along until I crossed the invisible border.
16
Chapter Sixteen
I gasped as I stepped inside the boundary. My chest felt like it was hit by the emotional currents of the area. An immediate hostility made me want to back out. This wasn’t a werecat I wanted to challenge. This wasn’t land I wanted. It wasn’t mine. It belonged to someone else, and I had to leave. The feminine rage that filled my senses terrified me. I wasn’t an old enough werecat to handle this fight.
She’s dead. Gaia is dead, Jacky. This land is free. All I’m feeling is the residual rage she felt. This was her last moment. She was enraged at an intruder. It’s not me. She’s not coming right now to battle me out of the territory.
I took several deep breaths as my logical brain fought against my primal instincts. I had never felt this sort of anger in Hasan’s territory when I had lived with him. His territory had been welcoming. His emotions toward me changed the way the land felt.
This was the kind of signal I would send to a rogue who walked into my territory. Normally,