gesture of comradery. She whirled around and ran to the one spot she felt Jewel could at least stay protected for a short period of time.
She hurried over to the tree where she felt Jewel had the best chance to hold off the male who would be coming for her. They were getting closer, their sawing challenges ripping through the night, setting the adrenaline flooding her body.
Your plan? Mitya hissed it. He was already moving toward the tree she’d selected to use. It was tall, but the trunk wasn’t particularly hardy, and the branches quickly became thin and straggly.
Years ago, when I was barely ten or eleven, my grandfather took me out fishing. We talked at great length about all sorts of things and he ended up showing me how to make spears and traps.
As she talked, she began sharpening as many small but thick sticks as she could. She pointed to the ground beneath the tree. Because it had recently rained, the ground was soft. As soon as she finished one small spike, she began sharpening another. It had been a particularly fun day with her grandfather, and she cherished those memories.
I practiced making the spear and the other traps he showed me. She was the type of dedicated person to keep working at it until she was extremely proficient, just as she had with her shooting and driving.
Mitya emerged the moment he understood her plan and he quickly began to shove the spikes into the ground. They were no more than about nine inches and it was easy to push them into the soft dirt. In a matter of minutes, they had a lethal section under the tree. She quickly went up the tree, laying the makeshift spear into some flimsy branches.
“Jewel’s small,” she said. “Those branches can take her weight, but not a male’s. If I can get him to climb up after me and then fall onto those spikes, she has a chance.”
“Those spikes aren’t going to kill a leopard, Ania.”
“I don’t have to kill him. Only delay him. I hope to hurt him badly enough that you won’t have to fight so hard to kill him.”
Mitya slung his arm around her neck. He smelled wild. Feral. Even his skin felt different, as if his leopard was so close fur might break through any moment.
“I’m crazy about you, woman,” he whispered.
He kissed her, and she couldn’t think straight for a moment. They broke apart, Mitya shifting in that split second, moving away from her fast. Dymka would have to fight two very experienced leopards and he couldn’t be distracted. He had to keep attention centered on him.
Ania knew her plan was a good one. She was very fortunate that Jewel was so small, and her weight would be an advantage in the tree. Quickly, she gathered a few rocks and took them up the tree to place in various crotches of limbs, and then, after finding a good branch that would hold Jewel’s weight, she once again hurried down the tree and called on the female to retake the form.
It was so much easier the second time. Ania had been a little afraid of shifting without Mitya right there, but she let go of herself faster and it didn’t hurt quite as much now that she knew what was going to happen. Jewel wasn’t as afraid of emerging as she had been before.
We can do this, Jewel, Ania reassured with as much confidence as she could muster. Dymka is unstoppable. They cannot defeat him. He will fight to the death for you.
The female was desperate, in the throes of her heat, and she couldn’t stop rubbing her enticing pheromones everywhere, on every tree trunk, the brush, along fallen logs. She spread her alluring scent across the ground leading to the small tree Ania had selected in order for her to be safe.
Jewel didn’t want to be safe. She wanted the males to fight over her. Dymka needed to prove he was the strongest, the fiercest, the male who deserved her. On the other hand, if he wasn’t going to hurt her and his human counterpart wasn’t going to harm Ania, then he would be her choice. He should just have to prove she was right in her selection of him.
She made certain the ground, fallen tree trunks and every bush were filled with her tempting, enthralling scent. That was exactly what Ania wanted her to do. Lure the third cat away from Dymka.