Lucas would be ragging on him. Everyone thought it was hilarious that he was so clumsy in cat form when he was sniper-quiet in his human body. But there was a deep, deep joy mixed in with all the teasing, an almost crushing wave of love from the pack that had not only accepted him, but respected him exactly as he was—and who were now delighted with his happiness in being able to set his leopard free.
Thanks to Shaya.
His back arching at the thought of his mate, a low, pleased growl rumbling in his throat, he padded off after his alpha as Lucas led him on an easy run through the trees. He’d have stumbled over his feet at least five times by now only a few months back, but had no such trouble today, taking the small jumps over fallen logs with ease, even using flat stones to cross a tumbling stream.
Then Lucas disappeared in a streak of black lightning.
Dorian froze.
This was something he’d done to trainees all too often himself, though he’d been in human form at the time. The aim of the game was to track Lucas within a reasonable time frame—how long depended on the trainee in question. In Dorian’s case, in human form, Lucas would give no quarter.
It annoyed him that he wasn’t as attuned to his senses in leopard form, but he still had his brain. Standing very, very still, he let the leopard rise to the surface. He’d become so used to controlling it that for the first month, he’d had real trouble letting go—until his mate had taken his face into her hands, kissed the life out of him, and told him that she wanted to speak to his leopard.
Turned out his leopard wanted to play with her, too.
“So beautiful,” she’d murmured as she ran those long, capable fingers through his fur as the leopard placed its head in her lap and closed its eyes. “And so lazy.”
He’d growled then, heard her laugh, both man and leopard entranced by the sound. No matter what form he held, he loved her, adored her. That simply, she’d made him understand that he was still himself, even when the leopard took precedence.
Today, the cat plucked out Lucas’s powerful scent from the air and began to run over the fallen autumn leaves, its steps light and silent. Deep within, the human part of Dorian watched in quiet pleasure—he wasn’t as clumsy as he’d thought, not anymore. Because though it had been forced to live within a human skin all those years, the leopard hadn’t ever given up. Instead, it had learned from the sniper.
Today it veered sharply away as it caught the barest whisper of movement from the right, rolling onto a heavy carpet of leaves just as a large leopard slammed out at him. The gold and black cat hit him on the side in a glancing blow, but Dorian had already danced out of reach. Snarling, he turned to bring down his opponent . . . to see Clay sitting there watching him with pure calm—as if he hadn’t just tried to make Dorian eat dust.
When he snarled again, his fellow sentinel laid his head on his paws and pretended to go to sleep.
This wasn’t only hide-and-seek. This was a hunt. And Dorian had just lost a point.
Exhilaration raced through him—because his fellow sentinels and his alpha weren’t cutting him a break. They were treating him as exactly what he was: one of them.
With that in mind, he began to move with even more stealth. All the sentinels were powerful, and they all had their own personal strengths. Vaughn, for example, was one hell of a climber, while Mercy could hide in plain sight by standing utterly motionless.
A new scent in his nose, so faint the man might have ignored it. But the leopard froze . . . and changed direction, to circle back in on its prey.
The jaguar lying in wait on a tree branch didn’t see him as he came around to stand below the tree, staring up.
Point to me.
He gave a pointed cough-growl.
Vaughn’s head whipped back, and even from this far away, Dorian could tell the jaguar was pissed at having been shown up by “the newborn,” as his friends liked to call him when they were trying to drive him nuts.
Snorting in disgruntlement, Vaughn padded down the branch and jumped off to disappear into the trees. Dorian smiled inwardly and was just about to head back on the trail when