Leopard 02 - Wild Rain

harder into her shoulder, his hot breath fanning her neck.
    Furious, Rachael reached for her intellect, her human brain, her human body. Rio might have the upper hand as a male leopard, but he wasn’t going to boss her around as a human woman. She should have seen that he was circling back to the house. She should have recognized what was in his mind and taken steps to stop him.
    Already she could feel the change start. She didn’t want it. Didn’t want to go back to human form and face whatever was going to happen in her future, not after running free in the forest, but it was already too late. She felt it first in her head. The need for her human body. She felt the contraction of muscles, the sudden burning in her leg. She heard a cry escape her throat, half human, half animal as the pain in her shoulder increased.
    Rio released her immediately but didn’t make the mistake of stepping away. The huge leopard stood over her as she thrashed for a moment in the miracle of the change, then sprawled beneath him in human form. She lay on the ground, facedown, her shoulders shaking slightly, and he knew she was crying. He touched her with his muzzle, rubbing along her back to reassure her.
    Rachael rolled over, punching him hard, her eyes blazing with fury. She pummeled the male leopard, uncaring that he could rip her throat out. Uncaring that leopards were notorious for their tempers. Rio leapt sideways away from her, shifting as he did so, catching her wrists when she followed him. He swept her feet out from under her, tumbling her back to the ground, going down with her so that his larger body pressed hers into the thick mat of vegetation.
    “Calm down, Rachael.” He bit back laughter. The last rays of the sun hit her face, the soft sheen of sweat on her body. Leaves and twigs decorated the riot of curls and she was surrounded with a bright aura. She radiated fury and sex. He couldn’t help seeing her that way. She made him happy, even when she clearly wanted to scratch his eyes out. “Did you really think I was going to go crawl in a hole and live a miserable life without you? What kind of a man do you think I am?”
    “You’re an idiot, that’s what you are,” she spat back, although his words took most of her fury. She hated that, hated that he could defuse her justified anger with a few charming words, his brilliant eyes, so intensely hungry when he looked at her, and his blazingly sinful, wicked mouth. “Damn you, Rio.”
    She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
    Lightning streaked in his veins, sizzled through his bloodstream. He was alive again, his heart beating and his lungs working. He lifted his head, his green gaze burning over her face. “Damn you back, Rachael. You left me. You made me feel and then you just left me. You didn’t even have the guts to talk it over with me first. Damn you to hell for that.” He caught her head, held her still and devoured her.
    Kiss after kiss.
    She tasted his anger. It was hot and spicy and ferocious. She tasted his love. Tender and hungry and consuming. And she wanted him. Forever. For all time. As short a time or as long a time as she could have him.
    Rachael lay in the pine needles staring up at his beloved face. “I’m sorry, Rio. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I should have had the courage to talk it over with you. I thought I could live here in the forest, in my other form. I thought they wouldn’t find me if I was a leopard. At least I could still be close to you.”
    He shook his head. “If you’re one of us, then so is your brother. The sniper, the one they called Duncan, he had to be the one who put the cobra in your room before you went on the river. And he had to be the one who tried to kill you a couple of nights ago. He shifted into the form of a leopard. Only a few of us around the world can do that. He had to have known you’re capable. They would bring in hunters. Eventually they would kill you. We can’t run scared. If I’ve ever learned anything in this life, it’s that we have to think something all the way through.”
    The needles poked into her bare skin. She stood up gingerly. It was far easier maneuvering through the forest in leopard form than human. “I don’t want you hurt.”
    “And you think your brother will try to hurt me?” He took her hand, tugging until she walked with him toward the house. He pulled twigs and leaves from her hair and tossed them aside.

    She flashed a small smile. “I feel a bit