threatening presence was uphill from the cabin, how far, he had no idea, but it drew him.
John padded silently over the rough terrain, tongue lolling, hackles raised and nose constantly scenting the ground. He could smell nothing out of the ordinary, earth and animal, pine needles and leaf mold, but the sense of a foreign presence on the mountain grew stronger as he loped along. He paused at a stream trickling from a fissure in the earth and drank deeply, lifted his dripping muzzle and gazed into the darkness.
The world looked different through animal eyes. Shapes and shadows were sharper and clearer, and their patterns spoke to him in a different way. The thing that was drawing him up the mountain was not a normal part of nature. It was foreign, beyond his comprehension—and evil. He had no idea how he knew all this but the impressions broke over him with the clarity of a sunrise. The being would have to be killed, taken down like a rabid animal before it spread its infection further.
He sensed he was still far from his goal, whatever it was, and Sherrie lay alone and unprotected in the cabin. He must get back to her. Intuition never steered him wrong so he listened to the inner voice that told him to go back, abruptly turning and trotting downhill.
Light glowed through the windows of the cabin in the hollow. Thinking about Sherrie naked on the futon made him pant and run faster. His cock hardened as he imagined mounting her. She’d be sleepy at first, but would quickly wake and respond as he rammed into her. Their joining would be rough, hard and fast and when it was over, he’d do it again, slowly and gently with more of his human mind engaged. He’d give her complete pleasure.
If she were a shifter, he’d stay in wolf form while he fucked her, but it was too much to expect a human woman to welcome him like this. Before he reached the cabin, he changed from his animal shape and was walking upright by the time he reached the steps. He could smell Sherrie’s earthy musk before he pushed the door open—and something else. A stranger. Another male.
He threw open the door to see a naked man bending over the woman on the bed. Cougar, his senses identified, and John launched himself across the room at the cat-shifter. Grabbing hold of the taller man’s shoulder, he spun him around and plowed a fist into his face. His head snapped to the side, but he quickly recovered and punched John in the gut, knocking the breath from him.
Sherrie screamed and jumped from the bed. John sucked in a painful breath and drove his shoulder into the blond man’s abdomen, trying to knock him off balance. It was like ramming into a tree trunk.
The man cuffed John in the head with one big fist, sending him flying across the room. Pain shot through his shoulder as he hit the wall and slid down it. Shifting even as he fell, he became wolf again and ready to fight with tooth and claw. He sprang toward the panther, jaws open, intent on ripping him apart while he was in his vulnerable human form. Once the stranger shifted, he’d again be outmatched.
His attention was focused on the man before him, whose shape shimmered and began to change even as John lunged at him. Then, suddenly, the panther-shifter crumpled and fell to the floor.
Sherrie stood over him with a wooden chair clutched in her hands, her eyes wide and her bare breasts rising and falling as she gasped for breath.
John stopped his leap before it carried him over his opponent’s prone body and into her. He nosed the fallen man, memorizing his scent, and considered tearing out his throat before he regained consciousness.
But that would destroy the fragile truce between wolf and panther. It would be better to find out why the cat was down here in wolf territory and what he wanted with Sherrie.
John gathered his flagging energy and shifted into human form once more.
Chapter Four
Sherrie clung to the chair she’d cracked over the stranger’s head and stared at his sprawled,