Jace shook himself, aching all over, but he considered himself lucky. He hadn’t broken anything as far as he could tell, and though chunks of his fur had burned off and his skin smarted, he would heal.
His left paw hurt like hell, though. The last thing he remembered was clutching Deni’s bracelet as the plane hit the earth. Jace flexed the pads of his empty paw and looked back at the burning wreck. He’d dropped the bracelet. Deni’s bracelet, which he’d promised to keep safe for her. No.
He started to run back toward the plane before his leopard brain stopped him. Let it go. The mate bond wrapping him whimpered. That bracelet had been part of her, and she’d entrusted it to him.
Let it go. Think. Survive.
Flee.
Jace was free. No one knew where he was. When humans came to find the plane, they wouldn’t even know he’d been in it. He’d been smuggled goods. Shifters, including Deni and his family, would think him dead inside it. Deni would cry. So would his dad.
Grief bit at Jace, but in his cat form, survival came first. He scanned the ground again. The first thing he noticed was a coyote, thin-legged and mangy, waiting to see if the two from the wreck would die. Easier pickings than rabbits the coyote had to chase.
Dark specks appeared in the sky as well, circling higher as they spotted Jace looking at them. Turkey buzzards, big and black, they also waiting to see whether they’d feast today. This was the kill-or-be-killed wild out here, no rules in sight.
Jace snarled and rushed at the coyote. The flea-bitten beast snarled in response but fled. Not far, though. Out of reach of Jace’s charge, the coyote stopped and waited.
Jace growled his challenge. In spite of being half-burned and thrown around a wreck, Jace felt strong, more so than he had in a long time. The pain of his Collar was completely gone, and in fact, he couldn’t even feel the Collar biting into him anymore. He shook himself again and sat down to let his back paw reach up to his neck to scratch.
He stopped. His delicate back toes didn’t find a chain, burned or loose, or tight and whole. He swiped his neck with a front paw, with the same result.
Jace told himself to shift, to make sure, and he would—when he could remember how to. The leopard wanted to stay in this form, so Jace was staying in this form.
He writhed around, trying to find the Collar with each of his paws in turn, probably to the amusement of the coyote. Actually, the coyote didn’t care—he was simply waiting to see whether Jace would be food or danger.
No, wait—the coyote had vanished. Damn him, he’d been sneaking up on Marlo while Jace went through his contortions. The coyote darted in, ready to drag Marlo—or pieces of him—away to his pack.
Jace went for the coyote. Ears up, paws moving in perfect rhythm, Jace rushed the scavenger. He didn’t snarl or make any noise—he didn’t have to.
The coyote barely got away from Jace’s striking paw. Jace caught his tail with a claw, causing the coyote to yelp and run. Jace chased him, the leopard rejoicing in the hunt, until he realized that the buzzards had taken the opportunity to land near Marlo and see if there were any good pickings.
Jace turned and barreled toward the birds, who flapped away with slow disdain. He snarled this time, making his fur stand up so he’d be large and menacing.
He knew for certain that his Collar was gone when he finally stopped and planted himself near Marlo. He’d been ready to kill the coyote and savage its body, and the Collar hadn’t tried to stop him. Jace had mastered the meditation technique, yes, but out here, chasing away scavengers while trying to stay away from a burning plane, he hadn’t exactly been meditating.
The Collar was gone. Completely. It must have fallen off in the wreckage or while Jace had been dragging Marlo away from it.
That meant that somehow in the burning mess that had been Marlo’s airplane, Jace’s Collar had slipped off, every link of it, without hurting him and without making the world spin into insanity.
Jace sat, blinking, even his leopard realizing the enormity of it. Now, if he could shift back to human, find his way home, and try to figure out exactly how it had happened, all Shifters would benefit.
Or he could stay in the wild. For the first time in twenty years, Jace was free. No more Collar, no more rules, no Shiftertowns, just wind, earth, sky, and small-brained predators.
Free, he repeated.
The only thing that kept his triumphant wildcat from taking over and erasing his human thoughts completely was one word: Deni.
Jace would find her and free her too. Then he’d live out his life with her, the mate of his heart. No one in this wide wilderness would be able to prevail against a wolf and a snow leopard. He and Deni would be free to be alone together, mates in the wild, as Shifters were meant to be.
Even in this vast place, someone would have reported a crashing plane by now. The humans would be coming. Jace didn’t intend to let them find him here.
He grabbed Marlo by the shirt, dragged him closer to the burning wreckage, which would keep the scavengers away for a while, then turned and loped off into the tall Texas grasses. His paw still hurt him, but that was a minor inconvenience.
* * *
Eric hadn’t heard from his son all day, he told Deni, and Jace likely had his cell phone off. Eric was worried too, but Marlo’s plane was old and slow. It wouldn’t land in Las Vegas until late in the evening, but Eric would keep his ear out. He sounded plenty anxious, but tried to calm Deni’s fears, as a good Shifter alpha should.
Liam too reassured her. Flying under the radar took time, Marlo often stopped to refuel or lie low for a few hours. Marlo had a cell phone, but he wasn’t answering either, and he didn’t always.
After Liam left to open the bar in the afternoon, Deni paced, snapped at everyone, and got nothing done. Any pats on the back or calming words only irritated her. Eric and Liam were probably right—but Tiger’s words about seeing something wrong with the mate bond, plus the tightness in Deni’s chest made her half crazy.
Ellison left for the bar after Liam, telling Deni and his mate that Liam had called a tracker meeting. That meant trackers only—the Shifters who worked for Liam as bodyguards, investigators, or peacekeepers as need be. Ronan, Ellison, Spike, Sean, Tiger, and Dylan made their way there, leaving Deni restless and barely in control of herself.
At five, she couldn’t stand it anymore. Deni walked out of the house and down the block, making her way to the bar on the edge of Shiftertown.
The parking lot was already full. This bar was a popular stop on the way home from work for humans who liked Shifters. Groupies were already there, lounging about suggestively, waiting for Shifters to come looking. With the fight club shut down for a while, the groupies had decided to pile on here, it seemed.