She heard Ianâs unspoken messageâthe potential that there were things she might want him to do. His eyes told her as much, seeing her absorb the meaning, confirming itâsmiling just there at the corner of his mouth.
Run away. Run fast.
Run to safety, where the flush of her awareness wouldnât expand into a flush of wantingâof wondering what it would be like to be touched by such strength and consideration. As if this man might just give back as much as he received.
Ana took a sharp breath, using it to slap herself back to reality. There would be no running, no matter how smart it would be.
The Sentinels
Long ago and far away, in Roman/Gaulish days, one woman had a tumultuous lifeâshe fell in love with a druid, by whom she had a son. The man was killed by Romans. She was subsequently taken into the household of a Roman, who fathered her second son. The druidâs son turned out to be a man of many talents, including the occasional ability to shape-shift into a wild boar, albeit at great cost.
The womanâs younger son, who considered himself superior in all ways, had none of these earthly powers and went hunting to find ways to be impressive and acquire power. He justified his various activities by claiming he needed to protect the area from his brother, who had too much power to go unchecked ⦠but in the end, it was his brotherâs family who grew into the Vigilia, now known as the Sentinels, while the younger son founded what turned into the vile Atrum Core â¦
Prologue
Ana Dikau saw him before anyone else did.
The rest of the Atrum Core team crouched behind a camo blind in the pines uphill of the narrow, rocky trail, watching the camera feeds on a laptop encased in a rugged military shell. The wireless cameras pointed down along the trail, one of the less popular tracts of New Mexicoâs high, looming Sangre de Cristo mountains.
But Ana watched the trail itself, and she saw Ian Scott firstâa shock of bright silvered hair, long and spiky and pretty much unreal in the perfection of its fall across his forehead. Crazy lean features and cheekbones to match his jaw, a rangy body to match his face, and a way of moving that made her feel quiet and small and very much like preyâa flush of warmth and awareness.
Then again, she had practice at feeling like prey. And she was far too aware of this manâs Sentinel nature. The fact that he was so much more than human.
Snow leopard.
Walking into an Atrum Core trap.
Not to capture himâthey knew better than that. There were far too many strictures between the Core septs prince and the Sentinel consul, between their factions as a whole. Direct action meant trouble. Even indirect action such as that they were about to undertake...
It was risky.
So they were hedging their bets. Filming this staged encounter to justify their need for action.
Anaâs new assignment.
Sheâd long begged for this opportunity, a mission that would prove her worthy of more than her usual personal assistant work for Hollender Lerche, her supervisor since sheâd been transferred to active Core duty at the tender age of thirteen.
Ian Scott bounded a few effortless steps uphill to clear a scattering of hard-edged rocks embedded in the trail, and she drew a deep, sharp breathâholding it, all unaware, until her lungs ached. He was beautiful in an uncivilized way, muscle and lean form perfectly evident under a casual shirt and the dark gray cargo pants riding low on his hips, shaping the strong curve of his bottom.
He was the enemy.
The team leader murmured into his field mike, âYouâre on.â She didnât know his name. It didnât matter; she hadnât expected the courtesy of an introduction. All that mattered was what came next.
The mountain lion, barely caged just down the trail from their position.
The animal had been caged for days, starved and prodded into a frenzy. The hiker was one of their own, a man familiar to Ana who was working off a disgraceful failureâand he was already scented with blood and mountain lion urine.
Ana wasnât sure he knew it, though.
The mountain lion knew.
Freed, the beast didnât hesitate. It charged onto the trail in a snarling blur of tawny motion, claws already reaching to bat the man down.
The big cat screamed and the man screamed with itâa bloodcurdling thing with all the authenticity the team could have wanted. Convincing, because the man hadnât known these details of his work.