Page 32 of Love in the Wild

Whatever she’d been about to say was lost as a trumpeting sound rang out. She turned toward the sound, and Thorne answered the elephant’s call with one of his own.

They had traveled to a place where the forest spread out into a beautiful savanna. It was a rare thing to see this small patch of land exposed to the sky in the midst of the jungle. A herd of elephants lingered on the open ground in front of them.

Two younger elephants were playing. The elders watched in quiet enjoyment. Eden couldfeelthe love the elephants bore for one another, like an invisible cloud that filled the air with hope and adoration. For a second, Eden thought she could almost hear them—hear words within their sounds and see them within their movements. Was she going crazy? Or was what Thorne had told her about how he spoke to and understood the animals just starting to make sense to her?

“You take pictures,” Thorne suggested quietly. “You must see Tembo’s infants.” He led her closer, but they still kept a respectable distance away until Tembo recognized Thorne. With the beckoning weight of his trunk, Thorne and Eden were welcomed into the elephants’ circle.

“This is Tembo’s daughter.” He pointed to the smaller infant. “And that is Tembo’s older son.”

Eden noted the size difference between the two baby elephants. The younger one stayed close to her mother and would hide beneath her belly. The older of the two was far braver and ventured close to Eden, letting her touch his head and trunk. Eden must have snapped a hundred photos of them before she turned her lens toward Thorne. He stood illuminated in the afternoon light, the sun glinting off his golden leaf crown. He faced Tembo, smiling as he held his friend’s trunk. Eden was struck by the power of that image.

Like two lords, meeting in peace and respect.

Eden’s heart fluttered as she watched him speak to Tembo like old friends. There was a magic to Thorne and the way he interacted with the animals around him. He wasn’t bound by any laws of men. He held no fear, only love and understanding. Then Thorne hugged Tembo goodbye and came back to her.

“You show me pictures?” he asked. She showed him the photos, and when he saw himself and Tembo, his smile vanished. “That is me,” he said, his tone hushed.

“Yes.” It wasn’t the first time he’d seen his own picture, but she sensed there was a question lurking behind it.

“Thorne is—Iam a good male for females?” His troubled look as he stared critically at his own face was oddly endearing. He had no idea how beautiful he was.

“Thorne, you are very handsome.”

“Handsome?”

“Pleasing to females,verypleasing,” she explained. Then she added to herself silently,A little too pleasing.

He grinned again, his confidence restored. Tembo suddenly trumpeted, and Thorne tensed.

“What is it?”

“Tembo says danger is near. The herd must leave. We must go.” Thorne’s eyebrows lowered, and his mouth hardened into a line as he searched the meadow. Eden turned off her camera and shoved it back in her bag.

“Come now,” Thorne urged as the elephants began to huddle and move across the meadow in a solid group, the two infants between them.

Eden kept close to Thorne as he led her back in the direction they had come. Thorne stopped and ever so slowly put her behind him as he faced the meadow. His body seemed almost to expand as he made himself appear larger to whatever threat he sensed was out there.

Then she saw it. The golden shape creeping toward them in the tall wheat-colored meadow. A male lion. Eden knew enough about lion prides to know that female lions hunted together, not males. This male lion was likely without a pride and therefore probably desperate for food.

Eden was paralyzed with fear. She’d seen what damage a big cat’s claws could do.

“Eden,” Thorne whispered, “when lion attacks, you run.”

“I can’t leave you.” Even if it got her killed, she wouldn’t leave him.

“You will. I fight lion before.”

Eden felt helpless as she saw him advance toward the shape in the grass. He removed a small dagger from the waistband of his loincloth, but it wouldn’t be enough, not against a lion.

Thorne began to sidestep, circling the beast as it tracked them toward the thick jungle. Eden kept behind him, not out of fear for herself, although she was beyond terrified. No, she stayed with him because shewouldn’tleave him, no matter what he said. Thorne shot a look toward the trees behind him, his face shadowed with a dark scowl of ferocity.

“Eden, run!” he shouted just as the lion leapt at them from the grass.

Eden didn’t run, but she did move out of the way. Thorne lunged to the side and grasped a vine hanging from a tree. He swung it around the lion’s neck. The lion shrieked in rage, slashing its claws in the air toward Thorne as he spun around behind it, closing the noose of the vine about the creature’s neck. He held the knife and wound the vine tight around his arm until the lion ceased struggling. Then it went limp. Thorne held still a moment longer before he let go. With careful hands, he loosened the vine. The lion’s eyes fluttered as it started to come around.

Thorne rushed toward Eden and grabbed her hand, pulling her as they ran back into the jungle. It was only then as she fell in step behind him that she saw the slashes across his back from the lion’s claws. Thorne was bleeding.

“Wait, you’re hurt.” She tried to pull them to a halt, but he was too strong.

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