Page 78 of Love in the Wild

As though Thorne had heard Holt’s words, another echoing call rippled through the jungle.

* * *

Keza clutchedher grandson to her chest, panting hard as the females and the surviving juvenile males fled from danger. Her heart was breaking as it had the day she’d seen Mukisa’s lifeless body all those many seasons ago.

Here she was again, rescuing another infant who’d been robbed of his last parent. Akika’s mate had been killed by a leopard some time ago. Now the infant had only her. She slung the child up on her back, and his tiny black fists gripped her fur. She led the band north, seeking safety.

When she heard Thorne’s roar, she knew Akika would be avenged. The child of her heart had returned, and he would stop this black cloud of evil. Keza had seen Thorne’s mate fight, trying to save her son and the others. Keza hoped that someday she would again meet the child of her heart and his brave mate.

Until then, she and the other gorillas would hide in the mist.

19

Thorne froze in the dense vegetation as the cries of birds reached his ears. All around him the jungle was screaming in terror at the presence of danger.

“What is it?” Cameron asked. He and Bwanbale stood shoulder to shoulder behind Thorne.

“Thorne hears the jungle in a way no one else does,” Bwanbale whispered.

“Eden,” Thorne said. “The birds see her. Holt has her, and many men are with him. They’re heading northeast.”

“Toward Ntungamo?” Bwanbale asked. “That is a city past the forest.”

“No, they are headed toward the white rock—the plane crash. But first they must pass the falls.”

“Falls?” Cameron asked. “I didn’t see any waterfalls on the map, except Murchison Falls much farther north.”

“There are things in the jungle no mapmaker has ever seen,” Bwanbale explained. Isabelle and Lofty followed, along with Cameron and Bwanbale, as they all traveled behind Thorne, but he was moving swiftly, and it was hard to keep up. The birds’ warning had scared him. They had spoken of death. Then the quiet of the jungle was shattered by gunshots not far away.

“Bloody Christ!” Lofty exclaimed and checked his rifle. “I really do wish we had more guns. Sounds like those bastards are well armed.”

“Lofty, I quite agree,” Isabelle muttered. “But we didn’t have time. We could only grab what we had stored at the hunting lodge.”

“Three guns? You can’t have a decent hunting party with three guns,” Lofty muttered.

Thorne broke into their talk by letting loose a deafening roar so that Eden would know he was coming. Then he started to run, leaping through split tree trunks and over fallen logs. He needed to get to Eden, and fast.

He broke through into a small clearing and came to a stop. There were bodies everywhere. Bodies of gorillas and a few of Holt’s mercenaries. He rushed among the fallen apes, seeing faces he had known all his life, searching for his mother. Keza was not among them—but his brother was.

“Akika ...” Thorne knelt beside his brother’s lifeless body. His broad chest was splattered with crimson stains, and his once playful, lively eyes were now empty. Grief Thorne hadn’t experienced since discovering the fate of his parents came crashing down upon him. The weight of it was enough to make any man fall to his knees. Thorne threw his head back and roared again. But this call was not meant for Eden. It was a cry of sorrow, a bellow of rage.

The voices in his head were whispering, chanting things he couldn’t understand. He could only feel their meaning. A sense of coming home, and yet a danger of losing that home forever. A sense of destiny soon to be achieved, or forever lost. He was on a knife’s edge, and so much more than the life of his mate was at stake, even if he couldn’t fully understand why. He knew what he must do. He got to his feet, his chest rising and falling with harsh breaths.

“Those bastards,” Isabelle said as she caught up to Thorne.

“They are dead,” he said. “Allof them.”

Lofty and Cameron exchanged glances.

“Take us to them,” Cameron said. “We will take them down.”

There was no question of morality, no discussion of the lives of the men Holt had hired. Anyone who shot an animal like this—that man’s life was forfeit.

“Thorne, my friend,” Bwanbale called from behind him. “Go. You can reach her quicker than we can. We will follow.”

Thorne hesitated for only a moment, then ran for the nearest tree. Climbing swiftly, he gripped the long, sturdy vines and swung to a distant tree and another vine, moving faster and faster until he could smell the waterfall. The plane was not far from there. He reached the edge of the thinning woods just as he spotted Holt dragging Eden into the shallows of the river that fed into a massive waterfall below. They were trying to cross but were dangerously close to the falls. The men were clumped around Holt and Eden, all of them knee-deep in the swiftly flowing water.

“Holt!” Thorne bellowed.

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