Page 3 of Mountain Air
Chapter Two
Garrett heard the yowl as he got to the back of the station and not bothering to shift, he took off running. He’d get there faster in lion form anyway. Mountain lions hit fifty mph at top speed. He thought the yowl sounded like his sister, Kim.
Rounding the corner near the cliff, he saw a man standing on the trail, hands by his side, with his sister in shifted form between him and the brush to the mountain side of the path. Her hackles were raised, and she was baring her teeth. The man smelled like shifter but was in human form. He was just standing there silently, not moving an inch. What the hell was going on?
He approached the pair and let out a low growl, basically telling his sister to calm her shit. As he got closer and looked at her, he could see that her eyes were glazed. She looked high as a kite. How the hell had she shifted while on something? More importantly, why was she taking something and where the fuck had she gotten them?
::Kim, back off. This guy can’t hurt you.::Worth a try to talk to her telepathically.
::He’s going to kill my babies. Can’t let him touch the girls.::
Damn it. The girls were here? Garrett looked behind Kim and sure enough, his nieces were huddled together against a tree stump. Time to curtail this mess before his uncle found out.
::Kim, go home and shift. I’ll take care of the girls.::
::Have to protect babies. Have to kill.::
Oh fuck no. Not while he was breathing. Garrett shook his head and shifted. It didn’t take more than a minute before he was kneeling, naked as the day he was born, on the trail. Standing up, he stepped between his sister and the man, his back to the guy.
“Kim, I’ve got this. You know I won’t let the girls get hurt. Go home and shift.” Garrett put a bit of alpha behind his instructions this time. He watched as the confusion passed over Kim’s face. Even through whatever drug was floating through her system, her lion couldn’t fight the alphasuadere. “Go. I’ve got Kelsey and Erin.”
It took another minute before Kim yowled at him then with a glance at the girls, she ran off toward the river. Her direction didn’t make sense to Garrett, but he’d deal with that later. His highest priorities were the girls and the guy behind him.
A quick check of the cubs told him that they were fine. Just seemed a bit scared. And why wouldn’t they be with a strange lion standing in front of them. A gentle rub to their heads and another wave of alpha suadere and they settled right down. Now to deal with the guy.
Turning, Garrett took his first look at the man. Close to six feet, brown hair, trimmed beard along his jaw, didn’t look too muscular, his face was a bit ragged but attractive. “Who are you and why didn’t you report to the local conclave when you arrived?”
“Conclave? I’m not a shifter,” the man stammered out.
“I smell mountain lion all over you. Now who the fuck are you?” Garrett demanded.
“I don’t know who you are but I’m Doctor Robert Brown, here to study the invasive plants attacking the park’s environment. And you are mistaken because I am not a shifter of any species. Now, not that I’m not appreciating the view, but don’t you think you should pull on some clothes?”
This was the researcher Garrett was supposed to help for however long? Oh yeah, lucky him. “Don’t like my flux capacitor, Doc?”
