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Each footstep she took intensified her fears. Katie must be freezing. Terrified. What if she’d fallen and gotten hurt? What if she slipped off one of the ridges? What if a man had her, and he hadn’t brought her into the forest?
No, Katie had to be out here. Sonya hadn’t heard a car engine. She grabbed a vine and pulled herself along, shining the flashlight across the snowpacked ground, pushing through bramble and broken limbs. The white haze of swirling snow blurred her vision, and she swiped at her eyes, willing them to focus.
Up above, she saw a faint flash. The color red.
Katie’s red pajamas?
Her pulse raced. “Katie!” She began to run, slogging through the thick weight of the downfall. Cold bit at her cheeks and nose, and her limbs felt heavy. Wet sludge squished beneath her boots, and twigs and dead leaves crackled.
She spotted the red again, just a quick flash, then the outline of a small form. An animal? A deer, maybe?
No, her daughter hobbling on her crutches, her frail body swaying as she struggled against the elements.
Sonya screamed Katie’s name again and launched into a jog. A limb shattered, then crashed to the ground. Ice and snow rained down on her. Sonya jumped over the limb and pushed forward. Another splintered and slammed into her arm. She threw it aside and tore through some fallen branches, desperate to get to her little girl.
Suddenly Katie went down. Her small body disappeared, lost in the blizzard. Panic ripped through Sonya. Where was Katie? The heavy snow could bury her alive within minutes.
Swiping at tears, she sprinted faster, searching, praying, turning to scan the area where she’d seen Katie a moment earlier. Finally she spotted one crutch sticking up from the ground. Her heart throbbed as she closed the distance.
Katie was lying in the thick snow and ice, trying to battle her way up against the ferocious wind, but it pulled her down as if it were quicksand.
Oh God, her poor baby.
Sonya’s paramedic training kicked in. She had to hurry and get Katie warm before hypothermia set in.
Her breath puffed out in clouds of white as she jogged to her. Katie looked up, her eyes full of terror. “Mommy!”
“Shh, Mommy’s got you.” Sonya leaned forward to scoop Katie into her arms, but a loud, horrifying animal-like cry splintered the air. Katie screamed, and Sonya’s lungs tightened as something slammed into her back. She pitched forward, clawed at the air, anything to break her fall, but ice and snow pelted her face and stung her hands as she collapsed.
“Mommy!”
Something sharp clawed at her back through her coat. Sonya sent Katie a panicked look, but waved to her daughter. “Run, Katie! Run! Find shelter!”
Katie’s cheeks ballooned with exertion as she grabbed the crutch from the ground and dragged herself up to stand.
The animal tore at Sonya again, viciously assaulting her, shredding her jacket and ripping through her flannel gown.
Sonya grabbed a broken limb and swung it backward, trying to fend off her attacker long enough for Katie to escape.
“Mommy!” Katie cried.
“Get out of here, Katie! Run now!”
Katie’s chin wobbled and tears streaked her cheeks, but she began to hobble through the woods, pushing her crutches through the snow.
Pain shot through Sonya as the animal’s talons bit into her skin. She tried to roll over and fight, clawing at the ice and snow, but the screech echoed off the mountain, and her head swam as the animal ripped into her flesh.
The stench of death assaulted her. Then she tasted blood, and terror seized her. She was going to die tonight at the hands of this creature.
Then who would take care of Katie?
AN ANIMAL’S vicious attack cry split the air, and Brack froze, listening, focusing on his senses to lead him. The sound was vile, primitive, inhuman. Had it come from the same creature who had mauled the eagle?
Was it attacking again?
He shined the flashlight on the ground and headed in the direction of the noise, the snow swirling in a thick fog in front of him.
The sickening screech erupted again, and he pivoted, zeroing in on the rustle of the trees and movement to his right. He still smelled the blood of the eagle, but the scent of fear and death teased his nostrils, too.
A human’s fear.
Anger sizzled through his veins. His beloved birds weren’t assaulting humans, were they? No, there had to be another explanation.
He glanced up and oddly, through the haze, saw a falcon circling above. Following the falcon was not a question, but his only option. He trusted the bird implicitly. Wind whistled through the bowing branches as he pushed his way through a thicket of pines and hiked toward the caves buried in the mountain. The falcon moved ahead another seventy-five feet, then stopped and flapped his wings, diving downward as if to warn Brack of impending danger.
Brack darted through the fir trees, branches tearing at his jacket sleeve, his heart racing. Seconds later, he spotted blood dotting the milky-white snow. A woman lay on the snow-carpeted ground facedown, the back of her coat and gown ripped to shreds, blood streaking her pale skin. Her hands were outstretched as if she were reaching for something, the delicate skin red and bloody from defense wounds.
His heart lurched to a stop. She was lying so still…
Was he too late? Was she already dead?
Chapter Two
Brack scanned the woods for the woman’s attacker, but the swish of trees and slight tremor of the earth below his feet told him that he had frightened off the creature. He slowly knelt to check the woman’s pulse, pushed her long, curly hair aside, then pressed two fingers to her neck. Her skin still felt warm, and a slight pulse throbbed in her throat. Thank God.
But he had to get her help. She was bleeding and would die if he didn’t hurry.
He reached inside his pocket to call 911, but his cell phone showed no service. Damn. Knowing he had to get her out of the elements, he gently eased her to her side, carefully bracing her against his arm to support her. Her face was covered in snow, her complexion ashen, her cheeks dotted with ice crystals and chafed red from the cold. He brushed away the flakes and gently rubbed his thumb over her cheek. She slowly opened her eyes and whimpered, then tried to pull away.
“Shh, I’m not going to hurt you.” He lowered his voice to a soothing pitch, the same tone he’d perfected with the falcons.
Her eyes widened in terror, and she moaned and pushed at him. “No, get away!”
“My name is Brack Falcon,” he murmured. “I live at Falcon Ridge. I’m going to carry you out of here. You’re bleeding.”
“No…”
Why the hell was she fighting him? Women had been afraid of him before, due to his large size and his affinity for wild animals. But she needed him. “Listen, Miss, you need a doctor.”
She gripped his arm with bloody hands. “No, g-got to find K-Katie first.”
His breath puffed out in a white cloud. “What?”
“My little girl,” she moaned. “She’s out here…I have to find her.”
A child. That explained why she was trudging into the blizzard at night.
“I can’t leave you. Whatever attacked you might come back.” Or you might bleed to death, he added silently. And she was much too young and beautiful to die.
“He might get Katie!” she cried. “Please, she’s only four…she’s so little, and she’s all alone, and she can’t walk very well…”
Brack’s gut clenched. A four-year-old lost in the woods with something attacking humans close by. He didn’t want the picture in his head, but the image flashed there anyway, sending fear through him.
Their gazes locked, and something shifted inside him. Some emotion he didn’t want to identify. He had connected with the woman on some instinctual level.
“Please find her,” the woman pleaded.
Brack searched his brain for another option. She felt so small and vulnerable in his arms, and she was hurting. Yet she was more concerned for her daughter than her own safety. If he carried her back to Falcon Ridge, by the time he returned, the creature might have hurt the little girl. Or she’d be so lost he might not find her in this weather.
He had to go after the kid.
His chest tightened as he jerked off his coat and wrapped it gently around the woman, then lifted her and moved her beneath an overhang. The jutting cliff would protect her from the new falling snow and somewhat from the bitter wind. But he had to hurry.
She clutched his hand again and squeezed it. “Please go now. You have to save her.”
She stared at him. In her eyes, he saw terror, and the realization that she might not make it, but that she didn’t care. She’d sacrifice her life to save her daughter’s. In fact, she’d probably been attacked doing just that.
Emotions swelled in his throat, but he pushed them aside. He didn’t have time for them.
He had to find Katie and bring her back to her mother. Then he had to make sure they both survived.
SONYA FELT her little girl’s fear as if it were a physical part of herself and tried to stay alert.
But her head swam, and the world danced in a haze in front of her eyes. She was bleeding, felt so weak, her body was throbbing…
Her head lolled backward…she could hardly keep her eyes open.
No, don’t go to sleep. Don’t pass out.
She had to hang on. She had to be awake if that man found Katie. What had he said his name was?
She forced her eyes open, but she was completely disoriented. She could no longer see two feet in front of her. Panic gripped her, and she tried to move, to get up, but nausea rose in her throat, and she swayed and collapsed back against the ridge. Pain throbbed relentlessly through her back and arms. But she refused to give in to it. She had to stay calm.
The man would be back. He’d promised. He knew where he’d left her.
Brack Falcon. He said he lived nearby. She’d heard rumors in town about the men at Falcon Ridge. They were strange. Dangerous. They lived in the wild like animals.
But he had spoken so softly to her and had promised to find Katie.
Wind ripped through her coat and tossed debris through the air, the throbbing in her body intensifying as the minutes dragged on. Panic gnawed at her again.
Katie. Dear God, had the creature gotten her? Had Katie stumbled and fallen in the snow? What if she stepped off a ridge or embankment and was hurt? What if Brack Falcon couldn’t find her?
She curled up inside his coat, a sob wrenching from deep in her soul as her little girl’s face flashed in her mind. Katie, with the big brown eyes. Katie, who liked Cheerios and peanut butter cookies. And strawberry shampoo and bubble baths and picking wildflowers in the yard.
Katie with the guileless smile and the determination to overcome her handicap. Katie, who never complained about being left out or struggling to walk, all the things other kids took for granted.
Katie, with no father.
Or rather, one who hadn’t wanted her.
The agony of Stan’s betrayal and parting words felt like a heavy weight slamming into her every time she thought about it. He had wanted a baby, but with Stan, everything had to be perfect.
Katie wasn’t. At least not in Stan’s eyes. And neither was Sonya because she carried a genetic disorder that had caused Katie’s physical problems.
She’d been heartbroken at his cruel comments, but most of all she hated him for abandoning Katie.
Katie might have a physical handicap, but she was perfect in Sonya’s eyes. The most precious child that had ever existed.
She had the heart and soul of an angel.
Pain and fatigue clawed at Sonya, tempting her into unconsciousness. She closed her eyes, a tear leaking out and freezing on her cheek.
Sonya could live without a man in her life. She never wanted that kind of heartache again.
But she’d die if anything happened to her daughter.
WHERE IN the hell was the kid?
Brack stooped to search for footprints, indentations in the icy ground, anything to help him find the child.
Ahead, twigs and debris swirled through the snowy haze, and the sound of a cry floated toward him. It was her. The little girl. He sensed her presence nearby just as he sensed the injured animals in the woods when they needed him.
He was part animal himself, he’d been told enough times. He connected with them on a deep level, much more than humans.
But the woman’s pleas had torn through his defenses. He could still see her wide-set green eyes staring up at him in terror.
His pulse kicked up as he scanned the horizon. It was so damn dark. She might be wandering aimlessly in the forest. She might have fallen and hurt herself. She might be hiding from wild animals.
He closed his eyes, forced his mind to siphon through the fear and zero in on his instincts. What would a little girl do if she was lost or scared?
Find a place to hide? Maybe in a cave or one of the old mines if she stumbled upon one.
The soft swish of a falcon’s wingspan cutting through the air sliced through the noise of the violent wind, and he glanced up and saw the falcon again. Soaring lower than normal. Heading to the east.
Again, he followed it, and the flashlight beam caught a small scrap of red fabric that had snagged on a broken branch. The little girl’s, maybe?
He picked up his pace, then started yelling her name. “Katie! Katie! Where are you, honey?”
His voice floated through the wind and echoed off the mountain. Could she hear him?
Seconds later, he spotted a group of branches piled at the mouth of a cave, and a pair of small crutches was lying near the entrance.
Her mother’s pleas taunted him. Please find her. She can’t walk very well….
He paused, listened. A small cry echoed from within the stone walls. The little girl was inside.
Relief whooshed through him.
