“He would never be able to resist killing you,” Rio said. “You felt him, his need for the kill. We can’t risk it again.” Rio caught her face between his hands. “I will not risk you. He’s dangerous, and I have to help Elijah with the hunters. We can’t afford them at our backs. In any case, Armando would send his men here to grab you. You have to go where it’s safe.”

At once her heart leapt. Rio could do that with a touch, with a look. Rachael forced a smile when she met his gaze. “You know what you’re asking of me, don’t you? I had to stand by and watch Armando ruin Elijah’s life, torture and torment him over me. He used me to hurt my brother. He can’t take you both from me. I would never survive it. You both have to come back to me.” She didn’t look at her brother, but her voice was choked with tears. “Elijah is going to try to sacrifice himself because he thinks there can be no redemption. Rio, you have to find a way to bring him safely back.”

Rio brushed her mouth with his. “You promised to marry me, sestrilla. My beloved one. We need Elijah to give you to me in a proper ceremony. You can be very sure I’ll bring him back.”

“Thank you.” Rachael went with the tribesmen. She only looked back once, and both Elijah and Rio were watching her until she was out of sight.

The two men looked at one another, stripped hastily, and without a word shifted into their animal forms. It was time to go hunting.

The first night Rio and Elijah took the first hunter. He was lying in the blind, his eye glued to his scope, his finger on the trigger of his rifle. Below him, on the forest floor, a small goat cried out in fear. Rio knew the spy leopard walked close, a lookout for the hunters, but they were already inside the hunter’s trap, high in the canopy watching.

The second night the spy leopard was waiting in the trees above their kill. His yellow eyes glittered with menace, with a promise of retaliation. They had made him look bad, a creature who felt superior to those he worked with, and he had failed in his job. He didn’t want to fail a second time. It was Elijah who made the second kill right under the spy leopard’s nose, slipping down into the blind and dispatching the second hunter where he lay in wait.