Page 100 of Beasts of Mine

“I’ve heard that accusation before.” Malek reminded me with the faintest curve at one corner of his mouth. Becoming human had not improved any of them. Unfortunately, it had made them considerably more distracting.

I made coffee, ate quickly, and forced myself back into the routine that mattered more than whatever Tavian was currently doing with one of my empty food sacks. The camp would be gone in less than an hour, and that meant everything had to be packed in a way I could account for later.

Breaking down a field camp wasn’t difficult, but it was something I refused to rush. A forgotten battery was expensive. A damp lens was worse. Losing a full memory card after several days in the field was enough to make me consider lying down in the rainforest and letting nature reclaim me.

I checked both camera bodies first, wiping moisture from the seals and inspecting the mounts before fitting the caps. Each lens went back into its padded section after I checked the glass for condensation. Full memory cards were placed in the waterproof case in order, labeled and separated from the blanks. I verified the backups I’d made the night before before moving on to batteries—two nearly empty, one around half, three full.

My notebook followed, then the GPS unit, folded map, first-aid supplies, water-treatment tablets, blockers, emergency medication, charging cables, spare clothing, and the rest of my personal gear. Everything had a place because scrambling through three nearly identical bags while rain came sideways was an excellent way to lose both time and patience.

By the time I lifted my head again, half the camp had disappeared around me.

Malek had already emptied and collapsed the larger water container. Two of my heaviest bags sat near the platform edge beside him, and each time he crossed the clearing, his gaze moved through the surrounding vegetation before he picked up anything else. He checked the trail mouth twice, once pausing long enough to listen to something I couldn’t hear before apparently deciding it wasn’t a threat.

Tavian had chosen a different job. Touching everything I owned.

“What is this?” Tavian asked as he held a short black cable between two fingers and turned it over in the morning light.

“A charging cable.” I answered Tavian without looking up from the shirt I was folding into my dry bag.

“For the camera?” Tavian stepped closer, studying both ends with far more interest than a cable deserved.

“For one of the battery chargers.” I explained to Tavian while extending my free hand toward him.

“And this end?” Tavian persisted, rotating the connector between his fingertips as his suspiciously serious expression finally made me pause.

“Also part of the charging cable.” I told Tavian, wiggling my fingers until he dropped it reluctantly into my palm. Less than ten seconds later, he picked up the rubber lens blower.

“What does this do?” Tavian asked while squeezing the bulb and sending a puff of air across the inside of his wrist.

I stopped packing.

“Tavian.” I warned him, slowly lifting my gaze until I caught the amusement he was trying to hide around his mouth. He managed to maintain the innocent expression for almost three seconds.

“You know exactly what that does.” I held my hand out again when his grin finally broke through.

“I had a theory.” Tavian admitted as he squeezed it one last time before placing it in my palm.

“Menace.” I muttered at Tavian while tucking the blower safely into its case, and he laughed under his breath before moving on to one of the empty supply sacks. Luca appeared beside me with the waterproof pouch containing my medication and personal supplies.

“This goes inside the green bag.” Luca tapped the proper pocket before offering me the pouch. “Not the one on the side.”

“How do you know that?” I took it from Luca and studied the calm expression on his face.

“You put it there every morning.” Luca picked up one of the smaller ground covers and began rolling it, keeping the edges lined up as though he’d been doing this professionally for years.

Of course he knew. He had done the same thing as a leopard. Luca always seemed to know which side of the platform I kept the water on, where I put the first-aid kit, and what equipment needed to be moved before rain reached it. If I put something in the same place twice, Gentleman apparently decided that was where it belonged forever.

Tavian hadn’t changed either. He still inspected things, stole things, brought me things I hadn’t asked for, and found some excuse to involve himself in whatever I was doing. Malek still checked the trail and perimeter, took whatever looked heavy, and put himself between me and anything he thought deserved watching.

Seeing those same behaviors performed by three Alpha men rather than leopards made the pattern much harder to miss.

“You’ve been doing this for a while.” I zipped the dry bag and straightened, looking from Tavian to Luca and finally Malek.

“Doing what?” Tavian asked while spinning one of my empty carabiners around his finger, apparently pretending he had no idea what I meant.

“This.” I plucked the carabiner out of Tavian’s hand before it became his newest possession. “Food. Water. Gear. Checking trails. Carrying things I could carry myself.”

“Yes.” Malek answered from the edge of the platform as he swung one of the larger bags onto his shoulder without any sign he considered the behavior noteworthy.