Page 99 of Beasts of Mine

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

EVIE

I woke before my alarm because someone laughed outside the mosquito net. The sound was low and quickly muffled, followed by the scrape of something being moved across the wooden platform. For several seconds, I stayed beneath the thin sheet and stared at the pale netting above me while my brain worked through why hearing a man outside my sleeping area didn’t immediately require panic. Damp morning air clung to my skin, carrying the green smell of wet leaves and the faint smoky trace left behind by last night’s small cooking fire.

Then yesterday returned all at once. Three leopards who weren’t really leopards. Three men who had spent days following me through the rainforest while I cheerfully called them Cat, Menace, and Gentleman.

Malek, Tavian, and Luca.

I rubbed both hands over my face before letting them fall onto the pillow. Getting used to that was going to take more than one night. Birdsong had already begun filling the canopy, separate calls rising above the heavier drone of insects. Somewhere beyond camp, a capuchin loudly accused another monkey of stealing fruit, while a toucan several trees away complained that everyone was being unnecessarily noisy before the sun was properly up.

Understanding the animals barely registered anymore. The low murmur of male voices outside did. Tavian said something too quiet for me to catch, followed by Luca’s softer laugh. Malek didn’t join in, but the platform creaked beneath heavier footsteps. No one had entered during the night or tried to. They had stayed around the platform exactly as they always did, close enough that I’d heard someone shift position whenever something moved through the brush but far enough away that my sleeping area remained mine.

That mattered more now that I knew they had always understood exactly what privacy meant. Knowing they were men should have changed something about the way I slept with them surrounding the camp.

Instead, I had slept ridiculously well. I turned my face toward the rolled shirt beside my pillow and caught cedar, citrus, herbs, damp wood, and the softer muted edge of my own scent tangled together beneath the netting. Malek’s scent was strongest along one side, probably from where he had sat near the shelter the evening before, while Tavian and Luca lingered more faintly in the blanket and gear they’d handled.

The last bit of tension left my shoulders before I consciously realized why. My Omega instincts liked having their scents around me. I found that mildly offensive.

“Oh, come on.” I muttered to myself as I shoved the sheet aside and sat up, scowling at the mosquito net because there was no one else available to blame for my own biology. The only answer was a bird outside announcing that the morning was already too hot.

Useful.

I dressed before I could think too hard about any of it, pulling on clean field pants and a fresh shirt before braiding my hair loosely over one shoulder. My blockers came next. I swallowed the morning dose with the last of the water beside my bed, checked the waterproof pouch holding my emergency heat medication, and tucked both back into the inner section of my field bag. The pouch was dry, the seal intact, and the number of doses exactly what I expected.

Nothing about my medication had changed. My blockers were doing exactly what they were supposed to do. I just happened to enjoy the scents outside more now that I understood what I was smelling.

That was a problem for later. When I pushed aside the mosquito net and stepped onto the platform, all three men turned toward me almost at once.

That was different too. Malek stood near the edge of camp with his broad shoulders partly turned toward the forest. Pale morning light came through the canopy in broken patches behind him, catching in his black hair and along one side of his face. Tavian crouched beside one of my equipment cases with both hands resting on the lid, looking suspicious before he had even done anything. Luca knelt near the supply bags, folding one of my tarps into a square so neat it made every previous attempt I’d made look lazy.

For one ridiculous second, my brain tried to put fur back over all of them.

It failed badly.

“Morning.” Luca greeted me with an easy smile as he flattened one stubborn corner of the tarp beneath his palm.

“Morning.” I returned Luca’s greeting while stepping fully onto the platform, although my attention immediately settled on Tavian. “Why are you touching my lens case?”

“I was moving it.” Tavian straightened slowly, leaving both palms on the closed case while his amber eyes widened with practiced innocence.

“To where?” I asked Tavian as I stopped beside him and glanced pointedly at the exact section of platform where the case had been sitting since yesterday.

“Somewhere more useful.” Tavian offered after looking around as though a destination might appear if he stalled long enough.

“Take your hands off my expensive equipment.” I held one palm toward Tavian and waited.

“It’s already down.” Tavian spread his fingers across the lid, the twitch at the corner of his mouth giving away exactly how entertained he was by himself.

“Your hands, Tavian.” I corrected him while fighting the smile trying to break through my annoyance.

“That is a completely different instruction.” Tavian lifted both hands and rose to his full height, looking pleased with himself despite having accomplished absolutely nothing. Luca ducked his head over the tarp, but his shoulders moved with a quiet laugh. Malek’s gaze briefly shifted from the forest, and the amusement around his eyes was impossible to miss now that I had a human face to read.

“No encouraging him before I’ve had coffee.” I warned Luca and Malek as I crossed toward the little stove.

“I wasn’t encouraging him.” Malek defended himself from the edge of the platform, though his attention returned almost immediately to a faint rustle in the vegetation beyond camp.

“You were thinking it.” I accused Malek while filling my metal cup from the water container and glancing over my shoulder.