“Are you sure you’re just hungry? You look sort of pale.”
He tried to smile and failed. “Too much sun and not enough food.” He tossed the flashlight from hand to hand as the spasm gradually receded. “I know you have no reason to trust me, but I need you to promise you won’t run away. No matter what happens. I can’t keep you safe if you take off on me.”
“‘No matter what happens’? What does that mean?”
“I’ll answer all your questions, do whatever it takes to earn your trust, but I need your promise now.”
She searched his gaze, glanced away then looked at him again. “I take promises seriously. I’m not sure I can say that and mean it.”
“All right. How about this, as long as you have no reason to doubt me personally, regardless of how insane the situation seems, promise you will not run away.”
“What are you afraid will happen?” He hadn’t meant to agitate her, but she was clearly upset. “Just tell me.”
“Trust me just this far and I’ll earn the rest.”
She huffed out a breath and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re insane. You want me to trust a crazy person.” She paused and he was scrambling for a better justification when she said, “Fine. As long as you haven’t given me a reason to mistrust you personally, no matter how crazy things get—though I can’t imagine things getting any crazier than they are right now—I promise I will not run away from you.”
“Thank you. You won’t regret it.” He glanced at the compass then headed toward the smell of the water, which was more or less west.
“So what’s a Therian?” she prompted, obviously anxious to begin her orientation.
They descended single file, which put them at eye level when he looked back. “We’re shapeshifters, Ava. Most Therians can only shift into one animal. A select few can shift into several, if all their manifestations are similar. Like Quinn, the man protecting your sister, he can shift into a black jaguar and a cougar.”
“My sister’s lover is a feline shapeshifter?” She stopped walking and gaped at him.
“I never said they were lovers. What did you see in your dream?”
She ignored his question and started walking again. Her features hadn’t yet registered her reaction to his claim. “What do you change into?”
“A mountain lion,” he said, not in the mood for cougar jokes.
“Show me.” He glanced back and she grinned. “Turn into a mountain lion.” It was obvious from the sparkle in her eyes that she thought she was calling his bluff.
“I’m going to shift for you, but I can’t do so right now.”
“Of course not.” She dismissed the possibility and brushed past him, continuing down the mountain in the lead.
“When I healed you, because I’m not a trained healer, it sapped my energy. If I shift right now, it’s likely I’d be trapped in cat form until my levels regenerate. I can protect you in cat form, but I’m not much for conversation.”
“How long will it take for your ‘levels’ to ‘regenerate’ enough for you to shift safely?” Her tone was clipped and cool, and she didn’t spare him so much as a backward glance.
“A couple of hours. If we had plenty of food and weren’t mountain climbing in the midday sun.”
They reached a stone ledge wide enough for them to stand side by side and she stopped again. “So what’s the alternative? Am I supposed to believe your ridiculous claim just because…”
“Because I took away your pain and you have psychic dreams and we spontaneously teleported to an unknown destination? Therian energy fuels all of these abilities. We are not human. Is that really so hard to believe?”
She rubbed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. You’re right. I can’t explain how we got here or where the hell here is, but shapeshifting? Even if it’s true, I don’t see how one leads to the other.”
“Ending up here was an exaggeration of your fight-or-flight response. You’ve been isolated from Therian males, so when I touched you, your energy spiked.”
“Osric’s men grabbed me and shoved me into the backseat of a car. Why didn’t that trigger my fight-or-flight response?”
“I’m not sure. There had to have been something different about this morning, but I don’t know what it was. Give me twenty-four hours and I’ll prove that what I’m telling you is fact not fantasy. Listen with an open mind and I’ll—”
“You mean there’s more?” She looked out over the verdant valley that stretched off to their left. They were halfway down, but the view was still spectacular. “What could be more fantastic than teleporting feline shapeshifters?”