Taming the Queen of Beasts - Chapter 386

NOTE: Because of the wide-ranging plot lines included in this volume and the next, there is a need to take you away from Elreth and Aaryn at times into the point of view of two other characters. I hope you enjoy them! Watch carefully at the beginning of the chapter to see which character is narrating! The human character you’re about to meet is named “Erika,” but she goes by “Rika” (pronounced REE-kah.)

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RIKA

Rika stood over the flames of the center fire, the largest of their camp fires and the one they had all gathered around after the evening meal. Andy, the digital analyst and sample collector, sat on the ground just behind her, his back to the thick log they’d dragged next to the fire, his hat tipped over his eyes. He looked like he was dozing there, arms folded across his chest. But something told her he was listening very carefully.

The others—John, the head researcher, Deedee, the behavioral scientist who was itching to observe the Anima, and Ron, the thick, easy-going engineer who could fix anything, were scattered around the camp.

They’d placed the boundary for a one-hundred foot radius to allow for all their individual tents, the HQ tent, and John’s workstation that he’d set up under wide tarp, but without walls so he could enjoy the light and air, he said.

Rika didn’t know whether it was that, or only that he spent every waking moment on that damn computer and he wanted to be able to keep an eye on her at the same time.

She shivered, but not from the cold. She shivered because they hadn’t told her they were coming. They hadn’t waited for her report. And that meant that either they knew she was up to something, or they were moving ahead with the plan faster than she’d known. Which meant—

“Hey, Rika, can you get some more water? We’re getting through it pretty fast.”

Rika turned. Deedee stood to her right, her long blonde hair falling in tousled waves over her shoulders and down her back.

Deedee was older than Rika—quite a bit older—but she had that weathered kind of beauty that made her seem tough and capable. Also, like someone that you didn’t want to mess with—or say no to, if it could be avoided. Rika didn’t bother to try now. The truth was, her scent was the one the Anima had likely crossed. It was safer if she was the one who left the boundary in case they found her trail. Just in case the others hadn’t been discovered yet.

“Sure,” she said easily, taking the large, capped water can from Deedee.

Rika wasn’t a tall woman by any stretch, but she was fit and strong, and she’d been living in Anima alone—except for Pegg, of course—for the past month. She wasn’t fazed by the weight of the water cans anymore. Especially since they were camped only a minute from the river.

As soon as she stepped away from the fire, though, she started to feel cold.

The Anima could easily scent synthetic fibers, so they’d all been restricted to natural cottons, wools, and leather. Night had fallen while she was next to the fire, though, and her cotton shirt was no longer going to do the job. If she was going to walk to the river, she needed to put on a wool sweater. So she swung by her tent before pushing through the bushes behind it to the wildlife trail that crossed twenty feet from the camp and led to the water, tossing her night-vision goggles to the bed. The Anima could scent the metal. The moon was bright tonight. If she let her eyes adjust she was certain she’d be able to follow the trail without them.

As soon as she crossed the boundary and knew her colleagues couldn’t see or hear her, her shoulders slumped and she rolled her head on her neck.

She was so tense.

They’d arrived days earlier with no announcement, no warning—just a week before she was due to report. A strange risk in and of itself. But since they’d arrived, John’s eyes had seemed to follow her every second. Yet, she kept reminding herself, the man was a scientist. Observing and analyzing was what he did. It was possible he watched all of them like that. It’s just that she was the one who had the guilty conscience.

Sighing in an attempt to ease the tension in her chest, Rika lugged the water can through the forest, breathing deeply of the fresh air and listening, doing her best not to make too much noise—though the can had a small amount of water in that kept sloshing with each step.

She loved Anima. Loved this place they called WildWood. Wished she could just… be here.

When she made it to the river it was a small thing to crouch on the flat rock that leaned into the current, place the can in the water and hold it down, waiting for it to fill.

She watched the opposite bank and listened for movement in the forest while she waited, wondering what it would be like to stand here with Anima senses—to hear the skitter of rodents, and flap of a bird’s wing.

Lord, she’d love that. To be so attuned to the world around you to know the things you couldn’t see.

The water can rested on the bottom of the riverbed with a thunk. Rika hauled it out of the water—so much heavier now—and onto the rock next to her to twist the cap onto it tightly, then stand.

And the moment she did, the skin on the back of her neck crawled.

Rika had trained in martial arts since she was twelve, and spent many, many lonely hours in the wilderness. She knew when her body told her there was a problem, to listen to that instinct.

She also knew if she was being watched, she needed to give them no reason to suspect her. So she took an extra second to check the cap on the water can, using the movement as an excuse to scan the nearby bushes and trees. But it was dark and she hadn’t brought her night vision goggles because she knew the trail and loved being in the forest at night when the moon was full like this. It made everything look like it was outlined in silver.

The question was, was she being watched by a colleague? Did she make more noise so they’d think she hadn’t noticed them? Or was it something else… something she wanted to avoid?

Taking a deep breath, she stepped off the rock and onto the trail, only to freeze, every hair on her body standing tall because two large eyes blinked at her from between the trees alongside the trail, absorbing and reflecting light in a way that no human retina ever did.