Its massive paws, each the size of a dinner plate, made n

er lungs. A frantic, useless calculation ran through her min

its body. It lowered its enormous head, its hot, coppery breath washing over her face

ng the snap of jaws,

om its mouth. It gently, deliberately, li

sn't entirely from fear. She saw something in its deep blue eyes. Not hung

rilliant, silver-blue light erupted from it,

t faded, the

man knelt on one

lored skin a roadmap of old, faded scars. Wild, dark hair fell across a ruggedly hands

ific, orderly view of the univers

he breathed, the wor

nreadable. "Are you hurt?" he asked. His voic

aining took over, pushing down the shock. She pointed a tr

nd the other behind her back, lifting her as if she weighed nothing. His movements

sense of security washed over her. It was primal a

ky finger at the pile of tubers she had dug up. "The foo

brow. He clearly didn't recognize them as food. But he didn't argue

into thick, black claws. He plunged his tiger claws into the soil and, with a few powerful

al backhoe at work. "Use the vines," she instructed, her

several-hundred-pound weight onto one shoulder with sickening ease, and slung the massive bundle o

sage wa

scarred back, wrapping her arms around his neck. The feeling of her skin ag

must have weighed close to a ton-he moved through the dense, uneven fores

he tried to probe.

ence. Then

ibe are

his one heavier.

cientist knows when to stop collecting data. She changed the subject,

nt, crude outline of the Silverfox Clan'

he air. A lookout had spotted them, smelling the blood

ears and stone axes, forming a defensive line at the e

owd, not just at the dead boar, but at the man himself-a powerful, scarred, and completely naked stranger. Some of the younger females quickly averted their eyes, their faces flushing a deep

in shock as he saw Abigail, alive and r

mask of pure, undiluted jealousy when she saw Abigail not only ali

the square and dropped the boar carcass and the bundl

g in front of her like a shield. He swept his cold, blue eyes over th