Page 42 of Loving Graystoke's Heir

“Donal, go!”

He was gone in a moment, crashing through the brush and leaves with Zenzile and the others rushing after. She turned to look at Magheli who had a similar look to Donal’s on his face.

“Go,” she told him, “watch her back.”

He took a few steps forward and stopped. “What about you?”

She shook her head. “Go, Magheli! I’ll be right behind you!”

And she was. It was crazy how fast she could move when spurred on by the shouts and screams of excited hunters and frightened gorillas.

Another volley of shots ended with a wounded howl of an animal in the night, but the sound, the reality of the horror in it, sounded all too human for her peace of mind.

It felt like the scream had come from her own chest and that’s when it hit her.

“Donal?”

Seconds later, Tamsin broke through the edge of the vegetation and the frantic rush of a gunfight.

Tamsin stumbled over a root and would have fallen face-forward if she hadn’t bumped into someone.

The startled face turned toward her, and she saw Amahle’s wide eyes. Amahle had one of the hunters down on his knees, one hand behind his back. “Come,” the other woman urged her with a look, “help me bind him.”

Across the clearing, Tamsin could see Donal struggling with someone, but not in any immediate danger. With a quick yank of her wrist, Tamsin pulled out a zip tie from Amahle’s belt and used it to fasten the hunter’s hands together.

Tamsin moved on, watching the area around her for people she could aid. There wasn’t much for her to do, and for once in her life she regretted spending most of her time in classrooms and offices. The kind of skill that the other women possessed was beyond her. She couldn’t be much help on her own.

She was nearly across the clearing when she saw David Rikard. The man was almost larger than life. Carrying more than one long gun, he cut quite the imposing figure. She had only seen him two or three times, but that had been enough for her.

His very energy had a malignancy about it. He seemed to breathe darkness, and in the moonlit night the steely line of his rifle barrel pointed into the shadows.

That’s when she saw it.

Rather, she saw them.

Two juvenile gorillas along the edge of the clearing, hidden in the brush, their arms wrapped around each other.

Tamsin felt her heart seize in fear.

She always had an affinity for wildlife, but knowing what she did about Donal, about his family connection to the gorillas, she couldn’t just stand there and let him shoot.

She couldn’t fight him like the others, but she could do something.

Tamsin rushed at him and bumped into him sideways, knocking the barrel of his rifle to the side and down to the ground.

Her elation was momentary.

As soon as Rikard realized what happened to his shot, he returned the favor and knocked Tamsin to the ground. The impact knocked the air out of her lungs and left her stunned.

A roar split the night, and Tamsin watched in fascination as Donal shifted.

It wasn’t the peaceful, easy shift she’d seen before. No, the gorilla inside of Donal fairly ripped itself free of his form. One moment he was the man who had wrapped her in his arms and held her against him through the night, and in the next a massive silverback gorilla leapt toward the hunter.

The precious heartbeats it took for him to clear the distance aged her years. She tore her eyes away from Donal to look at the man beside her. David Rikard’s expression was shock and horror until Donal came close enough to see him in the moonlight. Then, the ridiculously wealthy man saw something new to conquer. A new challenge.

Tamsin heard the man hiss out a single word as he picked up his rifle and chambered a bullet.

“Yes…”

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