This entirely original, exclusive, free-to-you story has been brought to you by… me! Play on, playaz…

Please read chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten if you haven’t already.

After five years, Daisy Sawyer has finally come home. Not that she’s too happy about it. She had a great life in LA: rubbing elbows with celebrities, hopping from one exclusive bar to the other, and best of all, she didn’t have to answer to anyone. But when a drunken night of partying lands her in jail, the only person she can count on is her estranged brother, Alec, the leader of a powerful were-leopard clan. Forced to choose between a prison sentence or face the life she abandoned years ago, Daisy returns… but she doesn’t have to like it…

Christian LeBeau owes Alec Sawyer his life. He will do anything for the man, even babysit his bratty baby sister. But Christian never imagined that Daisy could grow up to be so beautiful… and forbidden in more ways than one. His mind tells him she is the one woman he can never have, but his body refuses to listen. All he has to do is take care of Daisy until Alec finds her a proper were-leopard to marry, then Chris could wash his hands of her and get on with his life… but fate seems to have other plans.

And now, I present to you… Chasing Daisy…

Chapter Eleven

The leopard crouched in the darkness, watching the four-legged creature grazing just beyond the shrubs. It was black in color, stood taller than herself upright, and possessed short ears that stuck up straight from its head. Horse, the Daisy-brain supplied. Horse was food. Horse was meat. She could sneak up on it—bigger animals were stupid and slow—and tear out its neck before it knew what hit it. She would sink her claws into it and gobble it up like ice cream—what is ice cream—and roll around in its blood and guts. She would leave nothing more than bloody chunks for the bird-things to pick apart.

Ah, but there was nothing like chewing and gulping down warm flesh. She could chase down one of those furballs under the moon for hours, slash it open with her claws, and lick her paws clean after. It had been a long time since she had done so. The Daisy-body did not like meat. It ate leafy green things like other big dumb animals. It was not a real leopard. It was a shame to the pack. It was disgusting. It was weak.

It was… strange.

Crawling on her belly, she slowly made her way toward the horse, ducking her head to lick at the puddle left by the rain when it stopped grazing for a moment to look at her. When it returned its attention to the grass, the leopard inched a little closer, then froze when it snorted and pawed at the ground as though it was searching for something. She was almost at its hind legs. She could attack it from behind, grasp its neck with her jaws if it tried to escape, and yank it down as soon as it got tired. She had never tackled anything so big—had never really seen one up close—but she was sure she can take it down. She was a leopard, after all, and there was no better hunter than she.

She pressed herself tighter against the ground and braced her legs to spring in preparation for the assault. Her heart was steady, her senses were alert, and she was ready to… party. The horse raised its head again. It looked at her, chewing lazily, as though waiting for her next move. She cocked her head to the side and stared right back. What was going on? Was it going to rear up on its legs and trample her head with its feet? This big dumb animal… was planning something. Suddenly she felt wary, uncertain. A round fluffy thing with long ears stopped in front of her for a moment and twitched its nose before bolting into the nearest thicket. She looked at the horse, then at the bush where the round fluffy thing disappeared. She glanced at her paws. The round fluffy thing was a sure kill; this big, dumb animal, while a bigger prize, was an unknown. Unpredictable. It could smash her head open. She did not like that idea.

The bush where the round fluffy thing was hiding moved and she tore her gaze from the horse to check out what was happening. Was it a family of round fluffy things? No, it was not. It was another leopard. Male. Carrying the round fluffy thing in its mouth, it padded slowly toward her. The small animal in his mouth was not moving. The male stopped in front of her and dropped the animal on the ground next to her. An offering. She glanced at it, its throat ripped open, and felt a pang of hunger. She had been busy stalking the horse all night and had not yet eaten. The male used his head to push the dead animal closer to her. Placing her paw on the carcass, she stared at the male with suspicion. When he attempted to nuzzle her, she took a step back from him, causing him to growl in disapproval.

Before them, the horse snorted and whinnied as though it was trying to catch her attention on her purpose. What was it doing? Didn’t it realize that it was prey and would be defenseless against two leopards? The male slowly turned its head toward the horse, his body following soon after. The horse continued to chew on some grass, its attention not on them, but on a black bug crawling across a large gray rock in front of it. Was it purposefully trying to ignore them? Was it not aware that it was moments away from certain death? The male crouched to the ground, its tail pointing downward, a sure sign that it was preparing for an attack. Anger began to build in the female’s chest. The horse was her find.

She was not about to let some male stake his claim on it, not when she had spent half the night following it. She swiped her paw across the male’s face, her talon catching in his jaw. The male roared his grievance and pounced on her, burying his teeth in her flank. The female wailed in pain, but managed to rear up and reverse the position so that she is now on top of the male, planting her left paw against its neck. It was a move that was supposed to restrain her opponent, but somehow the male escaped her hold and clamped his jaw around the leg, biting down hard. The female heard the bone snap and realized instantly the trouble she was in. Distracted by her agony, she couldn’t defend herself when the male slashed his talon across her throat. Blood, sticky and warm, soaked her coat immediately and she sank to the ground. As she looked up at the infinite darkness of the sky, she knew she was going to die. Inside of her head, the Daisy-brain screamed. Above her, the male raised up his paw for the killing blow.

A roar that shook the ground and the trees made the male lower his paw. It was a sound that could only come from a bigger, stronger animal. Lying on her side, the female lifted her head as the male emitted a squeak of alarm before running off. Standing over her was a creature larger than the trees, its body big enough to block the moon from her sight. Bear, said the Daisy-brain. It was not something the female had ever seen before. She attempted to rise, but was too weakened by the wound in her neck to do so. The bear lowered its head and swiped its tongue, wet and heavy, across her wound.

Great, said the Daisy-brain. Now we’re going to die. Get up and fight, you stupid bitch!

Normally, she could easily silence the Daisy-brain. But that was because the Daisy-thing was usually asleep. The female wondered if she was going to die with the Daisy-thing wailing in her ear. Was she not allowed a noble death? The bear prodded her side with its snout. A feeling with which she was not wholly familiar was pushing her to rise and run, to tuck tail like the male had done, but she couldn’t. The female, having resigned herself to a fate of being gobbled up by the creature, elected not to move. It continued to lick the wound at her neck as though it were trying to clean it. The throbbing slowed and the pain soon eased. But still she did not move. Soon it would be light again and the Daisy-thing would be taking over, but all she wanted to do now was to find a bush to sleep in.

You’re going to be all right, said a voice in her head that didn’t belong to the Daisy-brain. I’m here for you now. I’ll take care of you.

The female weakly lifted her head only to have the bear lick her snout. She batted it away with her paw as though it were nothing more than a pesky fly. She turned over on her side so she could watch it. Him. It was obvious that the bear was a male. She didn’t know how she knew—she had never even seen one before— but of this, she was certain.

His eyes, as big and round as the moon, followed her every move. She released an angry growl to see what he would do. Growling at other animals usually did two things: scare them into running so she could chase them or engage them into a fight. The bear did neither. Instead he continued to stare at her like it was waiting to see what she would do next.

The female stared back. She had never before felt so uncertain. In her experience, stopping to think got you killed. She didn’t think, she acted. She roared, pounced, attacked, slashed, and bit. This was something new. She had always been the aggressor. She stalked, she hunted. She had always been aware of what she was: a predator. But now, with the bear looking at her like it was trying to decide between crushing her in his arms and licking her to death, she felt like… one of those little fluffy round things. It was not a feeling she liked. At all.

She rolled over onto her stomach and slid her paws closer to her body until they were tucked in under her. The bear was planning something, she knew it. She couldn’t just wait for him to knock her head off and eat her. She had to do something. But just as she was rearing back to prepare herself for the pounce, the bear pushed himself from the ground and stood over her, raising his head and releasing a roar that made the grass tremble. The female scooted backward, marveling at the unfamiliar impulse to curl up into herself and whimper like a cub. This… yes, this was fear. She glanced around briefly. There wouldn’t be anyone to witness her cowardice but the crickets. She could run. It was better than being the bear’s midnight snack. She could lose the bear quickly enough. She could run faster than anyone in the pack.

But just as she about to execute her plan, a ball of light so bright that it hurt her eyes seemed to encompass the bear from his hind legs to the top of his head. Alarmed, she dropped her head to the ground and covered it with her paws. After a few moments, she peeked through her talons and found… a man where the bear had been. He was naked and shivering and very hairless.

To be continued…

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Dionne Galace lives in San Diego, California, just a few minutes away from the beach. She enjoys body-surfing, swimming, hiking, and trolling around comic book stores. She is a huge fan of The X-Files and lives in hope that she will see Mulder and Scully get married… in any shape or form. She is not a fan of hulabaloos or tomfooleries, but is quite fond of shenanigans. She is currently working on a kickass YA novel that somebody, anybody should buy already… ’cause it’s kickass. Ask Shuzluva.

Stealing is not cool. Ask Jane from Dear Author, if you don’t believe me. Props to April Martinez for the fabulous cover. She is one talented, gorgeous babe. Join me in giving her a terrorist fist jab over these internets.

Note: Hey, other writer-types, do you want to contribute to The Serial? If so, holla at yo gurl and I’ll hook you up, yo.

Till, then… Love, peace, and snarkage, my babies. Peace!

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