Force of the Falcon

“He might get Katie!” she cried. “Please, she’s only four…she’s so little, and she’s all alone, and she can’t walk very well…”

Brack’s gut clenched. A four-year-old lost in the woods with something attacking humans close by. He didn’t want the picture in his head, but the image flashed there anyway, sending fear through him.

Their gazes locked, and something shifted inside him. Some emotion he didn’t want to identify. He had connected with the woman on some instinctual level.

“Please find her,” the woman pleaded.

Brack searched his brain for another option. She felt so small and vulnerable in his arms, and she was hurting. Yet she was more concerned for her daughter than her own safety. If he carried her back to Falcon Ridge, by the time he returned, the creature might have hurt the little girl. Or she’d be so lost he might not find her in this weather.

He had to go after the kid.

His chest tightened as he jerked off his coat and wrapped it gently around the woman, then lifted her and moved her beneath an overhang. The jutting cliff would protect her from the new falling snow and somewhat from the bitter wind. But he had to hurry.

She clutched his hand again and squeezed it. “Please go now. You have to save her.”

She stared at him. In her eyes, he saw terror, and the realization that she might not make it, but that she didn’t care. She’d sacrifice her life to save her daughter’s. In fact, she’d probably been attacked doing just that.

Emotions swelled in his throat, but he pushed them aside. He didn’t have time for them.

He had to find Katie and bring her back to her mother. Then he had to make sure they both survived.

SONYA FELT her little girl’s fear as if it were a physical part of herself and tried to stay alert.

But her head swam, and the world danced in a haze in front of her eyes. She was bleeding, felt so weak, her body was throbbing…

Her head lolled backward…she could hardly keep her eyes open.

No, don’t go to sleep. Don’t pass out.

She had to hang on. She had to be awake if that man found Katie. What had he said his name was?

She forced her eyes open, but she was completely disoriented. She could no longer see two feet in front of her. Panic gripped her, and she tried to move, to get up, but nausea rose in her throat, and she swayed and collapsed back against the ridge. Pain throbbed relentlessly through her back and arms. But she refused to give in to it. She had to stay calm.

The man would be back. He’d promised. He knew where he’d left her.

Brack Falcon. He said he lived nearby. She’d heard rumors in town about the men at Falcon Ridge. They were strange. Dangerous. They lived in the wild like animals.

But he had spoken so softly to her and had promised to find Katie.

Wind ripped through her coat and tossed debris through the air, the throbbing in her body intensifying as the minutes dragged on. Panic gnawed at her again.

Katie. Dear God, had the creature gotten her? Had Katie stumbled and fallen in the snow? What if she stepped off a ridge or embankment and was hurt? What if Brack Falcon couldn’t find her?

She curled up inside his coat, a sob wrenching from deep in her soul as her little girl’s face flashed in her mind. Katie, with the big brown eyes. Katie, who liked Cheerios and peanut butter cookies. And strawberry shampoo and bubble baths and picking wildflowers in the yard.

Katie with the guileless smile and the determination to overcome her handicap. Katie, who never complained about being left out or struggling to walk, all the things other kids took for granted.

Katie, with no father.

Or rather, one who hadn’t wanted her.

The agony of Stan’s betrayal and parting words felt like a heavy weight slamming into her every time she thought about it. He had wanted a baby, but with Stan, everything had to be perfect.

Katie wasn’t. At least not in Stan’s eyes. And neither was Sonya because she carried a genetic disorder that had caused Katie’s physical problems.

She’d been heartbroken at his cruel comments, but most of all she hated him for abandoning Katie.

Katie might have a physical handicap, but she was perfect in Sonya’s eyes. The most precious child that had ever existed.

She had the heart and soul of an angel.

Pain and fatigue clawed at Sonya, tempting her into unconsciousness. She closed her eyes, a tear leaking out and freezing on her cheek.

Sonya could live without a man in her life. She never wanted that kind of heartache again.

But she’d die if anything happened to her daughter.

WHERE IN the hell was the kid?

Brack stooped to search for footprints, indentations in the icy ground, anything to help him find the child.

Ahead, twigs and debris swirled through the snowy haze, and the sound of a cry floated toward him. It was her. The little girl. He sensed her presence nearby just as he sensed the injured animals in the woods when they needed him.

He was part animal himself, he’d been told enough times. He connected with them on a deep level, much more than humans.

But the woman’s pleas had torn through his defenses. He could still see her wide-set green eyes staring up at him in terror.

His pulse kicked up as he scanned the horizon. It was so damn dark. She might be wandering aimlessly in the forest. She might have fallen and hurt herself. She might be hiding from wild animals.

He closed his eyes, forced his mind to siphon through the fear and zero in on his instincts. What would a little girl do if she was lost or scared?

Find a place to hide? Maybe in a cave or one of the old mines if she stumbled upon one.

The soft swish of a falcon’s wingspan cutting through the air sliced through the noise of the violent wind, and he glanced up and saw the falcon again. Soaring lower than normal. Heading to the east.

Again, he followed it, and the flashlight beam caught a small scrap of red fabric that had snagged on a broken branch. The little girl’s, maybe?

He picked up his pace, then started yelling her name. “Katie! Katie! Where are you, honey?”

His voice floated through the wind and echoed off the mountain. Could she hear him?

Seconds later, he spotted a group of branches piled at the mouth of a cave, and a pair of small crutches was lying near the entrance.

Her mother’s pleas taunted him. Please find her. She can’t walk very well….

He paused, listened. A small cry echoed from within the stone walls. The little girl was inside.

Relief whooshed through him.