As they picked up their luggage from the plane and loaded his car, Blaze felt a weight lift from his chest and shoulders he hadn’t realized was there…Logan is safe now. Blaze let his shoulders relax and stretched his arms to the sky as he filled his lungs with the sweet mountain air. He put an arm around Logan’s shoulders for a quick squeeze, and Logan stiffened instead of leaning into him. A slight shudder raced through him.

“Did you see that?” Logan asked, eyes wide with concern.

“What?” Blaze, on the alert now, turned, expecting to see a mountain lion or a bear as he looked around, wondering why he hadn’t sensed danger.

“I could’ve sworn I saw a horned owl.”

“Doubt it. They’re rare and only seen at night.”

Logan’s tension disappeared, and he grinned. “Just another night animal to you, huh?”

Blaze laughed and felt his inner wolf circle in delight. “These days, only when the moon silvers the sky.”

They slid onto the front seats of his car and headed for town. As they approached the narrow side-road detour Blaze had taken last time after picking him up, Logan said, “What, no public sex today?”

Blaze laughed. “Not this morning. We’ve too much to do.”

“Right, and I’m excited about it. Excited about setting up my rental and eager to do some of the fall sketches I have in my mind’s eye.”

“And I’m looking forward to helping, especially trying out that new bed.”

Logan would never know the relief Blaze felt when the rental house was as they’d left it. No break in. He did ask, however, if Holgrum knew he spent time here. Logan shook his head. “Even my parents don’t know.”

Blaze made a mental note to talk with him later about the omission of that bit of information to his family. Surely he wasn’t ashamed of his relationship with Blaze…or was he?

At the new house, Blaze parked in the garage and shut its big door. Like the house he’d leased, you entered the place through a door from the garage into the mudroom and then the kitchen. They carried in the two suitcases and Logan’s duffel and worked together emptying them and putting things away. When together they made the two bedsr, Blaze said, “Seems to me I remember doing this somewhere else not long ago.”

Logan said, “Maybe we should try this one out this afternoon since sleeping on planes for me is lousy.”

When everything was in place and they’d settled in, Blaze trapped Logan in the kitchen as he finished setting the salt-and-pepper shakers in the cupboard above the sink. His arms were still up when Blaze nuzzled his neck while he lifted up his T-shirt to pull it over his head and off. “Hmm. I love the scent of your skin. All male, all sexy Logan Swift Rider.” He licked his neck after he’d dispensed with Logan’s shirt. “Love the taste of you too.” He slid his hands up his lover’s torso. “Hope that little shiver is in anticipation of something stunning.”

His palms encircled and stroked well-developed pecs. “Yum. These are as hard as my aching cock is.” When his fingers squeezed dark nipples, Logan groaned in pleasure and turned fully to him, growling as they made their way to the bed.

As Blaze covered Logan with his body he wondered why Logan had trembled at the passing of an owl.

Logan was riding bareback and shoeless at a lazy pace on a borrowed mare on the rez when a black shadow flew over him, its wingspan as wide as Logan was tall. Shivers shot down his spine as the owl flew past to settle in a tree, its golden eyes piercing his soul, the two feathered horns on his mottled head stiff and upright.

He’d first heard it hoot on the way here from the airport. It hooted again.

“Noo ...” he moaned, thrashing.

Owls could be good or bad omens, and Logan sensed the threat emanating from this one. When it leaped into the sky and disappeared in flight through the dark, sunless forest, Logan’s throat tightened in fear, shutting down his attempts to cry out or to breathe. Grabbing the horse’s mane, he dug his heels into the mount’s flanks while making clicking noises with his mouth and urging her on. Instinct told him where to turn his horse’s head to follow the path of the bird.

Logan rode as fast as he dared, moving in and out of trees and bushes that scratched and threatened to knock him off the horse, hurrying to reach his goal before death breached the home of the one he loved.

“Nian Kenu! Evil is here. It’s coming for you --”