Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“Run it off, pequeño Gatita, for both of us, run it off.”
Gatita had never been in heat before. Sonia knew it could last a week or even a few days longer than that. It was going to be hell for both of them. She’d known she’d have to face the female’s heat sometime, but she hadn’t thought about the possibility that she would feel what her leopard felt.
Letting Gatita run free was a little on the dangerous side. As a rule, Sonia knew she had no trouble controlling her, but right now, she could barely control herself. Every cell in her body demanded she find a man. Any man would do at this point. She had taken time off work, avoided town and wished she’d thought to board up her home with steel plates on the windows and doors so neither of them could escape. Letting the leopard run in the swamp was better than both suffering and tearing up the house she was working so hard to restore.
Gatita ran through the swamp, leaping over rotting tree trunks covered with moss. The fog had begun to drift in, fingers of mist creeping through the trees, adding to the mystery and beauty of the land. An owl screeched as it missed its prey. The two alligators continued to bellow and posture.
Sonia, hidden deep in the leopard, cautioned her to stay away from the water’s edge. The big bull alligator would defend his territory. He was nearly thirteen feet long and up to any challenge from an upstart coming into his world. The male had twelve females in his three-mile range, and he wasn’t going to give even one of them up. Her leopard didn’t need to be food for any of them, especially when the male was so aggressive.
The little female placed her paws delicately on the damp leaves and vegetation making up the swamp floor. Leaping effortlessly over the termites eating the rotting trunks, she landed in absolute silence. Sonia admired the way Gatita could be so utterly quiet as she moved through brush and trees so fast. She’d constructed the blind as close to the middle of the swamp that she called her own as possible, giving the leopard as much of a territory as she could.
Her property included a good forty acres of land, mostly swamp no one wanted, and was ideal for her. She had the road to the front of her property, swamp to the back of her property, fanning out to meet the edges of two other properties, one just swamp land and one her neighbor, a huge piece of property that seemingly had endless acres of swamp. That gave her leopard a good-sized territory to roam.
Gatita rubbed her head and body everywhere, all over the trees and bushes. She scent-marked and called loudly for a mate. There was nothing Sonia could do about that. She knew the sound would travel for miles, but she couldn’t force the heat-driven cat to stop vocalizing her need.
Abruptly, Gatita halted and then lifted her muzzle into the air. Every whisker reported back to her, a radar telling her everything about the neighborhood, who was in it and where. The whiskers could even extend over her mouth to give her the exact location and distance of her prey or enemy so she could deliver a killing bite.
Without warning, Gatita let out a distinctly different call, one that sent chills down Sonia’s spine. It wasn’t the fact that the noise was like a rusty saw going through a block of wood, it was the fact that the little female leopard was calling out to something… or someone.
What are you doing? Sonia hissed, but she knew. The female had come across the scent of a male in his prime. He had marked the territory for his own. What were the odds? Louisiana didn’t have leopards, did it? Granted, she didn’t know that much about the state, or the swamp she had just moved to, but she’d been certain there were no leopards. There might be a mountain lion or two, but certainly not a leopard.
She found herself tense, worried for her female. The last thing she wanted was a fight between her leopard and a male cougar. She should have checked the area much more carefully. She’d fallen in love with the house. She’d needed a place for her leopard. The house and land were perfect for them both, and, most importantly, the seller had wanted out. She’d fallen into the best job possible for her. Everything had seemed so right, but her female couldn’t fight a male and win.
Let’s go back, she whispered. Turn around.
Gatita ignored her and rubbed and sprayed all along the trees, leaving her alluring scent for males to find her. Every six or so minutes she called out as she moved through the swamp. The third time Gatita called, a sawing roar filled the swamp in answer, nearly stopping Sonia’s heart. There was no mistaking that sound. It was a leopard. The call was very distinctive. By the sound of it, the animal wasn’t small.