The female lay at the bottom of the ravine. He crouched on the edge and peered down at her. She didn’t move. He watched her for a long time, then finally made his way down to where she lay.
He smelled the blood before he got to her. Not much. Just a trickle coming from a small head wound. It matted her long black hair.
Crouched beside the fallen female, he studied her. Memories tugged at him and he was startled to discover moisture trickling from his eyes.
He reached out and touched her exposed skin. It was soft and still warm, and it filled him with a strange comfort.
There was something else, too—deep primitive urges that had driven him to lead her high into the mountains in search of safe territory where he might finally mate.
He bent down and sniffed her skin, then flicked his tongue over its smooth surface and sudden fire attacked his loins. He had chosen well. They would produce many off-spring.
If she didn’t die.
He licked her face again, then nipped at her soft lips and whined. She didn’t move.
He sat back and studied the strange objects scattered around her. Her smell was on them. He pricked his skin on a sharp edge and a drop of his blood mingled with hers. She still lay with her eyes closed.
The pull of her was strong, and he curled up beside her and rested his head on her chest. The smell coming from her body reminded him of the meadow in summer. His loins stirred powerfully once more and he nipped at her neck trying to wake her.
A sound alerted him, and he looked up straight into the yellow eyes of a cougar. The great mountain cat was crouched and ready to spring on the fallen prey.
He leaped up, snarling, and the cat lifted its massive claws and spat at him. He could take the cat in a fight, and he wanted to, but instinct warned him to use the weapon he’d learned to make long before memory. He pulled an arrow out of his quiver, fitted it into the bow and aimed at the throat.
The cougar dropped, no longer a threat to the female.
He lifted his head and sniffed for further danger, then climbed out of the ravine and took watch on a ledge overlooking the fallen female.