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Chapter One

John Corcoran sat at the dented oak table in his isolated cabin and listened, head cocked, to the sound of a sex siren singing

He’d always considered hily sane Now, for so afternoon when the Shawnee National Forest rustled and twittered with new life, he’d decided to go crazy

What a fucking inconvenience

He stood and watered down his sculpture before covering it in plastic He reached for his cane and coat as he left—it would take him a couple weeks of rabbing his coat He left the door open long enough for Enzo to exit with hih the yard, listening for the elusive sound of siren song

He extended his hand and Enzo was there He dug his fingers through the fur at his neck and gave his that sold for tens of thousands of dollars, but he was as good as one, as far as John was concerned

“Hey, Enz? Did you hear—”

He went dead still Enzo also halted, and then gave a plaintive whine John was glad to hear his friend have a reaction to the distant song echoing in the canyon It was co with him in his madness A shiver ran beneath his skin and his cock twitched next to his thigh Clearly his hallucination was hiking uphill because she sounded slightly breathless

“What the hell?” he e to him that his madness would be of the wild-eyed, sex-starved variety Sure, he’d been isolated up here in these hills for three weeks, butreally? He gave a bark of laughter at the thought, and Enzo stirred

The singer couldn’t be who he thought she was, but he was beginning to suspect the woman was real, nevertheless

No—it had to be her He took another stride Soot a voice Especially not that voice Especially when it was singing that particular song

He stalked toward the peri tension as he neared the forest The cool air beneath the large tree’s canopy struck his face Sure enough, Enzo batted his thigh with his nose and gave a soft growl of warning

Again, the sultry song echoed froht only a few notes this time before they dissolved and melted into the air

John hesitated He’d been on the forest trails countless ti the summers—only when a companion was there, but still He knew the paths and the lay of the land on his property as well as anyone in the forest When he entered the woods with a sighted person, he led the way Always

“Come on, Enzo”

His coainst his thigh, trying to sway hi man, however, and in the rare case that he resisted Enzo’s wisdo he was a fool but still unable to resist

He sensed the tall trees towering over hi day The farther they penetrated the woods, however, the reorried He paused on the path and yelled a warning The female was quickly headed toward territory that most of the residents of Vulture’s Canyon and the Shawnee National Forest steered clear of by a mile

He rohen he stalked farther into the woods

Jennifer Turner paused in her vigorous ascent of the hill, her hiking song halting h the canyon? She waited, slightly breathless from her exercise, but the only sounds that entered her ears were that of robin song and the squeaking sway of the top branches of the tall sycamore and oak trees She pulled her ther of cool water

She loved the forest, the openness of it, the freedom, the adventure of what could be just over the next hill Besides, hiking provided a great workout Her hosts in Vulture’s Canyon, Rill and Katie Pierce, had advised against wandering off the forest preserve’s paths, but Jennifer had an excellent sense of direction Her mother used to say she’d been born with a co the trees and the land, sensing clearings and finding deer paths to tread in the woods She’d hiked countless trails out west, and hiked almost daily in Runyon Canyon, which was near her home in Hollywood Hills

She found herself smitten with the Shawnee National Forest It reminded her of the woods of her youth in Kentucky

Soht sparkled on a stream in the distance She pocketed her there of the burbling spring