Delgrotto smiled. “Even the sacred high council can be wrong. Who can measure the worth of a man but his own sense of honor?”

Elijah looked away from the war mth in those old eyes. “If I can’t forgive myself, how would I ever accept forgiveness from others?”

“No council can turn away the request of asylum, of sanctuary. It matters little where you were born.

Ther e are few true shifters left in this world. We can’t afford to lose any of them.” The elder moved into the shadows of the verandah, shedding his clothes and packing them carefully in the traditional leather bag he strapped around his neck before shifting.

There was a long silence. Rachael sighed. “I really wanted to detest that man.”

“He’s a good man,” Rio said. “He’s right to believe in the laws that govern our people. We can’t be judged by human standards and we can’t take our problems to the police. We have to protect and patrol our own ranks.”

“I see what’s going on here,” Elijah said. “Only a man who has found his mate refers to her assestrilla orhafelina. You can’t have Rachael. You can’t possibly protect her from Armando. I didn’t keep her alive this entire time to let her die out here in this jungle.”

There was a whip to his voice and Rachael winced visibly. Ignoring Elijah, she took a bowl of the vegetable soup and a cup of coffee to Rio. “Eat all of it, you need it,” she encouraged. “And don’t give me any guff over your precious elder. He isn’t a bad man, he’s just not as wise as a woman.”

Elijah groaned. “Don’t get her started with the women being superior to men argument, we’ll get nowhere with this. Rachael, you can’t stay. I can tell you feel something for this man, but you can’t stay.”

“I’m in love with him, Elijah.” Rachael said it quietly, staring into her brother’s eyes as she handed him a bowl of soup.

“Damn it, Rachael.”

Rachael huffed out her breath in exasperation. “Why is it men always say that to me? I seem to bring out swearing in the male species.”

She curled up across from Elijah, settling on the arm of Rio’s chair, her arms curving around his neck.

She had to touch him, her fingers smoothing his shaggy hair. She wanted to inspect his body and make cer tain there were no scratches to get infected in the humidity of the forest. She had to be content with teasing the nape of his neck with her fingers.

Rio exchanged a long look of understanding with Elijah. “I understand completely, she tends to make me swear too.” He followed the admission with a yelp when she tugged at his hair. “I’m Rio, by the way, Rio Santana.”

“You’ll have to come back where I can protect you too, then. I have soldiers. My home is a fortress. I can keep you both safe. I live near the Glades so you’ll be able to run free when the need strikes.”

Elijah stared at Rio hard, his gaze piercing and focused, a mixture of promised retaliation and challenge.

“You may be able to protect Rachael there, but I can do just as good a job or better here,” Rio replied mildly. He leaned his head back into the strong massage of her fingers. “Before you get all bent out of shape, has it occurred to you that you need to do something different? Something unexpected? Your uncle knows you. He raised you. He knows how your mind works. But he doesn’t know how my mind works. He doesn’t even know about me.”

Rachael nuzzled the top of Rio’s head with her chin. Her breasts brushed the side of his face, soft and warm and inviting when he was bone weary. “You need to sleep, Rio. I can feel how tired you are.”

“Armando will not come to this place.”

“Sure he will. If the stakes are high enough. If he thinks he has a chance to win the game for good. It isn’t all that hard to find someone to bribe to leak vital information. He has to have someone in his pay, someone who can supply him with information. It could even be some of the bandits. They’ d want to collect from both sides.”

Rio drank the remainder of the soup and put the bowl on a small end table. His hand found Rachael’s.

At once he brought her fingers to his mouth. All the time he watched Elijah.

Elijah regarded him through half-closed eyes. “You’re thinking to feed him information on Rachael.

Something that will bring him here to make certain the job is done right. He’d want to know it’s finished. He’d want to know she was dead and he’d want me to know it.”

Rio nodded. “There are bandits up and down the river. Some are fairly decent men, just trying to make a living. There are one or two tribes who would be willing to give us aid here and ther e. This is my realm, not his. He’s infiltrated South America; I doubt he’s had time here.”

“Duncan knew the layout of the house,” Rachael said. “Someone told him.”

“Not necessarily. Delgrotto knew nothing of Duncan. As an elder, all infor mation of importance is brought before the council. A member of our species unknown to us would be considered of great importance. I doubt if Duncan had any contact with anyone from my people. He was a shifter and he knew shifters populated this area. He listened to Tomas and his men, gathered information on my team and guessed we were shifters. As a leopard, he could easily find the scents and track us, where as a man, he would find it impossible. Most importantly, Duncan didn’t have time to get this information to Armando. He was captured by bandits and then he came nosing around here, looking for Rachael. He found me instead.”