The long claws of the leopard were each time more close to me. I tried to change into a wolf, but I wasn't able to do it. It was a day of a black moon and the wildness god was resting, along with my animal spirit. I closed my eyes, preparing myself for the worst. I wished I hadn't separated from the group. A roar drew our attention, mine and the leopard's. A black bear in the Congo rainforest had to be him.
The leopard changed his attack posture into a defensive one. The bear approached us and the leopard walked backward slowly until it got close enough to escape through the undergrowth. The leopard was more intelligent than I was.
"Brais," I said almost whispering. He looked at me and his brown eyes transmitted more emotion and intelligence than a normal bear. I didn't doubt more about it. I looked for my emergency beacon in my pocket while he approached me, I pushed it and I focused on him. I got up and for a second he looked back. I thought that he was going to try to leave. "Are you Brais? I'm Noa." I yelled to get his attention. "You know your Noa, c'mon you can't forget me after three years."
He continued his closeness. He was only a meter to me and I fell to the ground again due to fear. I knew he was Brais, but I couldn't be sure if he was the same Brais who I loved and I couldn't defend myself from a bear or the animals he could transform into. He sniffed for a while and suddenly he started to change. His snouts become a human face and his paws into strong and muscular legs and arms.
He was so different; his face was more mature, his curly hair was wilder but not longer, and his body, he was no longer that pale and skinny boy I knew when we were eighteen years old. He was twenty-two at that moment and his muscular body with light-brown hair on his arms, legs, chest, and abs made him look hotter than before. Damn, he was so sexy that I could spend hours looking at him.
He smiled at me and offered his hand to help me up. However, a dart stuck in his neck before I could grab his hand, and he fell over me. I grabbed him so he wouldn't keep falling.
"It wasn't necessary. He was responding to me," I said.
Tim came out of the bushes. "I couldn't wait for him to escape, finding him again in the jungle would be a miracle. Besides, you overstate your seduction skills."
"You're a dickhead Tim," I murmured.
"What do you say?" he growled. All my body became rigid; he was using his dominant bark on me.
"I remind you that becoming my beta was your decision, girl. Respect me and don't call me Tim. Timoteo or alpha are your options."
I hated his arrogance, he was only three years older than me but he treated me as a little girl. He approached and put the silver pendant on Brais's neck and gave me the wood totem.