Read an Excerpt
Excerpt
She stalked slowly through the woods, a tawny stranger to these weathered mountains.
Her strides were long and graceful, her senses alert to sounds, to movements... to prey. She was hungry.
She sensed that her kind had long been absent here. Once, large cats had been plentiful in the central Pennsylvania highlands. Mountains had been named for them. People had fled their fierceness.
But no longer. Not here. Men had faced their fears and hunted the cougars as the cougars hunted their quarry. Men had caused the lions of the mountains to disappear.
This lone and wary stalker was the first to return. Why, she did not know. Nor did she comprehend how she had arrived. She was conscious of none of such matters. She simply was here.
This was now her territory.
There was a rustle at her side. A deer, perhaps? Or maybe a rabbit or wild turkey? She stopped, remaining still as she listened. The sound came again.
Quickly, she sprang into action.
And killed.
