Vision Revealed

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Vision Revealed

ISBN 9781419921605

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Vision Revealed Copyright © 2009 Lorie O’Clare

Edited by Mary Moran.

Cover art by Syneca.

Electronic book Publication April 2009

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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places,

events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’

imagination and used fictitiously.

Vision Revealed

Lorie O’Clare

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The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following

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Jeep: Chrysler Motors LLC

Kane Masters didn’t like the way Tore Mann stared at him. He shifted his attention to

Dover, the owl. Neither male had much of a scent about them. That didn’t mean Kane

couldn’t detect their anger. Their reaction to his statement was their problem, not his.

“The announcement on the website stated you’re seeking a new hunter,” he said, keeping

his voice cool. “I’m here for the job.”

“You’re not what we’re looking for,” Tore told him, his expression remaining hard as he

stood in the middle of the bar and grill, the owl remaining silently at his side.

Kane knew discrimination when he saw it. He’d lived with it all his damn life. Leopards

didn’t trust white leopards, and most of his kind kept to themselves, living in small

communities up in the mountains. But when all hell broke loose recently and leopards

with visions were being tracked down and put in cages, it was more important than ever

to step forward and use his abilities to protect his kind.

The PI website, PantheraIncognita.com, the site where leopards kept up on current

events, announced recently the threat of Leo Pard, the insane monster who believed

leopards with visions were better off under his care and bred against their will, was

ended. Kane knew from his visions he was meant to ensure that threat would never

happen again.

“Actually, I am,” he answered, looking away from Tore first and taking in the

surroundings of the bar and grill. He didn’t smell any humans in the place, and those

sitting at tables around them didn’t hide the fact they listened curiously. “I’ll take

whatever challenge you offer.”

“Go back where you came from.” Tore turned, heading over to the counter.

When the owl followed him, studying Kane a moment longer with those oversized gray

eyes before leaving him standing alone at the entrance to The Running Mate, the

whispers around him grew louder the longer he stood alone. He didn’t have any intention

of going back where he came from.

Heading outside, he embraced the icy chill in the air, filling his lungs with it. Sleet blew

in the air around him, stinging his bare arms with prickly chills. It would be a cold winter.

Turning from The Running Mate, Kane headed down the main street of Kenora, ignoring

the humans he passed, who likewise ignored him. Convenient thing about that species,

humans didn’t pay much attention to anything around them, most of them too self-

absorbed to even notice how foul their emotions stunk up the air.

There were other hunters in the area. Kane would seek each of them out. And as he

already knew, each would tell him they weren’t interested in him, or that they didn’t need

what he had to offer. They were all scared of white leopards.

And they were probably smart to feel that way, he thought to himself, reaching the

corner and feeling the hair rise on the back of his neck. The leopard and owl had walked

out of The Running Mate. They would follow him, see where he headed, because even

though they didn’t smell shit on him, they didn’t trust him.

Damn his visions anyway for making the future so ridiculously predictable.

Turning right, he headed south. Kane didn’t know Kenora, but the town wasn’t big. And

it appeared to him as it had in his visions, which were coming with annoying regularity

these days.

Would he see the female who kept reappearing in his mind in this town?

Kane allowed his thoughts to drift, unconcerned about the leopard and owl trailing him.

The wind picked up and the sleet sliced through the air, but he kept his pace, not hurrying

or dawdling. There was time. His visions didn’t lie and until all were foretold, he

wouldn’t become a hunter.

His vision this morning was exceptionally strong, realistic and bordered on annoying.

Kane saw her again. The female who’d sauntered into his thoughts, appearing before him

as real as if she were actually standing in front of him. He could smell her, taste her and

see the pain in her eyes.

It was the only reason this morning he knew what he saw was another vision. The scene

was too damn real. But her black hair, so shiny it glowed, and straight and thick. He felt it

even now between his fingers, weighing heavily as he imagined stroking it as he had this

morning.

He probably wouldn’t have questioned the hair if it weren’t for her eyes. And those

incredible eyes confirmed what he saw was a vision and not actually transpiring in front

of him as he woke this morning. They were so green. Too green. But he saw through

them, saw beyond the colored contact lenses she used as part of her disguise and into the

depths of her soul.

She didn’t approach him. That’s how it was when he saw her in her disguise. Not once in

the many visions that seemed to haunt him did she seem aware of him watching her. It

was more like a video, which wasn’t how his visions played out in his mind. Kane saw

what would happen to him, and had since he was a cub. A convenient part of his brain he

no longer questioned as a grown male but relied on to know where he would run next.

The only time he stroked her flesh, felt her soft body against his and knew her fiery spirit

was when she shed her disguise. There were days when he craved those visions, knowing

satisfaction in his visions, even if they left him hard and screaming for release every time

they ended. Those tantalizing visions were erotic, sensual and stimulating. But they were

up close and personal, and so far, not one of those sexually enticing visions offered him a

good view of her face as she looked naturally, without her disguise.

But his visions of this tormented female were coming to him for a reason. And this

morning her pain was stronger than normal. As she walked through trees, he saw the

town as she did. He swore she stared down at Kenora.

When she jumped, disappearing from his sight, he remembered moving quickly enough

in his vision to breathe in her determination, laced with trepidation. Whatever it was she

planned on doing, she wasn’t looking forward to it.

Not to mention, she ran alone. Even with her silky-smooth scent filling his lungs, it

rubbed him wrong that she ran without an escort. Although after seeing her, feeling her,

watching the pain in her eyes through the colored lenses she used to block out the world,

Kane knew the hot little female viewed herself as too jaded for anyone’s opinion of her to

tarnish her reputation further. Whoever this female leopard was, she’d done things in her

life she seriously regretted.

Kane reached the edge of town, his shirt stuck to his flesh as the precipitation increased,

causing his pale blond hair to stick to the sides of his head. No one was around when he

sprinted across the open field on the outskirts of Kenora. The leopard Tore Mann and his

sidekick the owl apparently were satisfied he headed out of town. He’d lost the sensation

they were following him several blocks back.

It was too early to change into his fur, but with the weather growing worse, darkness

would fall sooner today and he would peel off his soaked clothes. Running in his fur

sounded a hell of a lot more appealing. Kane didn’t get cold easily, but the moisture in

the air was slowly sinking into his flesh.

At the two-lane highway, which would take him to the border leading into the United

States, something hit him. For a moment, he thought another vision had started. Kane

paused, glancing both directions and not seeing anyone. But he smelled something.

Something a bit too familiar.

When he started walking alongside the road, there wasn’t much reason to hurry. He

would reach Wheeler’s Point, Minnesota, tomorrow, and the bulk of his journey would be

in his fur. Once there, he would find the bar Pierce’s Lair, owned by another hunter. The

announcement that went out a month ago, informing the leopard community through the

PI website a new hunter would be announced after the beginning of the year, Kane

decided then he would wait for the lame brains to prance into Wheeler’s Point thinking

they stood a chance at filling the position. He wasn’t surprised when Tore didn’t tell him

they’d already found a new hunter. And he wasn’t disappointed to be turned away. As

well, he knew by the time he reached Wheeler’s Point, they would be expecting him.

Possibly he would stay at the sanctuary just across the border, run by Josh Bard, another

hunter. His journey would put him in touch with three of the four hunters, which would

be a majority. They were filling the position for the fifth hunter, although which one had

stepped down was being kept a secret. It wasn’t until recently the names of hunters

became public. Prior to the catastrophe inflicted upon his species by Leo Pard, the

identity of hunters remained a secret.