Blackbeak Bluff but now you're in love, you know

caiaphas' hard gaze never left steele's backside -- even as he crept forward, hunkered over like some rough beast. the grass beneath him parted with soft rustles, as if objecting their passage -- she slowed to a halt and instinctively pressed her thin belly to the ground.

ahead, the pewter male's form flattened -- every aspect of him from his strayaway hairs to his ears seemed to condense. she awaited, breath shallow and near still. either he would be successful, or he would not -- but caiaphas did not lift a single hair to influence the outcome either way.