Chapter 933 - Leaving the mountain (2) (2/2)

Sarah lifted front leg of the large animal and spoke softly: ”Hey, little guy… come here…”

When she stood up and faced her three companions, she was holding a black cub of a leopard. The cub is completely black with faint golden spotted pattern across forehead.

”It seems that his mommy protected him.”, Sarah said while gently rubbing head of the cub.

Haru looked at the cub. ”They would not waste bullets on him. He is too little to survive on his own.” He peeked between hind legs. ”It's a girl. Maybe two months old.”

”Does she need milk?”, Sarah asked.

Jesse answered before Haru could: ”Leopard cubs nurse up to six months old. But as soon as they get teeth they can eat meat. They just can't hunt by themselves.”

Haru reached to see if the cub has teeth and the cub hissed at him before burying face in Sarah's chest.

”Well, it has teeth.”, Haru said, obviously put off by the hostile way the cub treated him.

Sarah stifled a laugh while cradling the cub in her arms. ”Kitty does not like that you checked her private parts.”

Aiden pinched roof of his nose and sighed. 'She already named the animal!'

He can tell that she wants to take it with them. And just as he guessed, when he looked at Sarah, he met her puppy-eyed expression.

”If we leave Kitty here, she will die.”, Sarah pleaded. As if on cue, the cub rubbed head on Sarah's hand which stopped providing rubs while she talked. ”Look, she likes me.”

Aiden took a deep breath and tried to sound calm. ”I don't think these are permitted in California.”

”How about we do our research once we reach home?”, she countered.

Aiden exhaled and made a gesture to move along. There is no point arguing with Sarah when she decides on something. He thought that they should leave this place as soon as possible before Sarah decides to adopt someone or something else.

Sarah gave him a smacking kiss. ”Thank you!”

The cub hissed and extended front paws to push Aiden away.

Sarah held cub's paws and spoke softly. ”Kitty, don't push daddy away.”

Aiden was not sure how to react to this. Should he be happy that they are a family of three now? Or upset that the cub does not like him? And he does not know how he feels about the fact that Sarah has a tendency of picking up people (like Haru), and now animals as well.

Sarah, Aiden, Haru and Jesse looked sadly at three cages with dead animals in them. They know that they can't bring them back to life and burying them will only deny food to other animals in vicinity. It's a circle of life, unfortunately impacted by poachers.

Sarah tucked the cub inside her jacket and spoke to Aiden when they continued their journey down the mountain. ”We should find out who is doing this illegal trading and see what we can do about it.”

Aiden's expression stiffened. ”Like we don't have enough on our hands.”

Sarah pretended not to see his disapproval. ”We need to do this. For Kitty.”

Aiden didn't want to argue. They should go home and make arrangements for Haru and Kitty. He put his arm around Sarah's shoulders and the cub hissed.

Aiden frowned at the cub and pointed his finger threateningly. ”You need to learn who is the boss.”

The cub stopped hissing and extended its head outside of the protection that Sarah's jacket offers to smell Aiden's hand. A second later, Kitty gently licked his finger.

Aiden smiled smugly. ”She is smart. We can keep her.”

Sarah laughed.

---

If you are not reading this at 'W e b n o v e l . c o m', then the content you're reading is stolen! Please support the author by reading this novel from the original source.