Dazi wanted to scream. He wanted to scream apologies at Mateo and beg him to come back, he wanted to scream at his tribe for making the stupid laws that forced him into this, but mostly he wanted to scream wordlessly at himself for ruining everything. Instead he crumpled against the doorframe, taking deep calming breaths that weren’t working as well as he’d hoped.
Chief Werama came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “You have ten minutes to find him yourself before I send hunters. You know he can’t run around out there like that without ramifications.”
“I know.” Dazi took slow steps down the hall, thinking about how to approach this. Ten minutes wasn’t a long time, and in jaguar form Mateo could run faster than Dazi could follow on foot. I could track him as a mountain lion, b
