Excerpt from Panther Gap by James A. McLaughlin, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Bowman."

"Sir?"

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yes." The boy's voice was weak, muffled, speaking into his arm. "Did I do it right?"

"You looked like a wolf. Even to me." It was more than that, a perfect performance, and it had spooked Leo. The boy had changed into a wolf before his eyes.

Alecto lifted her right foot, the first and second talons shining wet with blood.

"She footed you." Leo moved in closer, reached out with his gloved arm toward the bird. She hissed at him again, the hackles on the back of her neck raised. It was still too soon. Something about this ersatz kill had agitated her. "You're hurt."

"I'm fine. It's kind of hard to breathe."

Leo hesitated. It was risky to try to take the bird off her kill before she was ready.

"Come up, Alecto." He placed a strip of raw chicken on his glove and stepped around in front. His son's face was hidden. "That's Bowman you have there. Let me see what you've done to him."

The chest pad on Bowman's back looked inadequate now—what had he been thinking?—but already he was imagining something more protective, a vest of stiff heavy leather. It had gone so well. He hadn't expected Alecto to take to such a large quarry so quickly.

She held his eyes with hers, her beak open, panting.

"She's not letting me in. We may have to wait a few minutes for her to settle down."

Bowman lay still, the eagle tenting her wings to shadow him, her feathers compressed tightly against her body. She stood like a statue of some crazed angel, her eyes glaring an unmistakable warning.

"You okay for a little longer?"

The boy didn't reply.

"Bowman!"

He heard Summer's frightened "Daddy?" from behind him as he lunged to kneel beside his son's shoulder. The eagle's blooded foot struck at his face like a snake but he was ready, taking the blow with his gloved fist, the thumb talon big around as a pencil going through the leather and into the meat of his palm. Before she could strike again he swept her feet together with his other hand. Her left wing cut a gash in his cheek as he pulled her toward him, folding her against his chest. She weighed no more than a fat housecat, but her power was astonishing, preternatural. Leo Girard had fought men to the death but he had never experienced anything like Alecto's hissing, primal fury, and he knew she wouldn't forgive him for this. He used his weight to subdue her, lying atop her while slipping the hood over her head.

Her struggle ceased as if he'd thrown a switch, and he set her on a pine beam, wrapped her jesses loosely around a peg, and turned to lift his son and carry him to the house. Summer stood wide-eyed at the top of the steps, and he whispered to her, asking if she would please run down and open the outside door.

Excerpted from Panther Gap by James A. McLaughlin. Copyright © 2023 by James A. McLaughlin. Excerpted by permission of Flatiron Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.