The change had him in its grip now, his body contorting, bones, sinew and tendons popping and cracking. He couldn’t stop it. He screamed silently, terrified for her. “Get in the car. Get out of here.” He tried to speak, to save her from the cat’s jealous fury, but his voice was already gone, coming out a growl instead of words. His knuckles turned, claws bursting from his fingertips. He tried to tear off his shirt. Already his body was bending, going to the ground. His shoes hurt, the seams bursting as he fell.

Emma should have been running screaming from him, but she went to the ground with him, pulling at his shoes, dragging the shirt from him. The leopard, more prominent than the man, scented the drug in her system. Despair spread like lightning. She’d been drugged—almost raped- and he’d been like an animal, clawing and raking at her instead of pulling her into his arms and holding her, comforting her. He’d been at fault, failing in his protection of her. Now his leopard was bursting free in front of her, his teeth sharp, his temper ferocious.

Please. Emma. Honey. For God’s sake. Get in the car. He tried to tell her, tried to shove her away from him, but his vocal cords weren’t working.

He didn’t know if he could fight the leopard for her. He’d hurt Drake, raking him with his claws, tearing open his chest. Drake had never said a word of recrimination, but Jake would never forget the sight of his friend with the mark of the leopard striped across his chest.

Emma tore at his trousers, dragging them down his legs so he could kick them aside. He breathed deeply, holding off as long as he could, trying to give her time. His claws raked long strips of dirt from the ground. He felt fur rippling over his skin and groaned with the effort to hold back. It was too late, far too late.

Emma! He cried out her name in his mind, pleading with the leopard to get away from her.

Emma sat on the ground, her back to the tire of the car, exhausted, Jake’s clothes scattered all around her. A few remnants of her dress lay on the ground. She was clothed in only her panties, garter and torn stockings. She’d lost her shoes when Jake had pulled her out of the car. Her nipples were tight buds due to the cold air, her breasts bare. She watched him change, the large man in the throes of shifting, his bones re-forming, his muzzle lengthening and filling with teeth, his eyes glowing and wild, fixed on her.

The leopard, fully formed, stepped forward, thrusting its face into hers, its breath hot on her skin, one huge paw on her shoulder, claws digging into her. The huge cat snarled, scenting the other male. He rasped his tongue over Emma’s face and rubbed along her body with his cheeks and his scent glands to warn the other male off. She pulled back to look him in the eye, her green eyes glittering, his golden gaze furious. They stared at each other until she buried her fingers into the lush fur coat and pushed him away from her.

“Go away, Jake. I’m really upset with you right now.” Her voice sounded odd, far away. She clutched the fur tighter, but her fingers slipped. The ground tilted. She slid down the wheel of the car and found herself staring up at the leopard’s fur-lined belly. Her lashes fluttered, her lids too heavy to keep up.

The leopard nuzzled her as she closed her eyes and gave in to the drug.

16

EMMA woke slowly, her mouth dry, jackhammers drilling through her temples. She burrowed into the warmth surrounding her before she realized Jake was rocking her in the large chair he’d brought to her room a year earlier when Andraya was born. He liked to sit in the chair and rock Kyle, feeding him his bottle while she fed Andraya.

“I don’t like you very much,” she murmured, keeping her eyes closed. The room was dark, the house silent. His chest was bare beneath her cheek.

“I know you don’t,” he answered softly. “Go back to sleep. The doctor said you’d have a headache and would probably feel like a truck ran you over.”

Mostly she felt exhausted. It shocked her a little that he’d brought in a doctor and she hadn’t even roused from the drug enough to know. “You should have been thinking about me, Jake, not yourself. That was a terrifying experience. That man would have raped me. Maybe all of them.”

He nuzzled the top of her head. “I wasn’t thinking like a man, Emma. That’s no excuse, but it is the truth.”

“My mother was leopard, Jake. There was no difference between her and her leopard, and there shouldn’t be with you either. You use your leopard as an excuse.”

He smiled at the little bite in her voice and briefly buried his face in her hair again. “You should have told me about your mother.”

“Why? How? It isn’t exactly normal. You didn’t tell me.” Emma passed a hand over her face. Her arm still felt like lead.

“You weren’t afraid or even shocked when I shifted.”

“I lived with you for two years, Jake. Did you think I wouldn’t see the claw marks on the floors and walls, especially in your office? Did you think I wouldn’t know what you were doing the nights you went running and came back with your clothes shredded? Or the time your mother—the enemy,” she corrected herself, “came and you left fresh marks on the floor in the nursery and punctured your own palms? I lived with my mother for nineteen years. It’s not like I couldn’t read the signs or smell the cat. If you didn’t want to tell me, I wasn’t going to bring it up.”

“And your family had been hunted. You didn’t entirely trust me—or anyone else,” Jake prompted, knowing it was the truth.

She shrugged and lifted her head up, for the first time opening her eyes. His eyes were still a cat’s eyes, glowing red in the dark. “You have to admit, it was a big coincidence, my mother being a leopard, our family hunted and eventually killed, and then you bringing me here. Drake. Joshua. Conner. Aside from my mother, I’d never met a single leopard until I met you. I had to know what you wanted.”