“Jake gave me a job,” ake answered, bailing out Saria. She didn’t want to answer in front of the other members of the lair, but she didn’t want to lie. He took the matter out of her hands.

Remy sent him an irritated look. “Call your team in. No one’s goin’ to attack you.” He managed to make it sound like Drake was a little kid and his mama bear was in the woods ready to protect him should there be need.

Drake stared at him coolly. “You don’t have to like me, Boudreaux, any more than I have to like you. You let this happen and you can blame me if you can’t stomach shouldering the responsibility, but don’t think for one minute your intimidation tactics are going to work on me. I’m not a girl wishing her brothers loved her.”

Saria gasped, whirling around to face Drake. “What are you doin’? You’re pushin’ him to fight you.”

Maybe he was. He couldn’t get his leopard to calm down. The animal ripped and clawed, wanting to get at Saria’s brother. Remy appeared to have the same problem, and if the tension emanating from the rest of her brothers was anything to go by—they were fighting for control as well.

Drake frowned, shaking his head, trying to clear away the red haze. He glanced over at the two fallen leopards, torn beyond belief, Elie crouched low, trying to aid them. His mind felt heavy, leaden, thick and dense, as though the red haze had penetrated his brain, making it impossible to think clearly. For one brief moment, his eyes met Armande’s.

Armande Mercier and Robert Lanoux lay in puddles of blood, their bodies shredded, ribs broken, both fighting for each breath. The Boudreaux brothers looked at them with deadly intent, still not satisfied with the punishment Remy had inflicted, yet there was something off. An alarm bell shrieked at Drake, yet he couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong.

“Something isn’t right here,” he said aloud to Remy. The man was a homicide detective, obviously a leader. Surely he could feel it too.

Remy opened his mouth, closed it again and looked around. Yeah. He was feeling it too. He signaled to his brothers to finish dressing. Drake sent the signal to Joshua to call them in, but he was uneasy.

Joshua Tregre stepped out of the brush, automatic weapon ready, although he looked relaxed. He skirted around the brothers to close in to one side of Drake, about twenty feet out. Joshua’s sun-bleached hair, worn shaggy, made him appear more of a surfer than a leopard, until you looked into his piercing blue-green eyes. His gaze held a stormy, turbulent sea, rather than a calm one, belying the laugh lines around his eyes. He had the deep chest and upper body strength of most of his kind. The weapon he held so comfortably appeared part of him.

A second man emerged from Remy’s right, only thirty feet from the fallen leopards. Drake sent a small salute. Jerico Masters nodded. He was head of security at the Bannaconni ranch when Drake was gone, which was a good deal of the time. A quiet man, he was dark-haired with green, watchful eyes. Drake was a little worried to see him there. With Jerico gone, who was watching over Jake, his wife Emma, and their children?

The last man surprised Drake. Evan Mitchelson was a very quiet man, big and muscular, a former prizefighter with a major speech impediment. He rarely spoke, but used sign language. He never shifted in front of others and Drake had often wondered if he could. He held a gun as if he were rn with one.

“Nice to see you boys,” Drake greeted quietly. “We have a little situation here. I need to know if your leopards are acting strange. Enraged. Pushing for supremacy, goading you to pick a fight or fire your weapon.”

Remy sent him a shocked look. He looked at the three newcomers. Joshua nodded. “Almost from the moment we came into the marsh. We all discussed how edgy we were. We put it down to you being in danger. We just double-timed here.”

Evan signed frantically. His leopard was rarely let loose because he was a killer, very difficult to control under the best of circumstances and Evan was fighting just for survival right now. He wanted to leave the marsh.

Jerico nodded his own confirmation.

“How did you know where to look?”

“We followed your scent—well,” Joshua looked guilty. “Her scent. Her leopard is putting off some major pheromones.”

Saria rolled her eyes. “Great. You can smell me throughout the swamp. Just what I wanted to know.” She moved a little closer to Drake as if for protection. He could see the subtle movement was subconscious.

“Sorry, ma’am,” Joshua apologized. “Your leopard is rather alluring.”

Drake’s leopard clawed so hard, his muscles contorted and his jaw hurt. He felt the change sliding over him almost too fast to comprehend. His vision banded and he just happened to glance toward the two injured men. Armande’s eyes met his. The man stared back at him with despair and something else—something indefinable. The strange look steadied Drake as nothing else could have. It was if the two fallen shifters knew something the rest of them didn’t and were waiting for a catastrophe to happen.

He risked a glance at Remy and saw he was battling as well. “I think it’s this marsh.” He spoke loud enough for his voice to carry to the wounded shifters, watching them from the corner of his eye. Both looked uneasy, but they were as troubled as the rest of them.

Remy frowned but signaled to his brothers to work at controlling their leopards. “Perhaps we should all leave this place immediately.”

Drake glanced at Saria. “What about you, honey? Is she quiet, or giving you fits?”