“She’s extremely quiet. In fact, if it wasn’t for all of you talking about pheromones, I might not even know she exists.” Her gaze slid away from his, and for the first time, he knew she lied to him. Her leopard was reacting, but she didn’t want to admit it.

“Remy, I want my men out of here. Evan is having great difficulty with his leopard.”

“I am as well,” Lojos admitted.

“Same here, Remy,” Gage said. “If I don’ shift soon, he’s goin’ to tear me up inside.”

Remy looked to his other two brothers. Mahieu and Dash both nodded their agreement. “Elie, the boys are goin’ to help you move those two. If you have a painkiller, give it to them.” He glared down at the two wounded shifters. “We’re goin’ to pack you out of here, but all of us are havin’ trouble with our leopards. Shut the hell up and stay that way. Neither of you had better give a reason to killecause it isn’t too late dump your sorry asses in the swamp.”

Gage and Lojos immediately went to help Elie get the wounded men on their feet. There was a lot of hushed cursing, but neither of the punished shifters was stupid enough to protest. They began walking back toward the dock where the Boudreaux brothers had left their high-powered boat, picking their way carefully around all the hazards.

Remy and Mahieu remained behind. They waited until the others were completely swallowed up by the brush before they approached Drake and his team members.

“Boss, do you need us here?” Evan signed.

Drake shook his head. “I’ll meet you all back at the inn.”

Joshua sent a hard look toward Remy and Mahieu, but he followed Jerico and Evan after the others.

“I’m Remy Boudreaux, Saria’s oldest brother. This is Mahieu,” Remy held out his hand.

Drake took it. “Drake Donovan. Jake Bannaconni sent me to check into some things for him. I hired Saria to guide me in the swamp and things just got out of hand fast.”

Remy nodded slowly. “I can see how it could happen, and if you’re her choice, we’ll stand with you. We need new blood here. Our lair has dwindled down to nothing. Most of us have no choice.”

“You might consider heading into the rain forest and seeing if you can find a mate,” Drake said. “Although I’m fairly certain you’ve already done that.”

Remy shrugged his shoulders. “I tried. I’m sendin’ my brothers as soon as things settle down here. We didn’ believe Saria had a leopard.”

Drake opened his mouth to snap a reply. As far as he was concerned, that was no reason to neglect their little sister, but he didn’t know all the circumstances and he honestly couldn’t be certain if his leopard was driving his wrath at Saria’s brothers.

“I do have one,” Saria said unexpectedly, her eyes shining.

Drake wanted to smile. He slipped his arm around her shoulders and brought her close to him. “Yes you do.”

“She’s a little tough to control in this place,” she added, again avoiding his eyes.

“You’ve been here before,” Drake said. “What’s different?”

Saria frowned and looked around her. “I don’ know. It’s beautiful, but it always was. More flowers and plants than I remember, but it changes all the time dependin’ on the weather and the storm surges. You can see all the water. Sometimes it washes away the top soil and other times the water deposits rich soil here. This marsh is very wild and natural. Of all the places, this land has the most diversity of life and even terrain. All of this is marshland, but, although we call it Fenton’s Marsh, it’s a huge piece of property. The land firms up the more you go inland.”

“Are you goin’ to explain what’s goin’ on, Saria? All hell’s broken loose in the lair. If Elie hadn’t contacted us, I’d be in jail right now for killin’ those two,” Remy said.

“I don’t think anyone expected me,” Drake said. “Saria needed help and I was there. Our leopards definitely recognized one another. When the other one attacked her, her leopard hid from him.”

Remy’s eyes went ice-cold. “Who was it, Saria, and don’ tell me you didn’ recognize him. You had to have smelled him. And when he marked you . . .”

Drake felt a surge of anger at the words. He turned Saria around and raised the hem of her shirt, revealing the long marks, still red, although scarred over.

Remy and Mahieu both snarled, almost simultaneously, their leopards reacting to the sight of Saria’s wounds. It mattered little that the furrows were nearly healed and had happened some time ago.

Remy moved closer, inhaling deeply in an effort to detect a scent. Saria shook her head and yanked down her shirt, glaring at Drake.

“I couldn’t tell who it was. I don’ know why I couldn’ smell him, Remy. Maybe I was too scared. I thought he was going to kill me. I never had a leopard attack me before. I’d never been that close to one.”

“You should have come to me immediately.”

“And say a leopard attacked me? The only leopards I knew about were my five brothers.” She made the statement staring him steadily in the eye.

“You knew?” Remy asked.

She nodded. “I saw all of you when I was a kid. At the time, Pere was still alive and I watched him carefully after that. I watched all of you. It was excitin’ and scary. There were rake marks in the house some times and I saw all the signs. I’m good at trackin’.”