It took several minutes for the cat to submit to her control, subsiding, but making her needs known, leaving Isabeau in a heightened state of sensitivity and awareness. All senses were acute. Her body ached, every muscle, every joint. Her breasts were so sensitive, each time she moved, her nipples brushed against her lacy bra and sent an electrical current sizzling straight to the junction between her legs. She ached for Conner, for relief.

It was a fitting revenge, she thought. She’d denied her cat’s emergence, but she couldn’t stop the needs of her species. The Han Vol Dan. That mysterious moment when her cat was set free and wholly united with her human form. The shocking heat of the female leopard, emerging with a desperate, insatiable hunger that could never be sated by any other than her mate.

“Good girl,” Elijah whispered in her ear, looking intimate, but careful not to touch her and incur the wrath of her leopard.

Before she could reply, the room went silent as four men dressed in black pants and black shirts swept through the double doors. The entrance was meant to be dramatic and it was. They carried automatic weapons, wore dark, mirrored sunglasses and looked like television gangsters to Isabeau. Her stomach tightened as she sensed the instant reaction of Elijah’s leopard.

The tension in the room was shocking, stretched nearly to a breaking point as the men shoved couples against the wall and began systematically searching them. It was a show of power, pure and simple—a lesson to show just who was really in charge. The indignity on the faces of the various couples was apparent, but not a single person protested.

The driving, pounding music accompanied the sound of harsh breathing and grunts and little outraged gasps as the women were searched. Elijah and Marcos watched impassively as the four men came closer and closer to them, but neither moved. Isabeau remained close to Elijah, her stomach knotting as the security team got closer. She knew this type of search was unusual and was simply Imelda’s way of making a dramatically grand entrance, but with her heightened sensitivity she could feel the men around her, their energy growing more dangerous as the guards approached.

Just as two of the men dressed in black reached Marcos and Elijah, Conner emerged from the shadows, placing his body solidly in their path. Rio, Felipe and Leonardo were there as well. They’d moved so fast she had thought she must have blinked. Elijah very gently drew her behind him.

Conner stared directly into those mirrored glasses. “I don’t think so.” His voice was quiet, but it was a whip, a challenge.

“We’ll be searching everyone.”

Conner’s smile was slow, and there was no humor in it. “You’ll be dead before you lay a finger on the three of them. But you’re always welcome to try.”

Isabeau’s mouth went dry. He was provoking the guards deliberately. They were sending their own message to Imelda. The woman was known for her insanity. She could order her men to open fire with the automatic weapons, killing everyone in the room. The other couples in the room were clearly shocked, gasping. One woman began to cry but her partner quickly shushed her.

Conner never broke off his stare, his eyes pure cat. He looked relaxed. He looked . . . lethal. He made the men he was facing look small.

The man closest to him spoke into his radio. “Martin, we have a problem in here.”

Almost immediately two men entered the room. Both had the build of the leopard and moved with fluid power. Isabeau’s cat reacted with a snarl and leap. She saw, because she was watching him, Conner’s fingers flex just once when the man who was reputed to have killed his mother entered the room. Isabeau recognized Suma from the village and her stomach rebelled at the sight of him, almost as much as her cat did.

Used to instant obedience and the cowering of any opposition, Martin Suma and Ottila Zorba shoved their security force aside and were almost toe to toe with Conner before it hit them what exactly they were facing. Martin found himself staring into the focused eyes of a killer. Conner smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile. The tension in the room stretched nearly to a breaking point as the two stared each other down.

Ottila, not the one locked in combat with Conner, surveyed the security for the two visitors, recognizing them instantly as leopard. He inhaled sharply and drew the scent of a female close to the Han Vol Dan into his body. At once his cat reacted, all male, hunger invading, a dark need that was all encompassing. He looked past the others and focused on the object of his desire.

Martin caught the scent next and his gaze flicked to the woman standing behind the man he knew as Elijah Lospostos, head of a major drug cartel and by all accounts a very powerful and dangerous man. Only then did he realize not only was the security team leopard, and the woman, but the two visitors as well. He was facing seven leopards, all of them armed. Self-preservation was strong and dictated that he back off immediately.

Isabeau saw the knowledge hit the two guards almost at the same time. Their eyes glittered with malice. She never wanted to meet either of them alone on a dark night. These were the men who had kidnapped the children and killed several villagers and Conner’s mother. She couldn’t quite control the pounding of her heart.

Elijah reached behind him, a casual, gentle gesture, and laid his hand on her arm. That small touch steadied her. She took a breath and forced herself to breathe normally, slowing her pulse. She couldn’t be afraid of them. Her cat detested the scent of the two rogue leopards, yet recognized Conner’s immediately, nearly purring at his closeness.

A stir at the door drew her attention. Isabeau peeked around Elijah and caught her first glimpse of Imelda Cortez. She wore a long, flowing gown of bloodred, matching her long nails and lipstick. Her hair, as black as a raven’s wing, was swept up in an intricate knot so that the dazzling gems on her ears and at her throat were prominently displayed. The dress was slashed nearly to the navel so that the perfect globes of her breasts peeked out, making Isabeau feel drab and childish in comparison.