She shook her head. “I was a child, Rafe. You made me take that responsibility and guilt but it wasn’t mine to take. That was you. You chose to hurt her. You took pleasure in hurting her. You knew she was my friend and you killed her in front of me. Did you think I would want to stay with you after that?”

He took another step toward her, glided fluidly, like the leopard he was. She saw his leopard now in his eyes. The need to dominate because she was arguing, defying him. His eyes glittered, focused on her like he would on prey.

“It doesn’t matter what you want, Catarina. You belong to me. You always have. The moment I knew that bitch of a woman had something so precious, I knew I would take you from her and protect you.” Again there was no inflection in his voice.

The sound of water and then Eli crying out had her spinning around. They were shocking him, running electricity through his wet body. She forced herself to remain still. Lifting one hand she shifted only her arm and hand, a difficult feat that had taken weeks of practice to accomplish. A paw formed where her fingers had been, long, curved razor-sharp claws springing out of them.

She didn’t hesitate, bringing the claw to the artery in her neck. Blood trickled. Rafe leapt toward her, covering the distance between them in the blink of an eye, yanking her arm down and away from her jugular.

“You won’t be able to stop me, Rafe. They hurt him, I’ll do it. I’ll kill myself. I’ll find a way. That’s the deal.”

Rafe swore, the first sign of emotion he’d shown. He lifted his hand and instantly the water cut off and Eli stopped twisting and jerking.

“Please let go of me.” His touch confused her. His grip on her was gentle, not hard. He held her arm firmly but without any force. She couldn’t sustain the shift to just one body part and her leopard subsided, staying just below the surface in case Catarina needed her again.

“Promise me you won’t try to harm yourself. We’ll work out a deal.”

She nodded. “As long as you don’t kill or torture him, or harm anyone else I care about, I’ll listen to what you have to say, Rafe.”

Rafe waved his three lieutenants back, ensuring Eli’s safety for the time being. “We’ll go in the kitchen and talk,” he said, making it an order.

“I don’t trust them to stay away from Eli. Get him down from there, first.”

“Not a chance, Catarina. I’m giving you this one concession. Go into the kitchen where we can talk alone.”