ELI watched Catarina go into the house with Cordeau. She looked so scared. So alone and vulnerable. He kept his head down, but his eyes were on the three men who had been having such a good time torturing him. They’d made several mistakes. They should have knocked him out. They should have tied his feet. The chains were wrapped around his wrists. And they thought with three against one the odds were in their favor.

One came at him from the front, his arms the legs of a leopard. He let the man get close, let him rake claws down his chest, a streaking, painful fire, but his legs whipped up and caught the man’s neck between his powerful thighs in a vicious grip, preventing shifting, preventing anything but trying to survive. He wasn’t going to. Eli killed him before the second leopard could leap the distance to try to come to the aid of his friend.

Eli lifted his body up, drove hard to rise above the hook and free his chains. He dropped to the ground and caught the second lieutenant around the neck with the chains, twisting with his enormous strength, relentless, brutal, taking the air from him, cutting it off, strangling him with the very manacles they’d used to bind him after they’d stunned him.

The other lieutenant recovered from his momentary shock and ripped his clothes from his body, shifting as he did so. Eli swung the dying man around to face the snarling leopard, giving the animal a target. The leopard leapt at him, his body hitting his friend with alarming force, smashing the chest, knocking Eli and the now dead man back. As he allowed the body to drop to the ground, Eli took the opportunity to shed the chains and his clothes in seconds. He shifted, his large male leopard already in combat mode, facing the leopard that had landed hard and was shaking himself.

Eli’s big black panther charged the lighter spotted leopard. The male leapt to the side with blinding speed and whirled to try to leap on Eli’s back. His panther met the leopard in midair, raking and clawing, using his teeth to try to secure a smothering hold, but the leopard was too experienced and twisted at the last second. He ran. Eli followed.

Eli knew he had no choice but to kill the leopard before Cordeau returned to kill him. And he would. There was no question no matter what he told Catarina. Cordeau knew better than to leave him alive. Cat’s leopard was Eli’s leopard’s mate. Cat was Eli’s mate. Cordeau would have to destroy him in order to have any claim on Catarina or her leopard. He knew, if Eli was alive, Eli would never stop coming after him and Catarina would be driven to try to find him.