He didn’t know about families or relationships. He’d chosen loyalties. He’d been taught to be loyal at an early age. His father had beat it into him—he just hadn’t told him he didn’t have the freedom to choose who to be loyal to.

He’d chosen his mother. Timur, his brother. Gorya, his cousin. His loyalty had been to them. When his father made the decision to beat them to death, probably in one of his fits of rage, Alonzo had made the decision to protect them. That, more than any other time, was when he learned he had choices.

Evangeline was his choice. His loyalty was to her. He belonged to her. Everything good in him, everything bad that could protect her. All of him. Heart, mind, body and soul were hers. He’d never asked for anything in his life. Not once. He’d never had anything that belonged to him. Never.

“Evangeline.” He whispered her name aloud. She had to be all right. She had to live. He’d make a bargain with the devil if he had to. He’d lived with demons, he knew them, was comfortable with them. He’d left that life to the best of his ability, only to fall into a dangerous life he thought might help make up for his past. Now he was afraid the price he would have to pay would be far, far worse than anything he’d ever expected. Live for me. Don’t leave me.

The moment the car pulled up to the hospital, Alonzo and Sevastyan were out and striding through the doors. Jake and Elijah were there waiting. Alonzo couldn’t help noting the number of bodyguards as they made their way toward the operating rooms. In the midst of all the leopards, the men there to support him, he felt alone. Isolated. She had to live because she was his entire world. Without her, he had nothing.

“They took Mitya in first. He’s critical. Lost far too much blood. If he lives, it was Timur putting pressure on the wound, slowing the bleeding, he can thank.”

“He stepped between the gunmen and me,” Alonzo said, his voice as dead as he felt.

Elijah nodded. “How did they get in without anyone knowing? I thought that place was buttoned down tight?”

Alonzo could barely hear the question. The roaring protest in his mind was so loud, so chaotic when he was always so focused, he couldn’t think. His leopard was as out of control as he was, throwing itself at the surface, battering him for supremacy, needing to find his mate and assure himself she was fine. Desperate to remove all threats to her—and the one thing he knew for certain—she was in danger as long as Patrizio Amodeo walked the earth. It had to have been his gunmen sent to assassinate Alonzo.