Both men stared at Alonzo and Timur with rapt attention. Timur looked at his hands and thrust them out toward the prisoners. “The Amur leopard has fur growing on the bottom of its paws to keep them warm. Claws are retractable.” As he spoke his hand distorted. The knuckles cracked audibly. Fingers bent. Stiletto-sharp hooked claws sprang out, each attached by a ligament to the bone at the tip of toes.

Crispin screamed. The dispatcher’s eyes rolled back in his head and he clearly fainted.

Alonzo leaned into the undercover cop. “You tried to kill my woman twice, you bastard. And all leopards can hear lies.” With that he shifted, his upper torso and head along with both arms and hands. Hot breath blasted the cop’s face as the leopard opened his mouth to show his teeth. All four canines were large and curved, with a space behind each to allow the leopard to sink his teeth as deep as possible during a killing bite. Leopard canines were stronger and longer as well as more cylindrical than those of dogs. They had to be when teeth hit bone. Molars could shear through skin and muscle like the blade of a knife.

Alonzo made certain his leopard showed every tooth to advantage, but he kept a firm grip on his cat. He never allowed the animal to eat human flesh and now was no different. Hot breath hit Crispin’s face as his eyes went wide with shock. His mouth formed a perfect O in a soundless scream.

“I think you should rethink what you just said,” Timur said softly, inspecting his claws. He suddenly ripped the hooked nails down Phillips’s chest as if he couldn’t quite contain his rage, or his leopard.

Alonzo’s leopard snarled. Huffed out another blast of hot air onto the dirty cop’s face. Crispin Phillips squeezed his eyes shut tight. “I’ve been taking his money for years. Since I first was in the academy. He wants her dead. He blames her for all of you not accepting him into the alliance and ruining all his plans.”

Alonzo shifted back into his human form and slowly, without taking his eyes from the cop’s face, closed his belt buckle and then held out his hand for his shirt. “He didn’t know she was mine?”

“No. He thought the old man wanted her. I can help you. I know everything about his business. Everything.”

Alonzo just stared at him with ice-cold eyes. “He won’t live out this night, so it doesn’t really matter what you know.”

“I didn’t know she was yours.” Phillips tried another lie.

“She’s an innocent woman, and you knew that.” Alonzo lifted his gun. “You also knew she was mine.” He shot him between the eyes and then turned and shot the dispatcher. “You left leopard DNA in his chest, Timur,” he snapped at his brother. “What the hell were you thinking?”