In the world of shifters, a man and a woman could come together in more than one lifetime. His family refused to find their true mates. They wanted sons for their work, a daughter if they could use her to barter an alliance with another lair, but rarely did they keep a female alive. In their lair only males were trusted into the brotherhood, the sacred shifter bratya. When a wife had done her duty and given her husband as many sons as he demanded, she met with a cruel and very untimely death. He’d been born into that. He’d failed to save his mother, but he’d managed to save Timur and Gorya from his father’s wrath.

Both had been there that day. Gorya had been given to Ogfia, Alonzo’s mother, when Gorya’s mother had died. Alonzo now knew her own husband had murdered her. It was a sign of loyalty to their lair, to the brotherhood. Gorya and Timur had been home the day Alonzo and Timur’s father had chosen to murder his wife. Both tried to fight him, but Alonzo’s father, like Alonzo, was a giant of a man and incredibly strong and fast. He’d killed his wife and then begun to beat both boys to death. Alonzo had come in.

Around him the meeting was breaking up, Emilio seemingly accepting Joshua’s verdict and leaving with his bodyguards, stopping to kiss Evangeline’s hand as he swept through the bakery to the back entrance. She gave Emilio a genuine smile and a little wave as he left via the kitchen.

Once again his leopard protested another man touching her. It won’t be long. Once we claim her, no other man will put his hands on her . . . and live. He closed his eyes briefly on that thought. That made him far too much like his father. The opposite, but still willing to kill. He would keep her any way he had to.

Evangeline returned from the kitchen and stood just behind the counter, frowning a little as she stared at the coffee stain. She didn’t have a poker face at all. Every expression gave away her thoughts, and without a doubt she thought to send all of them away.

Joshua and Elijah left next, both stopping to thank her. She avoided Joshua’s gaze, which told Alonzo she refused to acknowledge the family connection between them. He needed to find out why. She had been using another name. Bouvier, not Tregre. Timur would find out everything there was to know about her. He needed to know. He couldn’t walk into the relationship and be blindsided now that he’d made up his mind.