“Let go of me.” She kept her voice low, her back to his front, head down, not wanting him to see her face. She’d learned to pitch her voice very low from the time she was just a child. Don’t ever let anyone hear you talking or laughing. Stay secret. Stay quiet. If you don’t, the leopard will come. Her Bebe had taught her that.

“Malyutka, if I let you go, you’ll fall down.”

“I’d rather fall down than have you touch me,” she sniped.

She meant it too. He’d found her leopard and he’d captured her. No one, not her family, not her friends, no one had ever known about her leopard. She had sworn to protect her and she’d failed. All because she was weak whenever she looked at Alonzo. So weak. Even now, being so close to him all she could do was smell his scent, the one that took her away from everything and sent her head spinning and set her body on fire. She couldn’t look at his mouth without remembering how he’d kissed her.

“Go away and do whatever it is you do and leave me alone. I don’t care what your leopard did to me. Or that mine accepted yours. I refuse to accept you. Or it. I mean it, Alonzo, just go. What you did was wrong. So wrong.”

She detested that she had tears on her face and he would see them the moment he turned her around. She couldn’t wipe at them either, not without him seeing. It was humiliating. She didn’t cry. She’d learned not to cry a long, long time ago in that tiny shack out in the middle of the swamp when she was a toddler. Alone. In the dark, afraid the leopard would come for her.

“What I did was necessary and you know it. There was no choice. They . . . belong.”

His arm unlocked around her, setting her free for a moment to turn her around to face him, but when she swayed unsteadily, his hand immediately went to her arm and then slid down to her wrist.

She jerked at her arm, intending to get away, but his fingers wrapped around her entire wrist shackling her to him. Gently. But there was no escape.

“I don’t care if they belong. She’ll do as I wish. She always has. If I say no, she won’t accept him, bond or no bond, and I say no. You had no right.”

He didn’t respond to her threat, but led her to a kitchen chair. “Where’s your first aid kit?” His voice was pitched low. So soft. So without emotion when she was all about emotion.

“I don’t want your help. Just go away.”