“These tell the world what I am. I am in the brotherhood, the bratya. Our lair was among the oldest and the most feared. Of course no one knew we were leopard, only that our family was considered the bloodiest and cruelest of all territories. No one ever messed with us and lived. We had riches and power, and that wasn’t enough. It was the blood that my family craved. The depravity. The violence. Their leopards were bathed in it.”

He kept his gaze fixed on her face. Watching her as he confessed. As he told her the truth of his life. Of who and what he was and would always be because they’d shaped him that way. They’d made him into a killer. It mattered little that he hadn’t wanted it, they’d carved that into him so deep there was no getting it out. He was intelligent and cunning. He moved with blurring speed. Sadly, when it came to enemies, his first thought was to end them. Always.

She was silent for so long he didn’t think she would speak. She added ingredients to the stir-fry and the air in the room began to smell homey and comforting. He hadn’t known he was hungry. He certainly hadn’t known he wanted a woman to care enough to cook for him.

“Do you suppose those men before you drove their leopards to be killers or was it the leopard that drove them?”

Again she shocked him. It was an intelligent and legitimate question. He kept his gaze on her face because he’d thought of just such a question a thousand times. “I believe it was the men driving the leopards. I look back to when I was a child and he always wanted to protect me from the beatings. I knew they would kill him, let their leopards loose on him, so I refused to let him out even when I needed him.”

She was silent again for a long while and then she turned toward him, taking a deep breath. He knew why. He knew she was going to ask him and that would make her sad for him. Compassionate. Understanding. She didn’t want to be any of those things. Still, his woman had courage.

“Tell me when he needed to protect you.”

“Evangeline. My life was a living hell as a child. Are you certain? Be certain. Once you hear. Once you know, there is no going back from this.”

“Eventually, if we were together, I would have to know.”

They were already together, she just didn’t know it. Didn’t want to believe it. She began to tear lettuce for a salad while he watched her, fascinated by the sure way she moved her hands. A born leopard with her female solidly behind her every move.

“I was six years old the first time I killed a man,” he confessed.