He closed his eyes briefly. Of course she would know. “Yes. He killed her in front of Timur and Gorya. They tried to stop him, both with their leopards and as men. He ripped them apart and he was killing them systematically when I walked in. He was covered in the blood of my mother, my brother and my cousin. I went . . .” He trailed off. “Crazy. Insane. Mad with rage, grief and fear for my brother and cousin. I killed him. Not easily, and not cleanly. Not, Evangeline, because I couldn’t, but I didn’t want easy or clean. He died hard. Very hard. And then I killed every male in the lair. It was a cold, calculated choice. If I didn’t, they would continue with their cruelties and they would kill their women and daughters. Or sell their daughters as they often did to other lairs to live the same fate as their mothers. I killed them all. Every. Single. One. Our lair was gone. I wiped it out.”

He could have kept the satisfaction out of his voice, but he didn’t try. She had to know him. Had to know what she would be living with. A ruthless man, cold as ice, as dangerous as any predator she might run across. He was a killer, and he’d taken down his entire lair.

7

IT wasn’t love yet, but it could be. Fast. She could fall fast. She might even be halfway there. Evangeline rolled over in her bed. She’d paid a fortune for the mattress, more than she had for just about any other piece of furniture because she was always so exhausted at night. There was no finding sleep and she knew there wouldn’t be. Not with Alonzo’s words drifting through her mind over and over.

“I went . . .” He’d trailed off. “Crazy. Insane. Mad with rage, grief and fear for my brother and cousin. I killed him. Not easily, and not cleanly. Not, Evangeline, because I couldn’t, but I didn’t want easy or clean. He died hard. Very hard. And then I killed every male in the lair. It was a cold, calculated choice. If I didn’t, they would continue with their cruelties and they would kill their women and daughters. Or sell their daughters as they often did to other lairs to live the same fate as their mothers. I killed them all. Every. Single. One.”

Evangeline sat up and pushed at the heavy fall of hair spilling around her face. She’d been so agitated she hadn’t even put her hair in a braid, something she was always careful to do. He hadn’t wanted to kill his father easy or clean. He’d said that. His father deserved to die. Had to die. What human or even shifter forced his child into being a killer?