She backed the car out of the driveway without turning on lights. She didn’t need them and wouldn’t turn them on until she was in a high-traffic area. Her little tree-shaded road led to a cul-de-sac, so there were few cars. She’d chosen her house carefully for that reason. Few neighbors. Trees. The yard she had. The kitchen in her house. Damn Alonzo Massi for walking through the door of her bakery.

For a moment the windshield blurred and she nearly turned on her wipers before she realized the problem was her eyes and she dashed at the watery tears. She was angry that she had to leave, not upset for leaving Alonzo. She wasn’t going to think about that six-year-old boy or what he had had to do to protect his brother and cousin. No wonder they were so loyal to him.

But to wipe out an entire lair. The entire thing. All those leopards. Fighting machines. Killing machines. What did that say about Alonzo or his leopard? To do that, he had to be insanely fast and ferocious. She stopped at the stop sign at the entrance to her street. Without warning, two large town cars converged on her, blocking her from moving forward. Another car fell in behind her. Dark. No lights. She knew exactly who that was.

Seriously, she was the most conflicted female on the planet. Every cell in her body told her to run, that she was in danger. Her head told her that. But her heart wavered. Stuttered a little. She sat quietly waiting, her breath in her throat rather than in her lungs.

Alonzo slid out of the backseat of the town car behind her and stalked to her car. He yanked open the door, his face an expressionless mask, his eyes all cat. Fierce. She’d aroused anger in both this time, leopard and man. She couldn’t blame the leopard. He had claimed his mate. He’d waited a long time for her. Maybe it was the same for Alonzo. He’d said he’d had to stop having sex.

“Move over.”

She did without a word, her heart hammering like mad. Loudly. So loudly she knew he heard. His eyes on her face, he moved the seat back so he could slide behind the wheel.

He gave some kind of signal through the window and all three town cars drove away, leaving them alone. Alonzo’s presence took up the entire car. It wasn’t just because he was a big man with all that muscle rippling beneath skin; it was him. He was truly larger than life. He poured into the air, taking it over. Tension rose and she found herself trembling, looking down at her hands, unable to think beyond the fact that she would be at the mercy of this man and the two leopards very soon.

“Evangeline.”