Remy’s eyes went ice-cold. “Who was it, Saria, and don’ tell me you didn’ recognize him. You had to have smelled him. And when he marked you . . .”

Drake felt a surge of anger at the words. He turned Saria around and raised the hem of her shirt, revealing the long marks, still red, although scarred over.

Remy and Mahieu both snarled, almost simultaneously, their leopards reacting to the sight of Saria’s wounds. It mattered little that the furrows were nearly healed and had happened some time ago.

Remy moved closer, inhaling deeply in an effort to detect a scent. Saria shook her head and yanked down her shirt, glaring at Drake.

“I couldn’t tell who it was. I don’ know why I couldn’ smell him, Remy. Maybe I was too scared. I thought he was going to kill me. I never had a leopard attack me before. I’d never been that close to one.”

“You should have come to me immediately.”

“And say a leopard attacked me? The only leopards I knew about were my five brothers.” She made the statement staring him steadily in the eye.

“You knew?” Remy asked.

She nodded. “I saw all of you when I was a kid. At the time, Pere was still alive and I watched him carefully after that. I watched all of you. It was excitin’ and scary. There were rake marks in the house some times and I saw all the signs. I’m good at trackin’.”

Remy shook his head, clearly shocked at his younger sister. “If you’d come to us, we would have talked to you about it.”

She pressed her lips together for a moment, but Drake could see she was distressed, although she quickly hid it with a casual shrug. “I thought maybe you didn’t come around me much because I wasn’t one of you.”

She tried to hide the pain in her simple, honest statement, but Drake felt it—and so did his leopard. The big cat leapt so hard against Drake, his entire body shifted position, his muscles rippling and contorting. He had to breathe deeply to keep the animal at bay. Evan had said he kept his leopard under strict control, rarely letting it loose, and only then when they were completely alone because his animal was so violent. Drake was beginning to think his cat was following suit—at least around Saria’s family.

Remy stepped back, drawing Mahieu with him. “Do you generally have problems with your leopard?” he asked in a low voice.

Had Remy sounded taunting or snide, Drake was fairly certain nothing could have stopped his leopard, but there was a note of worry there and Remy was once again looking around with wary, assessing eyes.

“No. Never. My leopard is always calm, otherwise I could never lead the teams into combat situations.”