Drake didn’t want to kill the bastard and that knowledge only made him angrier. He shared the leopard’s fury on several levels, not the least was that they’d struck Saria. He was already thinking like a leader, trying to do what was best for his lair. He didn’t want leadership, he only wanted Saria.

This fighter was fast and deadly and it required every ounce of his skills to keep from getting killed while he held his leopard back, waiting for his moment. His leg was on fire, but the steel was there, the muscle and power. He had every confidence he would win, but he wasn’t so confident that he could keep from doing permanent damage.

The two leopards dove into the air again, came together and crashed to the ground locked in a deadly embrace of claws and teeth, raking and biting at each other. Drake saw his opening, twisted and sank his teeth into the vulnerable throat. Beneath him, he felt the wild heart, the taste of hot blood, excitement of the kill, and triumph of the win all mingled together.

They stared into one another’s eyes. There was no fear in Gaston and in a way, Drake admired him. He was a man he’d want on his team, yet there might be no other choice but to kill him.

“Submit, Gaston,” Remy ordered. “Are you stupid?”

As the shifter’s body grew still under his mouth, and the tension in Drake’s leopard eased a little, Drake heard a warning shout and he was hit from behind, driven off his feet with no chance to whirl around and defend himself. He went down hard, shaken by the ferocity of the hit, his insides jarred and bruised. As if in a distance he heard Saria scream and a man grunt as if in pain. Nothing mattered but rolling, getting to his feet and finding his attacker.

“Damn it, Drake, stop holding back your leopard. Kill them both. They don’t fight fair and the entire lot of them can go to hell,” Joshua shouted. “If you don’t take this one out, I swear I’m shooting every damned one of them.”

Joshua’s fury was mixed with a deep loathing and disgust. They lived by rules, firm, unbendable rules for survival in the forests of the world. Without those rules, leopards would be out-of-control killing machines. There had to be order and the Louisiana lair didn’t seem to have any rules of fairness or honor.

Joshua’s words penetrated the lair and the smiles of hope faded into worried frowns. If Drake had been holding back against one of their best fighters, what was he really capable of?

“Anyone else makes a move toward Drake and tries ambushin’ him,” Remy said, “will be going through me.”