Drake dropped his hand on the top of her head, rubbing the silky strands of hair between his fingers. “I’m sorry, honey. Leopards are very territorial when it comes to their females, especially when she’s in . . .”

“Don’t say it. If you say I’m in heat one more time I swear I’m goin’ to stab you right through the heart,” Saria bit out between clenched teeth. It was bad enough to know she was putting out enough scent to call in every male for miles let alone have him say it aloud. She sent him a look that should have withered him on the spot.

Her leopard was turning grumpy with her, wanting the spotlight and annoyed that Saria wasn’t giving in to her demands. Saria had a will of iron when she was aggravated. She’d never let a whipping, or the women of the church or anything else move her when she’d had enough, and she turned that iron will on her leopard. Back off. You aren’t helpin’ me right now. Go back to sleep and just stay there until I get us out of this mess.

Her leopard subsided sulkily. Saria sent Drake another quick glare from under her lashes. “It would be nice to deal with you so easily.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“Jealousy is not an attractive trait,” she said in a low tone. “And we need to get movin’ . I don’t think that boat is goin’ to wait for your silly leopard to behave.”

“If we have to shift into leopards to make this run . . .”

She stopped him with a look. “I’m goin’ to be running on two legs, they can too.” She was not going to give her sex kitten of a leopard any excuse for coming out and rubbing herself against a bunch of naked men.

“I got it,” he said.

Straight behind her, she heard a quiet snicker and saw Drake’s golden eyes flick in that direction. His jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything and no one was stupid enough to make any more disparaging sounds.

“Get us moving, Saria.”

She ignored the hard edge to his voice, knowing his leopard was riding him pretty hard with the other males in such close proximity to her. It wasn’t Drake, she repeated to herself, he wasn’t a man who would ever mistrust her.

He put a hand on her shoulder, moving up close behind her, placing his feet exactly where hers had been. Behind them, the men fell into a single file line, doing the same.

“I know it’s hard not to look for an excuse to run from me, especially when everything is so new and volatile. I really appreciate that you choose to hang in there with me.”