Time had never passed so slowly. Fear had never choked him like this. He tasted it in his mouth, became intimately acquainted with it on the long drive. He knew, because the helicopter pilot, Joshua Tregre, reported it, that the car had stopped in heavy brush on the Arnotto estate, and two leopards had tumbled out, rolling, fighting. The car had been driven away, the driver leaving Siena to her fate.

Joshua and Trey reported they lost sight of the two cats in the trees when the smaller, female leopard tried to escape in the denser woods. Jake cursed steadily, but Elijah remained silent, his heart pounding, trying to keep his mind blank. If he thought about what her assailant was doing to her he knew he’d go crazy and never be able to hold back his leopard. More, if her leopard had already come out, the male may have claimed her.

Elijah barely managed to turn off the engine before both men were out and running toward the sounds of screams—human screams, not those of a female leopard. The cries were those of a woman in agony, and the sound chilled him to the bone. He burst through the brush, dodged around trees, leapt over fallen trunks, moving without thought but to get to her. He knew Jake was shedding clothes and that Joshua had found a place to put the helicopter down, which meant Trey was rushing to join them, but Elijah just ran toward those terrible, haunting, chilling cries. Without warning the cries stopped abruptly, and his heart stopped right along with the sound. He rounded two more trees and saw them.

A large male leopard tore at Siena’s naked body, ripping deep furrows in her back, while his teeth held her in place. She wasn’t moving. Her body looked like it might be a doll, a rag doll covered in blood. The cat dropped her on the ground and turned toward Elijah, eyes malevolent, targeting him. Jake slammed into the male from the side, knocking him away from Siena and toward Elijah.

Elijah drew his gun and fired, hitting the leopard in the left shoulder as it spun around. The leopard roared and turned, desperate to escape. Elijah reached Siena and crouched beside her, keeping his body between her and the wounded leopard. Before Jake could hit it again, the male had rushed into the brush. Jake started after it.

“I need the helicopter and your doctor,” Elijah shouted, calling Jake back. “Leave him. We’ll get him later.”