Conner nodded. “I hate him too. But that won’t bring her back to us. She left us each other, Mateo. When I look at you, I see her in you. I hope when you look at me you can see her too. We’ll make her proud of us. When I’m having a hard time, when I’m so angry I want to hurt someone, I’ll talk to you about it and you will remind me what she would want. When you’re feeling angry, you talk to me and I’ll remind you. We can get through this together.”

Mateo looked him steadily in the eye, and Conner could see the leopard there, judging, weighing him, wanting to believe he could entrust the child to the man. Conner opened his arms. Mateo’s eyes went liquid, drenched in tears, and he stepped into Conner’s arms.

Conner enfolded him tightly and just held the sobbing boy. There was so much pain in that little frame, and Conner felt that same emotion deep inside. “We have a bond no one can ever take away from us, Mateo. Our mother. She’ll always tie us together, our love of her, our memories of her. It will always be us, you and me and Isabeau.”

Mateo sobbed out his anger and sorrow, hiding his face against Conner’s chest. Conner just held him close and remembered all the times his mother had done the same for him. Eventually he stroked the boy’s hair, waiting for the hiccups that signaled the storm was over.

“Isabeau told me Doc rescued some kittens from a poacher. Did you want to show them to us?”

Mateo nodded and sniffed. “He said they were on a freighter, stuffed in a box with sawdust, and their lungs were messed up.”

“Doc can’t keep them all,” Isabeau said helpfully.

The boy looked up at him with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “Someone has to help him out.”

Conner’s eyebrow shot up. Now he knew what parents felt like when their child gave them that look. His heart did some kind of funny melting thing and he found himself looking a little helplessly at Isabeau. She laughed softly and took his free hand.

“Come on. These kitties are pretty big, Mateo. You’d have to help us with care and feeding and exercise.”

“I would. I really would.” Mateo skipped ahead of them to the corner of the barn where four little clouded leopards snarled and spit.

Conner limped after the boy, Isabeau at his side. “Funny what I’m already feeling for him.”

“Me too,” Isabeau acknowledged.