My inner beast cried out, and before I knew it, I shifted. I was bigger than any normal snow leopard, but then again, I wasn’t fully beast or man. I was a hybrid of the two, and my sister was the same. Unlike her, I was a hunter, and I would catch my prey.
This woman, the one this man dared to touch, was mine. My leopard had caught her scent, more pronounced in the narrow alley, her emotions make her pheromones pump through every pore. Initially, I thought it was a different scent, sweeter and muskier, something that beckoned to me, but it hadn’t clicked. The smell wrapped itself around me, enticing me. The beast within me understood immediately. We were smelling our mate. The one person who would belong to me, and no one else was allowed to touch her. The bastard had to die for what he had done to her.
Stalking toward him, I yowled, warning him I was coming. Of course, being a snow leopard, it wasn’t as menacing as a tiger, lion, or almost any other kind of leopard. It came out more as a growl mixed with a seal bark, which came out as more of a whiney ass cat. If he thought I wasn’t a danger to him though, that was his own damn fault. I was large and could leap farther and higher than any other cat. My prey would never be able to get away from me.
He heard my call, and thanks to the buildings, it pelted him from all angles. I didn’t even bother making myself invisible, it wasn’t like I needed the edge to get the jump on him. He was like all humans, hell anyone outside of my brothers. Worthless. They only cared about themselves. Anything to get ahead. If they saw something they wanted, they took it. If they didn’t want to deal with their responsibilities, they abandoned everything, leaving innocent children scouring for food and a new life. They would kill, cheat, and steal to get what they wanted, and they didn’t care who they screwed over. The people in the world, the people outside the Dark Leopards, were nothing except vile plagues on this earth who only cared about themselves. If they were sick, what did it matter if they infected someone else? If they were hungry, they would take from someone else, anyone else. It didn’t matter if the other person suffered. And if they were angry, they felt it was completely within their rights to take it out on others, including children. Yes, before I had been taken in by my brothers, I stole to stay alive, but I tried to take from those who smelled like money.
Calling out again, I watched him panic. His blade was held out in front of him, his arm stiff as he gripped the knife tightly. His head whipped this way and that, trying to find me, and I chuffed with laughter.
He stepped into a small area of moonlight in the back of the buildings, and I followed him, moving into the light, allowing him to see me. I didn’t think I ever heard someone scream that loudly. Suddenly, the scent of urine hit my nose, and I wanted to roll my eyes.
The woman stared at me with large brown eyes, not fighting her captor any longer. I didn’t know her name, didn’t know her story, but I understood deep within me, she was mine. I’d found my mate, and if this man thought he could touch her and not pay the price, he had another think coming.
363
Verity
The moment I stepped out of my car, I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to meet Wes, especially here. He’d sounded desperate and weird over the phone, but stupid me, I’d done it anyway because we were childhood friends, and he was someone I’d dated for three years. I was a sucker. Yep, I just needed to tattoo that word on my forehead for the world to see. SUCKER in big, bold print.
When he grabbed me around the neck after I’d shut my car door, I screamed and reached for my door handle. He breathed heavily in my ear, the hot air blowing against my neck. I wanted to escape. I didn’t venture to this part of town during the day, and now that it was night…I’d lost my head to come here willingly. I’d wanted to save him, my friend, my ex. Saint Verity, that was me. Fucking moron more like it.
“Wes, you don’t want to do this,” I tried to reason with him.
“Oh, but I do,” he chortled in my ear, sending shivers of fear racing up my spine.
I tried to think of all the moves I learned in self-defense class, and not one thing popped into my head. Self-defense class was great. They taught a bunch of moves, you went through them one on one with an instructor and some guy in a protective suit, but what they never told you was that when you needed to call upon the training, it would more than likely abandon you. Fuck my life.
Throwing my elbow back had him cackling, and he shoved me against the brick wall, the rough texture scraping my face and digging into my skin. It hurt, but this was my friend, we’d known each other since we were seven. Surely, he wouldn’t actually do anything to me, would he? “Wes, please,” I begged, sniffling because whether I chose to admit it or not, I was terrified of what he would do. Lately, he’d been acting
