Blood dripped steadily down her left arm where a bullet must have grazed her. Conner’s gaze locked on to his enemy. Leopard for sure. Most likely one of the rogues. He would never get out of the rain forest alive. Not with Elijah waiting in the brush. Or Rio creeping up behind him. Not with Adan closing in from one side, poison darts ready, or the Santos brothers crawling, belly down, approaching from the other side.

Conner was aware of all of them, but dimly, as if far away. Every fiber of his being was focused on the leopard holding his mate hostage. He stepped out of the brush, facing the man. Isabeau gasped and shook her head. His cat leapt, hissing and growling, wanting to rip and slice his opponent to shreds. There was no way to calm his cat, so he didn’t try to suppress the animal’s natural instincts. He just took a firmer grip. Of course he wanted to destroy the man touching his mate, but keeping her alive was more important than anything else, especially pride.

“Let her go,” he said quietly. “She can’t help you.”

The rogue snarled with a great show of teeth and dug his claws deeper into Isabeau’s throat in warning. Droplets of blood ran down her skin. Conner marked each one, assessing the damage the leopard was doing to her throat.

“Are you all right?”

Isabeau pushed down the burning pain in her throat, nodding, terrified, not for herself, but for Conner. He stood without a weapon, facing the man holding her, and she had no way of warning him that her captor was enormously strong. She’d never felt such strength running through someone—like steel. He could snap her in half easily should he be so inclined. She tried a cautious movement. Instantly the claws went deeper.

Isabeau coughed, and tried to drag air into her burning lungs. She kept her eyes on Conner. He looked utterly calm—completely confident—and it gave her the ability to stay cool.

“Which one are you? Suma or Zorba?” Conner asked.

The leopard snarled again and Conner’s cat clawed for supremacy. His eyes must have changed because the man’s expression changed. Fear entered for the first time, cracking the air of superiority. “What difference does it make?”

Conner shrugged. “The difference between dying slow in agonizing pain or quick and merciful.”

“I don’t much like my choices.”

“Then you shouldn’t have put your claws into my mate.”

A nervous tic broke the concentrated stare the leopard was trying to maintain. Conner noted that and immediately changed his opinion. This one couldn’t be either Suma or Zorba. They were older, more experienced, and neither would flinch at trying to take another leopard’s mate. It was strictly taboo in their society and carried a death sentence, but either of the two rogues wouldn’t have cared, believing themselves above the law.

“I just want to get out of here in one piece. I don’t want her hurt.”

Conner lifted his eyebrow. “You have a strange way of showing that with your claws in her throat. Your own elder would sentence you to death for harming a woman.”

“You have no idea what’s going on.”

“Tell me.” Conner kept firm control of his cat, who was angry with him now for not leaping forward to kill.

The smell of Isabeau’s blood drove the animal insane. Conner might not have been able to stay in control had she looked terrified, or cried, but she kept her eyes locked with his, silently telling him she knew he would get her out of the situation. He had no idea if she knew the others were closing in, but he knew. He was counting on Adan’s poison dart.

One slash of those lethal claws and the rogue would kill Isabeau. If the cat knew he had no chance, he just might be spiteful enough to take her with him. Leopards were notorious for their black tempers. All of the members of his team were fast—as men or leopards—but those claws were already too close to her jugular, and all leopards knew exactly where to strike a deathblow.

“You shouldn’t be out here. There’s an Indian stirring up trouble. If I kill him, I have a job. It’s no big deal. He’s a pain in the ass to everyone, holding up progress and killing innocent men who get in his way. We have a chance at making a lot of money with him gone.”

“So Cortez promised you money to kill Adan Carpio and you decided all those children were expendable.”

The leopard blinked. “What children? What are you talking about? This isn’t about children.”

“Suma left that part out when he approached you, didn’t he?” Conner held up his hand to stay the execution. They were all in place. The leopard was young and impressionable. And stupid. He’d looked up to the wrong leopard. “Suma led an attack on Carpio’s village. They killed several people in the attack and kidnapped children to force Adan into opening up drug routes. Suma betrayed our kind to an outsider and he also murdered a female leopard. Is that the kind of man you want to work for?”

Isabeau’s swift indrawn breath was audible. The leopard nearly let go of her, retracting his claws in his shock. “That’s not true.”

“Isabeau is going to walk toward me and you’re going to let her. You’re surrounded with no way out. Keep looking at me,” Conner commanded when the young leopard started to turn. “I’m the one who is going to decide whether you live or die, not anyone else. What you do right now is going to be a life or death decision.”

“How can I trust you?”

“No matter what, I’m going to teach you a lesson,” Conner said. “You don’t get to walk away free when you made my mate bleed. As for trusting me, you’ll have to decide what you want to take a chance on. You touch her again, I give you my word, you’re a dead man.”