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"Joaquin," Elijah addressed his personal bodyguard "Please escort Evangeline to the kitchen and stay there with her She's under uards to stand down immediately Everyone sit down and take a breath"

There was nothe complete authority in that voice, and immediately Patrizio took the "out" Elijah offered and sent his bodyguards back to their original stations, leaving Alonzo his opportunity to kill the man Three seconds to kill five uards obeyed and settled into their previous positions

Evangeline's fingers found the back of his shirt, beneath his suit jacket, and bunched the material into her palm She leaned into hi "Don't" She whispered the word against his back Lips against the material of his suit jacket while her fist held his shirt captive

She knew She knew things about hi But instead she stood behind hi she was under his protection She stood close Her body was so close he felt her breasts and hips One arle word spoken so loas far more of a cos and breathed away the need to kill

Reaching behind hieline's wrist and slowly drew her around him Elijah nodded toward the kitchen She shook her head, just once, but Alonzo saw her chin lift as she glanced down at the broken glass and pool of coffee She didn't understand that Elijah was trying to save Alonzo fro hieline

"Go with hi her toward Elijah's guard "Tio with you as well"

"And Jeremiah," Joshua said

Eize for the behavior of eline Please accept the protection we're offering you Martino will also accompany you" He looked around the table and shook his head "I apologize to you, Elijah and Alonzo and Joshua as well Patrizio, sit down and think with your head, not your dick for a change What we do here is important"

Alonzo kept his gaze fixed on Patrizio even as his hand continued to urge Evangeline toward safety Tiently To Alonzo's relief, she ith his brother and the other bodyguards He didn't look away fro as a eline's body, the way her shoulders were slu to send hiutted him all the same because in the end, he was already lost His leopard would grow in power and cruelty until Alonzo wouldn't be able to control hio the way of his family unless he killed himself or made someone else do it

Patrizio sank into his chair, shaking his head "There is no excuse so I ies"

He looked around the table with his lying seline with a dark, ugly promise He must have felt Alonzo's steady stare, the focused stare of the leopard that was unsettling and terrifying Alonzo didn't take his gaze frootiations Not when he save up everything to be a part of the alliance they were for Especially not when Elijah pushed back his chair and stood, silently declaring theover

"We'll get back to you soon," he promised both Emilio and Patrizio

Alonzo stood as well, hating to let the ry that the ene with the need to end theevery part of him to feel Patrizio Amodeo's life fade in his hands

We'll get hiet him

Patrizio was no fool He knew he'd made enemies in that room and that Alonzo was one of them Joshua was a puzzle to the crime boss, as he would be to Eht enemies beside him Joshua was fast and his leopard was fierce He was also cool under fire Alonzo liked hieline--almost as if he had soaze had followed her speculatively

Joshua was single, but his gaze, as focused as it was on Evangeline, hadn't held heat exactly Interest, yes, but heat, no Alonzo didn't like anything touching Evangeline he didn't understand He had done everything in his power to make her safe, but people were always unpredictable, leopards even more so

"I'm sorry about Amodeo," Emilio said as Elijah sat back down into his seat He looked down at the coffee spill still on the floor "I know you took it as an insult, and I don't blame you You haven't had much contact with Patrizio I knew his father Same problem They traffic in women and they have no respect for them Not even their oives" He shook his head "Otherwise, they are good businessmen and they have excellent laundries"

"It's a weakness" Joshua spoke for nearly the first ti to the point of disrupting it, he's a questionbusiness if there's a woman in the room"

"You knew that he'd react that way to Evangeline," Elijah accused, sounding almost bored "Why?"

Eed "I wanted to see everyone's reaction to her She's stunning She's intelligent I a her for my wife"

The shock ent around the table Truth was in every word Alonzo's leopard roared with fury and leapt for the surface, shoving hi into his jaw and down into his hands and feet, determined to take over, to rip apart his opponent

"There's a bit of an age difference," Elijah pointed out politely "She's barely legal"

Eiveofat her"

Alonzo fought back the change His skull hurt His jaw ached Teeth were too big for his mouth Every joint flared with pain, and his hands, curled into fists, were excruciatingly painful We'll get hiht So many lives his leopard demanded, but Alonzo had always refused the bloodthirsty creature

He'd spent a lifeti at six under his father's watchful eye The emotions he had to lock up in a block of ice The terrible things des his father and other brothers and cousins had done in front of hi The viciousness

He'd turned his back on that life, no longer the enforcer No longer Fyodor Auard He'd coe, made the man believe he was Italian, and he'd hired on as a soldier None of them saw the killer in him None of them sahat he was or what he was capable of He'd been sihter, Siena Now she was married to Elijah and Antonio was dead Elijah had convinced him to step into Antonio's shoes for Siena and he'd done it, never once thinking he would find a wo that his leopard would give him a chance with her

"No" Joshua said the word softly "I respect you, Eeline cannot ations"

Heat had banded across Alonzo's eyes and he saw the flare of anger as a sharp red burst froer quickly cooled and he shifted forward in his chair to pin Joshua with his hard gaze "You cannot speak for her You have no right"

"I have every right She is under my protection and the protection of my family She is my first cousin" Joshuahe was sealing Evangeline's fate to Alonzo

There was no turning away frore Sh

e was leopard Whether or not her leopard ever showed didn't matter, nor would it ever matter to him Alonzo didn't kno it happened that he'd ever walked into her bakery by chance and found he couldn't walk away Fatea woman in San Antonio as from a lair of leopards from Louisiana?

His leopard settled Knew for certain Alonzo would never give Evangeline up Not Ever Alonzo sighed inwardly He would have to come to terms with the fact that he was a complete bastard There would be no redemption for him If he had a shred of decency in hio back, but the belief that soh to do that was in tatters with Joshua's declaration

In the world of shifters, a ether in more than one lifetime His family refused to find their true hter if they could use her to barter an alliance with another lair, but rarely did they keep a female alive In their lair only males were trusted into the brotherhood, the sacred shifter bratya When a wife had done her duty and given her husband as many sons as he demanded, she met with a cruel and very untimely death He'd been born into that He'd failed to save his ed to save Timur and Gorya from his father's wrath

Both had been there that day Gorya had been given to Ogfia, Alonzo's mother, when Gorya's mother had died Alonzo no her own husband had n of loyalty to their lair, to the brotherhood Gorya and Timur had been home the day Alonzo and Tiht hiiant of aand fast He'd killed his wife and then begun to beat both boys to death Alonzo had come in

Around hi Joshua's verdict and leaving with his bodyguards, stopping to kiss Evangeline's hand as he swept through the bakery to the back entrance She gave Eenuine smile and a little wave as he left via the kitchen

Once again his leopard protested anotherOnce we claim her, no other man will put his hands on herand live He closed his eyes briefly on that thought That made him far tooto kill He would keep her any way he had to