Leopard 03 - Burning Wild

didn’t have friendships or trust any other being. Drake had given him information, but he hadn’t offered friendship, nor would Jake have accepted it, yet Jake didn’t hesitate any more than the leopard rushing toward three men with guns.
    One stood over Drake’s bloody form, beating him methodically with a thick cane.
    “Where are they? Tell me where they are!”
    The man kicked at Drake’s injured leg and for the first time Drake screamed. Something ugly and deep burst free in Jake and he launched himself at Drake’s assailant, going instinctively for the kill, raking at the jugular with sharp claws as he knocked the man flat.
    Gunfire erupted, kissing the leopard’s shoulder, but Jake was already in motion, as fluid as water, using the dead body as a springboard to take the second man from the side, sinking teeth deep into the throat.
    The third man stumbled backward as another leopard rushed him from the trees. A third landed on his back, slashing and tearing.
    Jake shifted to his human form and knelt beside Drake, running a hand over his damaged, bloody body.

    For the first time he knew someone other than himself mattered to him, but he still didn’t understand why, only that he was grateful he was capable of the feeling.
    2
    TWO YEARS LATER
    JAKE Bannaconni swore viciously as he swerved the sleek, purring Ferrari just in time to miss the Buick pulling out right in front of him. Downshifting, he was around the car and gone, the Ferrari a silver streak on the treacherous mountain road. Ahead of him, on the switchbacks, he caught glimpses of the Porsche he was pursuing. The low, sporty car was veering all over the road, traveling insanely fast on the steep, narrow ribbon of a highway. Thanks to his “other,” Jake had amazing reflexes and vision, and that advantage allowed him to push his car to the limit in an attempt to catch his quarry, even on the narrow, twisting mountain road.
    A quick glance in the rearview mirror revealed his face was a granite mask, hard lines etched deep, his golden eyes twin chips of ice, glittering menacingly. It didn’t matter that he could scare anyone with his look; he felt murderous in that moment. He didn’t care about the two occupants of that car, both falling down drunk, pawing each other obscenely in front of everyone at the senator’s party, but he damn well wasn’t going to let them destroy his child.
    Shaina Trent, society’s darling, jet-setter, life of the party and precious do-anything-for-daddy daughter of Josiah Trent, was carrying his son. How could he have been so damned careless? He had known exactly what she was when he’d bedded her. He had known both his family and hers had wanted the alliance. Each family suspected that he was the very thing they’d been seeking all along—a shifter—
    and they wanted his powerful blood to boost their fading abilities. Most of all, they wanted to regain control of him. He should have suspected something when Shaina had thrown herself at him—after all, she’d never looked at him before, always acting so superior and barely acknowledging him at the parties he’d attended in the past. Her daddy must have commanded his little girl to seduce Jake to get what they wanted—a baby.
    He downshifted and put on a burst of speed as he caught another glimpse of the Porsche sliding sideways around a turn. His heart went to his throat. Shaina’s boyfriend was so drunk he stayed in the wrong lane through the entire turn. He doubted either even realized Jake was in pursuit.
    Jake cursed himself for being such an idiot to ever allow himself to get in such a predicament.
    Desperate to find a way to shackle him, the two families had made an alliance and, like an idiot, he had fallen into their trap. A part of him even felt guilty and thought he deserved exactly what he got.
    He had deliberately slept with Shaina, despising her father, yet all along she’d been using him just as he had been using her. He hadn’t been stupid enough to believe her when she told him she was on birth control, but he had been an idiot to use the condoms she’d produced. What none of them had figured out yet was he would gladly burn in hell before he would accommodate them. The treacherous bitch.
    Planned pregnancy was the oldest snare in the book. It was too late now; he had to live with the consequences—and so did the rest of them. Both families—and Shaina—had seriously underestimated him. He had planned his revenge for years. He had