Leopard 03 - Burning Wild

hind legs to throw him off, using the powerful ropes and bands of muscles to aid her. Blood ran down the back of her neck and seeped into her fur, the smell of it overpowering in the room. The male leapt away to keep from killing her as she thrashed and raked at him. He knocked her back with a heavy paw, the claws raking her side again, the blow hard enough to knock the female sideways. She rolled and came up on her feet, head down, sides heaving.
    Emma knew another battle was imminent and she would lose. She had to find a way to kill him. She hadn’t expected his superior strength. In her leopard form she felt so powerful and strong, and she had thought she could match him in battle. He had lived most of his life in the rain forest, and he’d been shifting for years. She was new to it and had no real experience fighting.
    She turned her head slowly and looked into his eyes. Her heart slammed hard in her chest. She felt her leopard pull back as well. The yellow-green eyes held triumph, gleamed at her with evil satisfaction.
    He was wearing her down, exhausting her, and then he would have his way. He was fully leopard now, even his cunning intelligence defeated by the maddening thrall that was on him.
    The male began circling again, vocalizing his interest, his eyes staring directly into hers. She hissed, warning him off, turning with him to prevent him leaping onto her back again. Behind her, she heard the roar of another male. Rory spun, his accordion spine giving him the ability to nearly fold in half. He had recognized the sound before she did and had already launched himself at the intruding male.
    Emma caught Drake’s scent before she registered the sound of his voice and she flung her body at Rory, slamming into his side in an effort to keep him from getting to Drake, who had only partially shifted. His back legs refused to shift and he was at a severe disadvantage. He’d left the doors to the house open and the other leopards couldn’t fail to hear the noisy battle.
    Rory turned his fury on Emma, delivering a powerful cuff that staggered her, and then he leapt on her back and drove his teeth into her throat in a suffocation grip. Instantly she went still beneath him, recognizing his ability to kill her. Drake shifted to his human form and stopped Conner and Joshua as they burst into the house.
    “Let her go, Rory,” Drake said, recognizing the man from the rain forest. A traitor who had thrown out the code their people lived by and had chosen to use his unique abilities as a mercenary, to hire himself out to the one who would pay him the most.
    Joshua and Conner, in leopard form, closed in from either side of the male leopard, each roaring a full-throated challenge.
    Emma felt the larger male press tight against her, urging her to move toward the entrance Drake guarded. She took a step, then a second, before her legs went out from under her. The teeth raked her throat, caught and bit down again. Rory sunk his claws deep into either shoulder, dragging her back to her feet. Her coat was streaked with blood, dark now with stains. Her sides heaving, Emma struggled to keep moving toward the door.
    “Damn it, Rory, let her go,” Drake entreated. He stepped aside, but just enough to allow the two leopards to slip through.
    Rory took a firmer grip on Emma, half dragging her past Drake. At the last moment he dropped her, whirled and slashed across Drake’s thigh with a powerful blow, ripping muscle and tendon down to the bone and dropping the man like a stone. Blood sprayed across the floor and up the walls.
    Emma sank her teeth into Rory’s leg from where she lay behind him. Even as Joshua and Conner sprang forward, the male leopard had her by the throat, gripping hard, furious now, ready to kill.
    Conner shifted back in order to save Drake as blood pumped from the massive wound.
    Drake shoved at him. “Not me. Save her. If he takes her out of here, he’ll kill her out of spite or take her with him.”
    “Sorry, man,” Conner said as he pulled Drake’s belt from his jeans and wrapped it around the wounded thigh. “That’s Joshua’s job now. He can take down the son of a bitch.”
    Emma heard Drake and her heart sank. She was not going to allow Rory to take her off the ranch. If his partner waited somewhere in the night to help him, they might defeat Joshua, and she refused to allow Joshua to die on her behalf. But she wasn’t going with Rory. She moved with him down the wide hallway and through the