“My leopard has retreated. She was close to her heat and then she withdrew. I can barely feel her unless Mitya is close. She rises to reach for his leopard, but then she subsides, as if she is just going to sleep. She was so close. I know she was.” Ania couldn’t keep the worry out of her voice.
Mitya reassured her often that she was his for himself. He wanted her. But she knew without his leopard claiming her female, Mitya wouldn’t be with her. He could tell her the same thing over and over, but she knew the truth. Her leopard soothed his. Her leopard had been the real reason Mitya had continued to seek her out. When he was close to Ania, his leopard was at peace.
“You said your father is ill, Ania,” Evangeline pointed out. “Sometimes, when there is trauma in our lives, that can delay ovulation. The emergence is all about ovulation. Being fertile. You and the leopard having the same cycle.”
“My nanny is leopard. Her leopard never emerged. She says she’s too old now and will never experience her leopard being free. I don’t want that for mine.” She didn’t want Mitya to leave her either. She feared if her leopard didn’t rise she’d lose him.
“I think you’re worrying for nothing,” Evangeline said. “It’s very clear that your leopard and Mitya’s are a mated pair. She will rise when it’s safe for her to do so. Leopards protect their human counterpart. She may be protecting you. You can only handle so much, Ania. Don’t expect so much of yourself. You’re taking care of your family business as well as your father. Right now, that’s enough. Let your leopard take care of you.”
Ania hadn’t thought of it that way. It was possible she was so worried about her father that she couldn’t deal with what would happen once her leopard emerged. She hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“It’s possible you’re right,” she admitted. “I hope you are.”
“What’s Mitya like?” Ashe asked. “He’s always been a closed book. He looks scary. Is he?”
Was he? Absolutely. Ania was nodding before she could stop herself. “He expects obedience from everyone. The slightest thing he says,” she admitted. “That can be . . .”
“Annoying,” Ashe suppled.
“Terrifying,” Ania qualified before she could stop herself. It was the first time she’d admitted that to herself. Coming up against Mitya would be frightening, and she knew it would happen sooner or later. Right now, she wasn’t doing anything he didn’t like or approve of, but she really wasn’t a woman who relied on someone else to think for her. Was that what he wanted? She still didn’t know, and they talked all the time. Or she did. Mitya listened.
“He wants to be involved in every aspect of my life.”
“Most husbands do,” Evangeline pointed out gently. “Certainly, Fyodor insists on it.”
Ashe nodded. “Timur too. He drives me right up the wall.”
“And do you give in and tell them everything?” Ania asked. “Every single thing you’re doing and where you’re going? Answering to them like you’re a teenager?”
Evangeline shared a look with Ashe. Ashe wrinkled her nose. Jeremiah snorted, as if he’d taken a swallow of coffee and coughed it all over the table.
Ania rubbed her temples. “Normal people don’t live like that, do they? Just because they’re in a relationship? My parents were crazy in love, but I never noticed that my mother had to ask my father’s permission to go into town and shop whenever she wanted. Or visit a neighbor. She just did it.”
Evangeline very gently laid her hand over Ania’s. “Has Mitya told you anything about his past?”
Ania drew back, nodding. She hadn’t allowed herself to think too much about the things Mitya had disclosed to her. She couldn’t imagine what kind of childhood he’d had—or what his psychotic father had shaped him into.
“It’s different for all of us,” Ashe said. “Do we like it? No. At least I don’t. But they have very powerful enemies, and that means there is always danger. To them. To us. To any children we might have.”
“I’m pregnant,” Evangeline said softly. “As soon as I realized I was carrying a child, Fyodor’s silly rule of taking bodyguards and letting him know my plans became entirely different for me. I realized why he felt he needed to know where I was and what I was doing. I wanted our babies protected.”
“Mitya seems just a little obsessed with knowing where I am,” Ania admitted. Her