teeth sank into her shoulder in a holding bite. It hurt. Everything hurt. She still fought him, struggling so hard she nearly got loose. He caught her arm, but it was slick with blood and he slid off. She whipped around, raking across his chest.
Sevastyan came up behind her before she could do much damage, catching her around the waist and jerking her away from Mitya when she would have kicked him. Before she could do any damage to him, Mitya had her again, locking her to him.
“Ania, kotyonok, calm down. Breathe for me. Jewel’s too close and she’s scared. You have to take control.”
“Fuck you, Mitya,” she snarled. “She wouldn’t be afraid if you weren’t scaring her. Get away from me.” Her voice came out more of a growl than human.
He caught both wrists, pinned them with one large hand and locked his arm around her back, forcing her tightly against him, trapping her arms and hands between them.
“Miron’s almost here with the car,” Sevastyan reported.
She could see lights through her blurred vision and they hurt her eyes. She forced air through her lungs. “I could have stopped him.” She whispered it, her face pressed tightly against Mitya’s chest, the fight draining out of her. “You should have given me the chance.”
He stroked a caress down the back of her hair. “He was done, baby. He attacked you.”
“He attacked me before and I was able to get him to stop.”
“He was done.”
She closed her eyes and let tears leak out. There was no way to stop them and she didn’t try. She felt defeated. Jewel subsided, calming under the close proximity of someone in such control, the way Mitya was. He commanded everything around them, including her and her leopard. He made the decisions and she was expected to abide by them.
“Would you take me to a hotel, please?” She didn’t open her eyes or look at his face. She couldn’t. She could hardly bear that his skin was touching hers.
“I’m taking you home, baby,” Mitya said. His voice said it all. Implacable. Commanding.
She was too tired to fight. She didn’t care where he took her, because in the end, did it matter?
8
“YOU should have let me do the job,” Sevastyan said. He paced across Mitya’s great room. “She’s had too many blows and that little leopard of hers has no idea what it’s doing. Damn it, Mitya. This isn’t over. I’ve got someone over at her estate waiting for the doc. We need a legit death certificate and he has to be cremated tonight.”
Mitya sighed. “There’s the matter of the leopard she killed in the hallway. Did we get an identity on him?”
Sevastyan shook his head. “No such luck. He was in leopard form. Looked as if he came from Panama. Hard to tell, Mitya. It just makes no sense. He definitely wasn’t from around here. I took pictures and we can make inquiries, but he’s not one of ours.”
Mitya sat in front of the fireplace, not even bothering to clean the blood from his chest where Jewel had raked claws across him and torn his flesh. Ania was down the hall, in the master bedroom. She had steadfastly refused his help when he tried to take care of her arm. He’d done it anyway, because he was bigger and stronger, and in the end, brute force had won out, although he wasn’t calling it a win.
He shoved both hands through his hair. “What about the other one, how did he get away?”
“We were thin. Very thin tonight. Kiriil and Matvei were sent to the other side of the house and the bastard had a clear path out of here. We all have his scent if we come across him.”
“That hasn’t been much of a help so far.” Mitya was distracted and trying to keep his head in the game. Ania was all that seemed to matter to him at the moment. He wasn’t certain how to repair the damage done. Her breakdown was harsh and real. He didn’t know whether to give her the space she said she needed or force her to accept his comfort.
“Relationships are difficult, Sevastyan, when we have no idea how to have one.”
“Are you absolutely certain she’s Dymka’s mate?” Sevastyan demanded. “Or yours? She doesn’t seem in the least compatible. You’re . . .” He trailed off, clearly searching for the right words. “There’s no compromise in you. No give at all. You expect her to just follow your lead without explanation.”
“That’s