answer. I thought they’d killed him and fully expected to find a body. He knew the combination to shut down the alarm on the house. He had to have used it.”
Mitya couldn’t contain the adrenaline rushing through his veins. He leapt up and began to pace, feeling his leopard close. The thought of a traitor that close to his woman and her father, without him knowing, was abhorrent to him. He needed action. He needed to find Amory Binder and challenge him. His leopard wanted out. Demanded to come out. He would hunt the bastard, track him and kill him. Mitya was inclined to let him.
“He let them in. I want to go back to the house, Sevastyan.”
Sevastyan opened his mouth to protest, but then nodded. “They wanted something in that house. They assumed it was in Antosha’s room, so they took the chance and looked for it there. By the look of it, it either wasn’t there or we caught them too soon. In any case, we’ve vacated the house. We reset the alarm with a different code since Amory knew the old one.”
Mitya was already stripping, his muscles rippling with power, with the need to hunt. He rolled his jeans, just as Sevastyan was doing. “Give the orders to surround this house. Keep her protected, Sevastyan.”
“I’m going with you.” When Mitya started to protest, Sevastyan shook his head and continued shoving his jeans into the small pack he secured around his neck. “Don’t bother with the orders, fire me, I don’t give a fuck, but I’m going with you.”
Mitya didn’t fire his cousin, what was the use? In any case, Sevastyan was a vicious fighter. He’d been raised much the same way as Mitya, and his leopard was experienced and brutal in a fight. “Give the order to protect her and let’s go.”
Sevastyan did as Mitya said but added his own orders. He was taking no chances with Mitya’s protection. Vikenti and Zinoviy were already at the Dover estate cleaning up. They were from his lair, two men he counted on when he needed them. He trusted them with Mitya’s life, and that was saying the most he could about them. He left orders for Kiriil and Matvei to handle Ania’s security and then turned to Mitya, nodding that he was ready.
The two men went out the front door straight into the brush, shifting as they did so. It wasn’t long before they were running full out toward the neighboring estate. They didn’t want to take a car because the headlights might be seen. Their house was lit up, just as their yard was, but the Dover estate was dark and appeared deserted.
Ordinarily, leopards could run fast for short distances, but they were shifters, not wholly leopard or wholly human. They were conditioned to run for miles if necessary, and both men kept themselves in top shape. They were able to cut across the distance between the two estates, shortening the way considerably because the road had to curve around the properties. As they approached, they slowed and kept downwind, creeping up carefully onto the estate.
Vikenti and Zinoviy joined them just outside the house. “Thought we saw something out this way,” Vikenti reported softly to Sevastyan. “We were just circling the house to look.”
Both shifted back into their leopards and the four continued around from the southern side to the front. Mitya nudged Sevastyan and all four stopped as they came up on the landscaping around the front entrance. Two men were at the locked front door, one bending down as he worked on the lock. Amory and a stranger. Mitya’s gut settled. He had him now.
Dymka lifted his head and sniffed the air, his whiskers warning him of everything and everyone close. Two more men were moving up on either side of the house. Another appeared to be around the back. Dymka turned his head, his eyes glowing in the dark, but it was Mitya giving the orders. He looked to Vikenti. Vikenti’s leopard immediately responded, moving around the house to creep stealthily on the shifter assigned to guard the other side just in case. He dispatched the man before he even realized he wasn’t alone and then made his way back around.
Sevastyan and Zinoviy took out the two guards on the sides of the house, almost right in plain sight of Amory and his partner. Amory suddenly lifted his head, looking right and left. He straightened slowly and said something to his partner, who whipped his