planting of the area that had been decimated during the battle with Pure Psy.
The beautiful green-eyed soldier’s name was Desiree and, unlike Felix, she was a leopard changeling. The cats were pitching in to help keep the area secure during the replanting—the part of the forest that had been destroyed during the fight against Pure Psy was so open right now that they’d be sitting ducks otherwise. Similarly to the other wolves in SnowDancer, it had taken Felix a while to become accustomed to the fact that their pack now had a blood bond with the leopards; the feline changelings were as welcome in their territory as the wolves were in DarkRiver’s lower-elevation territory. Of course, it was still considered courteous to ask if you ran into a sentry, one predator to another.
Laughing at something Hawke had said, Desiree nodded and waved good-bye to the alpha. Hawke had already spoken to Felix, so the other man just shot him a salute before heading out. Which left only Felix and Desiree in this section. Felix had wanted to spend some extra time prepping the soil for the next day’s planting after everyone else had left—everyone, that is, except for the evening security shift.
“Hey.” Booted feet hunkering down on the other side of the seedlings he was checking. “I’m Desiree.”
Felix knew he should be polite, reply with his own name, but Desiree’s dominance was so overwhelming that his wolf quivered, ready to run. It didn’t matter that she was leopard rather than wolf—she was a predator far stronger than him and his wolf knew it.
Angling her head a little to the side, her braids falling over her shoulder, she attempted to catch his eye. “I don’t bite. Well, not until I’m asked, anyway.”
He felt his skin heat again. Damn it. He’d worked in the world of high fashion modeling, dealt with plenty of strong personalities without problem. Of course, none of them had been an astonishingly beautiful leopard female who made him want to touch when he knew it would be a very, very bad idea. Dominants ate submissives like him alive for breakfast, then got hungry for lunch.
A pause before Desiree rose to her feet. “I’ll let you get back to your work.”
Felix watched her walk away, her body lithe with muscle, and had the strong urge to kick himself. He wanted to talk to her, wanted to know her . . . but he’d been down this road before. God, he’d been such a stupid kid, fallen so hard for the dominant who’d been visiting from another wolf pack, had been ready to give up everything for her, including his first big modeling gig.
But after his heartfelt profession of love, every part of him vulnerable and laid out in the open, she’d patted him on the cheek, kissed him, and said, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. You’re gorgeous and a delight, but I need a dominant as a partner.”
The thing was, she hadn’t meant to hurt him. She’d really believed they were simply sharing intimate skin privileges as friends and that Felix understood the facts of life: that while dominants often mated with submissives, it was usually a male dominant with a female submissive. The opposite direction was far rarer, and when it came to dominant leopard females, he’d never heard of it. They were so wild and independent that it took a stubbornly strong male to haul them into a long-term relationship, much less a mating.
Riley’s courtship of Mercy was the perfect example. The leopard sentinel had run the wolf lieutenant a merry chase. Fascinated and delighted for them, Felix had watched from the sidelines along with the rest of the pack, but that kind of a dance wasn’t in his future. He’d make a wonderful mate, he knew that. He was loyal, good with his hands, and he adored children. However, that relationship wouldn’t be with a dominant female.
No matter how beautiful.
He was through with being used.
• • •
Desiree leaned up against a tree far enough into the shadows of the forest surrounding the denuded area that SnowDancer’s horticultural expert couldn’t see her, and watched him. Tall and muscled, with mink brown hair and thickly lashed brown eyes, he had strong hands that touched the seedlings with competent care, his expression intent.
He’d folded the sleeves of his checked work shirt to just below his elbows, exposing golden skin with a powerful tracery of veins beneath. His skin made her want to lick; his hands made her want to feel their