Emma pulled Andraya and Kyle into her arms and looked up as Susan came running into Kyle's room, looking a little shaken as well.
"I want Daddy," Andraya sobbed.
"He's at the office, baby," Emma said, kissing the top of the little girl's head. "He'll be home soon." She hoped he wouldn't, that he'd have the good sense to ride the storm out safe in his office rather than trying to drive a car in the downpour. She patted Kyle's bed. "I was just going to tell the kids a story, Susan. Come join us."
Susan quickly sank on top of the bed, dragging Andraya into her lap and rocking her gently back and forth while Emma rocked Kyle.
"Emma?" Drake's voice called out. "You okay in there?" She knew he didn't want to come up the stairs and be close to her. Her leopard was too close, and the heat in her had spread, nearly consuming her. It was all she could do to sit with the children and settle them into bed.
"We're fine, Drake, thanks." Every part of her body was sensitive, and the storm wasn't helping her at all. She could feel every beat of wind and rain, wild and untamed, lashing at her, wanting her to break free, like the storm itself.
Another flash of lightning lit up the room and Andraya burrowed into Susan as thunder roared like a freight train. Far off, a horse screamed. The sound froze Emma's blood. It wasn't the cry of a frightened animal, but the sound of terror and agony rolled into one. She leapt to her feet. Then other horses began screaming, the sound horrifying.
"Drake!"
"Stay in the house, Emma," he called from the stairs. "I'm locking down the house."
An automatic lockdown meant that every window and door closed and locked and an alarm activated. For the first time, Drake didn't post bodyguards in the house, afraid for Emma's safety and ultimately the safety of any of the men who might be foolish enough to touch her in the throes of the madness. Jake would kill anyone who laid a finger on her.
Kyle and Andraya clapped their hands over their ears to drown out the sound of the screaming horses.
"Is there a fire?" Susan asked. "I'm scared, Emma."
"Drake will handle it," Emma said calmly. She tucked Kyle beneath the blankets and began to tell them the story of the magical children.
The loudest horse abruptly ceased screaming, but the sounds of distress continued from the stables. The wind increased in fury and the lights flickered. Once. Twice. The house was plunged into darkness. Both children wailed loudly. Susan's swift intake of breath told Emma her nerves were rattled as well.
"The generator will come on in a few seconds," she said confidently, careful not to betray that fact that her stomach had knotted and nerves fluttered over her heart. She counted in her head. It seemed to take an extraordinary amount of time. The lights flickered. Went off. Came back on, dim, and then the house was once more plunged into darkness.
Emma hit the intercom button. Nothing happened.
Her uneasiness exploded into full-blown fear. "Okay, kids," she said, keeping her voice even and calm. "We're going to go on a little adventure. I'm going to show you a secret place and you'll stay there with Susan until Daddy comes home. We can even sleep there. Susan, get their favorite blankets."
"I can't see in the dark," Susan said, her voice trembling.
Emma could see very well, although her eyesight was more in bands of heat. Information poured over her as if she had antennae, telling her where all the objects in the room were and where the kids and Susan were. She gathered up the blankets, caught up the pillows and pushed them into Susan's arms. "Everyone hold hands. This is a great adventure."
"Don't wanna," Andraya said. "I want Daddy."
"He's coming," Emma said, uncertain whether it was true, but the fear was now giving way to something else altogether. She raised her head and sniffed the air and scented--cat. Him. The leopard who had attacked her at the Bingley party. He was in her house, stalking her children.
Her own leopard leapt and slammed hard against her skin and bones. "We have to hurry," she said urgently. She didn't trust herself to be locked in the safe room with her children. She didn't know enough about her leopard, but it was wild to be free, pacing, roaring, furious that something threatened her children.
She caught up both toddlers and ran from Kyle's room down the hall to Jake's suite, Susan hurrying to keep up. He would hear and he would scent them, but once she had them inside, he wouldn't be able to get to them, not without a blowtorch. She tore open the door to the walk-in closet and pushed his clothes out of the way to get to the secret room.
"Get inside, Susan. There's plenty of room. There's a lantern. Get the kids settled on the mattresses. Lock the door and don't come out for any reason. No one can get to you. There's water and food."
"But you have to stay with us."
Emma pushed her gently inside, reached in and turned on the lantern. The babies clung to her but she quickly pulled them off and gave them to Susan. "We're trusting you with the children, Susan. They're everything to us. Keep them safe."
She shut the door herself, and immediately the soundproofed door cut off the sound of the children's sobs.
Emma turned slowly, flexing her muscles, her fingers, listening to the popping and crackling of her bones. She was close now. Her leopard. Her other half. "He wants to take our children," she whispered softly, no longer afraid.
Her feet were already bare as she padded across Jake's floor, taking comfort in the scent of him surrounding her. She knew exactly where the other male was, in his leopard form, creeping toward the stairs, thinking himself unknown to her and able to do as he wished. He was strong, as all the males of her species would be, but she was a mother defending her young. She slipped each button from its hole and let her blouse slide from her shoulders to the floor, unhooked her bra and tossed it toward Jake's bed, all the while walking toward the open door.
In the hall she shed her skirt and panties, feeling the cool air with relief on her sensitive skin. She stretched again, resolve filling her. He might kill her, but she would take him with her. He would not get to her children. She padded down the hall on bare feet, silent, her vision superb, her muscles loose and accommodating. She caught the railing with one hand and leapt over it, touching down lightly in a crouch on the first landing above the flight of stairs.
The leopard had one huge paw on the stair, his eyes gleaming in the dark at her. He pulled back, startled as she went to all fours. She flung her head back, her long hair falling around her like a cloak.
The man's face contorted, his chest and hands shifted, so that he was standing on cat legs, facing her, half man, half leopard. Rory, the man who had been paid to impregnate her, to rape and use her against her will, stared at her with vicious, calculating eyes. "You belong to me. You were promised to me."
The heat was nearly unbearable, her body temperature soaring. She should have been embarrassed to be naked in front of him, but the cat in her had already merged so deeply she didn't care. "Get out of my house."
Lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up the landing where she crouched. Tiny beads of sweat clung to her flushed skin. She knew her sex was swollen and moist, her scent calling to him. Her breasts ached, her nipples hard, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Look at you. You're in heat. You need me." There was satisfaction in his voice. "Soon your cat will take over and you'll crouch in front of me and I'll have you, both the leopard and the woman. You'll be mine and none of them will be able to do a damn thing about it." His voice was hoarse with sexual tension.
"I won't accept you."
He smirked at her. "You don't have a choice. In case you haven't noticed, I'm quite a bit larger than you."
"Drake will come."
"Drake can't even shift," Rory sneered. "He's useless to you."