THERE may as well have been an ocean between them. Gedeon could feel the distance—not only distance, but a wall as solid as titanium separating them. He couldn’t blame her. He wasn’t even certain what had been happening lately, so how was he going to explain himself? Meiling wasn’t a trusting woman. He’d eased her into his world, careful of every step. In one terrible blow he’d ruined everything between them.
“We have to talk about this, Meiling,” he said. Because they did. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t go back to his life without her.
“No, we don’t. You don’t owe me an explanation.”
Her voice was such a thin thread of sound. Always so soft and delicate. Just sitting beside her, Slayer was quiet. “I want to give you one. I need to give you. You don’t have to listen to me if you don’t want to, but I have to tell you what’s been happening.”
Meiling didn’t look away from the river. She didn’t turn toward him. He didn’t feel the terrible chasm between them lessen in the least.
“Slayer has been insane lately. Truly insane. Sometimes I thought he was going to tear me apart. Ever since we returned from San Antonio, his behavior has become more vicious than ever. He never sleeps. He rakes at me day and night, demanding blood. He seems to demand sex, but then wants to kill the woman I’m with, so I can’t really get any relief. He keeps me in a state of constant arousal all the time. Once I found a female leopard for him and he nearly killed her.”
He rubbed at his aching temples. “Unless you’re with me, I can’t sleep. Sometimes I go days without sleep, Meiling. That makes the situation worse. My brain starts to slow down. I’m afraid he’s going to gain control. I don’t know if I’ll be able to save us. Sometimes I think the right thing to do is put us both down.”
He wasn’t making a bid for her sympathy. He really didn’t know what to do. Meiling was the only way he’d gotten any respite at all. Slayer was quiet around her and gave him time to rest. If she was with him during the day, even with others close, the leopard remained fairly calm.
“The last couple of weeks, Slayer’s behavior has escalated even more. I’ve felt out of sorts as well. I don’t know if I’m affecting him, or if it’s been the other way around. I do know the need for sex tonight was horrific. I tried to stop it. I went down to the gym. I called for you, hoping you could calm Slayer and me both. When you couldn’t come, I thought Rene could line someone up at the club for me. You said you’d be able to come to me at two. I had plenty of time. Rene somehow mixed up the message and sent that woman to me.”
No response. Gedeon didn’t know how to reach her. He wanted to pull her into his arms, but he had just come to her from having sex with another woman. She wasn’t going to allow that.
“I can’t explain what was happening to me. I was burning up. Slayer was hotter than hell. Sweat was dripping off me. I couldn’t think straight. The moment she entered the room, she was stripping and climbing onto the bed, and I was pounding into her. Nothing was taking away that fire. It was raging out of control. I’d never felt anything like that. I felt like an animal, not a thinking being. I couldn’t think.”
He was telling her the strict truth and it was humiliating to do so. Blood thundered and roared in his ears. His body hadn’t felt like his own. Many times his sex drive had been wrapped up in his leopard’s relentless drive, but Gedeon had never encountered anything close to what had occurred.
“Meiling, you have to at least hear the truth in my voice. It’s important to me that you don’t think I would ask you to come to my room and then deliberately have another woman there.”
“I don’t believe you’re lying to me, Gedeon.”
She still didn’t look at him. The river seemed to hold her interest more than he did. He couldn’t tell from her tone what she was thinking.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I know you didn’t. It was just unexpected. I always thought of that space as being ours.” She gave a delicate little shrug. “Sometimes it’s good to check things, establish boundaries. We haven’t done that in a while and maybe we needed to. I don’t think either of us expected to in the way it happened, but you’ve always been very clear about your lifestyle.”
There was no tone one way or the other. Meiling could have been reciting from a cookbook.
“That space is ours,” Gedeon assured her, but he knew it wasn’t ever going to be again. She had no intention of coming to his bedroom for their intimate late-night chats. She had put a wide chasm between them, and she meant to keep it there.
She didn’t reply to that.
“Come back to the house. We have a meeting with a client tomorrow and you need sleep.”
“You go ahead. I’m not sleepy. I’m going to watch the sun come up,” she said.
He didn’t move. He might not be able to sleep with her in the same bed, but he could sit with her on a bench in front of the river. His damn leopard would at least stay quiet and give him a reprieve.
“I’ve been thinking quite a bit about Lola Morales and Atwater,” Meiling said. “Do many leopards just have sex with one another during their heats and then walk away? Is that common?”
Gedeon had excellent night vision and he examined her profile very carefully. There had been no difference in her tone at all. She didn’t sound unduly interested in the answer, but given that he and his cat had been burning so sexually out of control and the condition was worsening each week since returning from San Antonio, there was a chance Meiling was asking the question for a reason.
“It is possible Lola’s leopard went into her first heat and that’s how she started the affair with Atwater. That would make him an even worse shifter morally than I think he is. When a female goes into heat and emerges for the first time, hopefully she finds her true mate. They recognize each other. He claims her and they only are with each other. They remain faithful to each other. Lola wasn’t Atwater’s mate. He never should have led her on like that.”
“I see.”
It was clear she didn’t see.
“Once in a great while, a female is on her first life cycle. When that happens, a shifter who has never found a true mate can claim her if they are compatible. If Lola’s leopard was on her first life cycle, she wouldn’t have known Atwater had a mate.”
“Why do you say ‘once in a great while’?”
Gedeon thought about how best to answer that. “It’s rare to find female shifters who have not been claimed in a previous lifetime. Females will not accept a mate who is not her own.”
“But what you’re saying is that if Lola was in her first life cycle, she would have accepted anyone?”
“Not necessarily anyone, but someone her human companion was also attracted to.”
“Most likely neither of them had good sense because they were experiencing an actual heat for the first time,” Meiling said. “That doesn’t seem very fair to Lola or her leopard.”
“It wasn’t. As I said, Atwater doesn’t seem to have any kind of moral code.”
For the first time, her gaze cut from the river to slide over him. He couldn’t read her, but she chose that moment to look at him. The moment when he was talking about another man’s moral code.
“I look bad with all the sex I have, Meiling. But those women want to have sex. They initiate with me, and they would come back for more if I let them. I don’t. I’m careful to make it clear I don’t have relationships. I don’t have sex with shifters. The sex is with women who frequent various clubs. Women Rene knows. I don’t like it any more than you do, but I don’t know what else to do when Slayer drives us both so hard.”
“I’m not making a judgment on your lifestyle. You were living that way long before I came along, and no doubt you’ll be living that way long after I leave.”
His heart nearly stopped. She said it so casually. Just sort of dropped that little bombshell as if it meant nothing. There was no living if she left. Not with his leopard accelerating its violent behavior. As disciplined as he was, he would never be able to control the cat. Eventually it would break free and kill someone. He couldn’t have that. And that was if he didn’t go insane from lack of sleep first.
“I should fire Rene for allowing that woman into the house,” he snapped.
“You can’t fire Rene.”
He remained stubbornly silent. Rene should have known better.
“Has it occurred to you that Rene saw the state you were in and knew you couldn’t go to the club? He brought the woman to the house to help you?”
As always, Meiling sounded peaceful and calm, driving some of the agitation from him. It didn’t keep his lungs from feeling as if they were burning raw.
“I lost you.”
She sighed. “I thought that at first too. It feels that way, but the truth is, sooner or later we were going to have to face reality. We couldn’t keep on the way we were going.”
Gedeon knew she was right. He was becoming too possessive of her. The longer they were together, the more he didn’t like other males around her. The more he wanted to claim her for himself. He wasn’t certain how long he would have been able to hold out. The minute he made a move on her, it would have ended their relationship in a disastrous way.
“What do you plan on doing, Meiling?” He might as well ask her outright.
“I don’t know yet. We have that meeting today. I want to clear the cases we’ve been working. I’ve got to think things through. You should too. When we’ve both had a little time, we can talk again and figure out what we want to do.”
She sounded so reasonable, he wanted to shake her. He knew her too well. She wasn’t feeling at all the way she was pretending to be. She looked relaxed and indifferent. She acted and sounded that way. But she wasn’t. She’d only looked at him once, that one flick of her eyes, a sideways glance. Nothing since.
They sat together on the bench and watched the sunrise before walking together back to the house. She didn’t walk close to him the way she’d always done. They didn’t laugh together. She didn’t hand him her coffee cup to throw into the trash container on the way; she dumped it herself. It was a small thing, but it was a sign of her declaring her independence. When they got to the house, she walked around to the back and he went up the front steps alone with his heart heavy, Slayer raging at him.
GUY Hawkins was in his late sixties with rounded shoulders and a receding hairline. He wore his wealth casually, from his canvas loafers to his sports jacket and faded jeans. Sending his secretary a vague smile as Gedeon and Meiling were ushered into his office, he waved them toward two chairs.
His office was in downtown New Orleans in one of the newer modern buildings. Hawkins was renowned as a composer, a record producer and a music executive with eighteen Grammy awards and nearly fifty more nominations. His net worth was well over a hundred million, but who was counting? Recently he had gotten involved with a young blues group that had taken the world by storm. They were playing at the very popular Blue’s Club, owned by Bijou Boudreaux, in New Orleans.
“Thank you for coming.” He extended his hand, first to Gedeon and then to Meiling. “I received your name, Mr. Volkov, on the highest recommendation from my friend, Carmine Brambilla. He told me you were discreet and able to get the job done very fast.” He glanced at Meiling. “He said you worked alone.”
“He was wrong.” Gedeon didn’t give Meiling’s name.
“I see.” Hawkins frowned and walked around his desk to stand behind it. He dropped into his chair and studied Gedeon’s stony features.
“I understand completely if you wish to call the meeting off and find someone else. We can leave.” Gedeon sounded bored and did his obligatory half rising.
A man with the kind of money Hawkins had would surely investigate Gedeon before he hired him. By now, it was known Gedeon had a partner. She wasn’t as well-known and there were no pictures of her in the media, but Hawkins would have heard of her. Sometimes Gedeon was so sick of the dance, he really did want to leave. Slayer, normally quiet when Meiling was close, refused to settle, raking and carrying on as if he would split Gedeon open and crawl out to destroy their client.
“No, no. If you trust her, then of course it’s fine. It’s just that this is a very sensitive matter and must be kept very quiet.”
Gedeon stared at him, knowing Slayer was watching him closely through Gedeon’s eyes. He had no idea why he felt such animosity toward the man, but he did.
“How can we help you, Mr. Hawkins?” Meiling asked. Her voice was like a soft breeze blowing through the office, sending a calming effect through the red haze in Gedeon’s mind.
Hawkins jumped up from his chair, paced behind the desk, turned back to them and gripped the back of his chair so hard his knuckles turned white. “My wife, Laverne, is thirty-seven years younger than me. Everyone assumed she was a gold digger and married me for my money. That wasn’t the case. Laverne and I fell in love. It was that simple. I didn’t think I had a chance with her, but she was genuine and sweet and liked all the same things I did.”
He stopped speaking and stood quietly staring down at his desk before picking up the only framed photograph on it. He held it up to show them. His wife was beautiful. The same height as him in her heels, she looked regal with her reddish-blond hair piled high on her head with tendrils artfully falling around her face.
Gedeon recognized her immediately. Laverne Sanders had been a singer and theater actress before she met Hawkins. A gorgeous woman, and they appeared happy together everywhere they went. She often starred in theater performances and was reputed to be quite good. Gedeon had never seen her, but when he’d been briefed on Hawkins, Rene had included the reviews of Laverne’s work.
His leopard slammed against his ribs, battering at him to get free. Slayer raged, rending and tearing in an effort to break free and get at Hawkins. Clearly he despised the man with a passion. Gedeon found he felt the same way. So far he had no sympathy for their client. He stared at his mouth and perfect white teeth, wondering how much it had cost him to get those teeth. Why did it feel to him as if the office was staged? As if the desk had been arranged the way it might in a theater to appear a certain way—everything on it a prop for Hawkins to use.
As if she could sense that Gedeon and Slayer were struggling to believe Hawkins and not leap up and kill him, Meiling once again took control. She glided to her feet, a delicate flowing motion of pure femininity, drawing the attention of every male in the room—including the leopard.
She went up to the desk, inserting herself between Hawkins and Gedeon. “May I?” she asked in her soft, lilting voice. She held out her hand for the photograph.
Calm poured into the room. Peace filled Gedeon. Filled Slayer. Instantly the leopard was still, watching Hawkins but waiting to see what would happen, rather than trying to tear Gedeon apart to get his way.
Guy Hawkins handed Meiling the picture. Meiling smiled at it and then up at him. “She’s really quite lovely, Mr. Hawkins. I can see you’re very worried about her. Has she gone missing?”
Gedeon had the insane desire to catch Meiling by her shoulders and drag her away from Hawkins. If that man was stupid enough to lay his hands on her, Meiling could wipe up the floor with him. He wouldn’t know that. She looked so delicate with her slim little figure. If Hawkins was so in love with his wife and so damned worried about her, why was he suddenly looking at Meiling with speculative interest? If there was one thing Gedeon could see—and smell—on other men, it was sexual interest in Meiling.
Meiling stepped back, holding the photograph in one hand, her sweet smile in place, but as she took that one step back, she kicked Gedeon in the shins, hard. Pull it together, Leopard Boy. He’s a client. Hear him out. We need to know what’s going on. If Slayer is acting up, get across the room.
The woman, for being so small, knew how to kick. He should have been angry, but Gedeon was elated. It was the first time Meiling had spoken telepathically to him since the “incident.” More important, she called him Leopard Boy. Like it or not, that was a term of endearment between them.
He stood up, towering over Meiling, crowding her a little so that his body, for the first time in far too long, felt her soft form molded against his. Slayer retreated even more, content to be near the woman who always calmed him. Meiling, the consummate professional, didn’t so much as stiffen. She stared down at the photograph and then showed it to Gedeon simply by holding it up.
“Isn’t she beautiful? I saw her in New York two years ago. She opened on Broadway in the production of Baby’s Got the Blues. She was absolutely brilliant.”
“She was nominated for a Tony Award,” Hawkins informed them.
“She should have won,” Meiling said sincerely. She handed the photograph back to Hawkins. “She was wonderful in that role.”
Gedeon moved away from Meiling, circling the room, taking in every aspect of it. No matter how much he wanted to view it differently, he still felt he was in the middle of a theater set. Why did he feel like Guy Hawkins had staged his office to appear as if he were grieving? The room was actually quite stark. Although spacious, there was very little furniture, which only called attention to the curved desk.
The walls were either sheets of glass or wooden panels. There were no pictures on the walls. Again, that placed Hawkins’s desk as the center of attention and cast the spotlight directly onto the only framed photograph on the desk’s surface. He studied the office setup from every angle while Meiling engaged Hawkins in conversation about Laverne’s career on Broadway. As a musical theater actress, her reputation had grown fast.
The farther away Gedeon moved from Meiling, the more agitated he felt. That triggered Slayer into escalating his aggressive behavior. Or was it the other way around? Gedeon didn’t know or care, only that he had a strong urge to separate Meiling from Hawkins immediately. The impression of danger was so strong that he crossed the room again to stand within striking distance of the man, deliberately allowing their client to see the killer in him.
What is wrong with you?
I don’t know. I’m getting the impression that you’re in danger. Slayer feels it as well.
He knew he should ask her if she felt in danger when she was near Hawkins. The closer he was to Hawkins, the more powerful the feeling became. He was convinced he wasn’t being emotional because he’d had a fight earlier with Meiling. It was because their client was looking at her in an inappropriate way as he tried to convince them he adored his wife.
Meiling? What are you feeling? What are your impressions of him?
Meiling didn’t answer him at once, but she did move away from the desk, sitting once more, very gracefully, in the chair. “Please tell us more, Mr. Hawkins. Why did you send for us?”
Hawkins’s gaze ran over Meiling’s slight figure in a hungry, greedy way Slayer just couldn’t tolerate. He threw himself at Gedeon fast, the attack unexpected and strong, nearly tearing through his insides. Gedeon’s skin lifted as the huge cat shoved against him in an attempt to escape to get at their enemy. It took all of Gedeon’s strength to hold him back.
“My wife is bipolar. Her medical condition is not known and I don’t want it to get out. That is for her to disclose when she deems it appropriate. I have a top publicity team in place, and when they think it is best to go public with that information, she will. That time, certainly, is not now.”
Hawkins spread his hands in front of him and looked down in despair, shaking his head. Gedeon wanted to remind him that he wasn’t an actor, he was a musician. He was too busy fighting back his leopard. He was furious with the cat. They had a truce when it came to his work. The leopard was a part of what he did. He was supposed to listen, to pay attention to every word said, take in every detail.
He makes me uneasy. He’s telling half-truths, but it’s difficult to catch everything with you and Slayer so reactive. Maybe you should leave the room and let me handle this alone.
The moment she made the suggestion, Gedeon’s entire being rejected the idea of leaving her alone with Hawkins. What he thought Hawkins would do, he had no idea.
I’m staying. Calm Slayer down for me and I’ll keep it together.
You sound and feel like the Grim Reaper.
He wanted to be the Grim Reaper. One swipe of his paw and that would put an end to Guy Hawkins and whatever his game was. On the other hand, he had many clients he didn’t like and he’d worked for them. Done recovery for them. He didn’t have to like them, he reminded himself and Slayer. He just had to do his job and collect his enormous fee. He nodded and kept breathing, turning his energy inward, determined to get his emotions under control. If he could do that, he could get his savage leopard under control.
“Is your wife under a doctor’s care, Mr. Hawkins?” Meiling inquired. She filled the silence smoothly, keeping the attention on her so that Hawkins didn’t notice Gedeon and his smoldering, threatening silence.
“She has a doctor and takes medication, but every once in a while she goes off of it. That’s disastrous when it happens. A complete disaster.” Hawkins lifted his head, his expression stormy. “She can get taken advantage of very easily. I assigned her a bodyguard. I thought he was someone I could trust. He came with the highest of recommendations.”
Again, there was a long silence while he began pacing behind his desk, his hands locked behind his back as if to keep from strangling someone. Neither Meiling nor Gedeon interrupted him. They simply observed him as he seemed to use up his restless, angry energy before getting to his point. Finally, he turned back to them, once more gripping the back of his chair.
“Her bodyguard ran off with her instead of doing the responsible thing, which was what he was hired for. He was to protect her from herself. The two of them have disappeared. She can be very self-destructive. Manic and then self-destructive. Once she’s out of her manic phase, she becomes suicidal, realizing what she’s done, and she feels hopeless. It loops in her head that she’s worthless and has ruined everything. Our marriage, her career, that I would be better off with her dead. She must be found quickly. I called you as soon as I found them gone.”
“Did you give us all the details we need on both individuals?” Meiling asked, standing to indicate they would be leaving.
Gedeon was relieved they were at the end of the interview. Holding Slayer back was exhausting.
Hawkins nodded his head. “I’ll send the file to your business address immediately. You’ll have everything you need. If anything comes up, my private number is in that file, and I gave it to Mr. Volkov when I asked to see him.”
“Thank you,” Meiling said as Gedeon put one hand on her shoulder to pull her back toward him.
Hawkins didn’t bother to walk them to the door now that he had what he wanted. Gedeon thought his expression was rather smug. He didn’t speak until they were in the car and heading back to their house.
“Give me your honest impression of Hawkins.” He handled the sleek Audi through traffic easily. Now that they were alone and close to Meiling, Slayer was calm again.
Meiling pulled one of the sticks from her hair and a long thick swath of silky strands slithered down her shoulder. “He was being very dramatic on purpose. I don’t know him, so I don’t know if that’s his personality or if he was acting for our benefit. The idea of acting doesn’t fit. Why would he have to if his beloved wife is missing and he’s racing the clock to get her back? I read the media coverage on him and then on the two of them. There’s quite a lot. They seemed, on the surface, to be in love.”
“I wasn’t buying his act.” His voice was gruffer than he would have liked. It wasn’t Meiling’s fault that he was so edgy or that Slayer was. He didn’t know what it was exactly about Hawkins. He couldn’t put his finger on it. The man was a legend in his field, yet Gedeon couldn’t quite believe him.
“It was an act, yet quite a lot of what he said was true,” Meiling stated.
He glanced at her. “You agree that he mixed lies with truth.”
“He did, but I couldn’t tell what was true and was the lie. I tried to follow a strand of truth, but the lie was woven through it or vice versa. He made it difficult to tell which was which.”
“She’s missing for certain,” Gedeon said.
“Yes,” Meiling agreed. “And he wants to know where she is. That much is true.”
“The bipolar?” Gedeon asked.
Meiling took her time thinking it over. He could tell she was replaying the way Hawkins had told them about his wife’s illness. Weighing his words. Trying to discern the truth amid his lies.
“I believe she is bipolar,” Meiling finally concluded. “I’m not certain I believe everything else he said. Or that things happened the way he said. Certainly a manic cycle can drop into a suicidal one. I’ve tried to analyze his voice and decide whether he was telling the truth when he told us about that part of her cycle, but honestly, I couldn’t.”
“I know we don’t have to like a client to take the work,” Gedeon ventured aloud. “I just have this feeling he’s up to something shady.”
“I have that same feeling, Gedeon. We can find Laverne and make certain she’s fine.”
“I don’t like being used,” Gedeon objected. “He’s got an ulterior motive.”
“We don’t have to tell Hawkins we found her. Not at first, not until we figure out what he wants.”
Soft music flooded the car as they made their way back to his house. He easily drove the car into the garage. He turned off the ignition and they sat listening to the insects rather than the soft strains of instruments.
“He isn’t in love with her,” Gedeon announced abruptly, turning toward her in the close confines of the car. “He was all over you. A man who is desperately worried about his missing wife, the one he loves more than life itself, doesn’t stare with lust at another woman.”
Meiling drew little circles on top of her thigh. “Gedeon, the truth is, neither one of us knows that much about love. How do you know whether a man can love one woman and lust after another? We don’t.”
“That’s not true, Meiling. You don’t remember your family, but I do. I remember my parents. I remember my siblings. My mother. The beauty of her. The softness in her eyes when she looked at me. The softness in my heart when I looked at her. I know what love is.”
Her dark eyes went liquid—that melting chocolate that turned his insides to mush. She shook her head. “Honey, that’s the love for family. It isn’t the same as love for your woman. You haven’t experienced that. For all you know, Hawkins can love his wife and still crave other women. Look at all the men who have affairs. Do you think that none of them love their wives?”
“No, I don’t think they do. I think they love themselves,” Gedeon replied. “It’s an ego thing, at least when I’ve worked cases involving cheaters. That’s been the case every time whether it’s been a man or a woman doing the cheating.”
“Maybe they aren’t cut out for a relationship,” she ventured.
“Then they should have been honest and not gotten into one,” he answered instantly. “No matter how you twist this, Meiling, something isn’t right about this case. Hawkins wants us to find Laverne, but he’s got reasons other than what he’s giving us.” Gedeon was certain he was right, so certain he stated it as fact.
“Sadly, I believe you’re right. I don’t want you to be, because that could mean Laverne is in more trouble than she appears to be.” Meiling pushed the door open. “Let’s go figure out where she might have gone.”
“He’s going to have us followed,” Gedeon cautioned.
“He’ll try,” Meiling agreed. “I was certain he’d do that from the time we entered his office. He’s that kind of man.”
Gedeon’s smile was a little cruel. “I should have said he’d try to have us followed.”
MEILING was exhausted after spending the entire afternoon and most of the evening with Gedeon, working on uncovering a single thread to a trail to Laverne. It was very clear that she hadn’t suddenly gone off her medication and taken off. She had planned for months to leave. No one could disappear without a trace the way she had without careful planning.
Laverne’s disappearance had required a good deal of money to be siphoned off without her husband knowing. She had a hefty bank account, but it was clear that it was monitored. She had taken small amounts of money out over time for monthly charities, hair, nail, and clothing allowances. It was all regular spending that never deviated, but when Meiling tried to match it with actual dollar amounts spent, it didn’t add up.
The bodyguard was a man with a good reputation. He didn’t seem like the type of man to run off with someone’s wife, yet he had also disappeared. He spent time with other bodyguards, specifically those around Blue’s Club. He had once taken an assignment guarding Bijou Breaux at Blue’s Club before she was married to Remy Boudreaux. That meant he knew quite a few of the shifters. Gedeon said he’d talk to them. That was a relief to Meiling, although she didn’t let on. She preferred to stay away from the male shifters as much as possible.
When she was finally able to go to her suite for the night, she locked her doors, ran a hot bath and stripped. She needed answers and had decided to ask Evangeline Amurov. Hopefully she would answer.
Meiling sank into the hot bathtub and sent her query to Evangeline.
Have several questions I can’t answer myself regarding first cycle leopard emergence. Will you help? Would have to be as confidential as possible.
She didn’t want to say Evangeline couldn’t share with Fyodor because Evangeline would feel she was doing something wrong. This way she would think she was merely helping out.
I’ll do my best.
Meiling wrote out a series of questions and sent them to Evangeline, hoping they wouldn’t point toward her. She tried to make it seem as if a client was asking and she had no answers as she didn’t have a leopard. She never stated those things, just implied them.
I’ve never heard of a female leopard and her human not staying with their mates. If her leopard chooses, she will only do so if her human is attracted and can love the male her leopard is with. That male must be able to love her.
Meiling thought about that as she soaked. Evangeline had never heard of a leopard and her human not staying with her mate.
What if they choose wrong? Could that happen? Would they leave then?
She snapped her fingers in the water, popping bubbles while she waited.
The male would be far more experienced and wouldn’t allow the female to choose wrong. At least he shouldn’t. I suppose there are terrible males. There were in Fyodor’s home lair. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen here, although there aren’t too many shifters, so it’s much more difficult to find mates.
Meiling tried to find a way to ask the next question without giving anything important away.
Is it possible for the leopards to be attracted without the humans being? Or the humans without the leopards being?
When a female goes into heat every male for miles is attracted. The men go insane as well. Believe me, he will be attracted.
Meiling chewed on the side of her lip.
Okay, this one is from me. How would a woman ever know if the male was genuinely attracted to her if he hadn’t known her or showed interest until her leopard came along?
The answer took longer.
That is a difficult question, especially under the circumstances you describe. If he is a stranger, or has never showed interest, he would have to find a way to prove to her that his interest in her as a woman and partner is for herself, not just for her leopard, and I suspect it wouldn’t be easy. At least, it wouldn’t be for me. No woman would want to be wanted just for her leopard.
Meiling snapped her fingers harder at the bubbles.
I took us off the questions. Sorry. What if the man is unfaithful? He wants to have multiple women in his life. Can the woman walk away even if her leopard still prefers to mate with his leopard?
They can’t possibly be true mates if he needs that in his life. Yes, she should walk away. It might not be easy because her leopard may think the leopard she’s with is her true mate, but he cannot possibly be.
There was her answer. She would have to find a way to let Gedeon go.
If her leopard has just begun to show herself, but the sexual desire is fierce and burning out of control from the very first time, how long does she have before she fully emerges?
There was a long silence.
I would have to ask someone else. My leopard came to me when I was a child because I needed help. Let me ask someone else. I’ll do it casually and let you know as soon as I can.
If the leopard is asleep but has been rising and then going to sleep, can the woman still affect males around her? As in put them in a heightened state of sexual tension or sexual need?
Yes. Absolutely.
Meiling pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. She was in the same house as Gedeon. She’d gone through a massive, burning sexual fury just upstairs from him. He was already struggling with Slayer’s needs.
Would the leopard be affected sexually? And would that leopard’s needs affect his male?
Yes. Absolutely. Until the female emerges and is claimed, it will be very difficult on every male shifter near her. If her mate is close, he will suffer terribly.
Gedeon already had problems with his leopard’s vicious sexual cycle. She had contributed to that terrible, ferocious sexual arousal he couldn’t stop.
Thanks for your help.
Anytime. Take care and come see me when you’re in San Antonio.
Meiling sent her a thumbs-up and set her phone aside. What a mess.