Emma bent down to pick up Andraya, and as she settled her against her hip, the little girl brushed against her breast. It hurt. Really hurt. So much so that she immediately put her daughter back on the floor, inhaling sharply. Her muscles ached. She didn't want to come down with the flu and have the children get it.

As the afternoon wore on, her symptoms increased. She developed a sensitivity to sound. The light bothered her eyes. At times her eyes would abruptly change vision, so that bands of color appeared before her eyes. Her joints hurt, cracking and popping with every movement she made.

But more than the physical pain, the soreness invading her body was something much, much worse, something insidious and frightening.

She was very aware of her body. Every curve. Every square inch of skin. The heat building inside of her. The tension stretching along nerve endings. She rubbed at her arms as an itch spread, not over the top of her skin, but under, as if something long dormant was rising and trying to get out.

Emma tried to play with the children, but as evening approached she found herself watching the clock, her teeth set grimly, hoping the time would pass faster so she could put them to bed. Her emotions swung out of control in either direction. One moment she was close to tears and the next she was snapping at everyone. Several times Susan asked her what was wrong, and she caught the girl looking at her strangely, as if even her appearance was different.

By dinner time, Emma was certain she was going insane. Her body ached with need. If Jake hadn't gone to his office she would have been begging him to make love to her. Her breasts ached beyond belief, her nipples hard, brushing against her bra with every step she took until she wanted desperately to rip her clothes off to get some relief. It felt as if a million ants were crawling over her skin, soft, tiny brush strokes feathering up and down every nerve ending. Deep inside, she burned, empty and desperate to be filled. She was hotter than she'd ever been, her temperature rising by several degrees, and not even an ice pack on her neck alleviated the heat.

The brewing storm added to her growing discomfort and unrest. Twice she picked up the phone, and then dropped it back down. She couldn't let fear put Jake in danger. The weather forecasters had been sending nonstop warnings about possible flooding, and already the rain had started.

With the wind picking up, the rain was being blown sideways. She didn't want Jake out in danger because she was uneasy and becoming afraid.

Emma put together a nice dinner, trying to do something positive with the restless energy building up inside of her, but she was ready to crawl out of her skin. It hurt to wear clothes. The sexual need came in waves, each one stronger than the last, so that her skin flushed and she wanted to tear her clothes off and rub her body against anything to relief the terrible pressure.

"Susan, after the children finish and while I do the dishes, do you want to give them a bath for me? They like to play in the tub and it might keep them occupied for a few minutes until I can finish up and read to them." And get everyone out of the way so she could find out just what was happening to her.

"Sure. They're good in the bathtub. I know where all their toys are."

Emma didn't trust her voice. She wanted-no, needed-to strip, to get the weight of her clothes off her too-sensitive skin. She couldn't stop moving. Her body was undulating with need now. The heat was building, the pressure on her most sensitive bundle of nerves causing her hips to seek relief. She wanted to cry with the ache between her legs.

Emma kissed Kyle and Andraya on top of their heads and gratefully sent them upstairs. Hanging on to the sink, she hung her head, taking huge, deep breaths. She could barely walk, her feet aching, the knuckles on her hands burning along with her fingertips. She kicked off her shoes and dropped to the kitchen floor, crawling toward the intercom, terrified now, desperately needing Jake.

Her body moved with a sensuous slide, her bottom lifting, her arms pushing back, as if her body was separate from her mind and she could no longer control it. She had the urge to touch herself, to trace the curves of her body, to find her burning center and alleviate the ache. Her mind screamed for Jake. She needed Jake.

Outside the rain lashed at the windows and her pulse beat in time to the wild rhythm of the whistling wind. The fever built in her blood. Images of Jake filled her mind, naked, his body muscular, demanding, conquering hers. Not the lovemaking she craved from him, but something altogether different. Her pulse pounded deep inside as blood pooled and demanded. Her mind turned chaotic and her hands-oh, her hands-curling, bending, raking at the floor in frustration.

Sobbing, she hit the intercom button. "Drake." Her voice was different. Her throat ached. Was raw with burning need. There wasn't a place on her body that didn't ache. If the lacy material of her bra brushed against her nipples one more time, she might go insane.

"What's up, Emma?" Drake's voice was tense.

She knew he was working to secure the ranch for the storm. Everybody would be. She coughed, felt her hands sliding over her breasts, trying to ease the terrible ache and quickly pulled her hands down. "You have to come here. The kitchen." And God help her if anyone else came. She had to have Drake tell her what was happening. She knew he was the one with all the knowledge of their species. She knew he talked to Jake. Her mother had never said a word about the change, but something terrifying was happening and it had to be her leopard.

Minutes. Hours. Each wave of sexual hunger was worse than the last one. She was nearly sobbing when she heard the door open.

"Emma?"

"Drake." Relief poured into her voice. She hadn't realized just how much she was counting on him to help her. Once she understood, she should be able to manage the intensity of the need burning through her. If this was the way Jake felt all the time, she could understand his need for continual relief.

"Emma, are you all right?" Drake entered the kitchen, took several steps in when the scent hit him hard. He halted abruptly, his fingers curling into tight fists. Deep inside, his leopard leapt and roared, raking at him, clawing deeply in an effort to get out.

"Drake, you have to tell me about what happens to a woman when she goes into heat. Jake started to tell me about it, but I was so certain I didn't have a leopard. You have to help me."

He studied her body from across the room, gripping the back of a chair, nearly crushing the wood, clearing his throat before replying, "You need Jake."

"I know I need Jake. He isn't here, obviously, so you have to help me. Tell me what to do. I can't stand this."

He grit his teeth, fighting down the urge to leap over the table and take her. "None of the men can come in here, Emma, including me. It's too dangerous. Get the kids down for the night and lock yourself in your room. Don't let Susan near you. Everyone of the men, leopard or human, is going to be affected by you right now. You have to stay away from them."

"You're not helping me."

"Damn it, Emma. I'm a male whether I can shift or not. I can't be here." His nails dug into the kitchen chair.

When she peered around the table at him, her breath caught in her throat. His eyes had gone molten, fixed and staring like that of a predator. His head moved from side to side, but his stare never wavered. His body changed, muscular, compact, so strong. She felt the emptiness pulsing between her thighs as she stared at each breath he took.

Drake backed away from her, almost to the door, as she crawled forward. "I have to get out of here, Emma. Your leopard wants out. She's in heat and you're going to feel everything that she feels. It's intense and difficult, and you'll need Jake."

She didn't want to hear that again. She laid her head on the floor and wept, terrified of being selfish enough to call Jake back in the midst of one of the worst storms of the season. She had to control herself. That was all there was to it. She heard the kitchen door close and she stayed there, right on the floor, as the tide of feeling ebbed, leaving her drained. She slept and dreamt of Jake, of a forest, hot and humid, and the two of them rolling together on the ground, consumed with the need to be as close as possible.

"Emma." Susan's voice called to her. A hand touched her shoulder, gently shook her. "Are you sick? Should I call Drake?"

Emma reluctantly opened her eyes, blinking rapidly. The room was dark. Outside, the wind was howling. She could hear the occasional scrape of a tree branch against the house. Her mouth tasted like cotton. Experimentally, she ran her tongue along her teeth.

"Emma." Susan's hands were gentle as she tried to help Emma sit up. "You're burning up. You're running a temperature."

The touch on her sensitive skin burned, and Emma forced herself not to pull away. "The flu, maybe, nothing serious." It felt serious. Her body ached, every joint, every muscle. She took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet, using the table to help drag herself up.

Susan rushed to the refrigerator to get her a glass of ice-cold water. "The children are ready for bed. I could try to put them down for you, but they're sort of scared of the storm."

Emma took a long, cool drink. The water felt good on her throat. The symptoms in her body had eased, leaving her with a sore and achy feeling, but at least she could manage it. "I'll tuck them in and read them a story. Thanks, Susan."

As she went up the stairs, she glanced at the windows, wishing she was outside where raw nature was elemental and alive. She felt trapped, caged in. Her skin so tight over her bones she was afraid she'd burst.

Kyle ran to her, throwing his arms around her legs, and Andraya, as usual, followed his lead. Both looked up at her with fear in their eyes.

"It's just a little storm," she soothed. "Come on. I'm going to tell you one of my stories of the two magical children. Let's get in Kyle's bed."

She took their hands and led them into his room. They climbed up onto the bed with her. The storm hit full force just as she began the story. Lightning zigzagged across the sky, sizzling and cracking like great whips, lighting up the roiling black clouds. The force of the wind drove the rain against the windows. The children burst into tears, frightened as thunder boomed loudly just overhead, rattling the windows.

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."

"He'll come and he'll bring the other men with him."

"The men are down at the stables where a wild leopard has wreaked havoc with the horses. They'll be a while trying to save Bannaconni's precious horses."

"Your partner."

"That's right. And he can't get in here. You locked the place down, only I was already inside. Your precious Drake didn't scent me."

"You cover yourself with other scents."

"Like skunk." He sounded pleased with himself for outsmarting the other leopards.

"Jake will hunt you down and kill you."

"He'll never find us. I'm from the forest, and once we're back there, he'll be on my turf."

Emma's hands curved, knotted, her muscles extending. She reached for her leopard, called it to her, unafraid. Accepting. They were intelligent together. They were strong. She had need of her other half.

The Han Vol Don was upon her and she embraced it rather than fought it. It didn't matter that her skull felt too big for her head and pain pounded through her temples. She reached for the change-wanted it.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the room and he saw her muscles contort. As soon as he saw her body shifting, he took his other form, prepared to fight for her, fully prepared to make his claim on the female leopard. He was fascinated by her aquamarine eyes and held her stare, refusing to look away, showing her he was the male who would conquer her.

Emma ran her tongue over sharpening teeth, all the while holding the male's gaze. She knew she was alluring to him and she used her sensual state to mesmerize him, as the rippling under her skin ran from her belly to her arms. Adrenaline flooded her body, and with it strength-the strength she would need to defeat the much larger, heavier male. A wave of reddish golden fur broke through her skin, decorated with dark rosettes. Rather than finding the change repulsive, she found the half-transformed state sensuous, deliberately stretching her body again, allowing him to scent her readiness.

Her senses heightened even more and the wildness burst through her. She turned her head as her muzzle formed and fur rippled over the rest of her body. The female leopard came to her four feet, fluid, graceful, sleek. Emma had expected to find herself in the background, but she was there, only now her intelligence was twofold, now her determination and will were backed by the aggressive animal that was her other half.

In the throes of her sexual heat, the female leopard rubbed the length of her body along the banister, spreading her tantalizing scent everywhere, broadcasting to her mate. The male stared with his yellow-green eyes, fixed and focused. His nose wrinkled and he curled his upper lip, grimacing with an open mouth and wide yawn in the response of male leopard claiming a female.

Emma displayed her teeth and snapped at him, warning him to stay away from her, even as she slid her body low to the ground, enticing him by bringing up her bottom. She crouched low, but the moment he took a step toward her, she hissed and curled her lip at him, driving him back away from her as if she were too skittish to accept him.

If she could buy time, lure him away from the stairs and the chamber where the children were hidden, Drake would come to check on them. He wouldn't like that the generator wasn't running as it should be. Even if the horses were in a terrible state, the fact that they'd been attacked by a leopard would send Drake running back to her and he would bring the others. She needed time. If nothing else, she could pull the leopard into the great room where the huge windows were. And if all else failed, she could leap, break the glass and set off the alarm. That would draw all the men to the house.

Her wary gaze focused on the male, she took a step down, continuing to rub her body along the spokes in the banister. The male locked eyes with her, watching her just as warily. She extended her claws and hissed, clearly telling him to back off, that she wasn't ready. The male took a step away from the stairs, cautiously, as expected. No self-respecting male leopard would attempt to force a female until she was receptive to him, not unless he had a death wish.

Emma knew from extensive reading that a courtship between leopards was noisy, but the sounds the female was emitting shocked her. To the male, the vocalization seemed quite alluring. She hissed another rebuff and he retreated further, giving her more room. She continued rubbing her fur along every object she came in contact with. When she reached the floor at the bottom of the stairs, she rolled seductively and stretched.

The male approached, chuffing softly, trying to entice her, and she immediately leapt to her feet, delivering a swipe toward him with her outstretched claws. The male circled her as she continued to tease and play in the seductive manner of the leopard during courtship. She could smell him, a blend of cat, sex and man, all rolled together.

She rolled again, trying to ease her way from the stairs, leading the male toward the great room where the windows were larger and much more abundant. Every few steps she crouched, nearly offering herself to him, but when he tried to come in close to rub his body along hers, she swung her head, hissing, raking with claws, forcing him to leap away from her.