Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
In this pulse-pounding novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Leopard series, animal instinct unites two elite shifters whose heads are at war with their hearts.
Gorya Amurov might be known as his family's peacekeeper, but the leopard inside him wants nothing more than to claw to the surface and unleash hell. A harsh life has shaped him into a vicious fighter with a calm exterior, but Gorya knows it's only a matter of time until he loses all control. Deep down, he truly believes he'd be better off dead, and that no woman will ever accept him as a mate....
Maya Averina has spent years hunting the criminals who destroyed her life, and she always takes down her prey. She keeps to herself, stays under the radar, and never loses focus. But with her body burning up and her mind distracted by her first heat, an ambush takes her by surprise. Now she's trapped, an unmated female shifter about to be sold off to the highest bidder. Maya is ready to fight her way out—until the most dangerous, powerful man she's ever encountered arrives to set her free.
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1
Gedeon Volkov had been a fixer for years—and he was considered the best in his field. There was a reason for that, which few understood, and it was better if they didn’t. He was a shifter—an Amur leopard. Not only was he a shifter; he was also elite. As far as he knew, there were only two of them in the world—his wife, Meiling Chang, and himself. There was always the chance that a rare few more might exist, but if so, he’d never caught so much as a hint of a rumor of one.
Intellectually, he knew there had to be more. Others had to have come before them. They didn’t just appear out of nowhere. Anomalies. Three families in three countries: South Korea, southeastern Russia and China near the Russian border. There had to be others.
Meiling and he had discussed it and even quietly tried to find others like themselves, but if they were out there, they were hiding just as Gedeon and Meiling were. They were faster and stronger than other shifters. Their brains worked at greater speeds. They’d been born that way, and because of it their families had been targeted and destroyed. They had watched everyone they loved be betrayed, tortured and murdered. Both lived under the threat of a death sentence should anyone discover they still lived.
Gedeon had been a loner for years, feared by those who hired him, which kept him alive. He worked mainly for the bratva, the Russian mob, and they could be quite brutal if one didn’t get the job done. He had the reputation of always getting it done. When he’d met Meiling, they had joined forces, another added layer of protection. Eventually they had become more than business partners and were now married.
“Why do I have the feeling this might be more dangerous than what we’ve been doing?” Meiling asked, a hint of laughter in her voice.
She’d taught him fun. He’d never had that before Meiling. She’d brought so much to him, had become his world in a short time. He knew he couldn’t live without her. He wouldn’t want to. More importantly, his leopard, Slayer, always a killer and difficult to control, would go insane. Some leopards could drive their human male counterparts to become killers. Slayer was one of those alpha leopards. Gedeon had always known there would come a day when he would be forced to suicide to protect those around him. Then came Meiling. His Lotus Blossom. Just when he was certain he couldn’t love her more, there was always more.
Still, Meiling might have laughter in her voice, but there was also a bit of sobriety there. A warning. Her radar had gone off, the same as his, which didn’t make sense. Drake Donovan would never have asked them to consider this job if he didn’t think it was legitimate. His company was solid. Renowned. Known and respected the world over. That was the only reason Gedeon had even considered working for him.
Gedeon and Meiling had talked for a long while about getting out of the business he’d been in now that they were married and she was pregnant. He was a man of action, and he’d gone his own way for far too long. It wasn’t as if he were ever going to take orders from anyone else. He needed not only the mental activity but also the physicality that he’d had for years of being a fixer.
He’d had to realistically face who he was many times in his life, and he’d learned not to shy away from the truth of who and what he was. Fixing problems within the bratva wasn’t always about negotiating or trading favors. Often, it was about having to kill, and Gedeon was excellent at that particular skill.
He had Meiling now and his number one priority was keeping her and his children safe. He wanted her to have friends. He wanted his children to have them. Being a fixer wasn’t exactly conducive to those goals.
Drake Donovan, the man who owned the Donovan International Security Company, had approached him with the offer of a job. One of his clients had specifically asked Donovan to try to recruit Gedeon for the head of his security. The client was not only bratva but also a leopard shifter, as were many of his men. He’d recently taken over a territory about which little was known. He was attempting to free it of all human trafficking. In doing so, he had incurred the wrath of locals who had been profiting from the business for years.
The locals weren’t his only problem. Many of the men under him weren’t happy he wasn’t continuing that part of the business. Those his predecessor had been doing business with really weren’t happy. Basically, it was a nightmare they would be helping the man with. Ordinarily, it was exactly the thing Gedeon would have jumped on.