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deserves to know. It’s her choice. Beth,” Selene ordered and Beth nodded. Right before Sasha’s eyes Beth melted. Her body shifted and remolded, the slight sound of bones popping until a large leopard stood before Sasha. Sasha could feel herself screaming but no sound emerged and she struggled to get away from Lauren. But Lauren was too strong, holding her in place with ease.
    “This is what we are. Me, Pietr, Alexios, Lauren, Beth, Drea, and Adelis.”
    “Maddy?” Sasha croaked.
    “I’m still human, for now. But I won’t be a leopard. Collin will make me a wolf.”
    “You have got to be shitting me. Cirro is a leopard?”
    “Afraid so,” Selene answered. “He was always worried that his mate would be human, that she would die before him. Unlike wolves, who can change their mate under a full moon without any danger, leopards can only change their mates by giving them a fatal wound. That night when I ran from the club where Maddy met her mate, I was attacked by a wereleopard. Pietr saved me, barely, and now I am what he is. Cirro should have told you about this before he bit you.”
    “Biting me makes me his mate?”
    “Yes. It binds you to him. Until one of you dies, there is no one else for either of you.”
    “And unless I die, or come very close, I will die long before he does,” Sasha stated.
    “It’s not that simple. For wereleopards we only mate once. Cirro will either follow you or look for death after you pass,” Pietr chimed in.
    “How long?” Sasha asked, freezing.
    “What?” Selene asked.
    “How long has he known I was his mate?” Sasha asked. How long had Cirro known that she was meant for him? A human that he hadn’t obviously wanted to tie himself to until she’d been dumb enough to beg him. How long had he known that she was the one meant for him and denied her because of what she was? How long had they lied to her?
    “From the moment he met you,” Lauren answered before the others could, rubbing Sasha’s arms. Sasha flinched from her, and Lauren released her, but didn’t move away.
    “He’s known, all this time? All of you have known, and kept it from me? All of you. Maddy? Selene? My best friends? My sisters? Ones I trusted my life with? I’m surrounded by people who thought I was too weak to handle the truth. Surrounded by people who have lied, hurt, and are now, are trying to kill me. And I came to you, felt safe.” Sasha felt the tears coming but couldn’t fight them. Her heart was breaking.
    Deep inside she’d always felt that Cirro was meant for her. Had known that there was something special between the two of them. She’d felt it the first time she’d seen him. Known that he would mean the world to her. She’d wanted to be with him. She’d wanted to be a part of the world her friends had entered, and find love. A world that she hadn’t really understood. Her best friends, her family, they’d lied to her. Hadn’t let her in, until trouble had come her way. And even then they hadn’t told the truth until she was too far in to get away. She was mated. Mated like some animal to a man who hadn’t wanted her, who had fought to stay away from her because she was human.
    “My, what a good laugh you all must have had when I was telling you about my human problems.”
    “Sas—”
    “No, Selene. I think you’ve done enough.”
    “She was only trying to help, Sasha,” Maddy argued.
    “I want to leave.”
    “That’s not an option,” Cirro said, and Sasha swung around to face him. Even now her body quickened just looking at him. Her nerves remembered the pleasure he could give her, the taste of his mouth, and the feel of his hands. But she was cold inside, numb. They’d lied to her. All of them.
    “I’m getting out of here,” she argued, standing her ground. Cirro’s cold gaze scanned the room and rested on Beth, still in leopard form.
    “So now you know. It doesn’t change anything,” Cirro said as he stared Sasha down.
    “Oh yes it does. You will