Authors: Lora Leigh
It took more than just the knowledge that mating heat could be an option. And obviously, it was possible for a Breed male to take another mate, if that exchange wasn’t made. Because he had mated her. And mated her. And she needed him to mate her again before she melted into a puddle of need on the floor.
They left the office and Mercury came up beside her, his hand riding low on her back, fingers sliding beneath the short hem of her shirt as they headed to Callan’s office on the other side of the mansion.
As they turned down the main hall once again, she was there. Avaricious eyes watched Mercury, sliding over his body as he and Ria moved toward her. Greed and lust flickered in the other woman’s eyes as Ria clenched her fingers to fists to restrain the need to claw those eyes out.
She could feel the violence rising inside her. Something she detested, feared, within herself. There had always been a part of her psyche that she kept tightly restrained, that she never allowed free, for a reason.
She had dressed down, rarely worn makeup and stayed on the perimeter of everyone else, for protection. For herself. She hated the inner violence she felt whenever she lost something important to her.
She remembered the rage that had consumed her as a child when she realized, when it finally hit her, that her mother had left her forever. No matter the reasons, her mother had left her alone.
The foster family that she had been staying with had been forced to contact Dane. She had destroyed the pretty bedroom Dane had had decorated for her. She had smashed toys, ripped stuffed animals, and when that hadn’t eased the hard knot of fury, she had tried to escape by running.
From that moment, once sanity had returned, Ria had fought to make certain it never happened again. And now she could feel that core-older, more mature, but knotted in rage at the thought of losing what she had claimed with her soul.
Mercury had made his choice. If he asked her for release, she would open her hands and let him go, though it would kill her inside. But this woman didn’t have a chance of
taking
anything from her.
She let her gaze meet Alaiya’s as Mercury moved beside her and Jonas moved up on the other side. As though protecting her. She didn’t need their protection and she let Alaiya know it.
She held the Breed female’s eyes, poured all that anger, frustration and determination into the look she gave her, and had the satisfaction of watching the other woman’s eyes flicker.
Oh no, this battle wasn’t going to be that easy. Ria knew it, and now Alaiya would know it as well.
“Jonas.” Alaiya’s lips suddenly curled. “I just received the results from the blood workup.”
“Later, Alaiya,” Jonas ordered as they moved to pass her.
“No, Jonas. Not later.” Her voice stopped them all.
Jonas snarled back at her in anger. “You overstep your bounds, enforcer.”
Alaiya smiled. “According to Breed Law, I’m establishing them. The mating hormone is in my blood workup, Jonas. And it matches Mercury’s.” She straightened from the walk, slid forward and stared back at Mercury with feral possessiveness. “He’s my mate.”
Ria felt herself shatter inside. But rather than the storm of last night, she felt a furious, burning core rage inside her instead.
“Breeds have only one mate,” she stated through numbed lips as Mercury gripped her arm, pulling her forward.
“Exactly,” Alaiya drawled. “And we matched.”
“And we mated,” she retorted coldly, watching as Alaiya’s gaze suddenly narrowed. “You can smell it. You can sense it, can’t you, Alaiya?”
The other woman’s lips thinned as Mercury’s rumbling growl became louder.
“Touch him, and you’ll deal with me.”
To that, Alaiya’s lips curled in satisfaction. “Oh, I think I can take you, little mouse.” Her laughter slid from her throat. “No contest.”
“And I think, dear, if you attempted it, I might have to kill you myself.” Dane stepped into the doorway at the same moment Mercury jerked Ria back and snarled in Alaiya’s face.
“Remember my warning, Alaiya?” he snapped, his voice cold.
“Breed Law…”
“Don’t you throw Breed Law at me.” His voice was a powerful, dangerous rumble of violence. “Remember the warning. Heed it. Or you’ll suffer the consequences.”
“And I don’t need either one of you to stand before me.” Ria pushed by Mercury, coming back to his side, anger riding the arousal, like lava spewing its wrath from a volcano. “Let her find out for herself what she’s dealing with. On her own terms.”
“So confident,” Alaiya sneered.
“So malicious,” Ria retorted coldly. “There’s nothing for you here. No matter your belief.”
She let Mercury draw her away then. Not that she could have prevented him; he was all but dragging her through the hallway, passing Dane, heading for Callan’s office, as anger washed off him in waves.
“This is fucking insane,” he bit out as they pushed into Callan’s office. “Get this taken care of before I lose patience entirely.”
“Oh yes, let’s not tempt your patience.” She jerked her arm from his grip and cast him a furious look. “Especially considering the fact I’ve gone and lost mine period.”
The door jerked open and slammed behind Dane as he stalked in. Within seconds he was in Mercury’s face.
“Take care of that rabid little cat,” Dane bit out furiously in Mercury’s face. “What the hell does she mean-her mating tests match yours? That’s bullshit, I can smell you all over Ria, and her scent on you.”
Mercury snarled back at him, pushing Ria behind him as male Breed genetics met hybrid fury and threatened to explode. Damned men. She turned and stared at Jonas as he leaned against the wall, shook his head and watched the scene with patient mockery.
“Let them get it out of their systems.” He shrugged at her look. “Tell me, Ms. Rodriquez, is Dane your brother or your father?”
She sighed wearily. “I think he’s my nemesis, but we won’t go there.”
“You could stop that woman from cutting her every chance she has,” Dane was shouting in Mercury’s face as Callan leaned back in his chair behind the desk and watched. Kane sat down, evidently more than amused at the confrontation.
Mercury remained silent. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at Dane broodingly. It was a look that made Ria intensely nervous.
“Amburg will run the tests on Mercury and Ria as soon we can get blood,” Jonas inserted.
“Amburg!” Dane turned on him, disbelief tightening his features. “Jeffery Amburg? The butcher of the Breed labs? Have you lost your fucking mind, man?”
Jonas’s browed arched. “We can’t trust Ely’s opinion at this point. Do you have a better alternative?”
Silence filled the room, but Ria saw Dane’s expression.
“Don’t do it, Dane,” she whispered nervously. “It’s not worth it.”
Mercury’s head swung around and pinned her with furious eyes.
“Do I have a better alternative?” Dane smiled. She hated it when a Breed smiled like that. All teeth and no amusement. “Oh, Jonas, you have no clue.”
“Dane. I’m telling you. Don’t do it. I mean it.”
His gaze swung back to her, and what she saw had her hands trembling. “Please.”
“I’ll ask you one last time.” Jonas tilted his head and watched them both. “Brother or father? The scent is there; it just took me a while to pick it up. Why didn’t you tell us your perfect little paper pusher was a hybrid Breed?”
“Your Amburg will not touch her,” Dane snarled then. “You’ll await the arrival of her grandmother. Elizabeth can see to her tests, and no one else.” He turned back to Ria then, his gaze heavy. “The information you give them is up to you. But these tests will not be conducted by unsecured sources. I’m sorry, Ria. I won’t allow such a risk to you again.”
With that, he jerked the door open and stormed from the office, leaving her with dead silence, three Breeds and one very curious human, Kane Tyler, watched her intently.
“Well.” She breathed in roughly. “I guess that’s that. Does anyone have a cup of coffee?”
“You know, I can tell they’re related to you, Jonas,” Callan chuckled.
Jonas glared back at him. “They’re more related to you than they are to me,
Pride Leader.
”
To which Callan grinned before narrowing his eyes on Ria. “Having Jonas for a brother isn’t fun and games. Having him for an uncle could possibly be worse.”
She swore Mercury paled. Evidently, having Jonas for a relative wasn’t a comfortable prospect.
She smiled back at them all. All teeth.
“Gentlemen, if you don’t mind, we have a traitor to catch, and I’d prefer to do it before the Leo and Elizabeth arrive. Shall we get busy?”
There wasn’t a sound to be heard. And there was no coffee in the room. No coffee, no answers, no questions-nothing but the heat rising inside her, and her own animal stretching free.
Fuck it. She was tired of hiding.
CHAPTER 24
Mercury watched his mate, and pride filled him as never before. Pride and challenge. His little mate was someone to be reckoned with, obviously.
As he watched her working with Callan, her third cup of coffee empty beside her, her cheeks flushed, her eyes burning with arousal, he couldn’t help but admire her strength. Her incredible tenacity. Any more than he could help the reaction her defiance and silence produced in him.
He had mated a Breed. A hybrid Breed. One with familial ties to the Leo, Dane, Jonas and Callan. A frightening thought.
Leo’s granddaughter. Why didn’t that surprise him?
“Look at the drug requisitions,” Ria was explaining to Callan, Kane and Jonas, turning the screen to allow them to see it more clearly. “Codeine, morphine and here, this little puppy.” She pointed to one of the longer names on the screen. “It’s similar to a hallucinogenic. Bad, bad news for overworked, overstressed Breeds. The effect it has on our brain processes is similar to that of the drug the Council created to restrain the feral displacement in Mercury. We have a Breed mind-control drug coming into Sanctuary in minute quantities, right under your noses.”
“And with no attempt to hide it,” Jonas bit out. “Ely wouldn’t drug us.”
“Ely’s being drugged, Jonas,” she stated clearly.
“One of us would have scented it,” Mercury pointed out then. “A few of the enforcers that guard the labs have the best sense of smell developed within the Council labs. Ely couldn’t be drugged.”
She shook her head. “It’s nearly undetectable. The drug has a hold on the Breed; it’s highly addictive to the brain, and it’s not detectable until the effects it produces are at full strength. She’s still fighting it. I don’t have the sense of smell a Breed has, so I can’t detect it at all.”
“What are your talents?” Callan asked smoothly.
“Exceptional night sight and an ability to break code and detect patterns. I’m a logistical expert with a high rating in mental procedures. As a hybrid, naturally born of a Breed and mated human, my genetics are virtually impossible to detect without a deep-level genetic screening because they’re recessed. Until mating heat. No hybrid can hide once mating heat begins. In my case, I needed the mating hormone Mercury produces to kick-start my hybrid genetics.”
“You say that as though there are enough hybrids to detect the phenomena,” Kane suggested. “How many are there?”
Her look was cool, composed; only her eyes burned.
“I’m a hybrid, you know that now. How many there are, where they could be or why they’re hybrid is none of your business.”
Kane’s brows arched. “But you’re Leo’s granddaughter. That means Dane is your father.”
“Or Callan or Jonas or any number of Breeds who were created using his sperm or any child born of mating with the Breeds who were created from them. You’re asking the wrong person questions.”
“Is Dane your father?” Callan growled. “Because if he is, then someone should point out parental responsibilities to him. You were in a series of foster families. The Vanderales didn’t raise you. Leo and Dane both neglected your safety.”
She rose from the desk and collected the external drive attached to it. “You have seventy-two hours to play with this program and find your traitor, Pride Leader Lyons. After that, it’s gone. Don’t bother trying to copy it, I created it. Trust me, I know my job. You don’t have the time to figure it out.”
“She’s Dane’s daughter,” Jonas snapped. “Only he’s that damned arrogant.”
She simply smiled calmly, but Mercury knew what the others didn’t. There was nothing calm about her.
“I’d prefer my status as hybrid remain a secret as long as possible. My Breed scent will become unmistakable before too much longer, but I’d prefer the true status of it remain between us,” she stated.
“She places a lot of trust in us,” Jonas growled.
“In you, Mr. Wyatt, I place about as much trust as I do in Dane. Both of you are going to end up strangling in your own webs one of these days.” She turned to Mercury. “Are we ready to leave?”
“More than.” He could feel the need pumping through him, adrenaline racing through his body, arousal tearing through his balls and hardening his cock further.
Every angle in her body was stiff with defiance. He could see it now, smell it. She had drunk her coffee against his advice. Caffiene only heightened mating-heat arousal. She had argued with Dane and pitted her wits against Kane and Callan’s questions. And the animal inside her had been drawn into the open, the heat of her arousal pulsing through her, refusing to allow its captivity by that incredible will of hers.
Her animal was stretching free, and he could feel it reaching for him.
The scratches on his back and shoulders made sense now. Only a female Breed scratched with such force. And the bite that throbbed on his shoulder. He should have known. The moment her teeth sank into his skin, he should have realized what he was dealing with.