Authors: Lora Leigh
Exactly when she had made that decision, Ria wasn’t certain. She had been willing to walk away once, to let Mercury have the mate that had first been intended for him.
He hadn’t let her walk away. He had torn into her heart and soul, and pulled free parts of herself she had sworn she would never allow out again.
He was hers. And once this was over, she would make certain Alaiya Jennings understood, completely, no matter what test results might show, that Mercury would never belong to her.
But this had to be taken care of first.
She and Mercury moved through the crowd, placing themselves close enough to cover Roni Andrews and Merinus Lyons in case shots were fired.
They weren’t up against one Breed, but several. As Dane began to pull the ghosted backups, tracking movements and meetings, they’d found what they needed.
Patterns, there were always patterns, and this one had been a very simple one, based on complete arrogance and the certainty that they had managed to gain all the information they needed concerning Sanctuary’s security. Technical experts, they were not. Otherwise, they would have realized there were always recovery protocols designed into any security system. Especially a Vanderale system. Technology was Vanderale’s game, and they did it better than anyone in the world.
Jonas, Callan and Merinus stood near the entrance to the ballroom, and it was there Mercury and Ria ended up after they made a short round of the room to give the appearance of mingling.
Along with Taber and Roni, they were greeting guests, smiling, the perfect, consummate hosts.
As Ria and Mercury moved in behind the Lyons family, Ria tensed.
Ely Morrey had stepped into the entrance, dressed in a black gown, her hair brushed attractively around her face. She looked sociable and pleasant, until Ria saw her eyes.
“This is bad,” she whispered as she watched Jackal slide away from Jonas toward the doctor. “She’s here early.”
They hadn’t expected this. And if her appearance was anything to go by, she was more agitated than before. She wasn’t to have arrived until later. Hopefully, not at all.
Jackal stopped beside Ely, his dark head bending as he whispered something in her ear. Requesting that she allow him to escort her back to her room.
Sorrow filled Ely’s eyes. Betrayal, fear and tears as she turned and looked at Jackal. His expression was curiously gentle for a man Ria knew wasn’t considered gentle.
“Please, Ely,” he whispered. “For me.”
They had only a second’s warning. Before Jackal could react, Ely had one hand wrapped around his balls in a hard grip and a taser to his neck as she watched him fall. Releasing him, she jerked a handgun from behind her back, beneath the dark wrap she wore, and held it on Jonas.
Guests nearby screamed. A woman cursed and another declared that she knew Breeds couldn’t be civilized.
Enforcers were moving in. Callan and Taber pushed their wives back; guests cried out, as the movement to clear the ballroom became hampered by the fact that the only entrance was now guarded by a hard-eyed, savage Breed scientist, and that left only the enclosed buffet room to find safety within.
“What are you doing, Ely?” Jonas stared back at her coldly. “Stand down and return to your quarters.”
She sneered back at him, the lethal automatic handgun aimed at his heart. She looked ready to use it. Fanaticism gleamed in her eyes, and hatred seared her expression.
“Don’t order me to my quarters, you fucking girl pussy,” she hissed. “Fucking manipulator. You’re going to destroy us all.”
Guests were gasping; growls were rumbling from the Breeds moving in behind her.
“I’ll blow your heart from your chest, Jonas,” she snarled. “I won’t let you do this to Sanctuary.”
“Ely, you’re out of control.” His voice, for all its gentleness, vibrated with a hard, cold core of fury. “Give me the gun.”
“I’ll give you the bullet,” she warned him as a syringe dropped from the wide sleeve of her gown. “Tell Mercury to inject this into his arm.” She tossed the syringe. Jonas caught it easily and stared down at it.
“What is it, Ely?”
“Poison to the Breed system,” she answered easily. “It will stop his heart immediately and leave the rest of his system uncorrupted. The feral displacement will never threaten Sanctuary again, and when I dissect him, I’ll find the answers I need to make certain it never infects another Breed.”
“You would kill Mercury?” he asked her.
Ria’s hand tightened on Mercury’s arm as she felt his shock. His pain. Ely was a friend, she knew. Once trusted. And trust didn’t come easily to her mate.
“What about his woman, Ely? Would you take him from her?”
Behind them, Breeds were moving guests into the buffet room, carefully cutting Engalls and his wife and Brandenmore from the crowd. Isolating them. They had to stay isolated, contained.
Ely lifted the gun until it was level with Jonas’s heart.
“Inject yourself, Mercury, or he dies.”
Mercury moved to pull away from Ria.
“No,” Ria hissed. “I won’t lose you like this.”
He would do it. She could see it in his face. If that was what it took to ensure the safety of Sanctuary, then he would do it.
“Your first duty is to me, not to him,” she snarled.
His jaw tensed and he moved, his eyes connecting with Ria, warning her. She felt it then, that leap of connection, that bond she had never allowed herself to connect to before. As though, spirit to spirit, he was promising her that he had a plan.
By God, he better have a plan, and death wasn’t an option.
She loosened her grip slowly, fear moving through her, terror filling her blood. She wouldn’t let it happen. She wouldn’t let him do this.
As she shifted, she caught activity from the corner of her eye. Two figures moving past the entrance, heading along the foyer to the main doors. All Breed Enforcers were busy, drawn to the ballroom to protect guests and the ruling family.
Mercury eased to Jonas’s side. Alaiya Jennings moved slowly into place then caught Ria’s eyes.
On three
, Ria mouthed slowly, her gaze moving slowly to Ely.
Alaiya nodded with a slow, subtle movement.
Mercury took the syringe from Jonas.
One. Two.
They jumped.
Alaiya drew Ely’s attention as Ria moved to take the gun. Jonas beat her to it. He twisted the gun from the doctor’s hand, grabbed her and threw her to another Breed as he barked, “Hold her.”
They raced from the ballroom and came to a hard, surprised stop.
Two lab assistants, male and female, were unconscious on the floor of the foyer as Dane stood back, a cigar between his lips, his arms crossed over his chest, as he smiled back at them.
He lifted his hand, and in it, between his fingers, he held a small external chip drive.
“Decoder.” He smiled. “Shall we inform the Engalls and Brandemore of the penalty for fucking with Sanctuary?”
“Son of a bitch,” Jonas snapped.
Dane lifted his brow. “I hope you’re not referring to me, brother. I may have to take exception.”
Lawe and Rule materialized, restrained the lab assistants’ hands, despite their unconscious states, and hefted them over their shoulders.
“What about Ely?” Mercury growled.
Jonas sighed. “Place her in the confinement cell.” He shook his head sadly. “Hell, I was hoping a few days off that shit would clear her mind. It’s only made her worse.”
That shit. The drug she had been fed in the lab. Elizabeth had reported finding it in the over-the-counter painkillers and aspirin in Ely’s desk just hours before. They had known it was being fed to her somehow; they just hadn’t figured out how.
“Confinement will be easiest.” Elizabeth moved into the foyer. “I’ll take care of her, Jonas. I checked Jackal-when he wakes up, he’ll have a hell of a headache from the taser, but he’ll be fine.”
Jonas nodded and turned back to Ria and Mercury, his gaze filled with weariness, his expression heavy with sorrow. “I let them get to her,” he whispered. “Hell, I vetted those two myself. And still I managed to let those bastards from the Council get to her.”
Ria felt Mercury’s arms surround her, drawing her to his chest, his warmth and security wrapping around her.
“They were trained to deception, all Breeds were, Jonas,” she said softly. “Vetting them isn’t always enough. We’re no different than those who don’t have Breed genetics, just a little better at what we do sometimes.”
“Hell!” he bit out again, pushing his hands over his dark hair before staring around the foyer.
He was proud, tall and disgusted. The black tux he wore was wrinkled; a smear of blood stained the cuff of his shirt, and his expression was lined with the heaviness in his heart.
“Losing Ely is going to hurt,” Jonas finally whispered. “Pray to God, Elizabeth can fix this.”
Pray, that was all any of them could do. Ria nodded, her hands closing over Mercury’s as he pressed them against her stomach, holding her close. Secure. Warm.
God, she could have lost him. If Ely had turned that gun on Mercury instead, she might not have hesitated to pull the trigger. She was that determined to see him destroyed for a condition he had never truly suffered from.
“I think I’m ready to leave this party,” he told her, his lips at her ear, caressing the shell as the heat and hardness of him filled her with strength. “The bad guys have been captured and the dress is driving me crazy.”
She almost smiled. “Yes, I think we’re ready to leave this party.”
“I think we all are,” Jonas breathed out roughly. “Unfortunately, we have guests.”
“And I’m off duty and in mating heat,” Mercury growled. “I’m taking my mate to our cabin.”
Because the adrenaline was crashing inside her, combining with the mating heat now that the danger had passed, now that the Breeds determined to destroy their own society were in custody.
Jonas nodded as he turned away. Ria turned, watching as he moved to the ballroom entrance, coming to a stop as Callan carried Ely in his arms and moved for the hallway.
The doctor was unconscious, her face paper white, a smear of blood beneath her nose attesting to the fact that the drug she was on was attempting to destroy her exceptional mind.
Callan’s face was carved from stone; his wife’s was wet with tears as she followed behind him. Ely was a cherished part of the community; she was their hope for the answers to the questions about their own physiology, and she was a friend.
“Will she survive, Elizabeth?” Ria asked as her grandmother moved to her, Leo close on her heels, as he always was.
“If she’s strong enough, Ria. If she’s strong enough.”
Elizabeth patted her arm and moved past her, Leo’s arm wrapping around his wife to pull her close to his side as they followed Callan and Merinus.
Seconds later, Horace Engalls, his wife and Phillip Brandenmore were escorted from the ballroom under enforcer guard, their expressions both furious and terrified.
It was over, Ria thought. As Mercury turned her to the doors and they moved to leave the party, she let herself believe it was finally over.
“We have about eight hours,” Mercury growled at her ear as they entered the limo and the enforcer assigned to the car whisked them from the ball that had nearly turned into a blood-bath. “Do you think that’s enough time?”
He lifted her to his lap, bent his head to her lips and licked her, with heat, with gentleness.
“I won’t let you go,” she whispered. “I can’t.”
He touched her hair, her face. “Do you think I want to be free, Ria?”
“What if she’s your mate? What if the first tests were right, and she was meant to be your mate?”
He shook his head. “She’s not my mate, Ria. Ever. She never was. I’m holding my mate right here, in my arms.”
“I love you, Mercury,” she whispered on a soft, almost hidden sob. “I love you too much.”
“Never too much, sweet Ria Never too much.”
The animal didn’t prowl. It didn’t crouch and glare. It sighed in contentment, watched its mate through the man’s eyes, feeling the animal that reached out to him from the woman as well.
The animal in the man purred, ignoring the man’s surprise as the sound rumbled in his chest. But the woman purred right back, and she laughed with a hint of tears.
Behind her eyes, within the unconscious depths of her being, the mate of the animal in the man stared back at it.
They were animals contained. Hidden parts of the man and woman that were no longer forced to silence. Genetics, yes. They were a part of them, the spirits the man and woman contained, no longer separate, but connected fully. And mated.
Animal to animal. Man to woman.
And as the man carried his mate into their lair, laid her gently on their bed and completed the union their bodies needed, the animals connected.
They were as they were always meant to be. Soul to soul.
Heart to heart. Pulsing and alive. They were Breeds, and they were proud.
TWO DAYS LATER
The lab was cool to protect sensitive equipment that didn’t require the warmth Ria did. She sat on the gurney, forcing herself to relax as Mercury leaned against the wall and watched her silently.
Alaiya had demanded that the mating tests be completed quickly, mostly because her tenure in the Bureau of Breed Affairs was being reconsidered. She knew she was on her way out. Not out of Sanctuary perhaps, but out of the upper levels of Breed hierarchy. She had ignored her commander’s orders. Defied him. And she had lost control of herself during that last confrontation with Ria.
Breed Enforcers had to always maintain control, until the full phase of mating heat was established. Hers hadn’t been established.