was gone as though it had never existed.
Rather than speaking the words she needed to hear, he shook his head, pushed his fingers through his graying black hair then turned and headed back to the front of the house.
Cat clapped her hand over her lips to hold back a cry, a shattered sound of disillusionment. She’d been so certain he’d tell her it didn’t matter that she wasn’t really Claire. That she was family anyway. She’d been his acknowledged niece for thirteen years, he’d been part of her protection for just as long. But he couldn’t tell her it didn’t matter.
Because it did matter.
She’d always known when push came to shove, that it did matter.
Shoving the pain to that place where she’d shoved the other broken promises and disillusioned realizations, she fought back her tears and finished packing. Three suitcases contained her life. Twenty-five years and so very little to show for it.
A small collection of knives she’d found each year on her birthday for the past years. Just as many small crystal dragons. They were her only keepsakes. Presents over the years had included gift cards and clothes. Terran had given her his older-model pickup when the one she’d bought last year had been repossessed within weeks of her losing her job as a receptionist at the tribal headquarters.
Raymond had ensured it was repossessed, she’d known that.
Lifting the largest suitcase in one hand, she slung the strap of the overnight bag on her opposite shoulder and picked up the smaller case.
Over the years she’d acquired a few things herself. Weapons she’d hidden, cash she could access. It wasn’t much, but it was enough that she didn’t have to worry about the fact that no one would hire her since she’d moved from Raymond’s house.
Either employers were put off because of the charges brought against her supposed father or, if that wasn’t it, they weren’t hiring her because Raymond had specifically asked them not to. For whatever reason, the position she was left in was precarious at best.
She did seem to have a place to live, though.
Surprisingly, the voice text that had come through from Lobo Reever just after she left the meeting was an offer of a rental house he owned just outside his huge estate in the desert. A nice little place with a pool, adobe walls surrounding nearly an acre of property. It was private, easy to secure and, she hoped, safe.
She was certain Lobo hadn’t been behind the offer alone, though. Graeme was quite good at getting the very influential Wolf Breed to do his bidding. She just hadn’t figured out how he’d managed it yet.
She wasn’t going to look a gift wolf in the mouth, though. It was a place to live. She didn’t have to force herself on the Martinez family any longer, nor feel as though she were some orphan relation to the Breeds.
Jonas may pretend to want to be her new best friend but in the few seconds that her sense of smell had been at its peak, she’d scented the truth.
Contempt, distaste, arrogant superiority. They’d all filled him. He didn’t see her as human nor as Breed but as some inferior in-between without worth.
Which didn’t bode well for the daughter she knew he adored.
How a man, or a Breed, could hate one and love another of the same genetic mutation, she didn’t understand.
She didn’t intend to spend much time trying to make sense of it either. She had other problems, much larger problems. One in particular, a big, muscled Bengal Breed posing as a Lion and determined to destroy her.
If only she could make herself just as determined to destroy him.
• • •
“I don’t like allowing her to leave like this.” Terran watched the pickup until it was out of sight.
The anger in his voice matched that of his scent, the tinge of regret and sorrow filling the early evening air.
“I know,” Cullen assured him. “These are decisions she has to make alone, Terran, we’ve always known that.”
“Not like this,” the Navajo argued. “It doesn’t matter if Claire still protects her or not. I accepted her as my niece the night she took Claire’s identity. Whether or not Claire’s spirit survives to shield her has nothing to do with it.”
“Graeme and Orrin are the ones you should be arguing with,” Cullen sighed, pushing his fingers through his hair as he blew out a hard breath. “They decided this was how it had to be, not me.”
The old Navajo had guided Cat this far, Cullen could do nothing but trust in Orrin’s visions now and pray Cat survived the coming realizations she had to face. As for Graeme, there were complications there that Cullen had no desire to consider at the moment.
“That brother of yours is a menace to Breeds and humans alike,” Terran muttered. “And I don’t trust him. He should have come to her, faced her . . .”
“There is nothing on the face of this earth that will stand between him and Cat.” Cullen turned to face the other man fully now, staring at him intently, willing him to understand, to know, that Graeme would never tolerate it for an instant. “Do as Orrin instructed. Let Cat face what’s to come. Encouraging her to hide from who and what she is now, could get her killed.”
It could get all of them killed. And life might not be exactly what he’d envisioned sometimes, but he still had things to do, dying before he completed those tasks wasn’t something he wanted to face.
“She’s been deserted all her life, Cullen,” Terran snapped, the scent of his anger growing. “Even by him. And by God following suit with everyone else in her damned life doesn’t sit well with me.”
Turning Terran stomped back into the house, leaving Cullen to turn and stare into the desert, the weight of Terran’s words weighing on his shoulders. Because he was right. They’d all deserted her in one form or the other, to save her. But in ensuring her physical survival, what had they done to her heart?
• CHAPTER 2 •
“Your Cat is in the guesthouse and settling in, according to Khi.” Lobo Reever stepped into the large cavern accessed by the steps leading from the estate house above and paused as Graeme lifted his head and stared back at him over the top of the computer monitor he’d been staring at. The Wolf Breed appeared just as supremely confident and detached as ever, but Graeme knew the façade for what it was now. Lobo Reever was anything but detached. Supremely confident, most certainly, that was a Breed trait if nothing else was. Excessively arrogant, he had that in spades, but once again, that too was a Breed trait. Hidden beneath the layers of carefully honed Breed instincts and strength was a storm brewing closer to the surface by the day though.
As for his stepdaughter, Khi, she was a catalyst that could end up destroying both Reever brothers. For now though, she was controlling her anger. Partially because Graeme kept her distracted by allowing her to participate in some of his less complicated little games. She seemed to enjoy them a little too much, but at least this way she had something to keep her far-too-quick little mind busy.
At the moment, the Reever family’s eccentricities were the least of his worries. One little cat’s safety and realizations were pretty much consuming his time.
“Martinez made contact with a high-level member of the Senate Breed Appropriations Committee several days ago,” he informed Lobo. “I finally cracked the encryption on the number he was using and managed to identify his contact. I’d like to send one of your men to shadow him.”
Lobo’s brow lifted slowly. “A senator?” the Wolf Breed wasn’t surprised, merely interested in the information.
Graeme nodded shortly. “His name hasn’t been mentioned in relation to the Council, nor has he or his family been associated with any of the suspected members of the remaining organization. Until this, he was above suspicion. Within hours after the call several suspected Council commanders began moving though and rumors of an escaped experiment began filtering through targeted lines of communication. Martinez has revealed her identity.”
The bastard would die. Graeme couldn’t strike just yet, not while Martinez was being watched so closely b
y the Bureau of Breed Affairs enforcers, but they had to blink eventually. When they did, the bastard would pay for his betrayal.
“Send Rush.” Lobo nodded “He’s good in the shadows. Send Rath along as well, for backup. They work well together in these situations.”
“That was my thought as well,” Graeme assured him as he shut down the program he was working on and rose from his chair. “I’ll notify them immediately so they can head out.”
He was aware of Lobo watching him closely, the intense, dark green of his gaze somber and hinting at questions Graeme knew he was in no mood to answer.
“Do you know what you’re doing, Graeme?” Lobo asked quietly then. “She could end up hating you.”
No, she wouldn’t hate him. Kill him, perhaps, rage for years most likely, but it wasn’t possible for Cat to hate him. She was too much a part of him, just as he was too much a part of her. That didn’t mean he didn’t have doubts. Doubts the Wolf Breed didn’t need to know about.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Graeme asked him rather than answering the question. The game the other Breed was involved in at the moment was every bit as complicated and dangerous as the one Graeme was in.
“Hell no,” Lobo muttered almost immediately. “I don’t have a clue at the moment what I’m doing, or how it’s going to end. All I know is that I seem to be committed to it.”
Graeme’s lips quirked at the truth of that statement. “I’ll give Cat a night or two to settle in before going to her. She needs the rest.” And that was true enough. According to Cullen and Terran Martinez, Cat often paced the floors at night, if she didn’t outright slip from Terran’s house to wander the desert.
Graeme had tried to follow her several times, both furious and proud as hell each time she managed to lose him. He wouldn’t allow her to continue to do so, but still, he was damned proud of her. And he was curious. Where did she go when she disappeared into the desert?
“I wish you luck,” Lobo drawled. “I have a feeling that allowing her to catch up on her rest may not bode well for you though.”
“No doubt.” A rueful grin tugged at his lips at the observation. “I have to say though, I believe I’m looking forward to it.”
“I envy you then.” A flash of hidden fury gleamed in his gaze for just a moment. That storm, Graeme thought, the one that may well escape the Wolf’s amazing control far sooner than anyone anticipated. “And on that note I wanted to let you know Tiberius will be arriving this evening. We’ll meet here.” He looked around the huge cavern, his expression brooding. “Hopefully, after Khi’s retired for the night.”
That situation was going to be the death of Lobo, Graeme thought, and perhaps his brother Tiberius as well. The two Wolf Breed brothers rarely saw eye to eye about Khi, especially since learning of her mother’s involvement with the Genetics Council.
“Jessica’s still eluding him?” Graeme questioned thoughtfully.
“As though she’s disappeared off the face of the earth,” the Wolf Breed sighed, shaking his head as his fists clenched momentarily at his side. “He hasn’t found so much as a rumor of where she might be.”
And Tiberius was one of the best trackers Graeme knew. Not as good as Graeme was, but still, he was good. Perhaps, Graeme thought, once this situation with Cat was dealt with, then he’d see if he could ferret out Jessica’s location. The world might believe she had died in a riding accident over a year before, but Graeme, as well as the Reever brothers, knew better. She was still alive and making Lobo’s life hell.
“I’ll make certain the main cavern’s ready for Tiberius and his men.” Graeme nodded. “Will you need me present when they arrive?”
Lobo’s sharp nod affirmed Graeme’s suspicion that this wasn’t a visit as much as an exchange of information too important to trust to any traceable means.
He’d be busy tonight, thankfully. Sitting in the silence of the caverns and watching Cat on the security monitors would play hell on his determination to allow her a few nights’ rest. At least this way, he might manage to actually stay the hell away from her.
• CHAPTER 3 •
Cat sat beneath the shade of the table umbrella on the patio behind the guesthouse Lobo Reever had offered her use of and watched as his stepdaughter, Khileen, Khi to her friends, strode from the kitchen doorway toward her. She carried a pitcher of icy sweet tea, the only kind to drink, she’d assured Cat, and two glasses.
Her long, curling black hair was restrained in a braid, though stubborn tendrils and riotous curls had managed to sneak out here and there. Dressed in snug ripped denim shorts a shade shorter than Cat would have worn, and a snug white tank top, she displayed her tanned limbs without a sign of self-consciousness. Without a sign of it. Cat had caught several vague tinges of just that, though, as the other girl showed her the house and how to use the electronic controls for lights, temperature and entertainment.
Cat didn’t know Khi well, she’d kept a distance between them rather than drawing Raymond’s fury at any friendship that might develop. Raymond had hated Lobo Reever enough that distracting him from any trouble he could have caused the Wolf Breed had been extremely difficult at times. Had she actually formed a friendship with Khi, it would have been impossible. His hatred hadn’t been just for the Reever Wolf Breeds but for the stepdaughter as well. It now made sense why that hatred hadn’t applied to the mother. Jessica Reever had been part of the Genetics Council as well, and no doubt one of Raymond’s contacts.
“Here we go, the perfect cure for a hot day.” Sitting the icy pitcher and glasses of ice on the table Khi slid into the chair across from Cat gracefully.
Waiting for Khi to pour the dark liquid into glasses of ice Cat used the silence to try to make sense of the emotions roiling beneath the other girl’s surface. Unfortunately, they seemed so jumbled and chaotic that Cat doubted even Khi could make sense of them.
“Excuse the way I’m dressed.” Khi finally sat back after taking a long sip of her tea and focused on Cat ruefully. “It pisses Lobo off, but I think I cut the shorts a little short this time.” Her lips tugged into a self-mocking curve. “I wasn’t trying to be rude.”
At least it made sense now. Khi Langer had actually once graced the best-dressed lists among the elite social set in both America and Europe before her mother faked her own death, supposedly to escape Lobo Reever’s justice for conspiring with the Genetics Council.
“I thought you got along with Lobo.” Cat stared back at her thoughtfully.
“When I was younger perhaps.” Khi shrugged, the somber pain that shadowed her gaze instantly covered beneath a quick roll of her eyes. “He’s very arrogant, you know? Since Jessica rather rudely tried to kill us all for her Council bosses, he’s become very overprotective.”
Cat hadn’t heard that piece of information. “Your mother tried to kill you?”
“Well, at least it’s not common knowledge,” Khi drawled with a hint of anger as her deep blue eyes flashed with the betrayal.
The scent of her pain was almost overwhelming for a moment then she seemed to restrain it, push it back until it was completely hidden. Cat had a feeling the other woman’s restraint over that anger was rapidly becoming harder to maintain.
“Anyway, as far as the world is concerned she’s dead.” Khi shrugged then. “Killed in a riding accident.” She sipped at the tea then met Cat’s gaze coolly. “Tiberius is searching for her now. With any luck, she’ll soon be as dead as everyone else believes she is.”
The statement was delivered so matter-of-factly and with such ice that she ached for the little girl hiding beneath such a need for vengeance. How horrible it must be to face such betrayal. Perhaps, Cat thought, not having parents hurt far less in some ways.
“I’m sorry, Khi,” Cat stated softly, aching for the pain such deliberate cruelty caused.
“Don’t be.” Khi waved the expression away. “It’s far better to know how evil someone is than to be fooled by them forever. And I didn’t come here to discuss the
Council’s bitch anyway.” Her tight smile didn’t come close to hiding the morass of emotions tangled inside her. “I’m glad you’re here, Cat,” she said sincerely. “I was worried when I heard what Raymond was capable of. I always knew he wasn’t a nice person, but evil such as he carried inside him is always a shock when you learn it’s someone you associate with often.”
“He hated Lobo.” Cat sighed heavily. “He hated having Breeds in Window Rock and the protections the Nation afforded them. It was always difficult to turn down your invitations, Khi, but it was better for us as well as Lobo that I did so. It kept him from focusing too much on the trouble he could have caused if he wanted to.”
“Lobo would have decimated him.” Khi gave a bitter little laugh. “He was always having to deal with Raymond’s roadblocks and ignorance anyway. But I rather guessed why you refused them. No hard feelings.”
And there weren’t any, Cat sensed. She rather guessed Khi was too busy trying to navigate the internal hell she was going through herself. Whether or not Cat accepted an invitation probably hadn’t kept her up at night.
The reality Khi had to face daily was one Cat guessed made sleep extremely difficult if the dark circles under the other girl’s blue eyes were an indication. There was also the strange, very subtle scent that lingered around Khi, one Cat couldn’t quite make sense of. A very elusive trace of a Wolf Breed, but not a mating scent. It was almost two distinct scents that made it impossible to identify.
“So, I understand you and Graeme have a bit of history.” Khi wagged her brows as she broke the silence between them.
Leaning forward, the other girl shot her a teasing little wink. “Come on, dish up the details there, girl. What is it about you that makes that tough-assed Bengal get all gooey-eyed?”
Graeme? Gooey-eyed?
“You must be mistaking gooey eyes for that death stare he has,” she guessed, though she had no idea how anyone could mistake it. “Trust me, Graeme doesn’t get gooey eyes for anything or anyone.”
The very thought of such a thing was laughable.
“Trust me, gooey-eyed,” Khi assured her with a light laugh as she relaxed back into her chair and watched Cat curiously now. “I’ve known him for a year and every time your name’s been mentioned he has this little pause, and whatever rage burns in his eyes seems to dim a bit.”
Cat shook her head, denying any thought that Graeme had such tender feelings for her. Not anymore.
“I’m his own personal experiment,” she revealed. Khi knew the truth of who and what she was, she’d announced that when Cat stepped into the house. “His intelligence, even in the research center was frightening. The geneticist that created him allowed him to design the therapy used to save my life from the disease I was born with. If he has any softer feelings for me, then it’s no more than one a scientist has for a favorite lab rat.”
Khi’s crack of laughter was filled with disbelief. “Honey, you keep telling yourself,” she stated, barely holding back more laughter. “Right until the minute that bad-assed feline is fucking you silly.” The smile that filled Khi’s expression was one of genuine amusement and when she spoke of Graeme, the scent of an almost sisterly fondness was clear. “I can’t see him getting all hard and hungry for a lab rat, no matter how fond he might be of it.” The laughter she was holding back nearly escaped once again. “Thanks for that little moment of amusement though, I needed that.”
No doubt she did. Still, Cat narrowed her eyes on the still far too amused woman. “You’re strange, Khi,” she stated. “And you have some very strange ideas.”
The other woman did give another light, clearly genuine laugh at that. “Naw, I’m complicated, there’s a difference,” she assured Cat with such satisfaction and pride in herself that Cat nearly laughed herself. “Ask anyone. I’m very complicated.”
“And you enjoy encouraging that belief,” Cat guessed with a smile.
“Of course I do.” Widening her eyes with charming innocence Khi batted her lashes demurely. “What would be the point in beginning the rumor otherwise.”
Shaking her head, Cat finished her tea then watched as Khi refilled both glasses. She didn’t miss the subtle little addition Khi made to her own glass. The scent of the strong liquor wasn’t in the least subtle. Cat didn’t comment on it, rather she merely filed the information away to broach another day.
For now, she let Khi find what relief she could from the emotions Cat sensed were far too confusing for the young woman filled with them. Who was she to judge what solace another could find from their demons? She only wished she could find a bit of solace from her own. Because she could feel the confrontation with her own personal demon nearing, and she was terribly afraid there was no preparing herself for it.
• • •
She was incredible.
His little cat.
Slipping into her bedroom through the open balcony door the next night, Graeme couldn’t help but marvel at the young woman she’d become.
Twenty-five years before, when Phillip Brandenmore had laid her in his arms and informed him coldly that her survival was his responsibility, Graeme had never imagined the exceptional creation she would become—even the arrogant Brandenmore hadn’t realized. Graeme had ensured it. Every therapy, every drug, every second in that godforsaken hellhole had created this wondrous creature.
Long, burnished gold and deep earth brown strands of silky hair spilled over her pillow and around her face, framing the dark cream flesh of her face perfectly. Her features were feline enough to give her expressions a shadow of mystery, the tilt of her eyes hinting at the exotic.
Her lips. They were sweetly curved, tempting, and made him want to taste.
The need, the hunger to taste her had tormented him since finding her. It haunted his dreams, his fantasies. It kept him aroused, iron hard and ready to mate.
There were days he hated her for that need to possess her, the certainty that once he had her, protecting her would become more hazardous than it had been in the past.
She was a weakness.
She was pure and certain destruction if he wasn’t extremely careful.
No one had accused him of being careful in years, though, and he saw no reason to give them cause to do so now. He was what they had created. If they didn’t like it, then they had only themselves to blame.
Breeds were created to be master manipulators, tacticians, guerrilla fighters and highly tactile lovers. Graeme was all those, yet, in his creation they’d somehow missed the fact that they’d created a Breed whose aptitude in their scientific deviations far exceeded their own. He’d taken what had been done in Brandenmore’s research center, watched, manipulated the scientists and techs and, in the end, had almost run the labs himself.
Until Brandenmore had brought in a new head researcher and geneticist. One who had somehow sensed the hold one Bengal male had over everyone there.
Good ol’ Dr. Bennett. Skinny-assed bastard.
Rubbing at his chest, he remembered the feel of Bennett’s fingers wrapped around his beating heart as he gave the soldiers their orders to find “the girl.”
The girl.
He focused his gaze on her once again.
She was the girl. The one who had forced her blood into his veins and allowed the madness to overtake him. That madness had then given birth to the monster as a scientist ordered her recapture with the express intention of lifting her beating heart from her chest as well.
Bennett hadn’t held a beating heart for five years, even his own, and he never would again. Graeme had ripped that organ from Bennett’s chest. Digging his claw-tipped fingers through flesh and cartilage, he’d gripped the pulsing flesh and, as the good doctor watched in helpless horror, ripped it from him.
That memory was one of the best he possessed, though the night it had occurred, when he’d gone t