Lawe had to turn away from Diane. Drawing in a deep breath, he pushed his fingers through his hair and contemplated the cheap picture hanging on the wall in front of him.
Terran Martinez. Morningstar’s younger brother. The brother who had been searching for his sister, or proof of her death, for more than thirty years.
So what had happened to the proof of her location, which Lawe had sent to her father, Orin, the week before she was killed? Lawe had kept up with the family after his rescue but neither he nor Rule had ever approached them.
He’d never gone to Window Rock to meet them, nor had his brother, as far as he knew. He’d never discussed his mother or her death with anyone, though he knew Rachel had most likely filled Diane in on the details. They were close like that. And he had never reached out to let his mother’s father know what had happened to his daughter or the fact that she had been cremated and her ashes thrown to the mountains around the termination facility in upstate New York.
He still heard his mother’s screams in his nightmares. He could still here the certainty in her voice that her father would have his vengeance, that her family would punish them all. And just as he had silently predicted, no one had struck out at the Council to make them pay for her death.
Or had they?
It was days later when the Breeds in that lab had been liberated. The force sent in to free them had reached the Breed labs hidden in the mountains just outside New York City, and the Breeds had been released from the harsh captivity and inhuman training they were subjected to.
Tightening his fingers at his hips for long moments, he forced himself to turn around and confront Diane once again.
“There are no Bengal Breeds in Window Rock,” he told her. “The chief of the Navajo Nation is Ray Martinez, Diane. My birth mother’s older brother. I keep up with them. I would know if there were any Bengal Breeds there.”
Diane’s gaze was somber. Lawe could feel the comforting warmth of her compassion reaching out to him. He almost wished she had maintained her anger because without that it was damned hard to maintain his.
Of course, she would know the facts of his history. The Breeds who had fought with her before Jonas had mated her sister had most likely answered any questions she asked. Her men had a hard time telling her no, it seemed. And they had seemed particularly enamored with her.
“Judd’s Breed genetics were recessing before his escape,” Diane reminded him. “It was the reason he was slated for termination. Somehow the drugs they were giving him had begun to have the appearance of reversing the Breed DNA.”
Lawe frowned at the information. “Where the hell did you hear this?”
Her lips quirked. “Argentina, Lawe. Several of the scientists and researchers working with Brandenmore escaped there when they received word the FBI and the Bureau of Breed Affairs were preparing to serve a search warrant on the facility and to enact Breed Law against anyone found there.”
Lawe nodded tightly. “Argentina revoked their agreement of extradition against Breed researchers and participating individuals with the United Nations for crimes against genetically altered beings. We suspect they receive quite a hefty yearly payment in return.”
Diane suddenly rubbed at her upper arms as though chilled as she nodded in agreement. “I was there for three weeks. Several of the research assistants I talked to were informants for the U.S. on the group of scientists living there. One of my contacts managed to set up a meeting with several of them. Once they knew I had no intention of giving the Bureau their names, they were very cooperative.”
And Lawe had no doubt he knew who several of those informants were. They may play at wanting assurance that the Breeds were unaware of them, but the truth was, they were only still living because they were giving the Bureau the same information or more than they were giving the U.S. government.
The knowledge that she had talked to them gave birth to another suspicion, though, one that had his shoulders tightening.
His gaze shifted to Thor as he remained silently at the door, his arms crossed over his broad chest, his expression brooding as he listened to the conversation.
The knowledge that Diane had gone out without him obviously didn’t set well with the other man.
“Do your men know who you talked to?” The Bureau couldn’t afford to lose any of their informants in Argentina. If the spy in her group knew who she had talked to—
The look she gave him was filled with disdain, but she slid a silent apology to Thor. “I had already received the warning from Gideon. Though at the time, he called himself the Executioner. I didn’t risk it. I slipped out at night and met with them. Give me credit for knowing how to protect my contacts.”
“I give you credit for far more than that, but whoever’s betraying you is damned effective at it. And having him out there makes this situation much too explosive, especially considering the mating heat. We’re going to be too distracted by its symptoms to be effective in either the search or the protection of whoever we find there. If we find anyone. We can’t continue this.” He sighed, knowing he was wasting his time.
She would never return to Sanctuary with him until this was finished and he knew that accepting anything less could mean her death. He knew it, and the knowledge burned in his gut like acid. That was an option he couldn’t face.
“Once the mating heat eases,” he began, forcing the words past his clenched teeth, hating the fact that he was lying to her now. “Once we can think again, we can revisit the option of returning here and finding them.”
Her lips lifted slowly, the shallow curve of a smile filled with pain as she watched him too closely.
“By then they’ll be fucking dead or locked in research cells,” Thor muttered as Lawe flashed him a quelling look.
That won’t happen, Lawe promised silently. He would send a team after them, a team he knew would ensure any of the three still living survived and arrived at Sanctuary safely.
“I won’t let that happen,” Lawe growled.
Thor’s brow arched in mock amazement.
The bastard had no intention of standing down, and he wasn’t a Breed. There was no way Lawe could enforce any order he gave.
“Do you think I’m stupid, Lawe?” Diane asked him softly. “You’ll send someone after them and then they’ll run the second your team enters the reservation and they get suspicious.”
“And they won’t run when you arrive?” he scoffed. “They’ll run just as fast, Diane, if not faster.”
“She knows what she’s doing, Breed,” Thor broke in as though she needed a protector. She has a fucking protector, Lawe thought furiously. “And she knows how to find people without making them feel like prey. If she didn’t, the team would be broke.”
“Dammit, Thorsson, you’re talking like a man who wants to see his commander dead rather than showing your loyalty and seeing to her best interests,” he snapped at the other man.
Thor smiled, his expression icy and cutting. “It’s a good thing for you that my commander would go crazy without you, Breed. Otherwise, we’d discuss those words. Violently. I’ve always had her back, and I always will.”
“It’s your place to protect her, not endanger her further by encouraging her to continue this search under the present circumstances,” Lawe snapped again.
Thor laughed as Diane frowned and crossed her arms over her breasts as she watched them.
“You mean, while she’s in mating heat?” Thor asked with an amused snort. “When she was sixteen she broke two of my fingers to win a fight she had to win in order to travel to Nicaragua with the team to oversee communications. Brick still carries a scar on his wrist where she sliced it open to participate in a hostage rescue in California, and her uncle’s former second-in-command found himself bouncing on his ass at least weekly whenever he made the mistake of suggesting she stay out of a mission. She’s won all the battles she needs to win in my eyes. She’s my commander. I follow her orders and I watch her back as she watches mine. You m
ating her won’t change that.”
When Thor said she had won all the battles she needed to, Lawe knew he was referring to the battles to secure his loyalty.
There was no scent of a lie coming from the other man, but then again, like Diane, Thor had probably learned from the two Breeds who had been a part of the team how to control certain scents. A lie being the most important.
Diane had proven herself in battle to her men, there was no doubt of it, or they would have killed her themselves for trying to take command. She had proven she could protect her men and herself. She had proven her ability to plot, plan and guide them through any number of situations where her ability to lead exceeded theirs. She still had a traitor in her group, though. A traitor who meant to harm her. The question was, was that traitor Thor?
“Then I’ll tie her up and gag her before I throw her on a heli-jet,” Lawe snarled rashly as he ignored Diane’s snort of mockery.
Hell, he was never rash. He never, ever made empty threats until he had come against Diane’s stubborn will. Any other woman and he would have had a team of Enforcers abduct her and transport her to a secure location until the situation was resolved.
But Diane wasn’t any other woman. She was his mate. Besides, she would probably shoot his kneecaps off at first opportunity for the insult.
“And you’ll make her hate you as well as make an enemy of her,” Thor warned as his gaze snapped with fury. “Because you’ll have to kill me, Breed, to pull that one off. And trust me, I’m her favorite.”
Her favorite? Lawe’s eyes narrowed on the mercenary as he began assessing any other threat Thor may represent. At the look, Thor flashed a confident, taunting smile.
Lowering his head, Lawe was only distantly aware of his lips curving back at one side to display the canines there as a growl sounded in his throat.
The danger, the threat that the other man might represent, had the primal animal that lurked inside him rising dangerously.
Diane stepped forward at Thor’s smile and the answering, savage sound vibrating in Lawe’s throat. She could hear the anger in Thor’s voice. That anger was something he rarely showed, and the fact that it was bleeding from him was an indication that the confrontation needed to stop now. Because he was intent on pushing the one button he knew would only piss Lawe off.
Even more dangerous, though, was that totally feline, completely enraged sound Lawe was making. She had never heard that from any Breed, and she’d fought with two of them for several years before Jonas and Lawe had made it impossible to keep them on the team.
“Leave, Thor,” she ordered him, making certain her tone brimmed with authority. She had to separate the two before she had more trouble on her hands than she could deal with.
Thor glared at Lawe accusingly for long moments before turning back to her, his shoulders tense, his expression tight with outrage as he glanced at her. “Are you sure, boss?”
“I gave the order, didn’t I?” The lash of command that hit her voice before she could stop it had Lawe’s gaze slicing back to her.
Thor grimaced tightly before turning back to Lawe. “Don’t make me your enemy,” he warned Lawe. “Take her by force, and I promise you, I’ll retaliate.”
“Thor! Now!” The last thing she needed right now was Thor playing his games with Lawe.
Thor threw Lawe a look that even Diane clearly understood. A look that assured Lawe he wouldn’t hesitate to strike out if he felt he had to. It was a side Diane had always sensed in the other man. Thor followed her, he respected her abilities and her command, but he would always see her as a female first and a soldier second. It was his one fault as far as she was concerned, and one of the main reasons she had already ruled him out as the traitor. Thor had had far too many opportunities to kill her and make it look like an accident if that was what he wanted to do. He didn’t have to play games.
“Do I really have to say it a third time?” Third time meant cash from his account to hers. And a hefty amount it would be too.
“Fuck, fine. But it’s not the damned money. It’s the ass kicking that goes with it,” Thor bit out as he turned quickly, opened the door with a furious jerk, then paused. Looking over his shoulder, he glared at Lawe. “She can’t really kick my ass, you know, but she plays fucking dirty and goes for the balls,” he said before striding out and slamming it heavily behind him.
She flinched as the metal door met the frame hard enough to rattle the windows.
“Teenagers,” Diane muttered as she glared at the door, then at Lawe.
She swore men were no more than overgrown teenagers.
Glaring at him she had to restrain a sigh. She had fought the good fight and she knew she had to ignore the heat blazing through her body while Thor was there. The tormenting waves, the lash of hunger and the overwhelming urge to rub against him were nearly impossible to deny, though.
The sensitivity of her nipples and breasts, her clitoris and even her flesh made her feel as though every nerve ending in her body had turned erogenous. She wanted to take him. She wanted to feel him. She wanted to burn the anger and pain from his eyes and for just a few moments, she ached to be a partner, if only sexually.
She didn’t have time for this. She didn’t have time to be some Lion Breed’s sex kitten. She had a mission to finish, but all she wanted to do was crawl over his tight, hard body and feel him against her. She wanted to rub on him.
Hell. She wasn’t doing this. This was not the way to prove she could handle mating heat and the mission.
And she had no choice but to prove it or she would have to back off and give Lawe exactly what he wanted. The end of her freedom.
Lifting her hand, she pushed it beneath her hair and rubbed at the sizzling sensations that seemed to pulse just beneath the skin there.
The bite Lawe had given her ached with a sizzling sensation and almost brought a moan to her lips as she touched the wound.
Jerking her hand back, she glared at him before turning to the bed and grabbing her bags.
Pulling the short hiking boots from the closet along with the clean socks she had pushed into them the night before, Diane threw them on the bed as she prepared to leave.
“You can go with me or you can haul your ass back to D.C., I don’t really give a damn which,” she told him as she prepared to leave.
Liar. Liar. The inner sex kitten was chanting the word as her body screamed for sex. For mindless, erotic, nasty sex and another one of those primal, primitive bites at the back of her neck.
She turned to inform him exactly what he could do with his protective possessive attitude and his refusal to consider anything but his own way, when he was suddenly right there behind her. He gripped her arm and hauled her against the exciting heat of his much larger body, his arms surrounding her, the heat of him seeming to penetrate through her flesh straight to the core of the arousal blazing higher at his nearness.
Her breath caught in her throat.
“You want to be fucked so bad you can’t stand it, let alone protect yourself and that arrogant behemoth you fight with,” he snarled down at her. “And still you would walk away from me?”
“In a heartbeat,” Diane flung back at him. “If you’re so damned stubborn and chauvinistic that you can’t accept the fact that I can’t be anything but what I am any more than you can, then you’re damned right I will. I won’t beg you to be my partner, Lawe. You should be intuitive enough to want to be.”
She would die of arousal before she would beg him to allow her to be anything but herself. She was who and what she was and she wouldn’t apologize for it. Just as he could be nothing other than who and what he was.
She didn’t ask him to change and knew he couldn’t even if she did ask it of him.
He had no right asking it of her either.
“You can barely walk for the need to fuck,” he charged again, lust and anger burning in his gaze, darkening the blue of his eyes and intensifying the hunger she knew he already felt.
Mating
heat was nothing if not demanding. And exacting.
“So fuck me and get it over with.” Going on tiptoe she pushed her nose almost into his, her gaze locked with the wicked, sexual fire in his as she felt his cock pressing into her stomach. “Come on, Lawe, if you’re not going to go with me, then at least give me a quickie for the road.”