She pressed her fingertips to her temple and fought the pain. She had to think. That was all. She was the smartest and the brightest of any Breed created in her lab. She was taught how to be covert, how to fight. How to kill.
She stilled slowly. Mercury was doing this. She knew he was. Somehow, he had managed to convince Jonas and Callan that he wasn’t a danger to Sanctuary. And they were punishing her.
Her breath hitched on a sob. They were punishing her. That’s what Jonas was doing. He was punishing her for trying to protect the others. He was manipulating everyone. Mercury’s displacement was suiting some plan of his, that was the only thing that made sense. And this time, he was going to destroy Sanctuary.
Unless she did something to stop him.
CHAPTER 26
The animalistic part of a Breed had attitude. It was almost a requirement. An animal trapped inside a human, influencing the human’s psyche, thought patterns, hormones, actions and reactions.
Ria had managed to keep her animal contained to a point. It had been there. Unlike Mercury, she had known it was there. She had just managed to control it, to keep it from stretching free. Until mating heat.
The mating heat phenomenon was still a mystery in many ways, even to her grandmother, Elizabeth Vanderale. Elizabeth had been studying it for over a century, in herself as well as in the few mated pairings that had resulted within Leo’s pride. And even she didn’t have all the answers.
Ria wished she had some of the answers the next afternoon, after she redressed in the labs. Her flesh still felt seared by the examination she’d been forced to endure. Silently. She hadn’t even been able to bitch about it, because Mercury was pacing like an enraged lion on the other side of the curtain.
“He’s intense,” her grandmother Elizabeth commented lightly as Ria stepped out from the changing room, clad once again in the black leather pants, high-heeled black boots and white, soft-as-silk and conforming-as-hell sweater she had worn with them.
Elizabeth didn’t look like anyone’s mother. In over a century, she’d barely aged the ten years she should have.
“Yes, he’s pretty intense.” Ria glanced at the screen, watching his shadow as he paced, and Elizabeth’s gaze swept over her clothes again.
“You’ve changed,” Elizabeth said softly. “In the few short weeks you’ve been here, you’ve finally come out of your shell.”
Ria shifted uncomfortably, trying to look everywhere but at Elizabeth.
“I didn’t betray you,” Ria finally whispered. “Jonas guessed.”
“Jonas could smell the familial scent.” Elizabeth nodded. “His sense of smell is exceptional, even for a Breed. Rather like Callan’s son, David. But, Ria, you’ve never betrayed us, and we’ve never suspected you would.”
Ria pushed her hands into the back pockets of the snug pants. “I did once.” She lifted her eyes back to her grandmother.
“Is that what you believe we thought?” Elizabeth asked her. “No, dear, Jason betrayed you. You were a child, and we were so worried about protecting you, about making certain the pride as a whole was protected, that we didn’t make allowances for your need for family. Which all Breeds have, you know.”
Elizabeth was excusing her actions, and Ria had expected it of her. They had always excused them. She was young. She hadn’t understood. They had tried to make her guilt over the choice she made easier.
“Dane would have killed him anyway, Ria,” Elizabeth said softly, guessing the turn of her thoughts. “He was offering not to do it where you could see; he wasn’t offering not to pull the trigger. When Jason attempted to gain money by betraying you to the Council, he signed his death warrant. There was no way Dane would have allowed him to live.”
“Jason wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t told him.”
“And he wouldn’t have died if he’d had an ounce of humanity in him,” Mercury snarled as he stepped around the curtain and glared at her. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Elizabeth’s brow arched as Ria felt her teeth snap together.
“I’ll let you know the test results when I have them,” Elizabeth promised. “I took Alaiya’s earlier, performed the examination.”
Ria’s head jerked back to her grandmother.
Elizabeth’s expression was compassionate. “She’s showing signs of mating heat, Ria. But that doesn’t mean anything. It merely means she’s been in contact with her mate.”
“She kissed Mercury.”
Elizabeth’s gaze turned to him, almost accusatory.
“It was no more than a press of lips,” he snapped. “Do you think I’d risk my mate by chancing another woman having that part of me?”
Elizabeth frowned. “In every mating I’ve researched, for heat to begin, there has to be an exchange of the hormone in some way and it has to be compatible.”
“Trust me, there was no exchange,” Mercury growled. “Except with Ria.”
“An interesting mystery then.” Elizabeth turned back to where the vials and samples waited on the lab counter, next to the equipment that had arrived that morning and been put in place. “Go on then. I’ll get things started here before Leo brings the twins to me. We should know something soon.”
“Don’t forget the party tonight,” Ria reminded her. “Dane has already ordered my attendance.”
“I’ll be there.” Elizabeth nodded, though she didn’t turn away from her samples. “Go on now, and we’ll talk later.”
The party wasn’t one Ria was looking forward to. The pre-Thanksgiving buffet and ball had Sanctuary in an uproar already. Leo was stalking the upstairs halls, as were a dozen members of his security force, as they protected the twins and other Breed children confined there for the day. No one was allowed upstairs without authorization, including Breeds, whether they were enforcers or guests.
The room Ria and Mercury had been assigned was on the basement level, on the other side of the labs. Her dress and accessories waited there; the hairdresser assigned to Merinus and the other female mates of the ruling family would be attending her as well.
It was a mess. This was why she didn’t do parties, she told herself as they moved up the stairs that led to the first floor of the mansion. In her alternate persona, she didn’t have to go through this. She didn’t have to worry about dressing her hair, making up her face, smiling at all the surprised looks or dealing with the false friendliness.
Not that she felt that way about the ruling family. But this party was for the Breeds’ benefactors—corporate CEOs, senators and political figures, billionaires and groupies. And all eyes would be on her because most of them knew the plain paper pusher, not the woman they would see tonight.
“I could help provide security for the party,” she told Mercury as they stepped into the long hallway. “We could just find a dark corner and make out.”
“You’re not providing security. The dark corner is an option.” She heard the smile in his voice. “And I’m not working security tonight, at least not in uniform. I’ll be attending as a representative of the Breed Enforcers and one of Jonas’s assistants. He palms off on me the fat, balding little guys who want to hear war stories.”
She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes. “And you deal with this how?”
“I usually growl, flash the canines and watch them run for cover,” he chuckled. “Even Jonas thinks it’s funny.”
“Jonas would.”
She could feel her palms sweating. Engalls and Brandenmore would be at this party. It was obvious they hadn’t gained what they were after at the last one. They had procured this invitation as they had the other, by pulling immeasurable strings at the last moment.
As they turned the hall corner, another door opened farther ahead, and Alaiya stepped from Jonas’s office. Her cheeks were flushed in anger, her expression twisted with it, as she glared back at Ria.
“Hello again,” Ria muttered.
If she hadn’t otherwise felt Mercury’s surprise, she would have smelled it as he glanced at
her quickly.
She almost bit her lip. There was that Breed attitude surging inside again. She hadn’t been this psyched by her Breed genetics since she was a teenager.
Alaiya froze when she saw her, though. Her gaze flicked over Ria’s body, her nostrils flared as she inhaled, and rage glittered in her eyes.
“Breed!” she hissed.
“My, do you think she’s referring to me?” Ria asked in false innocence as the feline in her rose to the challenge.
“Hell,” Mercury muttered. “Alaiya, stand down.”
The other woman took a classic challenging stance, feet spread apart, her fingers curling at her sides as though imitating claws.
Ria almost hissed, but it came out as a surprised squeak, as Mercury shoved her behind him, barked out into his mic an order for reinforcements and snarled back at Alaiya. “I gave you an order, Breed! Stand down.”
“Do you actually believe I need you to protect me against her?” Ria leaned against the wall, peeking around his shoulder and flashing the other woman a triumphant smile. “I can take her.”
She wrinkled her nose playfully back at Alaiya, though there was nothing playful rising inside her.
Mercury’s expression tightened in disbelief as he shot her a quick look.
“Our mating tests matched,” Alaiya hissed, pacing closer, her body tense, prepared. “You stink of her.”
“I thought you smelled kind of nice myself,” Ria felt compelled to point out to Mercury with a hint of laughter. “Eau de Ria goes well with your Breed scent.”
“Would you stop!” Mercury bit out as Alaiya growled again.
“Take up for her and I’ll kick your arse instead of hers.” Uh-oh. There was that accent again.
She lounged against the wall, her head turned, making certain Alaiya had a clear view of her expression as three Breeds turned the corner and Jonas stepped out of his office, behind Alaiya.
They all seemed to freeze at the scents assailing them. Ria could smell it herself. Mercury’s anger combined with her own, the scent of their mating, their hormones adjusting, the two of them blending into each other until they were nearly combined. And Alaiya. Pure rage and heat, a singular scent mixed with fury.
“What the hell is going on here?” Jonas asked carefully as Alaiya hissed again.
“Remove her from him!” Alaiya shoved her finger toward Ria. “I demand it. Until the mating tests come back, I demand she be separated from him.”
Jonas’s brows rose in surprise as Ria bared her teeth in a hiss and glared back at him. “Try it,” she snarled. “You won’t like the consequences, Jonas, and we both know it.”
Because Dane and Leo would come down on him like a ton of bricks. Him, Alaiya and anyone else who stood between her and her mate.
She didn’t bother snarling, growling or copying that continual asinine hiss coming from Alaiya’s lips. She merely narrowed her eyes back at the other woman in confident challenge.
“Alaiya, report to the female barracks,” Jonas barked. “Now.”
“You’re breaking Breed Law,” the bitch screeched. “You cannot separate mates.”
“It hasn’t been established that you’re anything to Mercury at this point besides a nuisance,” Jonas snapped as Mercury growled for Ria. She liked how he did that.
“I won’t leave her here, claiming what’s mine!”
Rage was a bitter, feral scent now, acrid, singeing the senses as Ria slowly straightened. She had trained with feral Breeds, fought with them and beside them; she knew the signs of a Breed reaching critical. And Alaiya was reaching critical rage. The animal would break inside her and attack—attempt to attack, anyway.
“You will return to the barracks now!” Jonas snarled, his expression turning savage as his enforcer Alaiya defied him, hissing in his face in challenge.
Ria watched in interest as the director of Breed Affairs turned into the fierce, coldly efficient enforcer he had once been. Alpha steel, Elizabeth called it.
His hand jerked out, fingers wrapping around Alaiya’s neck as he jerked open his office door and all but threw her inside before turning to Mercury.
“Get your mate back to her office,” he ordered. “I’ll let you know when this has been dealt with.”
“I could have dealt with it fine,” Ria announced, bored, the animal inside her retreating in disappointment as Jonas glowered back at her.
“I gave an order,” he told her softly.
Ria stepped from behind Mercury, ignoring Jonas’s surprise at how she was dressed.
“But I’m not one of your enforcers, Mr. Wyatt. You are not my pride leader, and you have no control over me, unless I dare to challenge you directly,” she reminded him, strolling past Mercury as he snarled in warning. “And never doubt, I will deal with her if she challenges me again.”
Jonas stared back at her broodingly. “What the hell happened to you?”
She smiled. “Your enforcer, my mate. Perhaps you should discuss the problem with him. But before you attempt to give me any more orders where that feline clawing at your door is concerned, then I’d talk to the Leo if I were you. Because you’re going to lose an enforcer if she challenges me again.”
“And how will I do that?” he bit out. “Alaiya is well trained, Ria. She’s not city raised,” he told her with a hint of censure.
“And she’s not Leo trained,” she told him softly, confidently. “Ask him, Jonas. See what you’re facing before you allow that woman to challenge me again. Because I’ll kill her.”
“Shall I tell him, love?” Dane joined the party. He leaned against the corner of the wall and arched his brows, his tawny hair falling rakishly over his brow as he clenched a thin cigar between his teeth.
“This place is turning into a fucking menagerie.” Jonas grimaced before cracking the door and roaring, “Stand the fuck down before I have you confined.”
The snarls, feminine feline roars and clawing at wood were beginning to get on all their nerves.
Dane watched her, his lips kicking up in a grin as all the sensual female power Ria possessed was displayed in her smooth walk, her long legs, clothes that showed off her exceptional Breed conditioning and training.
Here was the niece he had longed to see return. The one who had driven him crazy as he tried to keep her out of trouble when she was a teenager. She was mature now, and that maturity looked damned good on her.
“Jonas, my friend,” he sighed. “Since when does the Leo employ ineffectual employees?”
“I don’t care if they employ robot clones designed to scalp and skin,” Jonas snapped. “I expect her to obey my commands while she’s within Sanctuary. Period, Dane. Hierarchy here has been established, and your rules don’t mean jack shit to me, any more than the Leo’s do. She will stand down.”
“She will not,” Ria informed him calmly. “She’s an enforcer, and a Breed. She understands the challenge she’s making. I may have been a wallflower, Uncle Jonas,” she snarled softly, “but I’ve never been frightened of a fight. Inform your enforcer of your rules and your hierarchy. Not me.”
Mercury blew out a soundless breath, fierce, overwhelming pride rushing through him as he glanced at Jonas, lifted his brows and grinned. Hell yeah. This was his mate.
“Someone should shoot you,” Jonas growled at him.
“Give me time,” Ria said as she moved past him. “I may take care of it.”
But the glance she shot Mercury was anything but murderous. Unless she intended to kill him with sex. Could a Breed die of happiness? In that case, he thought, hell yeah.
Ria entered the office, held the door as her mate stalked in, then slammed it closed.
She attacked him. She was burning, blistering with need, and he met her, kiss for kiss, giving her the wild taste of his hunger as they tore at each other’s clothes.
Nothing was ripped this time, thankfully, but within seconds she found herself bent over the file table, her mate’s erection pushing demandingly inside her.
; “Take it,” he snarled at her ear. “Damn you to hell. You hot little cat. Challenge me, Ria. I dare you.”
She bucked against him. He didn’t have to dare her; she could feel it rising inside her as his hips slammed against hers, burying his cock fully within her as her head turned and she nipped his chin.
First chance, she was letting those canines regrow and sharpen. It was natural. They had to be ground down monthly. She had nice canines. She knew she did. Perfect for biting, nails perfect for scratching.
“Take me.” He was buried in her to the hilt, grinding against her as her arm curled around his neck, her body twisting against him to take his kiss again. To burn brighter, hotter.
It was hard and fast, the pleasure brutal, spinning them out of control, tearing through her as the first orgasm clenched her womb, exploded in her clit. The second one ripped her mind, flamed through her and had Mercury roaring out his release, locking inside her as she clamped down on him, the barb extended from his cock and rapture racing through both of them.
She hissed his name. Feline, possessive. She felt that possession, and it terrified her. Took hold of her. And she knew she was lost to it.
“What the hell happened?” Mercury was panting behind her, his lips at her neck as they waited for the barb to ease, to retreat back into his flesh.
“Mating heat.” She lay against the table, bent over it, wasted.
“I’m still in uniform,” he grunted. “Hell, I didn’t even get my pants to my ankles.”
“Mine either.” They were tucked around her thighs, and she didn’t give a damn.
“So tell me, mate,” he growled, nipping her neck, “do you really think you’ll end up shooting me?”
She grinned at the male pique in his voice. “Probably with your own weapon.”
She wasn’t ready to move yet. She was sated, relaxed for now, the mating heat a low simmer inside of her rather than a hard burn.
He nipped her neck again, causing her lips to curl in satisfaction, her breath to pass her lips in a rush as he eased from her.
“Stay still.” His hand pressed against her back.
There was no need for that, she didn’t know if she could move yet anyway. A second later she felt the gentle movements of a small hand towel between her legs.
She stared at the wall, unfamiliar emotions sweeping over her as he cleaned the proof of their mating from her.
“Why are you doing that?” she asked him, frowning. “I can clean myself.”
“Stay still, mate, I enjoy caring for you.” He laid a kiss against one rounded cheek of her rear before nipping the other gently and straightening.
“You’re very strange then.” She rose, straightening her clothes without looking at him. She felt too vulnerable right now, too off balance.
The sex was one thing; the way he touched her, the way he had cleaned her—that was something else entirely.
“Independent little cat,” he growled as he moved to the small attached bathroom.
Something caught her gaze then, had her eyes narrowing and a snarl pulling at her lips as she looked up.
Mercury reentered the room, looked up and froze. The covering they had placed over the camera, which had still been there when they left the office earlier, was gone.
“The door was secured when we entered.” His voice was hard, vicious as he stared into the lens. “There were no unusual scents, nothing to indicate anyone else had been in here.”
“Someone was obviously here,” she murmured, moving around the desk, running her fingers along the edges and the drawers.
Narrowing his eyes on her, Mercury grabbed her jacket, tossed it over the monitor then pulled the small electronic detector from one of the pockets of his mission pants before flipping it on and beginning to run it over the room.
Ria continued to run her fingers under the desk, working from top to bottom.
“The room’s clean,” Mercury announced.
Ria paused. She had found what she was looking for.
“Is it?” She pulled the small device from beneath the bottom edge of the desk and held it up for his inspection. The indicator light was silent, the device deactivated, for the moment.
A growl rumbled from his throat.
“Stop growling,” she muttered, looking over the tiny receiver carefully. “This isn’t a Vanderale design, nor is it anything Lawrence has. Do you use any other companies’ devices?” She knew Sanctuary had agreements, contracts, with Vanderale and Lawrence Industries only.
“Not to my knowledge.” He moved to her, took the box, inhaling slowly, his eyes narrowing. “It has a scent overlay, but I can’t pick it up.”
“It’s warm,” she pointed out. “It was active.”
“Until I covered the camera,” he snapped. “Let’s go.”
She knew where they were going.
Ria quickly adjusted her top as Mercury stalked from the office, his hand on his weapon as he spoke softly into the link he had reactivated at his ear. The small mic lay along his cheek as they moved quickly through the hallways, heading for the security room.
As they neared the heavy steel door that protected the sensitive security monitoring equipment, Jonas moved quickly from the other end of the hall, a six-man enforcer unit following closely on his heels, weapons drawn.
Jonas swiped the secured pass card through the security lock, waited for the retinal scanner to engage, then pressed his palm to the palm plate and waited for the green light.
When it lit the panel, he jerked the door open. The scent that met their senses was unmistakable. Jonas bit out terse orders as he entered the room, moving slowly, carefully around the body spread out in the floor, intestines displayed, horrified eyes staring sightlessly up at the ceiling.
Austin Crowl. His blood stained the metal floor, congealing, the stink of death surrounding him as Ria stared at the sight.
“Where are his assistants?” Jonas moved through the room, paused at the door to another section of the room and opened it carefully.
They were there. One shot, the other with his throat sliced end to end.