be from anywhere, everywhere except Vanderale’s home offices.
It irritated her to no end that it had slipped free now.
“Are we clear, sirs?” Dammit, it was still there. “I require a vehicle of my own, immediately. Your enforcers can freeze to death outside for all I give a bloody damn. But if one attempts to step inside my cabin, then that call shall be made.”
She jerked her bag from the floor, pulled it over her shoulder and glared back at them. “The vehicle. Now.”
This time Callan cursed, jerked the door open and stomped out, leaving her alone with Kane Tyler, who stared back at her curiously. “I thought Mercury lost his mate,” he mused.
Her jaw clenched and she had to hold back the trembling of her lips. “I’m quite certain he did. I was unaware it took mating to defend a man accused unfairly. You know, Tyler, I’m disappointed by the lot of you. To be honest, I had a better opinion of the inner strength of Sanctuary. Perhaps I was wrong about that.”
Kane sighed. “Some things might seem that way,” he sighed. “But trust me, it’s not always that easy. Come on, I’ll get your car and your escort.”
Not that either helped her frame of mind. And it wasn’t going to help Dane’s once she got hold of him. He had sent her on this damned fool’s errand. They both knew Sanctuary still had a very dangerous spy, but the first Leo wanted to visit. He wanted to spend time with his grandchild and the child Callan’s mate was now expecting, and Ria had a feeling he wanted to put Jonas Wyatt in his place. The Leo was the Leo. Period. Arrogant. Hardheaded, and stubborn. He was frighteningly intelligent, in control, and certain of himself. All the qualities that Jonas used to piss off everyone he came in contact with.
As Kane watched Ms. Rodriquez drive off, the enforcers trailing her, he bit off a curse.
“Ely thinks he’s going feral again,” Callan told him quietly from the doorway. “That was why he didn’t want her to have that last vial of blood.”
Feral displacement had once nearly driven Mercury insane. The death of the young Lioness he could have mated, likely cared for, had triggered a surge of such violent adrenaline in his body that he’d had to be confined in a special cell in the labs until a drug could be created to control him.
Kane shook his head. “I don’t believe that. I saw those videos of Merc from years back the same as you did, Callan. What Mercury is going through now isn’t some kind of bullshit feral fever.”
“She’s doing initial tests now on that last vial of blood. She thinks he’s beginning to lose control.”
Kane had seen the security videotape. What he saw concerned him, made him wonder what the hell was going on, but it hadn’t made him worry about Merc’s sanity. Evidently, Callan felt the same or they would be sending enforcers after Mercury now. But Ely didn’t make determinations without evidence either.
“I didn’t see anything to indicate force.” He propped his hands on his hips and stared at the entrance to Sanctuary, grimacing at the chanting of voices from the other side of the iron gates.
Protestors, again. They’d been amassing over the past weeks, no doubt drawn by more horror stories in those rags about human sacrifices. Shaking his head, he turned back to the pride leader and watched Callan curiously.
“What proof do we have that he mated to that Breed girl that died?” He headed up the steps as he asked the question. “Could we be looking at another anomaly in mating heat?”
“Ely says no. The mating hormone was detected in him in those labs, just as the feral fever was detected,” Callan told him. “The mating hormone was recorded in him from the tests for weeks before she was killed. Mixing with it was the unknown hormone they couldn’t explain. It seemed to mix with his blood, like adrenaline, or perhaps with the adrenaline during moments of stress, anger or danger. It was present after several missions as well. The day he learned the girl had been killed, he went feral. Hell, Kane, he punched his hand through a Coyote’s chest and tore out his heart. Even for a Breed, that’s not normal.”
Kane remembered those videos as well.
“They were smug about the death. The trainer was laughing and the scientist was less than sympathetic over the loss. Would either of us have done anything differently at the loss of someone we cared for?”
Callan glanced back at him as they moved through the mansion. “After restraining him, the scientist had the foresight to extract blood immediately. The adrenaline was so spiked with the unknown hormone that they decided it was some sort of fever. They used him to research it, then developed a drug therapy to control it.”
“A super downer,” Kane grunted.
“A drug perfected to control that particular hormone. They were still testing it when the rescues took place. He was slowly taken off the drug therapy after the rescues, but there was never a change in his control, until now,” Callan sighed as they entered his office. “And I have to agree with Ely, he’s not acting like himself. Mercury has never shown anger toward anyone in Sanctuary before.”
“Until someone accused him of attempting to rape a woman? Perhaps his woman?”
Callan rubbed one hand over his face as he collapsed in his chair and breathed out roughly. “Until now. And Ely doesn’t seem to know what the hell is going on.”
That one Kane very much doubted, and as he stared back at Callan, he knew his brother-in-law felt the same.
They had fought this fight for eleven years now. The battle to preserve the Breeds’ freedom and hold on to their secrets until they understood them themselves. The battle to protect their people, and their children.
Kane thought of his son, not much younger than Callan’s, and felt the same concern he knew ran through the other man’s mind. They couldn’t afford Mercury’s loss of control. He was the Breed that frightened little children on the street for God’s sake. The savage features of the animal stamped on the face of the man.
“What now?” he breathed out heavily.
“Pull Lawe away from the cabin and find Mercury. I’ll call Jonas back from D.C. Merc is one of his enforcers; maybe he can help us figure out what the hell is going on here. And how to control it.”
“And the woman?” Kane asked. “Can we afford to piss her off any further than we have already?”
Callan’s lips twisted thoughtfully at the question. “We need to convince her to let Ely take those samples, but after she stole that blood from Merc, Ms. Rodriquez isn’t going to allow Ely within touching distance of her.” He stroked the side of his jaw in contemplation. “And I swear, that video looked more like a Breed in mating heat than one experiencing feral displacement.”
“He stood between her and us until he stomped out of the house,” Kane pointed out. “He was protective and angry. And I can’t blame him for the anger.”
“He lost control after the episode in the lab.” Callan’s voice was tight now, hard. “And that isn’t acceptable. He’s a Breed. We were bred to have control over that part of ourselves and he’s lost it. That I can’t tolerate. Have Lawe find him and get him back to Sanctuary. Let’s see if we can’t talk to him and convince him to resume the tests.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Kane had a feeling he wouldn’t.
Callan shook his head wearily. “Hell, I don’t even want to consider that option, Kane, and neither do you.”
CHAPTER 7
Ely handed the vials to Charles Fayden, her lab assistant, with a vague smile at his murmured offer to replace them for her. He was one of the few Breeds allowed to assist in the mating tests, and he was showing quite an aptitude for them.
She inserted a sample of the last vial of blood she had taken from Mercury into the test vial, sealed it and placed it into the machine Vanderale had helped her to acquire.
She waited impatiently while the individual hormones were separated, then extracted the sample and placed it in the computer analyzer. The answers that came up didn’t bring her any comfort.
She covered her face with her hands for long moments before starin
g at the results once again. The feral hormone was definitely mixed into the strains of adrenaline now. It hadn’t been in the first three vials, but that fourth one, taken as anger had surged in his eyes, showed it.
Those eyes had terrified her. The warm honey color had hardened to molten gold, and within the gold, the lightest flicker of blue pinpoints had fired within it. She had never seen anything so frightening in a Breed during all the years she had been testing them. Far longer than the years they had been free.
But it had done no more than confirm her suspicions that Mercury was once again going feral. The scientists at the lab he had been created in had recorded the same phenomenon.
She saved the results, attached them to the encryption program and sent them along to Jonas. She wasn’t arguing with him further. If he didn’t respond quickly, then she was going to Callan. Forget the chain of command he was always reminding her of, Callan was her pride leader, not Jonas. No matter how Jonas may or may not lust for the position.
She set her pass code on the computer, stored the samples and rubbed at the back of her neck wearily.
“Everything okay, Dr. Morrey?” Charles stepped up beside her, staring down at her from his soft hazel green eyes.
“Everything’s fine, Charles.” She smiled back at him rather distantly as she rose from her stool. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded before returning to the tests she had him working on. Matching for potential Breed mates was an exacting and time-consuming job. She was pleased to have found an assistant she trusted with it.
The tests on Mercury were another matter.
She sat down at her desk and carefully noted the information in her journal. She was going to have to find a way to convince Mercury to continue the tests. She needed this information, because there was always the chance it could happen again. No one knew the number of Breeds who had developed feral fever before the rescues. And she hoped no one ever found out.
Jonas stared at the report, his eyes narrowing at the findings Ely had sent to him, before he pressed the intercom button into his secretary’s office. Or rather his redheaded robot’s office, he thought with a silent grunt. For a new mother, the woman was decidedly un-maternal at work.
“Rachel, I need the heli-jet prepped for a return to Sanctuary. Inform Jackal we’ll be heading out again.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Wyatt.”
He grimaced at her cool, competent voice. He missed his last secretary, Kia, but she’d left in a storm of tears for some damned reason more than three months before. He still hadn’t figured out why she was so upset with him. But at least she’d had a personality. The piece of cardboard manning the desk now was as dry as dust.
“Mr. Wyatt, you had a meeting with Ms. Warden in an hour. Should I reschedule that?”
“God yes,” he muttered. The last meeting he had with Warden he’d sworn Breed genetics were rubbing off on her as she demanded answers for the disappearance of a Council scientist. Her eyes were shot with anger and her cute little face had tightened in almost dislike. For some reason, she didn’t seem to believe that he had no idea where the former scientist, Jeffery Amburg, was located.
Not that he hadn’t been lying; he knew very well where the scientist was currently being held. He just had no intention of telling her.
“Mr. Jackal is here now, sir,” she told him. “The jet will be awaiting your arrival on the roof, destination Sanctuary. Do you require anything else?”
Yeah, a secretary with a sense of humor would be a nice start. Where the hell had Merinus Tyler found this droid?
But at the moment a cardboard secretary was the least of his concerns. He lifted his briefcase to his desk, loaded into it the files and reports he needed, then disconnected his PDA from the computer. He had everything now.
Shutting down his office took only minutes, and then he was striding to the door, opening it as Jackal came to his feet, his expression as stoic as always. But there was a hint of amusement in his gaze this time.
Jonas gave his secretary a hard look. She stared back at him, as placid as always. He was going to have to inform her how much he wouldn’t appreciate it if she was entertaining his enforcers when she refused to entertain him.
The damned woman.
“Looks like we’re heading home for the weekend, Jackal,” he announced, putting his secretary’s lack of loyalty out of his mind. He would deal with her later.
“Have a nice weekend, Mr. Wyatt,” she called out as he left the office.
He didn’t bother to return the farewell.
“Is there a problem?” Jackal asked as they moved through the empty hallways of the Justice building. Saturday evening wasn’t exactly peak hours.
Jonas grimaced, the potential for disaster so far outweighed “a problem” that it was laughable.
“Mercury,” he informed the other man, his voice quiet as they stepped into the elevator and Jonas hit the button for the roof.
Jackal snorted. “That little paper pusher of Vanderale’s?”
Paper pusher, his ass. Ms. Rodriquez was looking for something; Jonas just hadn’t figure out what yet.
“That’s my suspicion.” And Jonas hoped his suspicion was right. His own investigation into Mercury’s lab years had brought him to the conclusion that the feral fever had been nothing more than rage.
At one time, Mercury had been very close to the animal that his genetics had been altered with. His sense of smell had been off the charts, his ability to run long distances had broken records. Sight, hearing, night vision, scent and taste—he had been exceptional.
Until he’d begun showing shows of feral displacement. Pacing his cage. Growling in irritation, refusing to perform his missions within their proper parameters. And the unknown hormone attached to the adrenaline that flooded his body at those times. Feral fever or displacement the scientists had called it. Jonas preferred to think of it as the call of the wild. All the signs Mercury had exhibited in the labs had been those of an animal going insane in the search for freedom.
But that didn’t explain what was going on now. Or why the hormone was showing itself once again. Unless, somehow Mercury was mating his little paper pusher as Jackal called her.
“Give Merc space, Jonas,” Jackal advised him as they stepped into the heli-jet. “If he’s acting weird, then he deserves it. That man is too damned calm the way it is.”
And Jonas would have agreed with him, until Ely’s report came through. Now he was starting to worry, and worry wasn’t something he liked. He preferred action, decisive forward motion. And in this case, he had a feeling that wasn’t going to help much.
The cabin was too quiet, and she had grown too used to Mercury’s presence. Even before he had been assigned to stay in the cabin with her, he had occasionally come in for a few moments. He had teased her just long enough to leave her wanting more before he left.
She had never been certain where he went, but he had always returned the next morning to escort her back to Sanctuary.
Now she felt a bit lost without him.
There was plenty of work to do. She still had the memory chips she had slipped out of Sanctuary this week, waiting on her to analyze them, to find the discrepancies she had been finding with alarming regularity.
Someone was slipping information from Sanctuary and selling it to a research lab determined to unlock the secret of the age depression that went along with mating heat. Forget figuring out why the mating heat occurred, or developing something to ease the symptoms of it. No, all these people cared about was reversing aging and creating fortunes off the desperation of millions.
It was a nightmare in the making.
And was she working on the chips that contained the information concerning who in Sanctuary could be selling those secrets. Of course she wasn’t. She was pacing her bedroom floor, rubbing her arms against the chill that seemed to seep into the cabin and wondering where Mercury had gone.
As she turned and paced ba
ck toward the bed, a scraping at the window had her turning quickly, and staring in shock as the window eased open and Mercury, all six feet four inches of incredible muscle, eased through the opening until he was standing in her bedroom. He closed the window, locked it and reclosed the thick curtains before turning back to her.
“How did you slip past the Breeds patrolling outside?” she asked him in surprise.
He snorted. “You don’t slip past Lawe and Rule. They know I’m here.”
Suddenly, the long, violet gown and robe she wore seemed too heavy, too warm. Where she had been cold moments before, she could feel herself heating.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” she hissed as he stared across the room at her, his amber eyes darker, those little sparks of blue twinkling in them. His expression was somber, his gaze too quiet, and too filled with things she didn’t want to see, because they too closely resembled things she didn’t want to admit she felt herself.
“Never had a man slip into your room?” he asked her as he moved to the door, opened it and checked outside before turning back to her.
He turned the lock and kept his gaze locked on hers as he did so.
“Are you scared?” he asked curiously.
Ria rolled her eyes. “Not hardly. But my original question remains. Why the hell are you sneaking into my bedroom rather than using the door?”
“Maybe I’m trying to romance you?” He arched a brow, and it looked sexy as hell. Too bad she knew better than to believe him.
“Am I now harboring a runaway Breed?” She tilted her head and looked him up and down. “Dane buys me jewels for allowing myself to get involved with his little schemes. What do you have to offer, Mr. Warrant?”
Oh, that smile. Tinted just a bit with a shade of bitterness, but hungry, confident and very much in control.
“Jewels don’t keep you warm at night,” he told her quietly.
And that was only too true. They were hard and cold, and she found little solace in them other than the knowledge that they had the power to restrain Dane. Sometimes.
“And you can?” she asked him.
He moved forward. A step at a time, slow, a confident swagger that had her forcing herself to calm her breathing.
He would be able to keep her warm on the coldest winter night, she thought. He was large enough, tall enough to curl right around her and hold the cold at bay.
“You stomped out today and forgot your duties,” she reminded him, hearing the nervousness in her voice. “Am I supposed to reward you now?”
His eyes gleamed. “I was never far from your side. You just didn’t see me. You can reward me for that if you feel a need to.”
He stopped in front of her, staring down at her with all those hungry shadows in his eyes. She could feel the need growing between them, building. Fighting it didn’t seem to help much, because she wanted to give in so desperately.
“What are you doing here, Mercury?” she sighed, lifting her hands to place them against the black material of his mission shirt. The heavy, conforming fabric was warm from the heat of his body, and he really needed to take it off, she thought irrationally.
“You tried to protect me today,” he said softly. “I don’t think anyone has ever thought to try to lie for me.”
His voice was musing, as though he were trying to figure out why she had done it.
“It wasn’t as much a lie as it seemed,” she said to excuse herself. “I was damned glad to see that camera go.”
“I’m glad I could accommodate you then.” His lips quirked, that hint of amusement clenching her thighs.
“Break security cameras often then?” Her voice had a tremor in it that wasn’t hard to read.
His smile deepened; his exotically lined and tilted eyes took on a sensual, drowsy cast. “Not often,” he admitted.
“Would a person have cause to lie for you often?” She lied for Dane all the time.
“I’m fairly honest.” His voice lowered further. “And as much as those damned ugly skirts of yours turn me on, I don’t need to hide behind them.”
“My skirts aren’t ugly.” They were detestable.
“This is much better.” He reached up and fingered the shoulder of her silky robe. “You look like a princess dressed in that. All that pretty hair flowing down your back. I should be shot for the things I think about doing to you.”
She licked her lips and breathed in roughly.
“Like what?” She almost winced at the question.
It had been a hell of a day, she rationalized. The stress of stealing information from Sanctuary, the risk of knowing she might be caught at any time, and now this. The knowledge that she hadn’t worked fast enough and she was getting entangled in her own emotions.
No. No emotions, she warned herself.
“Like taking the sadness out of your eyes, maybe?” He lowered his head, his lips pressing against her temple. “What goes through that pretty head when your eyes darken like that?”
No emotions. No entanglements.
She was fooling herself. He had charmed her from the first moment she met him, and look at her now. She was melting against him like butter.
“How foolish you were to sneak through the window when the doors work perfectly fine,” she told him breathlessly. “Are all Breed males so complicated?”
“Hmm.” His fingers threaded into the side of her hair, his hand cupping her head, holding her in place. “I just want a nice good-night kiss and then I’ll leave.”
“You don’t have to leave.”
He paused, his lips almost touching hers.
“The spare room,” she rushed to say, feeling her heart racing against her chest, need clawing through her.
His lips quirked. “Just a nice good-night kiss,” he repeated. “Very harmless. I promise.”
Harmless? Like hell!
His lips covered hers with the same destructive results as they had before. She couldn’t think, she didn’t want to think. Her hands lifted, speared into the coarse length of his hair, and she moaned at the pleasure.
Had she ever known a kiss as good, as wicked as Mercury’s? He didn’t just move his lips against hers, he nibbled; he stroked and he licked, and when his tongue finally touched hers, she was so ready for it that she sucked it eagerly into her mouth.
As though she had tripped a hidden switch, both hands gripped her head, holding her still. His lips slanted over hers and skyrockets exploded in her head. She didn’t want this kiss to end. She didn’t want to ever lose this feeling, the taste of him, the feel of him, the certainty that there would never be another kiss to rock through her soul as this one did.