nk and washed her hands thoroughly before stepping over to the table and taking the seat he pulled out for her.
“That sigh isn’t exactly an answer,” he drawled, the Texas accent filled with concern.
“The tests aren’t exactly conclusive either,” she told him as she accepted the plate he lifted from the tray and set it in front of her. “It doesn’t matter how many tests I run, the final results remain inconclusive. There’s a mating, but they’re not mated.”
She hadn’t seen anything like it and still couldn’t make sense of it.
“You may have to explain that one to me, Ely.” He watched her expectantly as he bit into his sandwich with strong, white teeth.
“Who will explain it to me then?” she countered with the same frustration that had pricked at her for the past hours since beginning the tests.
“What’s the problem with the tests?” he probed further, obviously becoming impatient with her refusal to explain the situation.
She took another bite of the sandwich as she tried to figure out the best way to explain it.
“I’m not a moron, Ely,” he assured her, obviously reading her look, and he was very good at that actually.
“The tests are positive for mating,” she finally stated. “But I’ve never seen such weak results during an active mating. All the hormonal requirements are there, but they’re in such small quantities, that I wonder if Navarro couldn’t easily walk away from Mica without suffering for it. Once the hormone, weak as it is, reaches Mica’s system, it seems to grow stronger though.” She frowned again, still bothered by the hours she’d spent attempting to figure out the problem. “The test results are responding differently to different stimuli as well. Such as the weakened hormone, once introduced into Mica’s system, becoming stronger. The mating hormones in their blood are different, and in different levels than those in his semen and the natural lubrication in her vagina. Just as it was when we tested the saliva. But if I introduce other parameters to the tests, such as a variable of the hormones created during certain emotional responses, then the mating hormone in Navarro’s specimens explode.”
Jackal’s head tilted to the side as he frowned back at her questioningly. “It has to do with the emotional responses during mating heat then?”
Ely nodded again, chewing another bite before continuing. “Most Breeds are actually looking forward to finding their mates. They see it as a gift that God has arranged just for them, for their survival. So despite protestations or the levels of anger, fear or just sheer stubbornness, that need and that hunger are there to begin with, and the mated Breeds don’t have the subconscious desire to suppress those emotions. Once they find their mate, possessing her means everything. But I know Navarro and Mica well. Neither of them would have come within ten feet of the other if they had suspected this would happen, no matter how intense the attraction or the need. Mica, because she was already aware of the emotions that would build and grow within her and she feared the consequences of them. Navarro is a little different, and harder to define. Suffice to say, he has no intentions of loving her, and he just might have the training and the strength to suppress those emotions.”
“That doesn’t make sense. How can not wanting to mate, or a subconscious desire not to love, affect whether or not they do it? As I understood it, it’s supposed to be impossible to deny it.” There was a definite growl of suspicion in his voice, as well as a reluctance to believe what she was saying.
“Because Breeds were created to have no emotions. Our very genetics were altered to ensure the Council’s ability to train any chance of those emotions out of us,” she reminded him. “And we were trained to put aside any emotion that slipped past the creation process. We were lucky to maintain any feelings at all; still though, we were taught how to hide what we were feeling, to push it aside. Navarro, perhaps more than others, was taught this lesson with savage determination.”
Navarro Blaine was an Infiltration Level 5 Breed. He had been created for recessive Breed genetics. He was still stronger, faster, his senses more advanced than any human’s, but there was no way to detect those genetics.
He had been created to infiltrate the corporate and political world and to work it to the advantage of the Genetics Council.
“Then it’s Navarro’s ability to lock out those emotions, and the resulting hormones, that could allow him to walk away from this when no one else has been able to?” Jackal asked.
She gave a sharp nod. “And, until he or Mica or both acknowledge those emotions or they lose the battle to fight them, then they may never be fully mated.”
“Or fully free,” he said.
“Or fully free,” she agreed.
And she blamed this on Navarro. When she wrote up her statement later, she would be certain to include that.
“Poor Navarro,” Jackal finally grunted as he lifted his glass for a drink.
“No, poor Mica,” she argued. “She’ll receive the brunt of the pain if Navarro manages to walk away from her. She’ll be the one that suffers. And that leaves me in a very untenable position. Do I use this unique response to search for a way to ease mating heat, perhaps grow closer to curing it? Or do I instead attempt to convince Navarro to understand, before it’s too late, because Mica may never be free of him?”
And the suffering wasn’t easy. Mating heat demanded touch, it demanded a kiss. And now with Mica and Navarro it seemed to demand love and the mate.
“I should warn Mica,” she sighed. “She needs to know what the possible outcome to this can be.”
“No, don’t.”
She stared back at him in surprise. “This isn’t your call, Jackal.”
“And it’s not yours either, Ely,” he stated, his tone harsh as she stared back at him in disagreement. “Stick to the science of mating heat, and leave those two to figure out their emotions alone. They won’t thank you for interfering, and you’ll only end up hurting yourself if you don’t stay out of it, and blaming yourself if you don’t attempt to see what effect Navarro’s control of his emotions could have on future mates, or the world’s discovery of mating heat.”
“Just let him break her heart, Jackal? Is it worth following this if she lives her life in pain?” she questioned him bitterly.
“It doesn’t sound to me that you could help either of them either way, Ely. Let them have a chance to find each other’s heart. Just because you’re determined to deny it yourself doesn’t mean Mica should.”
Ely stood to her feet slowly. She was finished at this point. She’d be damned if she would be drawn into this argument again.
“I don’t deny anything, Jackal. Nor do I avoid it. I leave that to the rest of you.”
She turned and walked away from him, shaking on the inside at the confrontation and wondering if this time Jonas would finally give her a new bodyguard.
CHAPTER 11
The next morning Mica was waiting for Navarro at the elevator entrance of the floor their suite was located on.
Leaning back against the wall, her arms crossed over her breasts, she watched as he turned into the small corridor and then came to a stop in front of her.
His dark gaze went over her, remaining impossibly distant, before meeting her eyes.
Slowly, Mica arched a brow as she reached over and pressed the old-fashioned button to send the order along the lines to the elevator, telling it to rise to meet them.
She didn’t speak, but she didn’t break his gaze either. She had sworn she wouldn’t beg him, and she meant it.
“Did you sleep well last night?” he finally asked her with all discretion of a falling wall.
“Perfectly well,” she lied, and she did it effectively.
His nostrils flared as he drew in her scent to check for the lie she was certain he knew she was telling. The lie she knew was well hidden.
She may have spent an absolutely miserable night, but she was rather calm this morning if she did say so herself. The night hadn’t been one of her more pleasant
, the symptoms of mating heat had driven her nearly insane. At one point she had actually found herself outside his bedroom door, shaking, so desperate to feel him inside her that she was ready to demand her rights as his mate.
Hell, he’d moved his stuff into her room. Everything but him. What the hell was going on here?
Pride had finally kicked in though, a second before her fist landed on the door. Thank God. She couldn’t have borne the shame of it otherwise.
The elevator doors slid open, and with a graceful roll of her shoulders Mica pushed herself from the wall and entered the compartment.
Sliding into the far corner, she kept a wary eye on Navarro and cursed her body at the same time. She was supposed to have a handle on this arousal stuff for the day. She’d finally taken one cold shower too many the night before, chilling her body until the heat abated.
And now it was rising once again, with a strength that had her groaning silently as she stared at the back of the man that claimed to be her mate.
“Have you eaten this morning?” he asked as the old elevator made its way to the labs nearly ten floors beneath the estate house.
“Nope. I know better,” she assured him. She hadn’t been coming to Sanctuary all these years for nothing.
He was silent then, his back tense as Mica wisely remained silent as well.
As the elevator came to a stop, Mica had to steel herself to actually step from it. The memories of Brandenmore and his attack the day she arrived were still very fresh in her mind.
As she took the first step, Navarro turned back to her, his black eyes watching her closely.
“Everything okay?” Flashing him a bright, confident smile, she stepped forward as two Breed Enforcers made their way down the long hall.
“Everything’s fine.” His smile was tighter.
“You have the look of a man who has something pricking his little mind,” she commented, mockery and anger mixing into the arousal burning inside her.
“Navarro always has something pricking his little mind.” Josiah Black sniggered teasingly as he stepped up to them.
His arm was in a sling, obviously still healing from the confrontation with Brandenmore and Navarro the day before. His eye was still bruised, but healing quickly.
Breeds tended to heal quickly, and Josiah seemed to be proving the theory.
“Be nice, Josiah, Navarro’s having a bad day.” She threw Navarro another calm, confident little smile.
If he thought she was going to kiss his ass and beg him to touch her, then he could think again. She was more likely to attempt to kick his ass today.
“You’re treading on thin ice, little girl,” he warned her, his voice low enough that the words carried no further than her own ears.
“What are you going to do, Navarro? Spank me?” She winked at him as she let her gaze slide over his body then back to his eyes. “I might enjoy it.”
Josiah snorted behind her, while Cougar shifted beside her as though uncomfortable. Only one thing could make a Breed of Cougar’s ilk uncomfortable. The threat of danger from a Breed he was unwilling to fight.
Navarro stood watching her, black eyes focused completely on her, his face more still than normal and completely devoid of expression.
The danger was coming from Navarro?
Oh, he might be feeling dangerous, but it wasn’t violence he had need of. And she wasn’t in the mood to pamper him, whatever seemed to be his problem.
“So, are the two of you escorting us to Ely’s lab?” she asked as she shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and turned to the other Breeds. “I’d like to hurry and get this over with if you don’t mind.”
She did have better things to do at the moment. Things such as washing her hair, cleaning floors, masturbating maybe? The masturbating part was rumored not to help, but she was getting desperate enough to try it.
Cougar spoke up then. “Josiah will escort you to Ely. She doesn’t need Navarro today.” He turned to Navarro. “Callan and Jonas would like to see you in the vid-comm room ASAP.”
And Navarro didn’t like the idea of that much at all. Mica could actually feel the denial emanating from him.
Poor Navarro. Wasn’t that just too damned bad?
“Well, Josiah, looks like you’re it. You get to babysit me.” Sliding her hand to the bend of his elbow, she urged him up the hallway. “You know, I think the black eye I gave you when you were eighteen looked much nicer than this one. Are you getting old, or did I just have a hell of a stroke of luck then?”
She swore she could feel Navarro’s gaze boring into her back as they moved up the hall; intent, dangerous, he didn’t like her familiarity with another Breed. He sure as hell didn’t like the fact that she had some connection to Josiah, no matter how innocent.
And she didn’t like his determination to see her suffering in her room alone all night either. And oh, he knew. He had to have known. He was in mating heat just as she was, she wasn’t suffering alone when he stayed away from her, which meant he knew very damned well exactly how the mating heat was affecting her.
He knew she was hurting, and he’d done nothing to fix it, even though he was hurting as well.
What the hell did he expect her to do? Beg? Fight?
She was a grown woman; she knew what she wanted, and she knew what she was willing to fight for. And despite her anger at Navarro’s arrogant attempt to move into her room the day before, a mate that willingly stayed away from her wasn’t something she wanted to fight for.
“Are you trying to get me killed now, sugar?” Josiah asked as they turned the corner and headed toward Ely’s examination room. “You don’t mess with a mate like that. He could have taken my head off if he were any other Breed.”
Mica rolled her eyes. “Man up, Josiah. The most he’s going to do is growl at you a little bit, if he can work up the interest to do that much. So chill already.”
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, his expression disbelieving.
“What did he do? Refuse you coffee or chocolate? I’ve watched enough of this mating shit, I know it had to be one or the other.”
Oh, it was far more important than chocolate or coffee. And if he was a Breed, why couldn’t he smell the hell her body was going through right now? She was so aroused she felt as though she were burning up from the inside out.
“Josiah, no one refuses me anything,” she informed him, more out of pride than simply because she rarely asked anyone for anything. “I’m a grown woman; I know how to go out and buy it, how to buy it online and call in orders. It’s all really simple, honey, I promise. Besides, I haven’t needed permission to do anything since I lived with my parents.”
And she wasn’t going to allow anyone to treat her like a child again, especially not the Breed who had decided she was his mate.
“Then what’s the problem?” Sincere concern filled Josiah’s gaze as she glanced up at him. “I can tell the mating heat is bad, but I can sense more than that.”
So much for whether or not he could smell her arousal.
Josiah was a friend, but she didn’t discuss her personal life with anyone outside Cassie. And last she checked, he wasn’t channeling Cassie.
“The problem is my business,” she told him lightly, as they turned up the hall that actually housed Ely’s examination room. “Your job was to get me here, and you’ve done that with flying colors. You can leave now, Josiah.”
Ely opened the secured double doors as they paused in front of them.
“Leave, Josiah,” she repeated Mica’s request as an order to the Breed. “And be certain to check in at the vid-comm room so Navarro can concentrate on his meeting rather than the fact that you’re with his mate.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Josiah just about jumped out of his skin when Ely snapped at him.
Turning sharply on his heel, he hurried back through the halls to carry out her orders.
“You should know better than to draw another Breed into your quarrel with Navarro, M
ica.” Ely stepped back to allow her to enter. “I’ve been watching you on the cameras since you entered the elevator. I could have sworn you’d know better by now.”
“Ely, I’m not quarreling with Navarro.” Mica looked back at her, a small kernel of resentment beginning against the scientist.
Ely was harder now than Mica remembered her being. Harder and less compassionate and understanding than the last time Mica had spent any time with her.
Ely’s lips thinned, but she stepped back and allowed Mica into the examination room.
“So what kind of torture do you have in store for me today?” Mica questioned her, maintaining the sense of cheerfulness as Ely glanced back at her.
“Today will be fairly simple,” Ely stated. “A few questions, urine and blood samples. How long has it been since you and Navarro had sex?”
The doctor asked the question impatiently. She was probably wondering why her patient smelled like a walking sex hormone. “Almost twenty-four hours.” Mica glanced at the clock on the wall. “Twenty-two hours and forty-five minutes maybe?” She flashed the doctor another bright smile. “Just before we came in yesterday to be as precise as I can get.”
Ely seemed to freeze in place as Mica relayed the information.
Did the good scientist think she wasn’t aware of the fact that it wasn’t exactly normal Breed mating behavior?
“I see,” Ely finally said musingly. “Was Navarro in meetings or called away?” She picked up the electronic pad and began making notes.
“Are you asking why it’s been so long since we’ve had sex?” Mica questioned defiantly. “Why, I have no idea, Ely. Do you?”
She hadn’t meant to allow that fiery flash of pain to strike at her chest. It struck with precision though, tearing through her heart before she could rein it in and push it back into the darkened corner where she hid all her emotions.
Ely’s head jerked up as though she sensed it. Her nostrils flared and a frown creased her forehead.
“Are you feeling the symptoms of his refusal to relieve the pressure of mating heat?” Was that compassion in the good doctor’s gaze?
“Am I horny enough to hump the bedpost?” Mica asked. “Not quite yet. Should I consult with you first, Doctor?” Sarcasm lay thick and heavy in her voice.
“I believe a consult would be a very good idea.” Ely nodded with mocking solemnity as Mica lifted herself onto the gurney. “You never know what you may end up hurting if the act isn’t done properly.”
Okay, so maybe the good doctor wasn’t just a little bit colder and harder than Mica remembered. She was definitely more distant, but Mica could understand that. It hadn’t been a good year for Ely in terms of being able to trust those around her.
Still, Mica couldn’t stop the grin that tugged at her lips, and she wasn’t the only one. Ely seemed to be struggling with her own amusement.
How strange was that? Her clit was throbbing like a toothache, her vagina clenching to the point that it was nearly spasming, while her womb felt as though it were on fire, and still, two women could find a way and a reason to inject a little filthy humor into the situation.
“God!” She lowered her head, her eyes closing as she whispered miserably, “I can’t beg him, Ely.” Lifting her lashes, she stared back at the doctor. “And I’m not far from it.”
“I’ve tried to develop a hormonal therapy for you.” Ely sighed roughly as she pulled the small stool from the edge of the gurney to her and sat down, facing Mica compassionately. “But there are too many anomalies to the tests, and I haven’t been able to isolate enough of the mating hormone to develop a therapy that will aid it.”
Mica wondered if she could get the good doctor to speak in English.
“Maybe if you repeat that very very slowly and enunciate clearly, I might understand it,” Mica stated wearily. “That, or use layman’s terms?”
“There isn’t enough of the mating hormone in Navarro’s saliva, blood or semen to have a base to begin testing a hormone therapy that will be effective. I’m sorry, Mica. I’ve never seen anything like this in all the years we’ve been testing for mates. It’s not the first anomaly, just the first one of its kind. This seems to be a year for Mother Nature to screw around with Breed hormonal reactions and mating heat.”
Not enough mating hormone?
Mica struggled to make sense of the words.
“So, Navarro isn’t a walking hard-on this morning,” she whispered.
Ely shook her head. “Yesterday, yes. The day before, definitely. But somewhere in the past twenty-four hours the emotion-based hormones that drive the mating heat seem to have begun disappearing from his system. They’ve become amplified within yours though, driven and made stronger by whatever emotions you keep bottled inside you.” Her gaze was somber. “I am so sorry, Mica, that it had to be you who seems to be proving my theories that the mating heat reacts in large part to the emotions, both conscious and subconscious, of the mates involved.”
“So Navarro has no emotions.” She felt blank inside. As though everything she knew about herself and the world had been stripped away from her overnight.
“I’m certain he has emotions,” Ely said, her voice soft. “But I know his creation, his training. He was trained to annihilate even a suspicion of any emotions beyond hatred. And he would have succeeded perhaps, if it weren’t for the fact Navarro wasn’t raised entirely at the labs. He was there during the rescues by choice, Mica. An attempt to save his brother and his brother’s mate before the scientists there learned of the mating. Navarro was taken from the labs by his grandparents.”
“Morton and Elsie Blaine.” Mica remembered them. She’d actually seen them from a distance a few times when they had come to Haven to see Navarro.
“Yes.” Ely nodded. “After the age of ten, he was raised by his grandparents. Unfortunately, he had a Counciltrained nanny. And that nanny was a monster, as was the butler the Council managed to get into the Blaine household. Navarro didn’t have a chance to develop the emotions that were bred out of him, Mica. The fact that he’s as compassionate as he is is surprising.”
The Blaines’ daughter had been kidnapped by the Council and used as a breeder. Navarro and Randal were a result of that union, but the Council refused to allow Morton and Elsie to buy Randal as they allowed them to buy his twin, Navarro. They had never seen their other grandson before he was killed during the rescues.
Randal had been their insurance against the Blaines striking back at them.
And Mica believed they would have. Morton Blaine might not have been able to destroy them, but with his financial empire and the powerful friends and favors he had gained over the years, he could have hurt them, if nothing else.
That, or destroyed all the Breeds by making sure the world learned of them in a more threatening light than had occurred with Callan Lyons announcing their presence.
“So, simply put, he realized he might be beginning to feel something for me, and destroyed it?” Mica asked with bitter sarcasm.
Ely nodded hesitantly as Mica felt her chest clench with the hurt that suddenly exploded inside her, which even she couldn’t hide.
She swore she saw Ely flinch as well as the emotion struck through Mica’s soul, rending it in half.
“So Navarro is no longer in mating heat?”