Once again Ely nodded. “All but the smallest traces of the hormone are gone from his system.”
Mica’s fists clenched around the edge of the thick pad beneath her as she fought the need to rock in agony.
A distant part of her couldn’t believe the horrendous pain welling inside her now. It was like a wildfire, sucking the life out of everything in its path.
“And that leaves me where?”
“A mate, without a mate,” Ely stated, her voice incredibly gentle, her brown eyes filled with pity.
She pitied her. Ely was watching her and feeling sorry for her, Mica thought.
She swallowed tightly. “Let’s get this over with then.” She had to force the words past numb lips as she realized she was nearly gasping for breath. “You need samples, right?”
“Blood, saliva and vaginal.” Ely clasped her hands in her lap. “You should be prepared, Mica, it may be very painful. And there’s nothing I can do to ease the pain. Most female mates seem to have a horrible physical reaction to even a female touch during the strongest phases of mating heat.”
Once again Mica nodded shortly, as Ely reached for the supplies in the small basket at the end of the gurney. “I’ll get the blood first, then we can do the rest.”
As Ely took the blood, Mica could feel no pain. There was a heavy layer of discomfort, a feeling of disgust and loathing each time Ely was forced to touch her, even through the latex gloves she wore, but the extreme physical discomfort was absent.
She was a mate without a mate.
“There.” Several minutes and four vials later, Ely pushed back from the bed. “Change into one of the gowns and we’ll get the rest of it finished as quickly as possible.”
Mica moved from the gurney, feeling the ache of loneliness and the loss of what she hadn’t even dared to hope for, but had fantasized of. Navarro’s love.
Pulling one of the soft cotton gowns from the small rack in the bathroom linen cabinet, Mica blinked at the moisture in her eyes, uncertain why this seemed to be affecting her so strongly.
It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been fully aware that Navarro had no intention of loving her. That this heat stuff was something he would escape if he could.
But she hadn’t believed he could escape it, any more than she could.
Sucked to be her. Navarro was escaping and she was burning alive with the need for his touch.
Typical.
She should have never expected less.
Hell, she should have expected just this.
Navarro sat in the vid-comm conference room, relaxed, leaning back in the comfortably padded chair, arms relaxed casually on the rests at his side, watching Wolfe Gunnar; Del-Rey Delgado; their mates, Hope Gunner and Anya Delgado; and their seconds in command, Jacob Arlington and Brim Stone on the large screen. Now joining them were Dash and Elizabeth Sinclair, to assess the information coming in as the video conference, Navarro hoped, was winding to an end.
“How much longer, Callan?” Wolfe questioned as his gaze sliced to Navarro from the mounted large-screen video communications board.
“As soon as Jonas can get the heli-jet here safely,” Callan stated with no regard to the fact that Wolfe was all but ordering him to make it happen. “I understand your concerns, Wolfe, but moving Mica at the moment simply isn’t possible. We believe the risk is too high.”
Wolfe grimaced as he turned to Dash Sinclair, the Wolf Breed who had arrived to assess the present danger and decide the next course of action where his goddaughter was concerned.
Dash was presently staring a hole through Navarro, and the angered, knowing glitter in his amber eyes would have been enough to have any other Breed sweating.
“What aren’t you telling me, Callan?” Dash turned his gaze to the pride leader.
It seemed all eyes turned to Navarro, and in each case there was a sense of confusion and perhaps a hint of a question.
“At the moment, Dash, the only thing you’re not being told is information we’re not certain of.” Callan turned back to the screen and the other Breeds’ intent look. “As soon as I have the information and can verify it though, then you’ll be the first to know, I promise you this.”
“And if Mica were to find a mate while she’s at Sanctuary?” Dash asked coolly. “Would you tell me immediately, Callan?”
“Dash, the minute I verified and Dr. Morrey reverified the tests, then you would know,” Callan assured him sincerely. “That is not information I would keep from you.”
Now there was a load of shit if Navarro had ever heard one. He slid a look in Callan’s direction, expecting to see a warning in the Feline Pride leader’s gaze to hold to the lie. Rather than the warning though, what he saw was somber confusion and, amazingly, pity.
“And you, Navarro?” Dash asked then. “Would you tell me if Mica had mated?”
Navarro’s brow lifted.
“Dash, Navarro doesn’t carry the mating scent. I give you my word on it if that’s what you’re questioning,” Callan spoke up.
Navarro was careful to show no reaction. No surprise, no confusion. He’d never known Callan to outright lie in such a way, especially in front of witnesses. It was such a gross disregard of the agreements between Sanctuary and Haven that even Navarro questioned the decision.
“There are rumors he mated her, Callan.” Dash frowned back at both of them. “I can’t disregard those whispers.”
“We’ll figure it out on our end and get back to you,” Callan promised. “Would you trust me to do that?”
Dash stared at the pride leader for long moments before turning back to Navarro to give him a probing look. Finally, the other Breed rubbed at the back of his neck in irritation before giving a tight nod. “I’ll trust you, Callan. But remember if you will, Mica is family, and she’s an only child. Her parents . . . worry.”
Yeah, they worried their little princess would end up getting fucked or worse yet, horror of all horrors, mated by a Breed. It wasn’t that they were prejudiced or even disapproving of the Breeds. It was simply that they believed their daughter deserved better.
And with that thought came a surge of possessiveness Navarro barely caught in time to tamp it down and dispose of it. The night before had been relatively comfortable. The agonizing arousal that had marked the time since he’d first mated her had eased.
The realization that he’d taken her as an animal beneath the trees had shaken him to his soul. He’d wanted nothing more than to push her to her knees, press her shoulders to the forest floor and fuck her until she was screaming for him, begging for him as he rocked into her from behind.
The image of that, even now, had the power to slip past the walls he had built around it and cause his dick to harden with need.
Hell, he was getting tired of sitting here. The more he listened to them talk about Mica, the harder it was to deny his need for her.
Thankfully, the conversation ended, the vid-comm darkened, and then, uncomfortably, all eyes turned to him as the door to the conference room opened and Josiah walked into the room.
Anger spilled from the Breed in waves.
His eyes snapped with steel gray blue flames as he raked his fingers through his shaggy dark blond hair and glared at Navarro.
“Did you know the presence of the mating hormone in you is now negligible?”
Surprising. Hell, the day was just getting more interesting by the moment, wasn’t it? Negligible? That meant Mica would no longer be his mate soon. That had happened only once before with Callan’s pack sister Dawn and her mate, Seth Lawrence, but it had taken ten years and the complete removal of Seth from Dawn’s life during that time for it to happen, not ten fucking hours.
Should he regret it?
He could feel the need to claim her once again trying to rise inside him and he fought it. Mica didn’t need this. If the heat was receding, then it would be a blessing for her. She had dreams, plans, desires that he knew did not include a Breed. It didn’t include the hell their lives could beco
me if public sentiment turned against them.
“You’re acting as though it’s a crime,” he stated as the others continued to stare at him as though he had somehow deliberately caused this.
It felt like a crime against nature.
He hadn’t neglected her as the need burned between them. He’d taken her, satiated her, stilled the hunger raging inside her until last night, just before going to her, he’d realized he felt . . . normal.
He wasn’t iron-hard and hurting with a sexual pain he couldn’t make sense of. Oh, he wanted her, he hungered for her, but it was no longer that desperate, amplified lust that he couldn’t control. And that lack of control had been destroying him to the point he’d actually feared the animal he could feel crouched and waiting inside him.
Just waiting for Navarro to drop his guard, to relax his attention and give it a chance to jump free. And it would—straight in the direction of the petite, too stubborn, too independent woman he believed he had mated.
Even now, he could feel that snarl brewing in his chest, an unquenched fury threatening to spill from the tortured center of his soul that he only rarely acknowledged.
That didn’t mean he didn’t want an explanation.
Rising to his feet, he didn’t bother to excuse himself—rather he stalked to the door with every intention of leaving and garnering those explanations immediately from the doctor herself.
“Let her go.” Josiah was suddenly blocking his way, a snarl on his face, his gaze filled with his anger as Navarro stared back at him with a sudden, icy fury.
Behind him, Navarro could feel the others rising from their chairs, the tension in the room building to a smothering point as he faced off with the other Wolf.
“Back off, Josiah,” Navarro warned as he felt the adrenaline surging through him, a wild, burning hunger for action, to take out his enemy, to go for the throat and to taste blood.
The genetics of the Wolf. The animal was awakening again. If it awoke, if he allowed those instincts to rise inside him once again, then nothing, no one he cared for might ever be safe again.
“Back off?” Josiah sneered, his Wolf flashing in the snarl at his lips and the dilation of gaze. “Fuck you, Navarro. Stay the hell away from her. If she’s lucky, real fucking lucky, then rather than rising inside her and torturing the hell out of her as it did last night, maybe the heat will dissipate in her as well.”
“No.” Navarro gave his head a hard shake. “I would have smelled her pain, her arousal.”
It wasn’t possible. His senses rated off the charts. There was no way to even measure his ability to detect scents, to sense disturbances, and he hadn’t sensed Mica’s? That wasn’t possible. He refused to believe it.
Josiah scoffed. “As if you didn’t. Even I scented it, Navarro.” Rage clouded the Wolf’s voice, roughened and rasped it until it was more animal than human. “You’re not a worthy mate and you should be barred from approaching her.”
Navarro felt as though his brain were clouding for the briefest moment before he fought back. Instinct, hunger, rage and animal fury threatened to overwhelm him before he managed to get control of them. He forced them back, restrained them as he had all his life. Since birth. Since before birth.
Navarro turned slowly to Callan, Jonas, and Dane Vanderale.
So far, the current Vanderale heir and hybrid Breed had remained silent—watching and amused, but silent. But Navarro knew if Dane took a side, then that side would be sure to win, against all odds.
Navarro couldn’t take that chance. He wouldn’t take that chance. The very thought of any of them taking her from him had rage threatening to shake his control.
“Attempt to bar me from her and there will be a war,” Navarro promised them.
“Ely believes if he is barred from her, then there’s a chance Mica could mate with a Breed willing to take on the responsibility of loving her,” Josiah snapped. “I request he be barred from her long enough to learn if she’ll be compatible with me. I’ll claim her.” His gaze raked over Navarro with insulting emphasis. “And he can go to hell!”
Shock resounded through Navarro.
A snarl slipped past his throat as he turned on the other Breed, fury spreading through his system with the force of a tidal wave.
He’d be damned if he’d allow any other Breed a chance to do any such thing.
“She’s still my fucking mate,” Navarro informed them all with icy rage. “She carries my scent.”
Josiah’s arms crossed over his powerful chest as a smirk curved his lips. “No, Navarro, she doesn’t. She smells of heat and arousal, but her scent is still her own. She has not taken your scent. Dr. Morrey believes nature would allow Mica to choose another mate, as you’ve so obviously rejected her. She’s Breed compatible and mate hungry. And I have no problem whatsoever fixing that little problem.”
Breed compatible and mate hungry?
Navarro sneered back at him. “If she had wanted you, whelp, then she would have claimed you years ago. What makes you think you can claim what’s mine now?”
“Because you so obviously don’t know how to do the job right.” Josiah smirked.
That smirk, the confidence and male gloating in his eyes, seemed to snap something inside him, something primal and vital, and before Navarro could restrain it, that unknown something disappeared from his grasp beneath the anger surging through him.
“Get the hell out of my way.” Navarro went to move around Josiah.
He was finished with this conversation.
“If the doctor is right, then perhaps we should consider what Mica has to say first, Navarro,” Dane drawled with a hint of amused interest. Enough so that Navarro knew the other man was entirely serious about asking Mica’s opinion. And Navarro was certain it wouldn’t be in his favor.
Navarro froze for the briefest second before turning to face the Vanderale heir, a man he had considered a friend until this moment.
“Go to hell!”
Turning back, he pushed past Josiah and slammed out of the vid-comm room to stride furiously up the hall to Ely’s office.
He’d be damned if anyone would take his mate.
He didn’t have to let the animal free to claim her. No matter the mating hormone that no longer filled his system, he could still claim her.
He’d already claimed her. He’d left his mark on her, and he’d be damned if he’d allow another Breed to replace it.
But to keep her, could he release the animal struggling to awaken inside him?
It was a question he wasn’t willing to answer.
But, he feared, it was one he would have to face. He could feel some unnamed emotion, a burning sense of awareness flaring inside him that he was unable to fight, unable to define. And for both his and Mica’s sake, he prayed it wasn’t the animal finally breaking free.
CHAPTER 12
Cassie had been amazingly silent since Mica’s little adventure began, but as she stepped into the bedroom and closed the door behind her, the first thing Mica spotted was the sat phone and note left on the coffee table.
Moving to it, she couldn’t help but smile.
Cassie’s having a meltdown and threatening to leave Haven. Please call her—Merinus.
Choosing the contacts option, she was thankful to see Merinus had added Cassie’s number. Remembering phone numbers was her weakness. She used speed dial for a reason.
“I’m sorry,” was Cassie’s answer before the first ring ever went through.
Mica felt her lips tremble. Cassie didn’t cry often, but when she did, her voice had a particular sound, a raspiness that was unmistakable. And from the sound of it, Cassie hadn’t been simply crying, she had been sobbing for long periods.
“Cass, stop crying,” Mica ordered as she fought her own tears now.
God, she wished the other woman were here. At the moment, she needed a shoulder to cry on herself, and she needed someone to help her figure out exactly what was going on.
“I can’t.” The sound of
Cassie’s tears tore at her heart, and at that part of her that couldn’t understand what had happened.
“Look, I can’t cry.” Mica blinked desperately to hold the tears back. “You have to get control, Cassie. If I start—”
If she started crying, she too wouldn’t be able to stop.
“I sensed it,” Cassie sniffed. “I sensed he was your mate, and I sensed he would betray you, Mica. I sensed it, and I didn’t warn you.”
Mica sat down slowly, resting her head in her hand as she listened and fought to just hold the tears back.
“I could sense the mating heat on you, but I knew something would happen, that he would turn away from you, Mica. I knew it. I knew because I could feel the presence of another Breed. Maybe he’ll be your mate, Mica. Oh God, maybe you should just hate me,” she sobbed. “I should have told you.”
Mica wanted to laugh. Her only fear was that the sound of it could possibly be more hysterical than amused. This was so Cassie. Knowing and not telling, fearing that the telling would somehow change what the future was supposed to be.
Somehow though, Mica had always thought Cassie would warn her about something like this.
“Say something,” Cassie sobbed. “I keep feeling your pain, Mica. I feel it clawing at my chest and I can’t stop it. And I keep hearing a fucking Wolf howl and no one here is howling this week.”
“Stop crying, Cassie,” she whispered. “It’s okay, I promise.”
“I was at Dr. Armani’s office when Ely called her earlier. I know what he’s done. I didn’t know before, Mica, I swear I didn’t know. I had no warning that Navarro could walk away from mating heat so easily.”
“I know.” Mica wrapped her arm across her stomach and rocked forward. “It’s okay, Cassie, I swear.”
But it wasn’t okay. Because even she didn’t know exactly what Navarro had done, or how he had managed to do it.
Cassie was silent for long moments, the sound of her heavy breathing and occasional sniffs all Mica heard.
She held the phone to her ear though; as fragile as the connection was, she needed it desperately.
Cassie finally spoke again. “Dr. Armani is going over the tests results Dr. Morrey sent her. Dad spoke to me this morning though, he’s already heard there may be a mating. I pretended not to know anything. The last thing you need is our fathers heading to Haven right now.”
Mica cringed. “Thanks, Cass. That’s definitely the last thing I need right now.”
Her father would likely rupture a blood vessel. She could hear him screaming now, she could hear the anger, the concern, but even more, the fear that his baby girl would be harmed in some way.
He loved her. He just didn’t know how to let her grow up. In his eyes, she was still that child that he needed to protect from the world.
“Have you spoken to Navarro since you were with Dr. Morrey?” Cassie asked, her voice still rough, weary, but thankfully she was no longer sobbing.
“No.” Mica shook her head. “I haven’t seen him, but it’s only been a few hours.”
Long enough to allow the truth to sink in. To realize that somehow Navarro had been so against mating her that he had managed to escape it.
He had done what no other Breed had been able to do. He had been able to reverse the mating hormone.
How? How could he have done it?
“He fears what he carries inside him more than he fears losing his mate,” Cassie said softly as that thought brushed through her mind.
Mica froze. “What did you say?”
“Aren’t you listening, Mica?” Cassie asked gently.
“I missed part of it.” Her heart was racing now. How had Cassie known?
“I said, Ely told Dr. Armani that Navarro fears what he carries inside him more than he fears losing his mate. I think I believe it. I know he’s recessed, but he sometimes appears more human than even a recessed Breed.”
Mica was on the verge of breathing a sigh of relief. God help them all if Cassie ever developed the talent to read others’ thoughts. She would single-handedly start World War III.
“It doesn’t matter what he fears,” Mica finally said, the weight of the rejection pulling at her, exhausting her until she just wanted to curl into a corner and weep herself. “He started this, Cassie. He mated me. I didn’t ask for it. Now he thinks he can escape it?” Bitterness welled inside her. “He obviously wants to escape it.”
“I don’t believe that, Mica,” Cassie sighed. “But I’m not there either. You always told me you were woman enough to know when a man was yours and when he wasn’t. You’ll know if you should fight for him, or if you should see if all those vicious little mating hormones can become compatible with another Wolf Breed. Just think, girlfriend, you could set a precedent yourself by showing all Breed females, and perhaps later the world, that no one has to be a victim of mating heat. Right?”
“Yeah, right. How about I just swear off Breeds period? I think that would be the better course of action, Cassie.” All she wanted to do was find ease and sleep. She wanted to sink against Navarro’s flesh and find the comfort, the satisfaction she’d known earlier.
“And I think we both know that’s not possible,” Cassie reminded her sadly. “If I could help you, Mica, I would. I wish I were there with you. We’d give them so much hell they’d regret the day either of us was ever born.”
Mica guessed that may have already happened. They’d terrorized the Breeds at Haven and in Sanctuary for years before they’d become adults.
“I know, Cassie.” She wished her friend were there as well. It was just her luck that she was left to face it alone instead.
Somehow, she’d always suspected this would happen, and that when it did, she would have to face it without help.
“Call me, Mica, if you need me,” Cassie whispered. “