Moving back to the crib, she quickly undressed her baby, turning her, checking her for any outward signs of problems. She knew Brandenmore had injected Amber with something. Elizabeth Vanderale and Jeffrey Amburg had been certain it had only been a sedative. That had made sense. Amber had been screaming, the sound of it raking across her own nerves because of the fear in her daughter's voice. It would have irritated Brandenmore. He would have wanted her quiet.
So why hadn't he killed her?
Rachel pressed her hand against her stomach at the thought. Brandenmore didn't care about one small child, and he had meant to kill Rachel when she returned anyway. If he hadn't had plans for Amber, then why leave her alive? And if he did have plans for her, then it would be nothing that a mother could find but nightmares within.
Brandenmore was a scientist. He could have created something that hid itself within the sedative. Something that would have begun working long after initial tests were run. That was how he worked, according to the file she had read on him. He was subtle, vicious. Completely and totally deceptive.
She was shaking. She could almost feel her world shattering around her as she stared down at her still-sleeping daughter. Could she survive it if something happened to her baby?
She couldn't. Amber had matured her. Her daughter had given her a reason to live that hadn't existed before her birth.
Biting her lip, she fought to hold back the fear, the tears. Jonas could smell it. He might be in the shower, but who was to say that his sense of smell wasn't strong enough to feel the complete panic threatening to tear her apart?
Amber had known fear much too soon. She'd known pain too soon. Surely that couldn't bode well for the values she wanted to teach her daughter: acceptance, compassion, a small measure of trust that the world could be kind, at least sometimes.
And perhaps the world was trying to show Rachel otherwise.
"It's going to be okay, Rachel."
Jonas's soft voice had her whirling around to meet the dark cloth of his shirt as it stretched over his chest. Lifting her head, she stared into his eyes as he smoothed a tear from her cheek, which she hadn't even been aware she had shed.
"How can you be certain?" she whispered as his arms came around her. "How can I protect her, Jonas, when he's already done something to hurt her?"
Her fingers clenched in the fabric of his shirt as she fought to control the racing of her heart, the shudders beginning to wrack her body.
This was her baby. Her child. So innocent, so dependent on her mother to ensure that she wasn't harmed. She'd already failed her.
"Because I'll ensure it." His tone was so certain, so confident. "We have the finest minds working in Breed research. Scientists that exceptionally intelligent, Rachel, will find out what, if anything, Brandenmore has done. And if they don't"--he gripped her arms, holding her back at she stared down at her, the arrogance and pure determination in his expression brightening his eyes to a neon silver--"if they don't, I'll bring Brandenmore here, and trust me, once I have him here in my territory, he will talk."
That confidence sank into her. She had never seen Jonas break a promise. Even when she had been certain there was no way he could make something he had promised the Breed cabinet to work, he'd still managed it.
He manipulated, he connived. He threatened, he wasn't very good at cajoling, but he knew how to terrify a person. And he always, always did as he said he would.
"She's just a baby," she whispered, trying to explain her fear.
"Shhh." He laid his finger against her lips. "She's our child. She may not share my blood, Rachel, but she's captured my heart, as you've captured my soul. Never doubt, no matter the cost, I will protect our child."
Not her child. Not his child. Their child.
For the first time in Rachel's life, standing there in his arms, she felt that long-buried fear of desertion slowly ease away.
It would never be easy, living with Jonas. It might never be calm. But as she stood there, his arms wrapped around her, his warmth sheltering her, she knew it would always be exactly where she wanted to be. And something that nothing, or no one, could ever steal from her.
CHAPTER 18
The Leo was waiting on them in the labs, along with Elizabeth Vanderale; their son, Dane; Dr. Ely Morrey; and Dr. Jeffery Amburg.
Rachel had never paid much attention to the labs on previous visits, her attention always splintered by Jonas, that she'd had no time to consider much besides the danger they were facing.
That first night, Amber's unnatural sleep had held her attention solely. The second time she had been there, the discomfort she had felt during the examination Ely had performed and Jonas's unnaturally volatile mood had distracted her.
Now she stood holding Amber as Jonas, Leo and Dane seemed to confront each other.
She saw the lab was now painted in muted greens, tans and fall reds, rather than the stark white it had been when first taken over by the Breeds.
The gurney sheets were brightly colored, real pillows laying at one end. There were comfortable-looking chairs, sheer drapes falling from ceiling to floor in the far corner where a reading chair sat, and heavy, brightly colored screens hiding the necessary equipment needed to aid the scientists.
"You two can bloody well stop getting on my nerves." Dane finally sighed as he glanced from Leo to Jonas, a heavy frown creasing his brow as white brows lowered over his bright, emerald green eyes.
Leo's lips thinned in irritation.
"Leo, I don't have time for this," Elizabeth added weight to her son's disgusted proclamation. "You're here to help, not to make everyone more agitated than they already are."
Leo grunted, but his golden gaze shifted to the child Rachel held. His expression relaxed as his lips seemed to want to tilt into a grin.
"She's a lovely child." He stepped closer as Rachel shifted her gaze to Jonas, her nerves making her ill.
"Settle down now, Ms. Broen." Leo smiled. A faint quirk of his lips, which added weight to Jonas's vow that nothing bad was going to happen here. "May I hold your precious angel?"
Rachel licked her lips before turning Amber over to the tall, roughly hewn patriarch.
Amber whimpered for several seconds before settling back down, her eyes staring up at the unfamiliar male as Leo made a small, almost purring sound as he held her. It was a sound she had accidentally caught Jonas making one night as she pretended to be asleep while he slipped Amber from her crib for a bottle and diaper.
"The purr is distinctive," Leo told her as he glanced up at her. "A mated Breed has many different sounds that they don't make before they mate. The purr they have for their mates. The one they have for their child." He ran his finger over Amber's cheek as his gaze lifted to Jonas. "She's a perfect addition to Sanctuary, I believe."
Jonas shrugged as he crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to wait.
"I'm nearly a hundred and thirty years old, Ms. Broen." His smile was quick, amused, as he glanced at her. "Can you tell?"
"I thought your arrogance was rather defined for a mere century," she quipped, barely refraining from rolling her eyes.
Leo chuckled, obviously taking no offense. "That comes from being the leader of a Pride of hardheaded, rough-bitten, less-than-congenial Breeds in the wilds of Africa," he assured her. "You develop it better than they do, or you suffer."
"You also learn the fine art of bragging," Elizabeth snorted, though she did so with an edge of pure love as she gazed at her mate. "Get on with it, Leo. I'm certain Rachel would like to leave here sometime today with a knowledge of what's going on."