"All because of Jonas?" Leo snapped.
Her eyes narrowed as she took note of Elizabeth laying her hand on her mate's arm in warning. "I never said that, Leo."
"You're his mate. Like all his women, you think the man has no faults."
She turned to Elizabeth. "Your mate is out of control, Dr. Vanderale. When he can be the rational man I know he's capable of, please place a notice on his chest; otherwise, the rest of us may never know." She shot Leo a tight smile. "Excuse me, but I'm sure my daughter needs to be fed soon."
"You should be breast-feeding," Leo snarled as she turned away. "That sissy formula you're giving her isn't nutritious."
Rachel clenched her teeth and continued to the door. Her temper wasn't in the best of states. Whatever mating heat wasn't doing, she appreciated, but it seemed it was triggering reactions in her that she sure as hell wasn't expecting. One of those reactions was the temper she had mastered years ago, when she was far younger.
"There's no way that child will be a fitting mate for a Breed if you're not feeding her properly."
Rachel swung around. Elizabeth was glaring at her mate as Leo crossed his arms and stared at Rachel with that chilling intensity.
"I certainly hope she isn't a fitting mate as far as you're concerned." She advanced a step, temper slowly getting the best of her. "Because your opinion is one I would fully distrust, Mr. Vanderale. And coming from you, any opinion on parenting you would have would be completely hypocritical."
His brows creased into a heavy frown. "I have never been a hypocrite."
"You're definitely a lousy father," she retorted furiously.
"I'm sorry, Leo, but if it weren't for your wife, I'd pity your babes."
Fire lit his gaze. "There is nothing more important to me than my children."
"Nothing except your secrecy, your pride and your own ideas of right and right," she stated caustically. "Poor Dane, it's no wonder he's such a manipulator. He has to be to stay under your radar and to keep your love. He's probably had nightmares about losing your regard and suffering the hell of your disinterest as Jonas has."
"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" he growled, his head lowering, his lips pulling back in what she was certain was intended to be an intimidating snarl.
"An asshole, just to start with," she informed him. "Shall I go on?"
"I've destroyed lesser little upstarts than you pretend to be," he warned her, his expression shifting, turning calculating--just as Jonas's gaze shifted whenever he was playing one of his interminable games. She'd already picked up on this particular game though, as well as the reason for it.
She shook her head, smiling mockingly. "You don't scare me, Leo. You do no more than amuse me."
Surprise almost got the best of him. Rachel watched his eyes widen in surprise, his lips thin as he nearly snarled in frustration.
"Does it work often, Leo?" she drawled politely. "Pissing off your sons' mates to see how they'll respond? To see if they're worthy to be a mate to a Vanderale 'get'?" She sneered. "I don't just feel sorry for your children. I feel sorry for your wife, too. And I must say, she has amazing sons, despite the bastard who sired them."
She turned on her heel, her spine ramrod straight, and stalked back to the door.
"I love all my children, Ms. Broen." Leo's voice stopped her at the door. "And you are more than a worthy mate for my son."
"You're still a lousy fucking father." She jerked the door open and stalked from the lab, her entire body shaking with the anger surging through her.
Manipulating bastard. Jonas had come by it honestly, she had to say, but he was by far kinder about it. He manipulated for the good of his Enforcers. He manipulated and calculated for the good of the Breed community as a whole. Never, at any time, had she seen an edge of cruelty in him.
The Breeds had refined themselves from their beginnings. Leo was still the animal the scientists had tried to create. Jonas was the Breed who gave an air of mystery and romanticism to this savage new race of humans.
Leo still lived in a world where hiding was the only option and games were the only way to survive. Jonas was creating a world where future Breeds had a chance to walk down the street in peace, play cards with neighbors and raise their children as others would.
A world Rachel wanted to be a part of.
Ely watched silently from the shadows of her office, her door open as Leo and Elizabeth yelled at one another like combatants set to exchange blows.
She had suspected for the past weeks that there was an edge of conflict between them, but she hadn't been certain until now. Watching Leo's mate as he raged at Rachel Broen, Ely had seen the explosion coming--one it hadn't taken long to blow sky-high.
It would have been amusing if Ely hadn't lost her ability to be amused months ago. Now she was simply clinical, bordering on cold, as she listened, trying to ignore the pain and aching sorrow Elizabeth Vanderale was feeling.
Elizabeth's voice was strong, clear. There was no hint of tears, nothing but anger shading her voice.
"When will you stop?" she yelled up at him, her small fists clenched at her sides furiously. "What the hell is wrong with you, Leo? I haven't seen you like this since we mated. You're like a lion with a sore tooth, and I for one am growing sick of it."
"You're not the one I'm trying to make sick of it," Leo yelled back. "The bastard ignores us as though we're not blood. He treats us as no more than guests to Sanctuary."
"And what do you expect?" Emotion now entered Elizabeth's voice. "How long, Leo? How long did you ignore the whispers that he wasn't LaRue's son? How long did you put off rescuing Breeds from that lab?"
"Because I knew he was protecting them," Leo charged, enraged now. "You know that, Elizabeth, we discussed it. Others were not so lucky to have a Pride leader such as Jonas. Others were suffering more."
"He's our son!" Elizabeth screamed, filled with pain now. "No wonder he refuses us the courtesy of acknowledging it. Not only did you allow his lab mates to suffer, but the very moment you were face-to-face with him, you did nothing but insult him."
Elizabeth turned away, and Ely watched as she dashed tears from her face. "I can't bear it any longer. That's my son. If I had known the game you were playing with him when it began, I would have instantly put a stop to it."
"We're Breeds, not fucking sissies," Leo snarled. "He's a man, Elizabeth, not a child. Our world is different from others, and you know this. Strength is what matters."
"That's your world." Elizabeth jerked her lab coat from her shoulders and threw it to a gurney. "I'm human, and our children are part human. You can't raise them like animals."
"They are animals." Frustration fed Leo's voice now. "We all are. How many more decades will it take for you to see this?"
She turned back to him, the scent of her tears strong now within the lab. "How long will it take you, Leo, to realize that you're not? It's an excuse all of you use for your own prickishness and inability to cope with any emotion. You want freedom. You want peace. But I'll be damned if any of the male Breeds I've met are willing to be human enough to ask what they demand from other humans. You're no better than they are, simply different."
She gave her mate no chance to protest. Instead, she stalked from the labs, the door slamming behind her. Ely slipped carefully back from the door that led into the labs and used the other door at the back of the room to leave her office.
This was something she couldn't keep to herself. A division in the ranks was too important not to report.
CHAPTER 21