His child.
Jonas's hands tightened in his hair.
"His gun is empty of power." Almost too quiet, even for his senses to pick up, Brandenmore whispered the words. "I'd never give him a weapon that worked."
Devon was digging the barrel into Rachel's head. The tiny light at the side of the weapon was red. It wasn't powered. Or was it a trick?
"I'll kill you if she dies. So very slowly," he warned the old man. The old man in a much younger man's body.
"Let me out of here," Devon ordered harshly as he jerked Rachel toward the door. "I'll fucking kill her."
Jonas turned his head and gave the Breed still standing in the shadows outside a slow nod. Ghost Team had remained hidden while Alpha Team One had rushed into the room.
Jag had a bead on the back of the bastard's head. He would take him out. It would be messy. Rachel would never forgive them for the mess.
Silence filled the night until a hollow pop vibrated through the room and a gush of blood and brain matter exploded from the side of Devon Marshal's head.
Rachel jerked as he fell. She was gripping his hand, trying to jerk his fingers from her hair as she kicked at him, screamed at him.
Tears ran down her face; rage tore through her voice.
"You bastard!" she screamed, managing to loosen her hair as Jonas caught her.
Her foot kicked out, landed in the dead man's gut. "You fucking monster. You bastard. She's a baby. She's a baby."
Jonas jerked her to his chest, his hand covering her head, his eyes burning as he stared at Brandenmore, now held easily by Lawe, his hands being restrained.
Jonas turned to the older man and let a slow, cold smile curl his lips. Brandenmore was his now. Amazing how things were beginning to work out. The greatest minds among the Genetics Council were now becoming Jonas's possessions: first Amburg, now Brandenmore.
"Take him to the labs," he ordered the Breed. "He needs to be tested himself."
Brandenmore's eyes widened in horror. "I helped you. But I helped you," he protested as though shocked.
"You helped yourself to your own demise," Jonas swore. "You've just disappeared, Brandenmore. Another casualty to this silent little war you and your friends have begun. And now, you're mine," he promised with a deadly growl. "You fucked up. That's my daughter. Adopted from love, not from duty. Claimed as a daughter, not as a brat. And you'll pay for even daring to consider harming a hair on her head."
He wanted to rip the son of a bitch apart. The last thing he wanted to do was use him to better the Breed community, but he had no choice. Only Brandenmore could explain whatever changes occurred in Amber.
He nodded to Lawe to drag the man out as he turned slowly to the room, his arms still holding his mate close as she sobbed against his chest. Tears of anger, not of fear, or even of relief. They were tears of anger, pain and horror.
"Clean up," he ordered as Leo and Dane stepped from another room, dragging a bodyguard, barely alive.
Then Jonas felt his eyes widen in surprise and utter disgust. Son of a bitch, he couldn't keep them out of his hair for anything anymore.
Leo was tall, proud, exhilarated. His golden eyes glowed with excitement as he held a laser weapon in one hand, and gripped the hair of one of Brandenmore's best bodyguards as he dragged him along in the other hand.
"Mother will know you were here," Dane warned him in amusement. "She'll kick your ass and pout on me for months."
"Wrong, she kicks your ass and pouts on me," Leo argued.
"I'm going to have her kick both your asses." Jonas snapped, finally at the end of his rope where the two were concerned. In the past months they were like leeches. He couldn't seem to shake them off his fucking back no matter how hard he tried.
Then, they turned to Jonas as though coming up with the same answer at once.
"It was all his fault," they said in unison as they nodded at Jonas. He had a very bad feeling he knew exactly what they were agreeing to.
"Excellent." Leo grinned and slapped Dane on the back. "It's good to have another son to blame shit on. The rest of you are getting damned irritable over it."
He dragged the guard through the room, slapped Jonas on the shoulder and continued into the night as Jonas stared at him in outrage. Suddenly, the cold, hard Leo was gone, and what Jonas smelled rolling from the other man couldn't be true. Acceptance? Why? Why now, and what the hell was the Leo up to this time?
He turned to Dane, though he really didn't expect answers at this point.
Dane sighed heavily. "Your mate," he nodded to Rachel, "evidently chewed his ass and gave him a new lease on life.
What is it about you mated bastards that get off on that?"
As though that was an explanation? At least at this point, it made a bit of sense. Rachel was rather good at making man or Breed feel about two inches tall whenever they deserved it.
Jonas blew out a hard breath. "They care," he finally said as Rachel sniffed, her tears easing, her rage lessening. "It means they care, Dane. Only a Breed raised in the labs could understand the power of that ass chewing."
Rachel would do it often.
She would love him often.
She would rage at him often.
She lifted her head, her eyes still wet, her lips trembling.
"I love you," she whispered. "So much."
His head lowered and, amid blood and death, touched hers as light as a feather and whispered, "I live for you."
Dane watched for only a second before turning away. A grimace tightened his features and something ached in his chest. And he wondered if he would ever experience for himself the power of that ass chewing?
EPILOGUE
It was snowing.
Hours after their return to Sanctuary, Jonas stared out at the snowy landscape through the barred windows of the interrogation center, which sat above an entrance to the underground labs. There were three inches of snow on the ground, and two feet predicted to head their way. Big, wet, fluffy flakes that piled on the ground, the trees, the roofs of the cabins, had turned Sanctuary into a snow-covered wonderland.
How had he never noticed the beauty, the pristine innocence in a snowfall before?
He had never taken the time to see the wonderland, the almost fairy-tale promise that nature lay upon the ground each time it snowed, just as he had never truly realized the beauty in a child's laugher, a mate's smile, or the word "family." He'd never realized what he was fighting for until he had faced losing it that first night Brandenmore had struck against Rachel.
"You don't want to keep me here, Wyatt." Brandenmore's voice was hoarse, choked with terror, as he spoke from his position across the room.
Elizabeth Vanderale, Ely and Amburg, all masked, their identities hidden, had extracted the vials of blood samples needed. Swabs had been taken of the inside of his mouth, as well as from other areas of his body. Urine samples had been forced from him, and an array of tests were taken as he screamed and fought each procedure.
The Leo and Dane stood in a shadowed corner, black masks covering their faces as the scientists completed their work. The air was heavy with Breed rage and human fear.
When the scientists left the room, Jonas turned to him slowly and nodded to Jag, who was masked as well.
Electrodes were connected to Brandenmore's head, above his heart and along the pulsing veins at his temples. The electrical impulses that would surge through them weren't lost on the other man.
"Jonas, please," he screamed. "This is wrong. You have to arrest me. I want to see my lawyer."
"There are no lawyers here," Jonas promised him, his voice steady, cold. "This is Sanctuary, Brandenmore. Here, my word is law. Here, I decide if you live or if you die."