"I never denied that." Jonas stared back at him. "Look, are you seeking forgiveness? Fine, I forgive you."
Leo's gaze was heavy. "Forgiveness? No, Jonas, I'm searching for my son. Emotion comes easy with my mate, with the children I raised, but I've found it's harder with the sons that are grown, who have not been influenced by me or made to understand my ways. I'm searching for the son that is more like me than even those that my mate bore me. One so like me, that even at the best of times, I wonder when he'll challenge me."
"Never," Jonas answered easily as he read Leo's surprise. "I have no desire to challenge you, Leo. Not you, nor Callan, nor Dane, unless you threaten what's mine. Then, I won't challenge you; I'll kill you."
"You could easily claim Sanctuary or my own base," Leo stated suspiciously. "You're strong enough, manipulative enough."
"There's no challenge to it." Jonas faced his father, knowing it was the truth. Knowing that being Pride leader was a far easier job than controlling the Bureau, the humans that were a part of it, as well as the Breeds that served as Enforcers.
"You're joking." Leo grunted. "There is nothing more challenging than assuming leadership of hundreds of Breeds."
Jonas shook his head. "Each to their own, Leo."
Leo shook his head. "And Elizabeth? She's your mother. She weeps for you."
Jonas's eyes widened in surprise now. "She knows?"
Leo watched him curiously. "She's your mother. She's always claimed you. Even when I believed you weren't our child, Elizabeth knew. She knew, and cried for you, just as she left my bed for months when it was proven. She hasn't yet forgiven me, Jonas, no more than I suspect you will ever forgive me."
Hell, he simply didn't have time for this.
He jerked the door open, ignored Leo's suddenly furious growl and stomped back to the observation room. As he pushed through the door, Leo on his heels, he faced Elizabeth as she turned from something Ely was saying.
He gripped her shoulders, bent and kissed her forehead gently. "I'm heading home, Mother. Please get Father off my back and out of my life for a day or so if you don't mind. I do have family matters to take care of now."
Ignoring her surprise, he turned and stalked past Leo, back to the hall, and out of the small building that served as Sanctuary's pre-detaining building.
Calling Leo "father" didn't sit well, but he was a Breed, created, not born, trained rather than raised. He wasn't Jonas. After tonight, he would never call Leo "father" again perhaps, but he wouldn't deny him any longer.
Mordecai was waiting with the Raider and made the trip home quickly. Jonas needed his mate and his child. He needed to tell his mate the battle they may face, as well as the one their child might face. And he needed to hold her.
She was waiting on him when he walked in the door. Snow swirled inside before he closed the door, locked it, then strode to his mate.
"Where is Amber?" His fingers went to the belt of her robe.
"Asleep." Her breath instantly became harder, her voice breathy and low as he stripped the material from her shoulders.
"I need you." His lips moved to hers. "I love you."
"I love you." Her lips parted for him, his tongue slipped past them, the glands beneath aching, needing the touch of her tongue.
She was there for him. The hormone spilled into her and was taken eagerly as he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bedroom.
Stripping them both of the clothes separating them took little time. Her gown tore as he jerked at the small buttons at her waist. It pooled at her feet as he worked his pants loose and toed his shoes from his feet. Shedding the pants and shirt, he pulled her to the bed, his lips slanting over hers, his tongue thrusting into her mouth, retreating, filling it again as he moved between her thighs, desperate to have her.
As the touch of her, the taste of her, filled his senses, the ache at the back of his neck began to recede and the heaviness that had filled his soul began to ease.
As he gripped his cock and pressed it against the soft heat of her pussy, he felt renewed. As he began working inside her, he felt the hunger to simply live begin to ease. She was his life, his heart, his soul.
Lifting his head, he stared into her eyes as he took her. Inch by inch, slowly working his erection inside the tight grip of her pussy as he felt her filling his soul.
Never had pleasure been so great. Never had anything in his life brought him peace until this woman--until he looked into her eyes and sensed the woman created for him.
"My heart," he growled as he slid in to the hilt, felt her heated muscles rippling around his cock as her arms tightened around his shoulders and a gasp of pleasure whispered around him. She was burning in his arms now, and nothing mattered but throwing himself into the flames with her.
Gripping her hip with one hand, he began to move inside her. Deep and hard, he fucked her with a desperate, blinding hunger, a need to hold himself inside her forever, to fly with her, to feel her coming apart in his arms.
When the explosion came, it was more than flying. It was floating, surrounded by a sea of such incredible sensation that nothing else mattered. Locked inside her, the barb pulsing, heating, driving her pleasure higher as he watched her shudder, watched her eyes become unseeing and heard her cry his name with such satisfaction that it vibrated through his soul.
This was home.
Where the heart was.
Later, as she slept, Jonas pulled on his sweatpants and padded silently to their daughter's room. He had thought to catch her sleeping. She was a baby; if she wasn't eating, then she normally wanted her mother, and voiced that desire loudly.
She wasn't sleeping. She was staring up at the mobile above her crib, her gaze almost thoughtful as the little fairies that Cassie had gifted her with twirled in the slight breeze created by the central air system.
Her green eyes were dark like her mother's, while the shape of her face was more similar to her aunt's. The curve of her nose was pure Rachel.
Reaching in, he picked her up and placed her against his chest before moving to the living room and standing in front of the window. Turning the baby, he let her watch the snow as it piled high beyond the window.
"I'll protect you," he promised as he cuddled her close in his arms. "With my last breath, I'll protect your mother and you, Amber."
He felt her then. Her mother. Rachel moved from the bedroom and joined them, watching the snow as it fell in fat, lazy flakes, piling on the ground.
"Brandenmore did something, didn't he?" she asked softly as he curved an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
"I'll find out what he did," he swore as he watched her expression in the window, saw the fear that flashed in her eyes.
"She'll be okay," she stated. "Cassie's certain of it." She lifted her face to him. "Is she ever wrong?"
Jonas shook his head. "She's never wrong." But sometimes, she wasn't exactly right.
One thing was certain: The future, and their child's happiness, was now in the hands of one of their greatest enemies. And Jonas was damned if that sat well with him.
"Jonas?" Rachel turned in his hold and stared up at him, her hand settling against her daughter's small arm. "Whatever happens, we're together and I love you. Forever."
And suddenly the world was that much brighter.
"You're my treasure," he touched her lips gently, "forever, Rachel."
Catching her hand, he drew her with him as he laid Amber in the crib and took his mate back to bed.
No one heard the small sound that was made after their bedroom door closed: a soft, sweet, kittenish little purr.