To Kane Tyler’s credit, he didn’t appear to believe any such thing, but that didn’t keep it from pricking her anger. What the hell did they think was going on? And how did they have the temerity to even suggest anything so preposterous as Mercury Warrant attempting something so horrible?
“And perhaps I was willing.” She was amazed at the anger that flooded her now. “That’s what you get for being so damned nosy, Mr. Tyler. You’ve managed to humiliate me in the middle of what should have been a perfectly nice Saturday afternoon, and you’ve insulted and betrayed a friend.” Contempt rose within her as she flicked them both a hard look. “Perhaps you should get me a ride back to my cabin. And don’t bother with another babysitter. I’ve grown pretty comfortable with the one I had; I wouldn’t handle another one well.”
They might not understand loyalty, but she could assure them, she did. It was what had landed her in the middle of this mess to begin with.
“An enforcer will accompany you-”
“I’ll call Dane Vanderale, my boss, and I’ll have a Vanderale heli-jet parked on your landing pad in thirty minutes flat if my wishes are ignored in this case.” She’d had enough. Even Dane couldn’t sweet-talk his way out of this one. “It’s no damned wonder you can’t keep a handle on the spies in Sanctuary. You’re too damned busy suspecting those loyal to you to look beyond them. Get a clue here. I’m not a Breed nor am I answerable to Sanctuary and as far as I’m concerned you can all go bugger yourselves.”
Her accent slipped free. That never happened. She’d been born and raised in South Africa, and her job habitually required that she maintain the impression that she could be from anywhere, everywhere except Vanderale’s home offices.
It irritated her to no end that it had slipped free now.
“Are we clear, sirs?” Dammit, it was still there. “I require a vehicle of my own, immediately. Your enforcers can freeze to death outside for all I give a bloody damn. But if one attempts to step inside my cabin, then that call shall be made.”
She jerked her bag from the floor, pulled it over her shoulder and glared back at them. “The vehicle. Now.”
This time Callan cursed, jerked the door open and stomped out, leaving her alone with Kane Tyler, who stared back at her curiously. “I thought Mercury lost his mate,” he mused.
Her jaw clenched and she had to hold back the trembling of her lips. “I’m quite certain he did. I was unaware it took mating to defend a man accused unfairly. You know, Tyler, I’m disappointed by the lot of you. To be honest, I had a better opinion of the inner strength of Sanctuary. Perhaps I was wrong about that.”
Kane sighed. “Some things might seem that way,” he sighed. “But trust me, it’s not always that easy. Come on, I’ll get your car and your escort.”
Not that either helped her frame of mind. And it wasn’t going to help Dane’s once she got hold of him. He had sent her on this damned fool’s errand. They both knew Sanctuary still had a very dangerous spy, but the first Leo wanted to visit. He wanted to spend time with his grandchild and the child Callan’s mate was now expecting, and Ria had a feeling he wanted to put Jonas Wyatt in his place. The Leo was the Leo. Period. Arrogant. Hardheaded, and stubborn. He was frighteningly intelligent, in control, and certain of himself. All the qualities that Jonas used to piss off everyone he came in contact with.
As Kane watched Ms. Rodriquez drive off, the enforcers trailing her, he bit off a curse.
“Ely thinks he’s going feral again,” Callan told him quietly from the doorway. “That was why he didn’t want her to have that last vial of blood.”
Feral displacement had once nearly driven Mercury insane. The death of the young Lioness he could have mated, likely cared for, had triggered a surge of such violent adrenaline in his body that he’d had to be confined in a special cell in the labs until a drug could be created to control him.
Kane shook his head. “I don’t believe that. I saw those videos of Merc from years back the same as you did, Callan. What Mercury is going through now isn’t some kind of bullshit feral fever.”
“She’s doing initial tests now on that last vial of blood. She thinks he’s beginning to lose control.”
Kane had seen the security videotape. What he saw concerned him, made him wonder what the hell was going on, but it hadn’t made him worry about Merc’s sanity. Evidently, Callan felt the same or they would be sending enforcers after Mercury now. But Ely didn’t make determinations without evidence either.
“I didn’t see anything to indicate force.” He propped his hands on his hips and stared at the entrance to Sanctuary, grimacing at the chanting of voices from the other side of the iron gates.
Protestors, again. They’d been amassing over the past weeks, no doubt drawn by more horror stories in those rags about human sacrifices. Shaking his head, he turned back to the pride leader and watched Callan curiously.
“What proof do we have that he mated to that Breed girl that died?” He headed up the steps as he asked the question. “Could we be looking at another anomaly in mating heat?”
“Ely says no. The mating hormone was detected in him in those labs, just as the feral fever was detected,” Callan told him. “The mating hormone was recorded in him from the tests for weeks before she was killed. Mixing with it was the unknown hormone they couldn’t explain. It seemed to mix with his blood, like adrenaline, or perhaps with the adrenaline during moments of stress, anger or danger. It was present after several missions as well. The day he learned the girl had been killed, he went feral. Hell, Kane, he punched his hand through a Coyote’s chest and tore out his heart. Even for a Breed, that’s not normal.”
Kane remembered those videos as well.
“They were smug about the death. The trainer was laughing and the scientist was less than sympathetic over the loss. Would either of us have done anything differently at the loss of someone we cared for?”
Callan glanced back at him as they moved through the mansion. “After restraining him, the scientist had the foresight to extract blood immediately. The adrenaline was so spiked with the unknown hormone that they decided it was some sort of fever. They used him to research it, then developed a drug therapy to control it.”
“A super downer,” Kane grunted.
“A drug perfected to control that particular hormone. They were still testing it when the rescues took place. He was slowly taken off the drug therapy after the rescues, but there was never a change in his control, until now,” Callan sighed as they entered his office. “And I have to agree with Ely, he’s not acting like himself. Mercury has never shown anger toward anyone in Sanctuary before.”
“Until someone accused him of attempting to rape a woman? Perhaps his woman?”
Callan rubbed one hand over his face as he collapsed in his chair and breathed out roughly. “Until now. And Ely doesn’t seem to know what the hell is going on.”
That one Kane very much doubted, and as he stared back at Callan, he knew his brother-in-law felt the same.
They had fought this fight for eleven years now. The battle to preserve the Breeds’ freedom and hold on to their secrets until they understood them themselves. The battle to protect their people, and their children.
Kane thought of his son, not much younger than Callan’s, and felt the same concern he knew ran through the other man’s mind. They couldn’t afford Mercury’s loss of control. He was the Breed that frightened little children on the street for God’s sake. The savage features of the animal stamped on the face of the man.
“What now?” he breathed out heavily.
“Pull Lawe away from the cabin and find Mercury. I’ll call Jonas back from D.C. Merc is one of his enforcers; maybe he can help us figure out what the hell is going on here. And how to control it.”