Dane winced. “Jonas isn’t going to like that, Father.”
Leo grinned. All teeth, his amber brown eyes filling with amusement. “That young whelp. He’ll find out exactly how he came by those manipulative instincts of his. I’m not an old man, Dane, despite my age. I still know what the hell I’m doing here.”
That was true. Unfortunately, Callan and Sanctuary were becoming Leo’s weaknesses. And Elizabeth’s. Because Callan was one of the few children created using both their genetics. And he was a pride leader before his prime, just as Leo had been.
If Dane weren’t fully confident of his place within the hierarchy of his father’s pride, he might have been a shade jealous of his younger brother. Instead, he was very much worried. Unlike Dane, Callan hadn’t yet realized, not clear to the bone, exactly how deceptive other Breeds could be. Especially traitors.
“The Leo has landed,” Ria said softly as she pulled the small, slender sat phone she carried at her hip free of its holster and read the coded message. “He’ll be at Sanctuary in the morning.”
As would Elizabeth. Ria forced herself to remain relaxed, calm, as the limo pulled into the lane that led to the cabin. Tomorrow, tests would begin being given by someone she knew she could trust. Elizabeth knew more about mating heat and Breed physiology than any other scientist could possibly understand. She had lived through the mating, the various phases of heat, the conception and birth of two sets of twins and Dane. She had tested herself, experimented on herself, and when Leo began forming his own personal army to rescue the children he knew were being created with his sperm and the eggs stolen from Elizabeth before their escape from the labs, she’d had other Breeds and other mates to compare her findings to.
And now she would have her granddaughter to test. Her granddaughter and the rabid little female cat determined to steal the mate Ria had taken.
Ria stared at the back of the tinted glass as the limo drew to a stop in front of the cabin. The two Breeds from the front left vehicle approached the cabin and went through it for a security check before Ria and Mercury entered.
Did they know? she wondered. Lawe and Rule were exceptionally perceptive for Breeds, and they had Jonas’s trust. Did they know what she was? She had no doubt they were aware by now that she was a Breed. It was becoming impossible to keep that animal contained. Before Mercury, it hadn’t been a problem. Before the mating, she’d had no concerns that it could ever slip free, because her control was too ingrained.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked the question quietly as they waited for Lawe and Rule.
Ria stared into the forest, with its covering of snow, and the predators that were making their presence known. The lions seemed to follow Mercury. She had seen that in Africa, on the estate Leo had built deep within the Congo. There, were some Breeds, those like Mercury, who could control the fierce, wild creatures.
“I told someone once,” she finally said quietly. “My first lover. A month later, Dane had to kill him. He was trying to find the Council, to connect with them and to sell me to them.”
Dane had shown no mercy. The moment he learned what was going on, he had arrived at her new apartment, torn her lover from her bed and ordered Ria to the car. They had flown to the Congo. Twenty-four hours later she had watched as Dane put a bullet in her lover’s brain. He was twenty. And she had thought she loved him.
She pushed her fingers through her loose hair, aware of his hand settling over her thigh, comforting, warm. She shook her head and refused to look at him.
“The Vanderales didn’t raise you themselves?”
She shook her head. “They oversaw me, though. Dane was always about when I needed him. But they couldn’t risk the questions it would raise if they took in an orphan and raised her. Especially an orphan tied to the victim of a violent act. My mother was in a vehicular accident with several other cars, but what no one knew was that she crashed the vehicle herself. She killed herself, the Coyote Breed that had taken her hostage and the occupants of two other cars, to protect the Vanderale secrets. Once the Vanderales learned about me, they were afraid the Coyote might have already reported his findings to the Council, and that I would be compromised as well. They protected me, but they protected themselves as well.”
“Dane’s your father?” he asked.
“No. Dane’s my biological uncle. My mother was a Breed that Leo and his force rescued. She was created using the genetics stolen from the Leo and Elizabeth. I’m their natural granddaughter. My parents disappeared from Leo after their mating. When my father died, she returned, but never told them about me.”
“They deserted you, Ria,” he said, his voice quiet, but filled with anger. “They should have raised you.”
“They should have done exactly as they did.” She turned and faced him then. “Actually, they should have done much less, in order to fully protect themselves. I’m a hybrid, Mercury, and not even a particularly effective hybrid. My talents are simple, my instincts regressed. For all intents and purposes, I’m merely human. They risked themselves in what little they did, and I’m grateful for it.”
“They didn’t love you,” he growled.
She smiled sadly at the accusation. “They loved me, Mercury. And they love me now. I didn’t tell you what I was because I’ve never forgotten the value of silence. My lover died in front of me. Begging me for mercy. Begging me to stay Dane’s wrath. Because my lover betrayed me. He risked my capture, as well as the Leo’s, Elizabeth’s and Dane’s. My bad judgment could have destroyed us all. And it never will again.”
The limo door opened as she finished speaking. Drawing her jacket closer around her, she never felt the cold as she stepped out into it. All she felt was the heat, clawing at her insides. She had waited too long and she knew it. Sating the horrific arousal tearing her apart wouldn’t be easy. Nor would it be gentle.
Mercury escorted her to the cabin, stepped inside ahead of her and waited as she entered. He closed the door slowly, then locked it.
The sound of the click was like a bomb going off inside her mind. Her knees weakened, and her tongue began to itch. She closed her eyes. She didn’t have the glands beneath her tongue that Mercury did; she didn’t have the hormone needed to induce mating heat. But she could still feel the anomalies in her own body. She had felt them since the first time she had come in contact with him.
“What was his name?” Mercury asked her.
Ria knew who he meant. She shrugged out of the leather coat before sitting down and unlacing her boots.
“His name was Jason. He was the son of one of Leo’s contractors. They never realized what happened to their son. Dane had his body flown back to Jo’burg and placed where he would be found. It appeared an act of random violence.”
“He deserved it, Ria,” Mercury growled.
She turned to face him slowly. “He didn’t deserve it. I could have saved him. Dane looked back at me before he killed him. He gave me the choice and I remained silent. Because I knew if I stayed his hand, Leo, Dane and the Breeds they had rescued over the years would never be safe again.”
The choices Dane had been forced to make broke her heart. The choice she had made that day had never broken her soul.
“Which doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell your Breed mate that you’re a Breed,” he pointed out, and though his voice was calm, she could feel his anger.
“Because I no longer consider myself a Breed, hybrid or otherwise,” she said. “And I wouldn’t have, as long as I could have kept that part of me in submission. There was no reason to tell you, simply because I had no intentions of allowing it to be free.”