Elizabeth was excusing her actions, and Ria had expected it of her. They had always excused them. She was young. She hadn’t understood. They had tried to make her guilt over the choice she made easier.
“Dane would have killed him anyway, Ria,” Elizabeth said softly, guessing the turn of her thoughts. “He was offering not to do it where you could see; he wasn’t offering not to pull the trigger. When Jason attempted to gain money by betraying you to the Council, he signed his death warrant. There was no way Dane would have allowed him to live.”
“Jason wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t told him.”
“And he wouldn’t have died if he’d had an ounce of humanity in him,” Mercury snarled as he stepped around the curtain and glared at her. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Elizabeth’s brow arched as Ria felt her teeth snap together.
“I’ll let you know the test results when I have them,” Elizabeth promised. “I took Alaiya’s earlier, performed the examination.”
Ria’s head jerked back to her grandmother.
Elizabeth’s expression was compassionate. “She’s showing signs of mating heat, Ria. But that doesn’t mean anything. It merely means she’s been in contact with her mate.”
“She kissed Mercury.”
Elizabeth’s gaze turned to him, almost accusatory.
“It was no more than a press of lips,” he snapped. “Do you think I’d risk my mate by chancing another woman having that part of me?”
Elizabeth frowned. “In every mating I’ve researched, for heat to begin, there has to be an exchange of the hormone in some way and it has to be compatible.”
“Trust me, there was no exchange,” Mercury growled. “Except with Ria.”
“An interesting mystery then.” Elizabeth turned back to where the vials and samples waited on the lab counter, next to the equipment that had arrived that morning and been put in place. “Go on then. I’ll get things started here before Leo brings the twins to me. We should know something soon.”
“Don’t forget the party tonight,” Ria reminded her. “Dane has already ordered my attendance.”
“I’ll be there.” Elizabeth nodded, though she didn’t turn away from her samples. “Go on now, and we’ll talk later.”
The party wasn’t one Ria was looking forward to. The pre-Thanksgiving buffet and ball had Sanctuary in an uproar already. Leo was stalking the upstairs halls, as were a dozen members of his security force, as they protected the twins and other Breed children confined there for the day. No one was allowed upstairs without authorization, including Breeds, whether they were enforcers or guests.
The room Ria and Mercury had been assigned was on the basement level, on the other side of the labs. Her dress and accessories waited there; the hairdresser assigned to Merinus and the other female mates of the ruling family would be attending her as well.
It was a mess. This was why she didn’t do parties, she told herself as they moved up the stairs that led to the first floor of the mansion. In her alternate persona, she didn’t have to go through this. She didn’t have to worry about dressing her hair, making up her face, smiling at all the surprised looks or dealing with the false friendliness.
Not that she felt that way about the ruling family. But this party was for the Breeds’ benefactors-corporate CEOs, senators and political figures, billionaires and groupies. And all eyes would be on her because most of them knew the plain paper pusher, not the woman they would see tonight.
“I could help provide security for the party,” she told Mercury as they stepped into the long hallway. “We could just find a dark corner and make out.”
“You’re not providing security. The dark corner is an option.” She heard the smile in his voice. “And I’m not working security tonight, at least not in uniform. I’ll be attending as a representative of the Breed Enforcers and one of Jonas’s assistants. He palms off on me the fat, balding little guys who want to hear war stories.”
She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes. “And you deal with this how?”
“I usually growl, flash the canines and watch them run for cover,” he chuckled. “Even Jonas thinks it’s funny.”
“Jonas would.”
She could feel her palms sweating. Engalls and Brandenmore would be at this party. It was obvious they hadn’t gained what they were after at the last one. They had procured this invitation as they had the other, by pulling immeasurable strings at the last moment.
As they turned the hall corner, another door opened farther ahead, and Alaiya stepped from Jonas’s office. Her cheeks were flushed in anger, her expression twisted with it, as she glared back at Ria.
“Hello again,” Ria muttered.
If she hadn’t otherwise felt Mercury’s surprise, she would have smelled it as he glanced at her quickly.
She almost bit her lip. There was that Breed attitude surging inside again. She hadn’t been this psyched by her Breed genetics since she was a teenager.
Alaiya froze when she saw her, though. Her gaze flicked over Ria’s body, her nostrils flared as she inhaled, and rage glittered in her eyes.
“Breed!” she hissed.
“My, do you think she’s referring to me?” Ria asked in false innocence as the feline in her rose to the challenge.
“Hell,” Mercury muttered. “Alaiya, stand down.”
The other woman took a classic challenging stance, feet spread apart, her fingers curling at her sides as though imitating claws.
Ria almost hissed, but it came out as a surprised squeak, as Mercury shoved her behind him, barked out into his mic an order for reinforcements and snarled back at Alaiya. “I gave you an order, Breed! Stand down.”
“Do you actually believe I need you to protect me against her?” Ria leaned against the wall, peeking around his shoulder and flashing the other woman a triumphant smile. “I can take her.”
She wrinkled her nose playfully back at Alaiya, though there was nothing playful rising inside her.
Mercury’s expression tightened in disbelief as he shot her a quick look.
“Our mating tests matched,” Alaiya hissed, pacing closer, her body tense, prepared. “You stink of her.”
“I thought you smelled kind of nice myself,” Ria felt compelled to point out to Mercury with a hint of laughter. “Eau de Ria goes well with your Breed scent.”
“Would you stop!” Mercury bit out as Alaiya growled again.
“Take up for her and I’ll kick your arse instead of hers.” Uh-oh. There was that accent again.
She lounged against the wall, her head turned, making certain Alaiya had a clear view of her expression as three Breeds turned the corner and Jonas stepped out of his office, behind Alaiya.
They all seemed to freeze at the scents assailing them. Ria could smell it herself. Mercury’s anger combined with her own, the scent of their mating, their hormones adjusting, the two of them blending into each other until they were nearly combined. And Alaiya. Pure rage and heat, a singular scent mixed with fury.
“What the hell is going on here?” Jonas asked carefully as Alaiya hissed again.
“Remove her from him!” Alaiya shoved her finger toward Ria. “I demand it. Until the mating tests come back, I demand she be separated from him.”
Jonas’s brows rose in surprise as Ria bared her teeth in a hiss and glared back at him. “Try it,” she snarled. “You won’t like the consequences, Jonas, and we both know it.”
Because Dane and Leo would come down on him like a ton of bricks. Him, Alaiya and anyone else who stood between her and her mate.
She didn’t bother snarling, growling or copying that continual asinine hiss coming from Alaiya’s lips. She merely narrowed her eyes back at the other woman in confident challenge.