He straightened slowly. She was backing the imperious demand of right of territory with a summons by his pack leader. Again, almost impossible to ignore. But he’d ignored his responsibilities to Wolfe before for this woman lying before him; he could well do it again.
And he would have. It would have been so easy to lean into her, to steal her kiss and force her submission with the pleasure that would wrap around them both and hold them in place with bonds of sheer heated eroticism.
He could have done it so easily, if he weren’t staring into her eyes. If he hadn’t seen the distress that went beyond anger and physical pain in the incredible depths of her golden green eyes. Like lace, the green surrounded a ring of golden brown, weaving in and out and creating such a unique color she all but mesmerized him when he stared into her eyes.
Instead, he straightened. Slowly.
“I’ll be back, Dr. Morrey,” he promised her, shocking himself with the hoarseness of his tone. “When I am, you have tests to run.”
Ely didn’t speak.
He turned his head slowly, staring at her as she stood across the room, shoulders straight, her long dark brown hair pulled back into an intricate braided bun, defining the sharp Feline features of her face and the exotic dark brown eyes.
She was a Lioness ready to defend her charge, and he couldn’t blame her. He was certain he wasn’t giving the most confidence-inspiring impression at the moment.
She nodded sharply though, her gaze moving to the entrance to the lab as the secured doors slid open.
“Navarro, are you really going to make me look bad by refusing to accompany me down the hall, man?” Lawe Justice stepped into the exam room, and the fact that he seemed uncertain was almost amusing.
“How could I make you look any worse than you make yourself look, Lawe?” Navarro asked conversationally as the other Breed stepped closer.
Head tilted, his long black hair free around the defined, sculpted planes of his face, Lawe looked as though he’d already been in more than one fight that morning.
Ah yes, Phillip Brandenmore.
Lawe’s cheek was scraped with smears of blood on one side of his face, the other one was sporting what was sure to be a beautiful black eye come morning.
Lawe grimaced at the question. “Actually, it probably wouldn’t be too damned hard,” he grunted. “Come on, man, Wolfe is ready to murder because we’re not producing you. He thinks we’ve gone and massacred one of his favorite enforcers. He and Jonas are presently exchanging insults, which is normal for anyone who talks to Jonas except his mate, but Wolfe has already accused him of having locked you up or buried the body where it couldn’t be found. Let’s go make a nice little appearance if you don’t mind?”
Navarro could hear the exasperation in the other Breed’s voice and didn’t blame him a bit for it. Politics was alive and well, it seemed. It was just adopting a new member in the form of Lawe perhaps?
More and more Jonas seemed to be sending Lawe into the thick of conflicts and expecting him to actually work miracles.
“It’s a good thing for you Dr. Morrey has her own intractable presence,” Navarro informed him before nodding back to the doctor.
He turned back to Mica. “I’ll see you later.”
“Not if I see you first,” she muttered. “I’m calling Dad. I’m going home. He can have an army transport here in no time flat—”
He turned on her so quickly it was shocking. His expression dangerous, the warning in his black eyes almost frightening.
“Do you really want to push me?” There was that growl.
Her eyes widened. She, along with every Breed at Haven, was well aware that Navarro hardly ever growled. Until now.
She gazed back at him suspiciously, uncertain of the strength of determination in the sound. Exactly how far could he be pushed?
Arguing with her would serve no purpose, Navarro decided. Mica being stubborn meant, no matter man or Breed, active measures had to be taken immediately. Besides, he had to get the hell away from her. He couldn’t get the image of her sucking his dick out of his mind. Each time he turned to her, it was there, and the hunger for it was only growing.
The pure, melting need to have those silken, pouty lips opening over the engorged crest of his cock was becoming overwhelming at this point.
“Let’s go,” he ordered Lawe gruffly as he turned away from her, hoping—hell he was praying—she didn’t make the mistake of attempting to leave Sanctuary.
Not until he was certain that her trip to Haven—and she would be going to Haven—would be safe.
Striding past the other Breed, he ignored Lawe’s smirk and strode to the entrance. The door slid open with a soft hiss, allowing him to leave despite the fact that the last thing he wanted to do was leave her.
“If I didn’t know better, I would swear you’d mated her,” Lawe commented as he followed him out and the door closed behind them.
“No kidding.” Irritated and thrown off balance, he stared straight ahead as he headed for the vid-conference room on the other side of the underground facility.
“No mating scent,” Lawe pointed out thoughtfully. “The two of you were aroused, but not to the point of insanity.” Amusement laced his voice then. “Damn, seeing you now though, if you were mated, I’d be taking a vacation on the opposite side of the world. You’re going to be a mite hard to get along with, aren’t you?”
Navarro came to a slow stop before turning to stare at the other man.
“Weren’t we trained to be quiet, and unobtrusive?” he asked the other man with grave deliberation.
Lawe’s lips twitched. “Sure we were. Doesn’t mean we have to allow those bastards the pleasure of thinking they succeeded though. Right?”
Navarro grunted in response. “Contact Ely, tell her I’ll be back in the labs once we’re finished here.”
“You haven’t mated her, Navarro.” There was no amusement now, only the blunt truth. A truth that oddly enough had the power to piss him the fuck off.
“Mating heat is nothing but a contradiction and an anomaly with each pairing,” he reminded Lawe, jaw clenching as he fought against the need to attempt to disprove the very truth the other Breed had stated. “You can’t say that definitively at this time.”
Lawe shook his head as he propped one hand against the holstered weapon at his side and seemed to contemplate what Navarro realized was a rather weak, desperate argument.
“Hell, I don’t have time for this.” Turning his back on the Breed, Navarro stalked down the steel-lined corridor, that damned unfamiliar rumble brewing in his chest again.
How many times had he heard that sound from other Breeds and commented mockingly that they were being “drama Breeds”? And now, he could more fully appreciate the almost helpless frustration in being unable to control the sound.
Lawe, Styx and even Wolfe had commented that they envied many of his recessed traits, especially that one. The animalistic responses in the form of the growls and, at odd times, the agonized howls that echoed around Haven hadn’t been something Navarro envied the other Breeds for though.
He’d enjoyed his recessed status. He wasn’t certain how to feel now that he could sense the animal rising inside him. Now that he could hear it.
The question was, if it hadn’t made its appearance because of mating heat, then what exactly was it, and why had it only make itself known now that he was with Mica?
Mica stared at the ceiling of the examination room as Dr. Morrey, Ely as she and Cassie had always called her, finished her examination.
“Are your breasts tender or sensitive?” Ely asked as she stood back and stared down at her curiously.