“Or fully free,” he said.
“Or fully free,” she agreed.
And she blamed this on Navarro. When she wrote up her statement later, she would be certain to include that.
“Poor Navarro,” Jackal finally grunted as he lifted his glass for a drink.
“No, poor Mica,” she argued. “She’ll receive the brunt of the pain if Navarro manages to walk away from her. She’ll be the one that suffers. And that leaves me in a very untenable position. Do I use this unique response to search for a way to ease mating heat, perhaps grow closer to curing it? Or do I instead attempt to convince Navarro to understand, before it’s too late, because Mica may never be free of him?”
And the suffering wasn’t easy. Mating heat demanded touch, it demanded a kiss. And now with Mica and Navarro it seemed to demand love and the mate.
“I should warn Mica,” she sighed. “She needs to know what the possible outcome to this can be.”
“No, don’t.”
She stared back at him in surprise. “This isn’t your call, Jackal.”
“And it’s not yours either, Ely,” he stated, his tone harsh as she stared back at him in disagreement. “Stick to the science of mating heat, and leave those two to figure out their emotions alone. They won’t thank you for interfering, and you’ll only end up hurting yourself if you don’t stay out of it, and blaming yourself if you don’t attempt to see what effect Navarro’s control of his emotions could have on future mates, or the world’s discovery of mating heat.”
“Just let him break her heart, Jackal? Is it worth following this if she lives her life in pain?” she questioned him bitterly.
“It doesn’t sound to me that you could help either of them either way, Ely. Let them have a chance to find each other’s heart. Just because you’re determined to deny it yourself doesn’t mean Mica should.”
Ely stood to her feet slowly. She was finished at this point. She’d be damned if she would be drawn into this argument again.
“I don’t deny anything, Jackal. Nor do I avoid it. I leave that to the rest of you.”
She turned and walked away from him, shaking on the inside at the confrontation and wondering if this time Jonas would finally give her a new bodyguard.
CHAPTER 11
The next morning Mica was waiting for Navarro at the elevator entrance of the floor their suite was located on.
Leaning back against the wall, her arms crossed over her breasts, she watched as he turned into the small corridor and then came to a stop in front of her.
His dark gaze went over her, remaining impossibly distant, before meeting her eyes.
Slowly, Mica arched a brow as she reached over and pressed the old-fashioned button to send the order along the lines to the elevator, telling it to rise to meet them.
She didn’t speak, but she didn’t break his gaze either. She had sworn she wouldn’t beg him, and she meant it.
“Did you sleep well last night?” he finally asked her with all discretion of a falling wall.
“Perfectly well,” she lied, and she did it effectively.
His nostrils flared as he drew in her scent to check for the lie she was certain he knew she was telling. The lie she knew was well hidden.
She may have spent an absolutely miserable night, but she was rather calm this morning if she did say so herself. The night hadn’t been one of her more pleasant, the symptoms of mating heat had driven her nearly insane. At one point she had actually found herself outside his bedroom door, shaking, so desperate to feel him inside her that she was ready to demand her rights as his mate.
Hell, he’d moved his stuff into her room. Everything but him. What the hell was going on here?
Pride had finally kicked in though, a second before her fist landed on the door. Thank God. She couldn’t have borne the shame of it otherwise.
The elevator doors slid open, and with a graceful roll of her shoulders Mica pushed herself from the wall and entered the compartment.
Sliding into the far corner, she kept a wary eye on Navarro and cursed her body at the same time. She was supposed to have a handle on this arousal stuff for the day. She’d finally taken one cold shower too many the night before, chilling her body until the heat abated.
And now it was rising once again, with a strength that had her groaning silently as she stared at the back of the man that claimed to be her mate.
“Have you eaten this morning?” he asked as the old elevator made its way to the labs nearly ten floors beneath the estate house.
“Nope. I know better,” she assured him. She hadn’t been coming to Sanctuary all these years for nothing.
He was silent then, his back tense as Mica wisely remained silent as well.
As the elevator came to a stop, Mica had to steel herself to actually step from it. The memories of Brandenmore and his attack the day she arrived were still very fresh in her mind.
As she took the first step, Navarro turned back to her, his black eyes watching her closely.
“Everything okay?” Flashing him a bright, confident smile, she stepped forward as two Breed Enforcers made their way down the long hall.
“Everything’s fine.” His smile was tighter.
“You have the look of a man who has something pricking his little mind,” she commented, mockery and anger mixing into the arousal burning inside her.
“Navarro always has something pricking his little mind.” Josiah Black sniggered teasingly as he stepped up to them.
His arm was in a sling, obviously still healing from the confrontation with Brandenmore and Navarro the day before. His eye was still bruised, but healing quickly.
Breeds tended to heal quickly, and Josiah seemed to be proving the theory.
“Be nice, Josiah, Navarro’s having a bad day.” She threw Navarro another calm, confident little smile.
If he thought she was going to kiss his ass and beg him to touch her, then he could think again. She was more likely to attempt to kick his ass today.
“You’re treading on thin ice, little girl,” he warned her, his voice low enough that the words carried no further than her own ears.
“What are you going to do, Navarro? Spank me?” She winked at him as she let her gaze slide over his body then back to his eyes. “I might enjoy it.”
Josiah snorted behind her, while Cougar shifted beside her as though uncomfortable. Only one thing could make a Breed of Cougar’s ilk uncomfortable. The threat of danger from a Breed he was unwilling to fight.
Navarro stood watching her, black eyes focused completely on her, his face more still than normal and completely devoid of expression.
The danger was coming from Navarro?
Oh, he might be feeling dangerous, but it wasn’t violence he had need of. And she wasn’t in the mood to pamper him, whatever seemed to be his problem.
“So, are the two of you escorting us to Ely’s lab?” she asked as she shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and turned to the other Breeds. “I’d like to hurry and get this over with if you don’t mind.”
She did have better things to do at the moment. Things such as washing her hair, cleaning floors, masturbating maybe? The masturbating part was rumored not to help, but she was getting desperate enough to try it.
Cougar spoke up then. “Josiah will escort you to Ely. She doesn’t need Navarro today.” He turned to Navarro. “Callan and Jonas would like to see you in the vid-comm room ASAP.”
And Navarro didn’t like the idea of that much at all. Mica could actually feel the denial emanating from him.
Poor Navarro. Wasn’t that just too damned bad?
“Well, Josiah, looks like you’re it. You get to babysit me.” Sliding her hand to the bend of his elbow, she urged him up the hallway. “You know, I think the black eye I gave you when you were eighteen looked much nicer than this one. Are you getting old, or did I just have a hell of a stroke of luck then?”