Not enough mating hormone?
Mica struggled to make sense of the words.
“So, Navarro isn’t a walking hard-on this morning,” she whispered.
Ely shook her head. “Yesterday, yes. The day before, definitely. But somewhere in the past twenty-four hours the emotion-based hormones that drive the mating heat seem to have begun disappearing from his system. They’ve become amplified within yours though, driven and made stronger by whatever emotions you keep bottled inside you.” Her gaze was somber. “I am so sorry, Mica, that it had to be you who seems to be proving my theories that the mating heat reacts in large part to the emotions, both conscious and subconscious, of the mates involved.”
“So Navarro has no emotions.” She felt blank inside. As though everything she knew about herself and the world had been stripped away from her overnight.
“I’m certain he has emotions,” Ely said, her voice soft. “But I know his creation, his training. He was trained to annihilate even a suspicion of any emotions beyond hatred. And he would have succeeded perhaps, if it weren’t for the fact Navarro wasn’t raised entirely at the labs. He was there during the rescues by choice, Mica. An attempt to save his brother and his brother’s mate before the scientists there learned of the mating. Navarro was taken from the labs by his grandparents.”
“Morton and Elsie Blaine.” Mica remembered them. She’d actually seen them from a distance a few times when they had come to Haven to see Navarro.
“Yes.” Ely nodded. “After the age of ten, he was raised by his grandparents. Unfortunately, he had a Counciltrained nanny. And that nanny was a monster, as was the butler the Council managed to get into the Blaine household. Navarro didn’t have a chance to develop the emotions that were bred out of him, Mica. The fact that he’s as compassionate as he is is surprising.”
The Blaines’ daughter had been kidnapped by the Council and used as a breeder. Navarro and Randal were a result of that union, but the Council refused to allow Morton and Elsie to buy Randal as they allowed them to buy his twin, Navarro. They had never seen their other grandson before he was killed during the rescues.
Randal had been their insurance against the Blaines striking back at them.
And Mica believed they would have. Morton Blaine might not have been able to destroy them, but with his financial empire and the powerful friends and favors he had gained over the years, he could have hurt them, if nothing else.
That, or destroyed all the Breeds by making sure the world learned of them in a more threatening light than had occurred with Callan Lyons announcing their presence.
“So, simply put, he realized he might be beginning to feel something for me, and destroyed it?” Mica asked with bitter sarcasm.
Ely nodded hesitantly as Mica felt her chest clench with the hurt that suddenly exploded inside her, which even she couldn’t hide.
She swore she saw Ely flinch as well as the emotion struck through Mica’s soul, rending it in half.
“So Navarro is no longer in mating heat?”
Once again Ely nodded. “All but the smallest traces of the hormone are gone from his system.”
Mica’s fists clenched around the edge of the thick pad beneath her as she fought the need to rock in agony.
A distant part of her couldn’t believe the horrendous pain welling inside her now. It was like a wildfire, sucking the life out of everything in its path.
“And that leaves me where?”
“A mate, without a mate,” Ely stated, her voice incredibly gentle, her brown eyes filled with pity.
She pitied her. Ely was watching her and feeling sorry for her, Mica thought.
She swallowed tightly. “Let’s get this over with then.” She had to force the words past numb lips as she realized she was nearly gasping for breath. “You need samples, right?”
“Blood, saliva and vaginal.” Ely clasped her hands in her lap. “You should be prepared, Mica, it may be very painful. And there’s nothing I can do to ease the pain. Most female mates seem to have a horrible physical reaction to even a female touch during the strongest phases of mating heat.”
Once again Mica nodded shortly, as Ely reached for the supplies in the small basket at the end of the gurney. “I’ll get the blood first, then we can do the rest.”
As Ely took the blood, Mica could feel no pain. There was a heavy layer of discomfort, a feeling of disgust and loathing each time Ely was forced to touch her, even through the latex gloves she wore, but the extreme physical discomfort was absent.
She was a mate without a mate.
“There.” Several minutes and four vials later, Ely pushed back from the bed. “Change into one of the gowns and we’ll get the rest of it finished as quickly as possible.”
Mica moved from the gurney, feeling the ache of loneliness and the loss of what she hadn’t even dared to hope for, but had fantasized of. Navarro’s love.
Pulling one of the soft cotton gowns from the small rack in the bathroom linen cabinet, Mica blinked at the moisture in her eyes, uncertain why this seemed to be affecting her so strongly.
It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been fully aware that Navarro had no intention of loving her. That this heat stuff was something he would escape if he could.
But she hadn’t believed he could escape it, any more than she could.
Sucked to be her. Navarro was escaping and she was burning alive with the need for his touch.
Typical.
She should have never expected less.
Hell, she should have expected just this.
Navarro sat in the vid-comm conference room, relaxed, leaning back in the comfortably padded chair, arms relaxed casually on the rests at his side, watching Wolfe Gunnar; Del-Rey Delgado; their mates, Hope Gunner and Anya Delgado; and their seconds in command, Jacob Arlington and Brim Stone on the large screen. Now joining them were Dash and Elizabeth Sinclair, to assess the information coming in as the video conference, Navarro hoped, was winding to an end.
“How much longer, Callan?” Wolfe questioned as his gaze sliced to Navarro from the mounted large-screen video communications board.
“As soon as Jonas can get the heli-jet here safely,” Callan stated with no regard to the fact that Wolfe was all but ordering him to make it happen. “I understand your concerns, Wolfe, but moving Mica at the moment simply isn’t possible. We believe the risk is too high.”
Wolfe grimaced as he turned to Dash Sinclair, the Wolf Breed who had arrived to assess the present danger and decide the next course of action where his goddaughter was concerned.
Dash was presently staring a hole through Navarro, and the angered, knowing glitter in his amber eyes would have been enough to have any other Breed sweating.
“What aren’t you telling me, Callan?” Dash turned his gaze to the pride leader.
It seemed all eyes turned to Navarro, and in each case there was a sense of confusion and perhaps a hint of a question.
“At the moment, Dash, the only thing you’re not being told is information we’re not certain of.” Callan turned back to the screen and the other Breeds’ intent look. “As soon as I have the information and can verify it though, then you’ll be the first to know, I promise you this.”
“And if Mica were to find a mate while she’s at Sanctuary?” Dash asked coolly. “Would you tell me immediately, Callan?”
“Dash, the minute I verified and Dr. Morrey reverified the tests, then you would know,” Callan assured him sincerely. “That is not information I would keep from you.”
Now there was a load of shit if Navarro had ever heard one. He slid a look in Callan’s direction, expecting to see a warning in the Feline Pride leader’s gaze to hold to the lie. Rather than the warning though, what he saw was somber confusion and, amazingly, pity.