He didn’t take the warning further; there was no need to. He’d said all he needed to say. The warning was implicit in and of itself. He’d stay away from her. It was that simple.
Josiah may have decided they were enemies for the moment. Perhaps forever. Navarro didn’t give a damn. He’d made his position clear. If Josiah attempted to touch what was his, then he’d pay for it.
“Navarro. We need to talk.”
Turning, Navarro watched as Jonas stepped from the office farther up the foyer. Dark, icy cold, the director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs looked as imposing as hell and not in the least pleased as Navarro moved to the end of the wide foyer and stepped into the office.
“What the hell are you up to?” Jonas growled as he closed the door behind them.
“Hell if I know.” Turning to face him, Navarro crossed his arms over his chest and wondered exactly what burr Jonas had up his ass this time. “You’ll have to be more specific, Director.”
“Why did you return to the labs after leaving earlier? And why were you attempting to access Phillip Brandenmore’s cell?”
Navarro stared back at him in surprise. Now here was a new one. With the security in the labs it should have been pretty damned evident he hadn’t been in the labs since that time he’d been there with Mica for those damned inconclusive mating tests.
“I haven’t been back to the labs, Jonas. And I’ve definitely not attempted to access Brandenmore’s cell. I have far better things to do than to fuck with him at the moment.”
Jonas stared back at him with icy suspicion. Navarro knew the director’s inability to scent deception from him was a sore point. Jonas’s sensitivity raked off the charts as well, making it impossible to know exactly how sensitive his sense of smell could be. The difference was, as director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs, Jonas’s inability to confirm any of his enforcers answers as truth or lie was a problem.
Finally he grimaced, a sign that he was willing to trust, but only for the moment.
“Your access code was used to attempt to breach Brandenmore’s cells an hour ago. We have it logged.”
“And I was with my mate an hour ago,” Navarro stated with icy distain even as he began to feel a cold edge of premonition beginning to run through him. “Change my codes,” he told Jonas. “Something’s not right here, Jonas.”
Jonas watched him for long, careful moments, though this time, there was no suspicion marking his expression. There was instead a barely glimpsed hint of calculation in his gaze.
“Someone breached the cells the other day when you went down with Mica for the first mating tests. We had the protocols changed to log all access codes into the hall leading to his cell. Someone released him. He didn’t get himself out.”
“What do the security camera’s show?”
“An error notice that an electronic jammer was being used. That message alerted us to the problem but by the time we managed to get to the cells, whoever it was was gone. But your access code was the last one entered into the security panel at the time.”
“It wasn’t possible.” He shook his head again. “I was with Mica and before that I was involved in a confrontation with Josiah that began in the labs. He’s an asshole, but he’ll tell you where I was.” His lips thinned then. “Has it occurred to you, Jonas, that perhaps if you didn’t allow the humans within Sanctuary’s secured areas, that perhaps you wouldn’t have nearly so many spies?”
“It occurs to me every fucking time one of them betrays us.” Jonas cursed. “But isolating ourselves isn’t going to solve the problem. We’ll only become easier to frame. And the problem is becoming more Breed than human. Our spies, Navarro, are our own people.”
And wasn’t that the truth. Breeds who had been too strong to maintain the normally high level of genetic animal coding. Their human genetics had instead taken precedence, and greed and prejudice took over.
“Then what options are left to you?” Navarro asked bitterly. “The humans begin the problems, Jonas. You’re sacrificing Sanctuary for the sake of world opinion?”
“Not hardly.” Jonas grunted. “It’s taken us a while, but we’re finally uncovering them. We were aware it was possible we still had one or two working with Brandenmore, but until now, we weren’t entirely certain.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t suspect me of this then. This time,” Navarro stated roughly.
“I suspect everyone, Navarro.” And there was no doubt Jonas didn’t have ample cause to do just that. “No one is beneath my suspicion except my mate and my child. Remember that. And remember what’s important in your life.”
“Meaning?” Jonas was always all about the advice.
Jonas let a rueful grin tug at his lips. “You’re used to being alone, You’ve not had to worry about anyone but yourself. You’ve not had to watch anyone’s back but your own since the rescue of the labs. Having a mate, having that responsibility, changes things.”
“I don’t need a mating lecture.”
Jonas brows lifted. “Then how about a friendly warning. Get your head out of your ass and get your mating scent on your woman before you lose her forever. Until then, I want you in the labs with me and help me figure out what the hell is going on there and why someone is trying to make it look like you’re aiding Brandenmore in an escape.”
Jonas left the office, leaving Navarro to watch his back until he jerked the door open and disappeared along the foyer.
The mating scent still wasn’t there?
What the hell was nature doing to them now?
And who the hell thought they could frame him for Brandenmore’s release? He’d see the bastard dead before he’d ever see him free.
CHAPTER 15
She wasn’t going to put up with it.
Mica could feel the anger beginning to build inside her the more the knowledge of Navarro’s hold on her penetrated her senses.
It was her fault as much as it was nature’s that she’d become mated to him though. She’d been the one stupid enough to fall in love with a Breed when she had been too damned young to even understand the implications of it.
And had she let go of it as she grew older? As she’d realized exactly what she would be facing if the worst happened?
She hadn’t.
She’d remained distant from him. She hadn’t pushed the situation. But it hadn’t been because she hadn’t wanted to. It had been because she’d been too frightened of loving a man, a Breed, whose very genetics would demand everything she had and then more in a life that would be more dangerous than it ever had been.
Loving a Breed and enduring the lives they lived required a strength Mica was never certain she had.
Navarro wasn’t blameless in this though. Pheromones, biology, physiology, chemical matches, whatever the hell the science of it wanted to label the phenomena, it was still a bonding, a connection, not that different from any other relationship. Mating heat simply refused to allow the Breeds, who had been trained not to feel, to dream or to love, to walk away from the man or woman that would love them with the depth it took to continue their species.
Man had created them, but God had definitely adopted them, and he had made the decision that they would survive.
It was a decision, that in their case, Navarro was attempting to cancel.
Ten days after arriving at Sanctuary, after being mated by the stubborn, taciturn Wolf Breed, Mica was still looking at full-blown mating heat while Navarro was skating by with diluted symptoms and the ability to walk away from her.
Oh, this wasn’t going to work for her.
It had taken her a while to find her footing, she had to admit, to find her “mad” emotion, but Navarro had no idea just how pissed off she was over it as she stood watching him the next afternoon.