She’d heard his warning to Josiah, and though she hated the fact he’d done something so possessive with nothing to back it up, she at least appreciated the effort. He claimed her, but he didn’t want her love, nor was he inclined to give her his love.
Lips thinning, she debated the best course of action in demanding his heart. She had a feeling simply making the demand wasn’t exactly going to work.
“You look like a woman with a grudge.” Merinus slipped out on the back porch where Mica stood watching him with Callan and Jonas as they met several of the pride commanders in the backyard.
“You could call it a grudge,” she said in agreement as she turned to Merinus. “Tell me, Prima, how do you secure a mate?”
“Secure his heart.” Her answer was quick, certain.
Perhaps she was the wrong person to ask.
“It should already be mine.” She turned and looked out to where he stood with the other men once again.
Merinus sighed deeply. “I believe he loves you more than he’ll ever love anyone, Mica, but he holds that part of him that couldn’t survive if he lost you back from you. I think it’s losing you that he fears, not loving you.”
“And that’s how he’s managed to hold back the mating,” she decided.
She was aware of Merinus crossing her arms over her breasts as they both watched the men then. “Ely agrees with me actually, as does Dr. Armani,” Merinus stated.
Nikki Armani, the Wolf Breed specialist had been telling her for years that the Wolf Breeds were far more stubborn and independent than the Felines, and Mica hadn’t believed her. After all, in the animal world, it was the predatory cats that were far more independent and less social than those of wolves.
“It was their training,” Merinus continued. “It was horrifying for the Felines, but for the Wolf Breeds, it was even more so in many cases. They weren’t considered as valuable or as intelligent. They were used as research subjects more often, and the files I’ve read have given me nightmares for weeks. No Wolf Breed mate will have it easy.”
“So how do I seduce my mate’s heart?”
Merinus gave a little light laugh. “I would say, Mica, you know Navarro far better than I do. What’s his weakness? Even more, what is his weakness where you’re concerned? What would force him to give up that part of himself that he’s holding back?”
“It’s according to the part he’s holding back.” She sighed.
“Mica, he’s your mate,” Merinus chided. “What part of Navarro do you never see? Never sense? What part needs to be seduced?”
How easy that answer should have been. “The recessed genetics,” she murmured. “Every time his inner animal begins to push forward, he finds a way to push it back.”
“Every Breed fights that inner animal in one way or the other,” Merinus agreed. “Recessive genetics are a bitch. If Ria and Mercury were here, they could tell you how that inner animal can destroy the Breed if they don’t allow it free.”
Wild and free.
The Breeds were men and women who carried the animals inside them. Animals that demanded freedom, that demanded supremacy over the human that fought to contain it.
“Recessed Breeds have a greater battle,” Merinus continued. “Mating awakens those genetics and changes everything for them. These aren’t men and women who adapt well to such change, or such loss of control. They’ve not had to deal with their animal, and dealing with it is something they will fight at all costs.”
“Even losing their mate?” Mica glanced sideways at the other woman.
Merinus was silent for a long moment before she glanced at Mica regretfully. “There have been times. I feared it would come to just that with Mercury and Ria. But his circumstances were unusual. Though”—a rueful grin pulled at her lips—“they’re all rather unique, aren’t they?”
“Women need a damned rule book to deal with them.” Mica sighed again.
“And where would the fun in that be?” The love Merinus felt for her own mated husband, Callan, was reflected in her voice. “You’ll never be bored, you’ll always be loved and warm, and above all things, they will do whatever is necessary to protect you.”
And that was the promise he had made to her, that no matter what, he would protect her. He was protecting her just fine. From everything but the mating heat.
“Callan says you’re fighting the arousal,” Merinus said then. “That you’re not going to Navarro, you’re waiting for him to come to you.”
“I’m not going to beg,” she gritted out. She felt as though she had been begging him as long as she’d known him. She would like, at least once, to see him come to her.
“And the heat is there for a reason,” Merinus stated. “Use it, Mica, or risk living in the hell you’re in forever, and perhaps losing Navarro in the process.”
Merinus turned and left then, entering the house once again and leaving Mica to watch Navarro thoughtfully.
The heat was there for a reason.
The emotions tearing through her, the anger she kept biting back, the emotions she kept such careful control of. They were all there for a reason.
Just as it would be for him. The genetics that would cement the mating heat were all there, and he was holding them back. He was denying them both, and she was tired of sitting back and hiding everything she felt, everything she craved.
Her lips thinned at the thought. For too many years she hid her emotions, always frightened that the anger and pain she felt would backlash if the Breeds suspected that because of it, she was capable of betrayal.
She’d seen Wolfe Gunnar ban several humans from Haven when he had sensed a family member’s hatred of the Breeds. Her fear of costing her family the protection Haven afforded terrified her.
Dash wouldn’t allow it.
Cassie wouldn’t allow it.
She had to hold on to that thought, believe in it as Cassie had always sworn she could.
Somehow, her friend had to have suspected what Mica was doing over the years, because she had promised her that no matter how angry a situation made her, she could always trust in her friendship and in her father’s.
She had to trust in it now, because it was the only way she was going to force Navarro’s animal out into the open. Wolf Breeds were incredibly protective, so much so that a mate’s pain could drive the Breed to violence simply because the animal genetics they carried inside went haywire.
Rather than hiding her pain, she was going to have to release it. She was going to have to force the animal inside him to tear free rather than attempting to convince Navarro to let it be free.
As she watched him, he turned slowly, his black eyes looking up at her from the rims of the dark sunglasses he wore.
Slowly, teasingly, he winked, surprising her at the flirtatiousness of the gesture, but also, the challenge.
Narrowing her eyes on him she let her tongue run slowly over her upper lip, dampening it, wondering if it would affect him as that little wink had her.
And it did.
She saw his expression before he cleared it.
She watched the slow shift of his body as her gaze dropped to the proof of his erection behind the denim of his jeans.
She felt her heart rate double, her stomach clench and a feeling of breathlessness sweep through her as she fought to hold back the rush of her juices, failing horribly.
Her pussy creamed furiously, heated, her clit swelling with a force that had her aching to moan with the need for release.
Just that fast. He could do it to her just that fast.
There wasn’t a hope in hell of being able to survive without his touch, and Mica didn’t even bother to tell herself she could. Staring back at him, watching him, awaiting him, she could only hope that she could one day own half as much of his heart as he held of hers.