He could feel her.
Navarro hadn’t imagined he could feel so much from one person with the distance that existed between him and Mica. As though they were connected in a way he’d hadn’t imagined possible.
He felt her heart break, and there were no words, no way to tell her how much he regretted that pain, how he would ease it if he could.
He felt her arousal, her need for touch, her hunger for something, though he knew figuring that one out was something he hadn’t quite managed yet. He’d been trying to figure out that hunger for years and hadn’t managed it.
But he knew why she hurt, and he knew he was the cause.
She should have protected her feelings, he thought. He’d tried to convince her of that from the beginning. She needed enough of an emotional distance that the distance he kept himself wouldn’t hurt her. That it wouldn’t break her heart.
It had hurt her anyway though, and knowing that somehow the mating hormone wasn’t as strong in his system as it was in hers, hurt even worse. Hell if he knew why. Dr. Armani had her ideas on it just as Ely did, and strangely, they were closely related.
He refused to let his emotions free.
Dr. Armani had gone even further to say that the reason was because his animal was recessed inside him. And unlike Dash Sinclair, he refused to allow that sleeping animal inside him to be free. Or perhaps, it wasn’t that he refused. Maybe the animal simply didn’t exist inside him as it had inside Dash. There was always the chance that his genetics weren’t actually recessed, but non-existent. It could be that he truly was simply human, with a few advanced senses.
Those advanced senses hadn’t helped him to save his brother’s life though. Not his brother’s nor his brother’s mate and unborn child.
Slashing, white hot pain seared his chest as the thought of Randal and Sophia.
So close.
Fuck, he’d come so close to saving them.
One day. Twenty-two fucking hours and twelve minutes.
The scientists had had the Coyote soldiers drag Randal and Sophia away exactly twenty-two hours and twelve minutes before the rescue of the Omega lab began.
Half an hour later, give or take a few minutes, the underground facility had exploded as Navarro and two of his men had fought to get to the couple.
He couldn’t protect them, and God knew he’d tried. He’d fought. He’d done everything he could, taken every chance he could have taken in his attempt to keep them from being discovered.
He’d failed.
What if he failed Mica? What if he was unable to save her when she needed him most, despite the promise he’d made to her. He’d never be able to survive it if he didn’t manage to hold back just enough to ensure he didn’t lose all his senses to her. Losing all his senses meant losing himself, and when he did that, he knew he may as well bare his soul to his enemies and allow them to begin shredding it then. Because that was exactly what they would do. The minute his enemies learned he had mated, then Mica would have a big red bulls-eye on her back.
Along with Merinus, and every other Breed mate, an inner voice reminded him. Their husbands protected them well, and still lived to find happiness. So far.
“Navarro, you still here man?” Gannon, one of Callan’s commanders, asked with a laugh, drawing his attention back to the group rather than the woman whose gaze he had held.
He didn’t flush. He had no idea if he should have been embarrassed, hell, he was still too damned off balance with the sense that Mica was sinking further inside him the longer their gazes remained locked.
“As I was saying,” Jonas continued after his gaze flickered from where the back door closed softly as Mica reentered the house, back to the group. “I think we can flush out our last spy here. They’re getting closer, getting braver each time they get closer to actually aiding Brandenmore in his escape.”
“Do we have any idea who they are yet? Can we at least narrow it down to one of the guards?”
Jonas shook his head with a tight grimace. “There’s no way to narrow it down to even a Breed,” he stated. “All we can say for certain? It’s a Breed. Only a Breed would know how to slip past the codes, and only a Breed would have been able to detect that first camera we placed in the vent above the entrance to the cell hall.”
Navarro crossed his arms over his chest as a frown pulled at his brow.
“Don’t we have something to detect the jammers immediately, without alerting our spy to it?”
“That would make it easier, wouldn’t it?” Jonas grunted. “But no. The advanced electronics should have canceled out the ability to jam it, but unfortunately, it seems they figured it out damned fast.”
“This is your last chance to catch that damned spy, Jonas,” Callan warned him, his tone commanding, filled with authority and anger. “It happens again and I’ll take care of it myself.”
Navarro slid a look to the pride leader, then to Jonas. He had no doubt Callan would find a way to ensure every Breed in Sanctuary understood the consequences of betraying the community. And he wouldn’t go through Breed Law to do it.
“You can’t do that, Callan.” Jonas sighed.
“Of course he can.” Navarro spoke up at that point as he turned his attention back to Jonas. “Volcanos aren’t the only place on earth where bodies can be hid.”
Jonas’s lips tightened. There were few, very few, and most of them stood together at the moment, who knew that several of the Breed’s enemies had become living sacrifices to a very active volcano.
“We can’t afford Callan or Wolfe to be tied to any action outside Breed Law,” Jonas growled. “Don’t encourage him, Navarro. He’s getting too damned close to becoming his father’s son the way it is.”
“Then I say let him alone,” McCullum, the Panther Breed commander said. “Let him get rid of the bastards as soon as possible. I for one would be a damned sight more comfortable in my own bed at night.”
“A decision for another day,” Navarro decided as he turned to Callan. “It’s your home, your people, and no one could blame you. Just remember, you get caught, and we all pay for it.” He turned and gave Jonas the same, hard look. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do today.”
“Things like securing a mate?” McCullum spoke up. “Be careful, Navarro, you may end up becoming the only Breed to lose his mate through stupidity.”
“Bastards need to keep your noses out of other Breed’s business,” he muttered as he cast the other man an icy look. “She’s my mate, and nothing’s going to change that. Not you, and sure as hell not Josiah.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d been given advice he didn’t need. She was his, and son of a bitch if he wasn’t sick of others believing differently.
As far as he knew there wasn’t a single damned Breed who had faced a problem like this. He could have done without it himself.
Pulling the kitchen door open, he stalked into the kitchen, the scent of his mate immediately hitting his senses with the sweet, hot smell of her arousal. Lush, sexual, the scent of vanilla and spice and a hint of honey.
Damn, that hint of honey smelled good. It was his favorite damned sweet until he’d tasted her.
Following the wicked delicacy, he turned, strode through the doorway and then along the foyer to the curved staircase that led to the second story. She’d returned to their bedroom. Would she be waiting for him, knowing he would come for her the second he scented the sweet, hot juices that had gathered on her pussy?
Damn her, she better be waiting on him.
“Thanks, Josiah.”
He came to a hard, shocked stop at the sound of her voice as he reached the top of the staircase, the sound of his mate’s voice, a hint of laughter in it, affection filling it.