“Your Breed. The mate who is not truly a mate,” he said slyly. “Would you like to know why?”
She wanted to know. She was dying to know. But she couldn’t bear standing here to talk to him. The vile, corrupted monster he had become sickened her to the point that it would never matter how desperately she wanted to know more about Navarro, she would never accept that information from him.
Her hand lifted to the button.
“What if I told you he was created to never feel strongly, to never have the emotions that drive a human?”
She paused again.
“If you could have done that, then you wouldn’t have stopped with just Navarro,” she said knowingly without turning back to him.
“That was always the hope, with each genetic design,” he told her. “To weed out emotion, to leave only logic, then to ensure it was only logical that they willingly give their loyalty to the Council and its membership.”
Mica shook her head again and lifed her hand closer to the intercom.
“And if I told you he’s already betrayed you?”
She shook her head as she swung around to stare at him once again. “Navarro hasn’t been with anyone else.”
“There are other ways to betray.” He shrugged.
“I don’t want to hear any more of this. You’re a liar, Brandenmore. A vicious, evil animal with no morals or conscience. Don’t expect me to believe a word out of your mouth.”
“I am not the animal,” he snarled back, suddenly erupting in fury. “I helped create that filthy creature you’re fucking, you little whore. Do you think I’d actually create something that could ever have emotions? Ever have loyalty? Don’t be such a stupid little bitch. He’ll never completely mate you, because he can never love you.”
Mica swung around and pressed the intercom button.
“Dr. Morrey?” There was a tone of surprise in the Breed that answered.
“This is Mica Toler. I was escorted here to see Dr. Morrey and she hasn’t shown up yet, but Phillip Brandenmore has. Could you please ask the doctor to hurry or send someone to let me out of here?”
There was no answer.
Mica was ready to depress the button and call out again when the door suddenly slammed inward and several enforcers rushed into the room, followed by Jonas, Navarro and Callan.
Brandenmore was laughing as Jonas stalked across the room to the window dividing the cell from the exam room and slammed the heavy wide metal shutters across the partition before locking them.
The sound of the laughter was cut off, leaving Mica to stare at the men, amazed at the air of deadly violence swirling around them.
“How did you get down here?” It was Navarro that spoke first.
Stalking to her, he gripped her arm, staring down at her as though he didn’t know whether to shake her or to fuck her.
“I walked,” she retorted mockingly. “What did you expect?”
“This is the wrong time.” His head lowered, his lips pulled back from his teeth, and she could have sworn she detected the faintest hint of a point returning to his canines. “Now answer me. How did you get down here?”
“As I said, I was escorted down here for an exam,” she answered from between clenched teeth. “Dr. Morrey hasn’t shown up yet though.”
“Because you didn’t have an appointment with her until this evening, with me,” he snarled. “Who came for you?”
She stared up at him in surprise. “But, Navarro, the message was waiting for me in my room when I came out of the shower, and it was Ely’s voice.”
“I escorted her down here.” The Lioness stepped from the doorway, her dark gaze lacking fear, but showing only resignation as Navarro’s gaze swung to her.
“I too had a message left for me by Dr. Morrey that I was to escort Ms. Toler here for her tests and examination. At least, it sounded like Dr. Morrey.” Her shoulders straightened as though preparing for a blow.
“Where is Ely?” Navarro growled as he turned back to Jonas.
“She’s in Buffalo Gap until later this afternoon,” Jonas stated, his gaze narrowed as he stared around the room. “But don’t worry, I’ll definitely find out how this happened.”
“He did it.” She nodded to Brandenmore’s cell before turning her gaze back to Navarro. “Somehow, he did it.”
“He doesn’t have the means,” Jonas answered before Navarro could.
“Bring a snake into your home and expect him to strike when you least expect it.” Jerking away from Navarro she stared from him to Jonas with disbelieving mockery. “I’m ready to get the hell out of here now. And you can inform Ely I won’t be returning this evening. Until my so-called mate actually begins experiencing this mating crap himself, then I see no reason to torture myself further. Later boys.”
She turned and stalked from the lab before turning and heading back to the elevators, knowing someone would follow her. It wasn’t as though they would allow her to actually roam the halls alone. God only knew who else they were keeping down there and intended to keep hidden.
First Jeffery Amburg. She hadn’t seen him, but she knew from Cassie that he was safely hidden in the labs and working for the Breeds now, rather than against them. Then Brandenmore. Who was next? The head of the Genetics Council himself?
She snorted at the thought.
“If you don’t stop running from me, we’re going to have words.”
The sound of Navarro behind her had her heart rate tripling and her pussy creaming. The response was just enough to piss her the hell off.
Where was the fairness in it? It wasn’t as though he was dying for the taste of her as well.
As soon as the thought passed through her mind she found herself pulled around, pressed into the steel wall, lifted until her legs automatically gripped his thighs, and his lips covered hers.
Ambrosia.
The subtle taste of honey filled her senses as his tongue pressed inside and stroked against hers.
Oh yeah, that was what she needed.
She needed this kiss, deep and drugging, filling her senses with the taste of wild sweet honey, and male heat. One hand wrapped into the strands of hair at the back of her head, tugging on them, caressing her scalp with heated little pulls as she begin to sink into the sensuous swirls of arousal that rose like a tidal wave inside her.
She wasn’t alone anymore.
She wasn’t aching, needy and hungry by herself at this moment.
She could feel the glands swollen at the sides of his tongue, just a bit larger than normal. The taste of honey that filled the kiss had changed, just a bit, as well. It was wilder. Just as a primal hunger filled his touch and his caresses.
Long moments later his head lifted, his eyes black, as black as the darkest night, as his lips lowered to hers for a kiss so gentle, so filled with possessiveness that she had to fight back more tears.
“I love you, Mica,” he whispered back to her. “I love you as you’ll never know.”
As she would never know.
Mica felt her eyes fill with tears. “I always loved you, Navarro.”
As he touched her cheek with his fingertips, his lashes lying at half-mast while he held her gaze, Mica felt the final, heated bursts of his come inside her.
His head lowered. “Only you could have freed me,” he whispered against her ear. “You released what was hiding inside me, Mica, making me whole. Don’t let that part of me sleep again. Don’t let me lose you again.”
She could barely breathe. She could barely believe she was hearing his request. That he was there, that he was holding her. That he was admitting, finally giving, his love to her, when she had all but lost hope.
“Ahh, how sweet.”
The moment the heavy swelling had eased, the horrifying voice whispered through the silence of the room.