In A Wolf's Embrace

CHAPTER FOUR

Grace's family cabin sat in the Catskill Mountains northwest of New York City. The heavily forested area called to the wildness of Matthias's spirit. The sounds of the night wrapped around him, but the scent of Grace filled his mind.

The two-story cabin sat next to a small, unpolluted lake. The crisp scent of the water was refreshing, the sound of a waterfall played somewhere in the distance. It should have been relaxing. It would have been, if the fever to take his mate weren't filling his insides with a burning hunger.

He sat his restrained captive in a wide, padded porch chair and dug the keys from her purse. She glared at him, her tapered, dark blonde hair falling over her brow and shadowing her eyes.

The door opened easily. Matthias inhaled deeply, searching for any scent other than that of an empty cabin. Satisfied that they were alone, he picked her up, carried her to the heavily cushioned couch, and left the cabin again.

He carried her luggage and his bag to the large downstairs bedroom then checked the well-stocked cabinets and refrigerator. Once he had assured himself of the security of the cabin, he disconnected the phone lines, locked the front door, and turned back to her.

Grace remained silent. And she was still aroused. He could smell the arousal, and it was killing him. But he could also smell her fear and her anger. She had judged him the moment she saw him pull that trigger, and if she had her way, he'd be locked up forever.

It was a heavy burden, to understand the event from her viewpoint. Her innocence couldn't understand the conditions under which the Breeds had been trained, the forces that had shaped their lives from conception to escape. The nightmares were nearly as brutal as the reality of it had been. Even now, ten years later, Matthias could feel the agony of those years.

"Why did you do it, Matthias?" When she spoke, her voice was agonized, filled with tears and disillusionment. She had already tried him and found him guilty.

Matthias knelt in front of the couch, his hands moving to the restraints that bound her hands and feet, his fingers massaging the slight welts on her flesh as he frowned down at them.

The beatings, the hours of mental torture, and the deaths. Imprisoned behind bars and forced to watch as friends and littermates were murdered with such brutal means, that even now, Matthias had trouble sleeping for the horrific memories.

All in the name of training. Of numbing the Breeds to the sight of pain, cruelty, and death. Turning them into emotionless machines that responded at the councilmembers' beckoning.

"I was created in Albrecht's lab," he finally answered her, lifting his head to stare back at her. "I know his cruelties. I know the monster he was." He lifted his hands from her flesh and stared at the palms. The scars that crisscrossed them had been put there by Albrecht's knife. A punishment for a failed mission.

"He was released after the hearings about Breed atrocities. You had no right to kill him after that."

His gaze jerked back to hers. "He was released on his oath that he was not a part of the council directorate, which I know was a lie. He was released on his oath that he would never again attempt to create or imprison Breeds. Ten years ago, he was released. And he never stopped. We found the bodies, his scent covered them as well as the marks of his abuse. He never stopped."

To know they hadn't found all the Breeds, even in the ten years of searching was like a poison in Matthias's soul. The council scientists and soldiers who had escaped had taken the young with them and turned them over to the Council, to be hidden in other, even more secret labs. And now those children, ten years older, were turning up dead, horribly tortured. The experimentation that had been done on them was brutal. But even worse were the mated pairs, those that had known freedom for but a short time, recaptured, and tortured to death.

"We were the test models. The first generation of Breeds to actually survive the first few years of life are barely older than forty. They had their first success nearly a century ago—Lion Breed who managed to escape with one of their scientists. But it took them another several decades to get it right again, because the first Leo destroyed everything in that hellhole of a lab as he escaped. We were the disposable models." Fury twisted his expression. "Imagine watching your friends, your brothers and sisters being dissected, live. Being beaten until they died, broken and still trying to fight. Or so drugged they were no more than the animals whose genes they carried. I watched Albrecht do this. For years. For so many years." He pushed his fingers through his hair and moved away from her.

The blood. He could still smell the blood and death.

"Had he finished, I would have walked away from him, as I was ordered to do." He turned back to her, his eyes narrowing on the tense set of her expression. "I would not have killed him, Grace, had he not continued those atrocities."

"You should have gone to the authorities."

"The authorities had their chance. I took care of it. He will never rape another young Breed. He will never dissect another while they scream in agony, and he will never, ever attempt to prolong his own misbegotten life because he lucked out and found a mated Breed pair."

That had been the final nail in his coffin. They had found the bodies. The two young mates, so horribly mutilated, the signs of experimentation so monstrous, that even he and Jonas had thrown up.

"That doesn't make sense. What would two lovers have to do with prolonging his life? You're lying to me, Matthias. Don't do that."

Matthias shook his head. It would do no good to argue it with her—until she experienced the mating, she would never believe it.

"One of these days, you'll know the truth," he said heavily. "Are you hungry? I could fix us something to eat."

Grace stared back at him in disbelief. One moment he was talking of death, the next he was willing to cook? She shook her head as she moved, tugging her skirt farther over her thighs, before shrugging her restrictive jacket off.

"What are you going to do with me?" she asked. "You promised not to hurt me."

He nodded. "I won't hurt you."

"Even knowing I have every intention of telling the police what I saw?" She couldn't lie to him. He would smell it.

The hurt that flashed in his eyes shouldn't have bothered her, but it did.

"Even knowing that," he answered. "I'm going to spend this week with you. Let you come to know me better. Try to make you understand…"

"Why?" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "What does it matter if I understand or not? You murdered a man, Matthias."

"And if you report it, and I'm arrested, then I can't protect you. Other Breeds will come for you, and they will kill you before you ever have the chance to testify. Is that what you want? Do you want to die?"

"The authorities will protect me."

"Don't be so fucking naive, Grace," he snarled, causing her to flinch. "Don't be stupid. You know better than that."

Yes, she did know better. She knew she didn't have a chance at living if she ever breathed a word of what she had seen. Perhaps, in some small way, she could even understand why he had done it.

Now that the shock had worn off and her mind had accepted the fact that he had done it. It was her own anger driving her instead.

"Just leave then." She rose to her feet and breathed out roughly. "I'm smart enough to know the rules, Matthias. That doesn't mean I ever want to see you again. Just get out."

"It doesn't work that way." He shook his head, his whiskey gaze remote.

"Why not? You can smell a lie, then fine, you know I'm not lying. Albrecht may have deserved every agony you could have possibly given him, but I can't accept it. We have laws in this country for a reason."

His bark of laughter shocked her. "Do you, now?" He crossed his powerful arms over his chest and watched her, mocking. "Let me tell you about your laws, little girl. Laws that allowed all your fine politicians to stick their dirty little fingers into the Breed pie before the world learned of us. How they sent their special-forces teams after the small pride that was hiding in Kentucky. How they turned a blind eye to the tortures that were inflicted on us. Until the world learned of us and drew a horrified breath. Those same fucking bastards faked their outrage and had no choice but to back us. Back us or be revealed as the lying sons of bitches they were."

Throttled rage filled his voice and glowed in his eyes. Grace had never seen such fury, such banked violence in anyone, in her life.

There were reports of this. News articles and documentaries, but until now, Grace hadn't been certain what was the truth and what were lies told to enhance the popularity of the Breeds' right-to-life laws.

She licked her lips, knowing he wasn't lying. Her chest ached for him, ached about the pain he had endured. But he had killed an unarmed man. Without remorse.

She nodded, swallowing tightly as she let his furious gaze capture hers.

"I won't report it," she whispered. "But I won't condone it. Whatever was growing between us, Matthias, if anything other than your need to use me was there, is over. Please, just leave."

"It's not going to happen."

Grace watched his expression harden, his eyes darken in determination.

"What do you mean, 'it's not going to happen?'" She watched him warily.

Had he been lying to her? Did he mean to kill her after all?

A tight smile curled his lips. "I already smell your distrust," he growled. "I don't lie, Grace. I'm not going to kill you. And I won't torture you."

"Then why stay?"

"Because you own me now. You're my mate."