Lawe's Justice

*CHAPTER 14*

Diane always had the feeling she was on the outside looking in. Even before her parents had died. She’d been different. She had been different and she’d always known it. She had never felt accepted until the team had allowed her on that first mission. Until every last man had voted her in, not because her uncle was their commander but because they had trusted her to watch their back. They had trusted her to do her part and theirs if needed.

She’d found her niche in a world of blood, violence, and to her, ultimate justice. She’d been accepted, but there was still a part of her searching. A part of her that had looked around and wondered if that was all there was.

Until the night she had opened her eyes to see Lawe standing over her. To see him cutting the ropes from her, felt him pick her up and carry her out despite her protestations that she could still walk.

She would have fallen flat on her face and he had known it. She had known it. And he had carried her to safety while ignoring her protests.

Even then, barely conscious, dazed from the pain and the beatings her captors had inflicted, Diane had recognized that “something” she had searched for. She had realized it wasn’t a thing, but someone. A feeling, an emotion she had shied away from since the night Padric had died.

It had been love. That first look, the touch of his fingers against her cheek, the low croon of his voice as he promised her she was safe.

She had been waiting for Lawe.

The second time she saw him, she had looked at him and realized how hopeless having him might be.

He wasn’t just powerful, he wasn’t just dangerous. He was supreme male power with advanced fighting skills. But he wasn’t willing to share his world with her. She had seen it in his eyes, heard it in his voice. Felt it in the tightening of her chest and the feeling of being restrained, held back and protected.

He wanted her to forget her own needs, her training and her hunger to make a difference. He wanted to hold her back, for her to always know there was more for her and yet to know that she couldn’t have it and have him as well.

No, she would always have him. Mating heat ensured that they would never let each other go entirely. What she couldn’t have was any peace in it and still be herself. She couldn’t be complete.

She would always be on the outside looking in, and she hated that feeling. She would watch him leave to do whatever he would be doing. Overseeing missions, of course, or perhaps the rumor she had heard that Jonas intended to promote him to assistant director wasn’t just a rumor. Whatever his particular role, he would still be a part of the missions; he would still be commanding, directing, fighting for what he believed in. And she would still be on the sidelines wishing she were there. Wishing she had at least that much to remind her that she wasn’t a drain on oxygen. That she was helping.

As the SUV pulled beneath the hotel’s wide canopy Diane knew this would be her last mission if Lawe could arrange it. And there was no doubt in her mind that Lawe would definitely arrange it.

Waiting as Rule jumped from the front and opened Lawe’s door, she could feel the protectiveness suddenly closing around her, threatening to smother her.

She could feel Lawe’s gaze as she slid across the seat rather than jumping from the other side as she would have normally done.

Could she handle it? she wondered. Could she actually find a way to live with it?

Sliding from the vehicle, Diane was aware of Josiah joining them, moving in just behind her as Lawe placed his hand at the small of her back and urged her forward. As though she needed to be led rather than do the leading herself.

“Where’s Thor?” she asked as they moved through the automatic doors and across the wide receiving area to the short flight of stairs that led to the lobby.

“I’ve teamed him with Emma and Sharone,” he told her as they stepped up to the lobby. “They needed the stability right now.”

Emma was Ashley’s sister, and Sharone was the same as a sister. A littermate who had been trained alongside Ashley and Emma in Russia. They were close, and no doubt suffering the pain and fear that they would lose the vital, laughing young woman they relied so heavily on to vanquish the sometimes dark fears that haunted their lives.

“Stability?” she asked as they headed to the elevators, wondering if perhaps one of the girls’ rage was in danger of giving way to feral fever.

She felt closed in, as though the walls were moving in on her, as though she were being deprived of air, of freedom, and the only way to survive it was to find a way to push it back.

“They’re reeling from Ashley’s attack.” His hand moved to her hip, tightening, seeming to pull her closer as they stepped into the elevator. “They’re looking for revenge for Ashley and there’s no way to attain it. I’m hoping he can keep them out of trouble.”

“He’s good at that.” Diane concentrated on the digital display of numbers as the elevator rose.

She remembered a time when vengeance had been all she had thought of. When Padric had been taken from her and the team and Thor had been there for her as well. He had let her fight. He had let her take the lead and he had made certain when the grief had overtaken her that she hadn’t been alone.

“How long will he be with them?” Had Lawe taken him out of the equation because he had sworn he wouldn’t allow him to restrain her freedom?

Of course he had. He knew, if push came to shove, he would have to fight Thor, and she would never forgive him for it.

“Not much longer,” he told her. “The girls will return to the Citadel, the Coyote base, with the coya—she’s here at the moment to oversee Ashley’s progress. She’s close to all three girls and refuses to leave Ashley while she’s in the hospital.”

Diane nodded slowly, aware of Rule and Josiah glancing at her and then to Lawe, their expressions concerned.

What were they sensing? she wondered. It couldn’t be any emotion rising from her, because she made certain her emotions remained locked as deep inside her as possible.

But the deeper she tried to bury them, the higher the physical ache centered in her womb seemed to build. Like a fire blazing out of control and overtaking her with a heat she couldn’t avoid.

Thankfully, when the elevator stopped on the twenty-fifth floor and Josiah stepped out, the tension seemed to ease. A second later, a brief nod and Lawe’s hand was pressing against her back, guiding her firmly out of the elevator and down the hall.

There were Breed guards stationed at every room along the wide, elegantly carpeted hallway.

She saw Callan and Merinus’s personal guards, as well as Wolfe and Hope’s and Del-Rey and Anya’s. Each alpha had four personal guards while the second-in-commands, heads of security or other high-profile Breed leaders or Pack alphas normally only traveled with two.

Unless they were mated. If mated, those Breeds were assigned no fewer than four Enforcers for security to ensure they weren’t struck in retaliation or kidnapped for research.

“Here’s our room.” Lawe stepped to a set of wide double doors, slid the key card through it, then opened the door and moved aside.

Rule and Josiah moved ahead of her and then Lawe. Going through each room, checking for listening devices or any other electronic or digital threats.

And Lawe thought he was going to keep her standing at the door?

Her lips tightened as she determinedly strode past him and headed into the living area while Josiah entered the double doors that led to the sleeping area, and Rule went in the opposite direction to inspect the kitchenette and dining area.

Luxuriously appointed and opening to a balcony shielded with long, gauzy curtains, the soft dove-gray carpeting sank beneath her boots while the cream-colored walls, decorated with their subtly colorful paintings, gave a relaxing, peaceful air to the living area Diane stood within.

She felt anything but peaceful, anything but calm.

Moving to one side of the beautiful glass and wrought-iron balcony doors, she carefully, and with a sense of regret, closed the heavy, room-darkening shades.

The view of the man-made lake outside, the ducks swimming peacefully on the water and the tranquil breeze blowing gently across it should have been a sin to cover.

She could have used the breeze blowing across her face, filling her senses for a moment. But the risk that came with the Breeds’ lives didn’t make it worth it. Because it could all be blown to hell with one well-placed bullet.

It was too high a price for the experience of enjoying the perfect scenery.

“Inform Callan and Jonas that I’ll notify them when we’re ready to head to the meeting,” she heard Lawe murmur to either Josiah or Rule as they reentered the room.

“Will do,” Rule answered. A few seconds later the door opened and closed again, signaling their departure.

Diane moved to turn around to face Lawe, only to find him at her back, his head lowering, his lips suddenly at the base of her neck as he pushed her hair back, his tongue swiping over the mating mark left there.

A shudder of pleasure raced down her spine. Closing her eyes, she felt his arms wrap around her waist, pulling her to him as his lips moved to the side of her neck to the second mark he’d left on her.

A slow, leisurely lick over the small bite had her knees weakening and a whimper leaving her lips as frissons of excitement traveled through every cell of her body.

Diane couldn’t help but tip her head back to his shoulder, one arm lifting to allow her hand to curl around the back of his neck to hold him in place. Her eyes closed, her weight leaning into him as she surrendered herself to the exquisite sensations. Because she needed this, she needed him. Nothing else mattered and no other pleasure could compare to it.

“You’re breaking my heart,” he whispered, his lips caressing her, sending little flares of sensation to attack her nerve endings as he spoke. “The scent of your pain is killing me.”

She had to swallow back the need to spill out the anger she was working so hard to conceal.

He couldn’t help the instincts driving him any more than she could help her own needs, her own hunger to be more than just a mate.

She could only hide it within herself, arch closer to him and let the pleasure have its way as she hoped it covered the scent of whatever pain she wasn’t hiding effectively.

The hand that curled against the back of his head delved into the length of thick, cool black hair. It wasn’t as silky as it looked. There was a hint of coarseness to the feel of it, just rough enough to feel unusual, to remind a woman she wasn’t with a normal male.

Just as the rake of his teeth against her shoulder, the feel of his tongue, just the slightest rasp against her flesh, was just different enough, just exciting enough to sent a hard rush of sensation to ripple through her womb and clench around her clit with erotic pleasure.

Breathing in roughly as his hands slid around her waist and pulled the shirt free of her jeans, Diane barely restrained the moan that would have slipped free.

His hands touched the bare flesh of her midriff, flattening against it to stroke upward and curve around the aching rise of her breasts. The roughened pads of his thumbs stroked over the material of the bra, feathering over the hardened, sensitized tips sent erotic sensations slamming to her womb.

“I need you,” Lawe whispered, his lips trailing up her neck to her ear where he worried the lobe, first with the flick of his tongue, then with his teeth. “Let me have you, love.”

He didn’t have to ask. Surely he knew she couldn’t tell him no. Even if she wanted to. But even without the heat, Diane knew she couldn’t have denied him.

The very things that made her insane where he was concerned were the things that drew her to him. The strength and arrogance, the dominance and protectiveness, the honor that was so much a part of him.

He was so much more than just a man, and he held so much of her heart and soul that she wasn’t certain how to survive what he made her feel or the sacrifices she knew he wanted from her.

Turning in his arms, Diane waited for Lawe’s kiss. The warmth of his lips covering hers, his tongue flickering against them as the spiced-pear taste tempted her senses. The need for that taste, for the adrenaline-fueled arousal that would pump into her system, had her lips parting, her tongue waiting, flicking against his as her lips closed around it. Tucking beneath his tongue, hers rubbed and caressed, her lips tightened, drawing the hormone rich taste from the swollen glands as she moaned at the strength of the pleasure filling her.

The contradiction between the man himself and the taste of the mating hormone never failed to amaze her. He was one of the darkest, one of the strongest, Breeds she knew. Yet the taste of his mating kiss was sweet with a hint of spice. A taste of summer pears but with a hint of that vast well of sensuality he possessed that he kept hidden from the world.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, her fingers spearing into his hair to hold him to her as she arched closer, Diane allowed the emotions she kept such a tight rein on to rush through her senses.

There was no need to fight it now. There was no need to hide from him, no need to worry that vulnerability inherent in those emotions could be used against her. Because Lawe was right there with her. Lost to the hunger that flared through them, lost to the emotions that mating heat wouldn’t allow him to fight.

The feel of his erection beneath his pants, pressing into her lower stomach was a heated reminder of the pleasure to come. His hands, drawing her shirt upward, pulling it from her as he broke the kiss only long enough to dispose of it, was a sensual enticement.

Lowering her hands to push aside the light black jacket he wore, Diane tugged at the sleeveless black shirt, dragging it up his chest and pushing it higher as she tore her lips from his.

“Take it off,” she commanded, panting for breath as the need for him tearing through her, racing like a blaze billowing out of control, left her helpless against him. “Now. Get it off now, Lawe.”

He tore it off.

The broad, golden bronze expanse of his flesh drew her fingers, her flesh aching to touch him, to feel the sensation of the invisible, silken hairs that covered it, caressing her palms with a lush, erotic sensation.

“Get those fucking boots off,” Lawe growled as he pulled her back, then lowered himself to the wide, comfortable chair to the side to pull at his own.

She had hers off first. Then her jeans. Pushing them over her hips and thighs and kicking them to the side before he surged to his feet, his pants just clearing the heavy erection they had covered.

As he pushed them down she was there but not to help him undress. Her fingers curled around the thick stalk of flesh, stroking to the base. Lawe suddenly stilled, his body tightening as he gave a harsh growl.

Diane stared up at him. His expression was tight, his blue eyes like a living flame in his bronze face as he stared down at her, his jaw flexing, tight with the obvious effort to restrain the need to assert his control of the sensual battle.

Holding his cock with the fingers of one hand, the other lifted, the tips of her fingers trailing down his chest, the darkened flesh rippling as the muscles beneath tensed. The hard flesh pulsed in her grip. With each hard throb of blood through the heavy shaft it seemed to widen further as her mouth watered to taste the primal strength she held.

A growl, harsh and grating, escaped his throat as Diane bent, her head lowering, her lips parting to allow her tongue to swipe over the engorged crest, to taste the damp flesh, the salty male taste of his pre-cum before sucking it slowly into her mouth.

With her fingers stroking the thick shaft, Diane tightened her mouth around the head of his cock and sucked at it with slow relish.

Heavy veins throbbed beneath her fingers as he finally managed to shed his pants from his legs. His fingers buried in her hair, clenching in the strands and sending pinpricks of pleasure racing across her scalp as he tugged at her strands. His pleasure in her touch was obvious. Every muscle in his body was strung tight as those in his muscular thighs flexed powerfully, his hips jerking and burying the engorged flesh deeper between her lips.

“You make me weak.” He groaned. “Diane, sweetheart . . .”

He growled again as she tucked her tongue beneath the head and rubbed at the smooth flesh there, feeling the pulse and throb of excitement beneath it.

Sucking at it again, her head back, lowering over it, taking him as he moved in shallow thrusts against her lips, fucking her with a slow, heated rhythm that had the breath tightening in her chest.

She wanted him. Wanted to feel him covering her as he had before, taking her, his teeth at the back of her neck as he held her in place. She wanted to feel him losing himself with her, inside her, pumping inside her, that wicked, pulsating barb sending flares of sensation to erupt through her clit, her pussy, reducing her to a mass of pure pleasure.

She’d never imagined she could gain such pleasure from the act. That without the stimulation of having him touch her body that she could be burning so intensely for him.

She wasn’t blaming it all on mating heat, though she knew it played a part. She blamed it on the man.

It was all Lawe’s fault that the tug of his hands in her hair sent a pulse of sensation to tighten around her clit each time he tightened his fingers. That the rasp of his nails against her scalp had her womb clenching with a surge of pleasure.

She wanted him. With a power she hadn’t known a woman could feel, she wanted him like she had never wanted anything in her life. Like she had never known she could want a man. Or a Breed.

She tried to suck him deeper, take as much of him as she could. To give him as much pleasure as possible before they both lost control.

And the loss of that control was coming.

She could feel it in the way his fingers were kneading her scalp, pulling at her hair. Each swirl of her tongue around the head of his cock had it throbbing harder, seeming to thicken further in her mouth. And each reaction had her feeling the flames burning higher in her own body.

Her juices eased past the swollen folds of her sex, heating and dampening her clit as she tightened her thighs, desperate now for enough friction against the bundle of nerves to spark the release she was aching for.

The need clenched her vagina, the sensations, the building hunger for touch there, for the burning stretch of his penetration, accelerating her need until she was moaning with each shallow thrust of his cock past her lips.

With one hand wrapped around the thick flesh, the other moved between her thighs, stroked across the swollen, wet folds and found the aching bud throbbing between them.

“Enough.”

Before she could stop him Lawe pulled back, forcing her to release his cock as he drew her up, his lips covering hers again.

The kiss wild, his tongue pumping into her mouth before pulling back, his lips slanting over hers as he kissed her with hungry insistence. His hand tightened on her hips, then slid around, down, gripped her buttocks and lifted her to him.

Diane gripped his shoulders with desperate fingers as she tried to lift herself closer, going to her tiptoes, the need to have him inside her burning through her nerve endings. Every cell in her body ached for his touch, to feel his hands stroking over her flesh, his body stroking against her, his cock stroking inside her. The feel of the silken hairs that covered his body rubbing against her. She ached for the strength of his arms around her.

She ached for him. “God, Diane,” he whispered as his lips moved over her shoulder, his teeth raking with sensual intent before he took another heated nip.

Sensation ripped at her nerve endings, pleasure burgeoning inside her belly as she arched against him. Bending her knee she drew it up his thigh as she stood on tiptoe. The slickened folds of her pussy rubbed against the base of his cock, parted and exposed the swollen bud of her clit to the hot shaft.

“Your pussy’s so fucking hot. So wet and slick.” He groaned, the explicit words sizzling across her nerve endings as she felt him bend just enough that the head of his cock raked over her clit.

A shudder zapped along her spine. Her nails dug into the flesh of his shoulder as his lips were suddenly on hers again, his tongue against hers. Before she could capture his kiss, capture the tormenting stroke past her lips, Lawe pulled back. His tongue stroked down her neck laying a path of sizzling pleasure to her shoulder once again.

A nip at the curve, his teeth raking over her skin had a cry escaping her lips.

“Come here. I can’t wait, Di. Ah hell. Come here, baby. Fuck me. Fuck me, Diane,” he growled as he shifted, moved until he was settling into the chair once again.

Gripping her thigh with one hand he lifted it, pulling it over his thigh as Diane straddled him, the other gripping the base of his dick as his hips shifted and he pulled her to him.

“Take me.” He groaned as she straddled his hips, lowering herself and feeling the wide, blunt head of his cock as it parted the swollen folds of her pussy and began to press inside her.

A shiver raced up her spine.

“Too slow.” She moaned. She wanted more, she wanted all of him, and she wanted it now.

His hands tightened on her hips as he pushed upward, penetrating enough, stretching her far enough that her head tipped back, a desperate cry falling from her lips.

Lawe took swift advantage of the arching of her body. Leaning forward just enough to swipe his roughened tongue over the tip of her breast, licking and laving it as she twisted against him, forcing him deeper inside her.

His hands stroked from her hips to her back, pulling her closer, his lips surrounding her nipple, pulling it into his mouth and surrounding it with tight, fiery suction. As his tongue lashed at the tender, over-sensitized tip, his hips surged upward, burying himself to the hilt inside her as she cried out at the pleasure flaming through her.

His hands clenched at her rear as he began to move her, his hands lifting her then pulling her down, his hips surging upward, impaling her hard and deep as talons of sharp sensation blazed across her senses.

His cock stretched her, throbbed inside her, pushing her closer to that abyss of pure ecstasy that she could feel beginning to build around her.

Another harsh, deep-throated growl sounded from his throat as she felt her pussy tightening on the heavy flesh invading it, desperate to hold him inside her, to feel the throbbing caress deeper inside her.

Heat built around her, built inside her.

Rising and lifting herself, his hands gripping her ass, moving in rhythm with him, Diane felt the hunger building. The pinching stretch of his cock moving inside her pushed the need deeper, hotter. With each thrust through tissue sensitized by his touch, by the heat, by the arousal that seemed to climb further inside her with each thrust, Lawe marked her, took her with a hunger she knew she couldn’t live without now.

She was close, so very close, when he moved. Lifting her from him despite her sudden cry of protest, he turned her, pushed her to her knees in the chair and then moved behind her.

Between one breath and the next he had her where she had hungered to be. Covering her, his cock pushing inside her as he came over her, his lips taking stinging kisses of her neck as he began to fuck her with driving strokes.

The slap of damp flesh, the feel of him moving inside her, stretching her, thrusting powerfully into the tightening grip of her pussy, had her nails digging into the upholstery of the chair as she cried out in rising bliss.

She couldn’t hold back the sounds, she couldn’t hold back the loss of control. The ability to restrain herself, to rein in the sensations that pierced her, that urged her to give herself to him, all of herself to him, was gone.

It wasn’t mating heat. It wasn’t just the pleasure. It wasn’t the fear of her loss of independence or the fear of the loss of herself. It was the man. The Breed. It was the pleasure she had instinctively known was coming amplified by his insistence that he build on it. That he force her deeper into the blaze, that he brush her hair back from her neck, lick over the too-sensitive wound, then slanting his head, his canines pierced it once again.

Diane erupted into a release so blinding, so burning hot she lost her breath. She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t cry out his name. She could only hold on as ecstasy exploded over and over as she felt the barb extend, felt it vibrating inside her, pushing over another blazing edge of sensation that only amplified the release.

She was a creature of pure, sensual sensation.

She was lost in him. Lost in a feeling that locked them together more firmly than the barb locking them together. Held her tighter to him than any bonds, either natural or man-made, ever could.

Clenching, spilling her release to his, her pussy rippled around the penetration of his cock and the locking bliss of the barb. The sensations, the release that seemed to never end, then the clenching, pleasure-pain of her womb contracting as her vagina milked the flesh locked inside her, was overwhelming.

As it slowly eased, ever so slowly gave her back her breath, Diane found herself slumped over the back of the chair, fighting to breathe, each intake of air harsh and overloud. Lawe shuddered behind her, his cheek against her shoulder, his breathing as labored, his hands kneading her hips as she felt his cock still throbbing inside her, though without the iron-hard strength it had possessed previously.

She was exhausted, drowsy, sated.

Limp, her eyes closed, she wanted to stay there until the world righted itself, until there was no need for protection, no danger to haunt them. She wanted to hide forever, right here, just like this, locked in his hold, shuddering with sensations too overwhelming to fight and too heated to conflict.

She wanted to ignore the world outside, ignore the problems she knew would rise between them again, and she wanted to ignore her inability to settle for what she should take rather than what she didn’t know if she could live without.

“I love you, Diane,” he whispered behind her, causing her breath to still for precious seconds at the declaration. “If there has been anything, or anyone, I have ever loved in my life, then it’s you. To the point that if something happened to you, then I would cease to exist alongside you.”

Tears filled her eyes.

She didn’t want to hear this.

She didn’t want to face this. Not yet, not until she had a handle on her own emotions, a handle on the decisions she knew she had to make.

“And I know you love me.” He kissed her shoulder gently. “I can feel that love, I can smell it when you forget to watch your emotions, to hide them from me. Just as I can feel your pain and your indecision.” Another kiss at the base of her neck, a gentle lick over the tender wound he had inflicted once again. “If I could give you what you need to survive, then I would, in a heartbeat,” he whispered, his tone deepening, becoming rougher with regret. “If I could do that one thing for you, and still live with the fear, then as God is my witness, I would.”

But he couldn’t.

The message was there, and Diane heard it loud and clear.

“If I thought I could survive without it, then I would,” she said, keeping her own voice soft as her breathing hitched on a sob. “If I could, Lawe, I would, just for you.” And the first tear slipped from her eyes. “Because I love you so much it breaks my heart. You break my heart . . . daily.”

Her eyes closed as she fought back more tears, feeling him withdraw from her, that bond breaking as his cock eased through tender tissue then slipped from her entirely.

As he helped her to her feet, Diane stepped back, knowing what he would have done, and knowing she couldn’t bear it. Her hand lifted in an instinctive gesture, palm held out, in a silent denial.

She couldn’t bear it if he did as he had before. Cleaning her so gently, and with such obvious enjoyment, did something to her that made it harder each time to fight against his need to protect her.

“I’m going to shower.” Her voice was rough, from her tears, from the cries that had been torn from her as the pleasure exploded around her. “I need to think.”

“What’s there to think about?” he stared down at her, his expression dark and forbidding as he watched her. “We can’t deny what we have, Diane. The mating heat won’t allow it.”

She gave her head a hard shake. “Later, Lawe. We’ll fight about his later. After we’ve found what we came looking for, after Gideon has been neutralized. Give me that much at least.”

“And if I can’t?” The question was voiced harshly, as though the words were torn from the very soul of the creature that lived inside him. “If I can’t let you do this, Diane, then what?”

She felt tormented, tortured. As though the pain that lived inside her soul was raking at her with jagged claws.

What would she do if he didn’t allow her to finish this? If he didn’t stand beside her rather than in front of her and let her find the three individuals who were once injected with the same, or very similar, serum that her niece had been injected with? If she didn’t learn from them what had happened to those who had died from the injections and the facts surrounding those deaths?

Could she live with the failure?

“If you love me,” she whispered painfully. “If you really love me as you say you do, Lawe, then you’ll stand by me.” The tears she battled edged closer to winning the war when another ran down her cheek. “Because you know I won’t be able to bear it any other way.”

He may as well lock her in a cage, she thought, as she moved quickly to the bathroom and the shower she so desperately needed. She needed the escape worse, though. The few precious moments she could steal to think, to weigh her options and consider the future. Because the time was coming when she wouldn’t be able to run any longer. The time was coming when she wouldn’t be able to hide anymore.

The time was coming when a decision would have to be made.

Gideon stared at the wall across from him, a frown on his face as he heard Diane all but beg her mate to believe in her.

Lawe Justice was a hell of a Breed soldier, as was his brother, Rule Breaker. Gideon didn’t think much of their choice of names, but they did seem to rather suit them.

This, this bothered him, though.

Not that he should care either way. Hell, the more conflicted the two were the easier it would be to keep them distracted and to learn more about them.

The fact that they had missed the new electronic bug was pleasing as well. Keeping ahead of their little bug detectors was getting harder by the day. This one wasn’t as strong as the others, and there was a lot he missed of any conversation. White noise, which Breeds most always used when discussing missions, would completely incapacitate it. But information such as this was damned useful as well.

Lawe and Diane weren’t at their peak fighting abilities because of mating heat. That would make them weaker, slower. And they were the leaders, the commanders. With any luck, the others wouldn’t feel the need to work over or around the two. They trusted them. And Gideon was trusting them to remain immersed in each other while he found Fawn.

Her big dark eyes, so filled with tears. “Give him my blood,” she sobbed out to Judd. “Don’t you let him die!” she had screamed at the Breed as the chill of the night air seeped into Gideon’s bones. “Don’t you dare, or I swear, I swear I’ll make you pay.”

And Gideon had been dying. He had wanted to die. God knows it would have been such a relief, to slip over that edge of nothingness and find eternal rest.

She had denied death to him. She had begged and she had ordered, until Judd had found a medical kit in the transport vehicle. As fate had had it, there was a transfusion kit too, and she gave him her blood.

They had saved him, and he hadn’t wanted to be saved. He’d been too weak to stop them, too weak to do anything but glare at her in hatred.

He’d known that by saving him, she had only extended his horror. He had been right.

He’d tried to forgive her. He’d fought to get the memory out of his head. Then, a decade later, he was forced to allow his recapture to get into the labs once more to destroy the records kept on Judd, Fawn and Honor. To ensure that no DNA matches could be found when he’d learned the Brandenmore Labs were once again searching for them.

The suspicion that Judd and Fawn weren’t dead revived every few years, but this time, General Horace Roberts, desperate to find his only child, had demanded they search until Honor was found. That they search until it was proven that the others had died. He was certain his daughter would never have run away without help and the only friends she had known had been Judd, Gideon and Fawn. Gideon had planned it perfectly. He was certain he would have at least a few weeks before the testing began again.

Then, they had tested his blood. He had immediately been restrained, the paralytic pumped into his body, and then, they had killed him themselves. There on the autopsy gurney, as he screamed and begged, they had cut him open to investigate the changes found in his blood. The additional strength he’d acquired over the years had been strange enough, even to him. But after he’d died on that table beneath their scalpels, after they’d transfused him again, using the blood they had taken from her years before, the changes had begun multiplying.

Not that they had found answers after cutting him open. There was nothing there. No reason for the anomalies showing up in his body until he’d begun experiencing brief episodes of full-blown feral fever.

The thought of death had been wiped away. The pain that clawed at his insides didn’t mean he couldn’t extract vengeance, though. That was something he had never wanted. He hadn’t wanted to live, to develop a fever so agonizing the animal inside him had been forced free to pull him back from the brink of insanity.

As the man huddled in blessed silence within his body, the animal had raged and roared; it had clawed at the walls and snarled at the guards. It had stared at the scientists, remembered the girl, the blood the scientists had used as they laughed at him and he had sworn vengeance.

Her blood had destroyed him. And she was gone. He hadn’t been able to find her in ten years, and several times, he’d actually searched for her and Judd, then for Honor once he’d learned of her disappearance.

It was as though they had simply ceased to exist.

When he had returned to the wilderness where he had left the night he’d awakened after that first transfusion, there had been no sign of them. He had brief memories of the termination facility. A small metal building, a cremation vault and the bloodied bodies he’d thrown inside it. There were flashes of images of guards, looks of horror on their faces, the taste of blood overriding his senses.

The animal had raged inside him, for how long, Gideon had never been certain.

When he’d finally come to himself and made his way back to the scene of their escape, it was to find it all gone. The wrecked vehicle, the two guards, Judd and Fawn.

It was only later he’d begun to suspect the lie of it. Only later that the animal inside him had begun to dream of dark eyes in an adult’s face. But the features of that face he never saw in the animal’s dreams.

She would pay for that demand that he live. For whatever her blood had done that had changed him, that had stolen the time he needed to ensure she was never found. She would pay for the additional agony. And when he was finished with her, maybe, just maybe, he would put them both out of their misery.