Lion's Heat

CHAPTER 9

The three limos pulled into the clearing, sliding to a stop within sight of the heli-jet. From the backseat, Rachel swallowed tightly at the sight of the armed men standing outside the pickups that were parked in a diagonal angle to the super-fast helicopter assigned to Sanctuary.

Dressed in jeans, T-shirts and dark masks, they held their weapons in a relaxed, nonthreatening manner, but there was a tension there that assured Rachel that the nonthreatening part could change in an instant.

There was also a familiarity to them. Rachel leaned forward, staring out the window, her gaze narrowed as she fought to pinpoint exactly what she recognized about the men.

"Jonas, a message just came through on the sat channel." Lawe turned in the driver's seat and stared back at Jonas. "They're refusing to identify themselves but they're saying the way is clear. They're here for security and we need to hurry because the real bad guys are only miles away with rocket launchers."

The Enforcers from the other two limos were moving from the vehicles, surrounding the one they were in as the two Enforcers from the heli-jet joined them.

"We have a message to tell Rachel to giddy up and go." Jonas's gaze sliced to her as a gasp fell from her lips.

"It's Diana," she whispered, her eyes widening as she stared back at Jonas. "She left that code for me when she left, just after Amber was born. It's safe, Jonas. And that code means it's imperative we go now."

"We can't be certain." Jonas was checking the rifle he had jerked from a panel beneath the seat as Seth and Dawn followed suit.

"I can." Rachel jerked open the door and all but fell out, the heels she was wearing making it more difficult to move.

"Rachel!" For all his reflexes, Jonas managed only to grab the skirt of her dress.

"Let me go, Jonas!"

"Like hell." He was out of the limo, his weapon held ready as a single figure detached from the group.

A gloved hand reached up and peeled the mask off to reveal the delicate, if stony, features of her beloved sister's face. A face she feared daily she might never see again. The life of a female mercenary wasn't exactly an easy one, or one with any amount of security.

"Wyatt, get my sister the hell out of here now or I'll take her myself," Diana called out, her tone furious. She meant it. Diana was a protector, and she had decided early in life that her baby sister had to be protected.

"Fuck!" Jonas turned back to Seth and Dawn. "Go. Move."

He gripped Rachel's arm as she stared back at Diana.

"Come with us, Diana," she cried, her tone desperate as Jonas pulled her to the heli-jet.

Her sister stood still, her gaze narrowed in the bright lights cast by the limos and the heli-jet. She didn't move, nor did the six men standing behind her, their weapons held ready.

"Vehicles moving in," Jackal yelled out as the door slid open. "Sensors show firepower, Jonas. Let's fly."

Jonas all but threw her into the seat of the heli-jet as the others rushed in behind her, blocking her from calling out to her sister once again.

Her heart was racing, fear overwhelming her as she fought against Jonas.

"Diana!" She screamed out her sister's name as she glimpsed her racing--not for a pickup to escape in but for a defensible position to fire on the arriving attackers.

"Get her." She turned to Jonas, wild-eyed, terrified. Her sister was there because of her, to protect her. If something happened to her, Rachel didn't know if she could bear it. "Make her go with us."

"She'll blow my head off," Jonas snarled back at her, and even though she knew it was true, Rachel fought the need to beg him to do it. "If she wanted to be here with us, that's where she'd be, Rachel." Turning to Jackal, he gave the order to fly.

She hadn't seen her sister since Amber's birth. A few quick moments, and Diana had been gone again. What she did and why she did it, Rachel didn't know. All she knew was that whenever she was in trouble, no matter the trouble, Diana was there. There had been only a moment in their lives when she hadn't been there: the months Rachel had spent in Switzerland, fighting to try to get home, her passport stolen, her money depleted. Diana had been nowhere to be found, and Rachel had been alone.

The heli-jet lifted off, powerful jets kicking in and holding Rachel back in her seat as it turned and headed the short distance to Sanctuary.

"Diana's group is moving out with time to spare," Jackal called out. "Hell, Jonas, you need to recruit her."

"She would kill us all," Jonas muttered as the heli-jet streaked through the sky. "Contact Sanctuary; we're flying in. I want Alpha Team One ready to move."

"Alpha Team One assembled and ready," Jackal called back. "We have sporadic fire on the estate house. Vanderale Team Two has taken to the mountains. We have two prisoners, six enemy causalities, two Breed causalities and nearly three dozen wounded."

Rachel wrapped her arms around her stomach as information was reported. So many hurt or dead. In the years since the revelation of the Breeds' existence, they hadn't known a moment's peace or true safety.

Breathing in roughly, she tentatively laid her hand on Jonas's hard thigh. Tension held his body tight, invading every cell as he watched the screen of the small communication and information device an Enforcer had handed him.

Entering the secure code, Rachel watched as the black screen flickered, cleared, then showed the image of the Breed known as the Leo.

Gold eyes flamed with fury as he stared back. The two men had some uncannily similar features. It was rumored he was Jonas's father as well.

She didn't doubt it. Both men were arrogant and calculating enough to be fully related.

"Status," Jonas snapped.

"All secure," Leo snarled, strong, sharp incisors flashing at the sides of his mouth. "We still have a few of the bastards to pull in. The main strike escaped, though they left empty-handed."

"How is Lance?" Rachel could hear the concern, as well as the promise of retribution, in his voice.

Leo looked aside for a moment, his jaw clenching, before turning back. "Elizabeth and Ely have him. They're confident he's going to pull through, but he's unconscious now."

"Harmony?" Jonas's voice thickened with concern.

Leo's lips tightened in fury as his eyes blazed. "She's gone after them, Jonas. I couldn't stop her."

Rachel looked into Jonas's face and saw, for just a second, pure, naked fear and pain.

"I'll bring her home," he stated with chilling force. "My ETA is in five."

"Bring her home," Leo affirmed. "But if you'd left her the hell alone, we wouldn't be worried about her, now would we?"

"No, we'd be mourning her."

Jonas didn't give the other man a chance to respond. The communication device flipped off before his hand clenched around it with enough force that the veins bulged in his hands.

"Harmony's fine." Rachel wanted to console him, wanted to ease the worry, though she knew that wasn't entirely possible.

His head jerked to her. "Harmony will bathe that mountain in blood if I don't rein her in," Jonas snorted. "We need at least one of those bastards left alive. She'll skin them all. She makes your sister look like the tooth fairy."

Rachel frowned. "My sister isn't that bad."

Jonas merely snorted again.

"If Harmony is that dangerous, then she'll be fine," she reassured him again, watching the clenching of his jaw as he fought to rein in whatever emotions were tearing him apart.

"I nearly lost her once." He turned back to her, their gazes meeting, locking as she read the worry in his. "She was on a fast track to suicide, and as much as Leo's family cared for her, they couldn't have stopped it."

"But you did?" She hadn't known this. Merinus had told her very little about Jonas's sister.

His smile was tight but victorious. "When I met her mate, there was a calm about him, a streak of pure peace that seemed to surround him. The second I looked into his eyes I felt my sister's salvation in him, though I swear to God I don't know how. When his cousin mated one of my Enforcers, I was able to use the blood and saliva samples we require for anyone working with Breeds, from him. They matched what I had acquired of Harmony's from the labs we were bred in. I gave her peace, and this makes twice someone has attempted to steal it from her."

Which meant someone was going to pay for it.

"Brandenmore?" she asked. "You think he's behind this?"

"I know he is," Jonas grunted as his hand lifted to rub at hers where it lay on his thigh. The motion was almost unconscious, as though he was doing it by instinct rather than by design. "There's something he's after--something that has to do with the mating phenomenon."

"The information regarding the halt in aging?" She knew what it was. She had known, once she had thought about it, why Merinus and Kane hadn't aged over the years when the rest of their family had.

"Sometimes you're too damned smart." He sighed, but there was a hint of approval in his tone, as well as his gaze.

Sometimes he was entirely too approachable, Rachel could have retorted. Such as now, when he was reaching out to her, amid the danger and the strife of his life. He was still making room for her, finding a reason, and a chance, to be gentle.

He wasn't hiding from her. He wasn't manipulating her. And she knew Jonas well enough to know when he was doing exactly that.

"Sanctuary in sight," Jackal called out. "Prepare to disembark, Director. We have live fire still coming in. Duck and run."

The heli-jet swooped down, its engines powering down, vibrating through the cabin as it set down as close to the estate house as possible.

The door swung open. Rachel found herself held tight to Jonas's side, her feet off the ground as he jumped from the craft, raced across the short distance and toward the opened double doors, which led to the large underground lab network beneath the estate house.

Live fire burst around them from the mountainside. Jonas was shouting orders as Seth and Dawn raced behind them, completely surrounded by a formation of Breeds.

"We're in. We're in," Jonas called out as steel and cement surrounded them.

Jonas still held her tight against him, racing down the hallway and up a short flight of stairs before careening through a maze of tunnels until he reached the door he was searching for.

The door swung open as Merinus stepped out.

"In here." She was wild-eyed, her face streaked with tears. "Callan, Kane and Leo raced out of here minutes ago, after Harmony. A report came in that she was surrounded and Lance's uncles were unable to get to her. Elizabeth and Ely are with Lance but he's not awakened yet and communications can't contact any of them."

Rachel was set on her feet, but she found Jonas's arm still around her, his warmth surrounding her as Sherra, Callan's Pride sister and the woman who'd married Kane Tyler, and head of computer security, handed Amber to her.

Her baby.

Rachel buried her face against her little girl's neck, tears filling her eyes as her fear began to ease marginally.

"Rachel. I have to go."

Jonas was releasing her. His warmth was easing away.

"No. Not yet." She turned, clutching Amber to her. "Wait. Jonas . . ." She knew he wouldn't listen. She knew he couldn't listen.

Staring up into his eyes, she saw the torn loyalties. His need to stay with his mate, his need to save his people.

Swallowing tightly, she forced a smile to her face. "You have to go."

"I have to go." His hand lifted, his fingertips running across her lips. "I'll be back for you."

Fear was a desperate, agonized entity growing inside her. She didn't want to lose him. She'd fought with him for months, ached for him for just as long. She couldn't lose him until she knew where this was going.

"Hurry back," she whispered through numb lips as she fought to hold back the plea that he not leave at all.

"I'll hurry," he promised.

His head bent, his lips feathered over her cheek, and then, he truly was gone.

Minutes later, Jonas raced from the estate, dressed in black mission clothes rather than the tuxedo he had arrived in. Surrounded by Alpha Team One, which included Lawe, Rule and Mordecai, he ran for the waiting Raider.

There was no report on Harmony, Leo, Callan, Kane or the team sent in to cover them. They could be deliberately ignoring the calls, or, worst-case scenario, captured or killed.

He prayed, for the world's sake, that the latter was only a personal fear. There were enough Breeds banded together now that it would take more resources than America had to force them back into the labs, or to kill them.

The gunfire had stopped from the mountain above, the Breeds Leo had sent into the wilderness having finally succeeded in taking out the last of the sharpshooters firing on the house. It wasn't the men in the mountains he was worried about. It was his sister.

Harmony.

Her mate had nearly given his life for her once before; now, he had nearly given it for another, the son of a bitch. Jonas was definitely going to have to have a long talk with him about the proper way to take care of himself. That, or assign a damned detail to keep his ass out of trouble.

His sister Harmony, once known as the Breed assassin Death, didn't need more heartache in her life. She needed time to laugh, to love, to heal from the horror she had been trained within. A horror Jonas had unknowingly contributed to. And a chance to raise her infant son and watch him laugh, live, love and grow. A chance for more children, a life for herself that didn't include blood.

Death had been forced to die, and Harmony Lancaster had found a place in life, and in love, in the arms of her mate. Jonas intended to keep it that way.

"Move out!" he yelled to Lawe as they jumped into the Raider.

Immediately the vehicle was thrown into gear and raced for the compound's wide gates, which swung open at their impending departure.

The Raider was within sight of the gates when another came barreling in. Tires screamed as the brakes were applied, the vehicle shuddering to a stop as Lawe cursed and twisted the wheel to keep from running headlong into the other Raider.

Harmony.

Jumping from the open side of the vehicle, Jonas stepped toward her, only to come to a hard stop when she, Dane Vanderale, Rye DeSalvo and one of Leo's African Breeds, Burke, jumped out to meet him.

Harmony reached in and a second later, tossed a wounded human male to the ground.

The man's knee was shattered. It looked as though it had taken a bullet from the antiquated sniper rifle Harmony still had a habit of carrying. The same rifle slung over her back now.

Blood congealed at his neck from a shallow knife wound, and if Jonas wasn't mistaken, a portion of hair had been scalped from his head.

That matching bloodied portion was stuck in the belt Harmony wore.

"He shot Lance." Harmony glared at him with raging, brilliant green eyes. "Enact Breed Law against me until hell freezes over, you bastard. Anyone that touches what's mine will suffer." She kicked the wounded man as she cast him a scathing glance. "Then they'll die."

Jonas halted in front of her. The pain that raged in her eyes and twisted her expression was one of the hardest things he had ever faced. He also saw the fear that her brother would find a way to enforce his threat to have her charged with Breed Law for the deaths he was certain she had left on the mountain.

"Are there any others living?" he asked her. He knew from the reports that had come through that a four-man team had attempted to capture David Lyons.

Harmony sneered, her green eyes glowing with fire. "They met Death."

Stepping forward, he held his sister's gaze, feeling that shattered part of his heart that had let her go so long ago ache with a fiery pain.

So delicate. She had always been too tiny, too easily broken.

"I would never enact Breed Law on you," he stated softly. "No matter your actions, I would protect you, Harmony, as I have always tried to protect you."

Surprise glittered amid the stark grief in her eyes.

"Liar." The look cleared out a second later, and he couldn't blame her for her distrust.

Jonas shook his head slowly. "Death is gone, little sister. Harmony Lancaster is a mate who deserves the blood she sheds." He reached out, ignored her flinch and rubbed a long strand of dark auburn hair between his fingertips. "I wouldn't have then--and I will not now--see the sister I have always loved suffer. I swear that, Harmony, on the lives I fight to save every day. I swear that to you."

He sensed it then. That grief inside her became an animal, fighting, clawing for release.

Her face crumpled and tears filled her eyes. "They shot him," she whispered, speaking of her mate. "Again, Jonas. They shot him again, and I might lose him . . ."

He had her in his arms. Despite the vague discomfort, he held her against his chest and did what he had never done before. He bent and kissed her gently on the crown of her head before laying his cheek against it while she sobbed in his arms.

Perhaps something had melted inside him as well. Never before had he known the words to say, or how to unlock the emotions he had always kept hidden inside his soul.

Until Rachel. It had happened gradually, he admitted. Slowly. But she had freed something inside him that he hadn't known had been locked away.

Looking over Harmony's head to the men who had followed her before he had found her again, he finally realized why Dane Vanderale had fought so hard to keep her safe all the years he had.

The son of a bitch loved her. It was there in his eyes, in the twisted, raging fury of his expression. He was in love with a woman who would never consider his touch, his love or his needs.

And he'd loved her enough to let her ago. To allow her to have her mate, to allow her to have her happiness. In doing so, he had lost her forever. But he had given Jonas a gift that could never be repaid: his sister. Jonas had his sister back.

"It's going to be okay, little sister," he promised gently as he stroked his hands down her back and prayed for a way to soothe her. "Ely would have told you if he wasn't going to make it."

She shook her head.

"Leo would have never allowed you to leave the estate if Elizabeth thought he would die," he pointed out, and she paused.

When she pulled back, she stared up at him. And she broke his heart all over again with those tear-drenched eyes, so vivid and filled with pain.

"You hide," she whispered brokenly. "Like I used to do, don't you, Jonas? You hide it all, so you'll never be hurt."

He shook his head. "There's no hiding it any longer, Harmony. Maybe I just needed you to see it without proof." He touched her cheek gently.

She sniffed, like a little girl who didn't know what to do with her tears.

"Go to your mate," he urged her as he turned her to the house. "I have to collect my Pride leader and his stubborn-assed father now."

"His stubborn-assed father is having the time of his life cleaning up the carcasses Death left." Dane kicked at the human cowering at his feet, his expression hardening, filling with fury that came from Harmony's pain as well as the knowledge that she could have died when she went after the men who had attacked the estate. "What are we doing with this nasty little piece of shit?" He hunkered down and smiled in cold anticipation as the other man fought to scurry away while crying for mercy.

There was no mercy. Not in Dane's eyes, nor in Jonas's heart.

"Transfer him to our holding cells." Jonas looked to Burke. "This man is not to be accounted for. Let his boss think he escaped."

Burke nodded, grabbed a hunk of bloodstained blond hair and dragged him, screaming, back into the Raider.

"Lawe, Rule, go with him." He motioned to the two Enforcers before turning back to Dane. "You come with me."

Jonas jumped into the Raider, waited until Dane and Rye moved into the backseat, then took off for the house.

Harmony was racing into the entrance as Jonas drove up, her long, slender legs eating the distance as she moved to join her mate. Pulling the vehicle to a stop, he sighed wearily before jumping out and leading the way to Callan's private office.

Dane. His brother. Hell, sometimes it was too damned easy to admit the tall blond behind him was indeed his relative. They were far too much alike, and yet, too different.

Dane was a hybrid Breed, born naturally, nurtured and loved, held and given security. He had grown to adulthood knowing his place in life, and knowing the parents who loved and shielded him.

There had been danger in his life, but there had been no cruelty from those assigned to care for him. Even now, his parents cherished the ground his feet touched.

"I need a status update on Callan and Leo," he told the other two men as the doors closed behind them and security was engaged in the room.

The Breed society would suffer from the loss of the three Breeds, Callan, Leo and Jonas, who worked so tirelessly to strengthen it, and Jonas knew it. If Leo and Callan were caught unawares, and killed, the Breed society might never recover.

"I told you, brother, they're cleaning up Death's mess." Dane's smile was tight and hard. "You know how bloody things can get when she starts playing with her knife."

Yes, he knew well how bloody she could get. Death preferred a mess. It was her calling card. She was never easy when she killed and she never gave a damn what others thought or how they saw it.

"What did she learn?" She wasn't a stupid woman; she knew how important information was now.

"Brandenmore hired them to kidnap David," Dane revealed. "They have more spies here, Jonas. They knew about the training maneuver David was on with Tanner, Harmony and Lance, and exactly how to get into the compound. Brandenmore ordered the kid brought in alive too. No exceptions."

"Why?" Jonas snapped. That was unusual. They didn't need a live subject for the tests Jonas suspected they needed.

"It got fuzzy there." Dane shifted his broad shoulders as a frown worked over his brow. "It seems Brandenmore believes the child has mated and that the answer to the problem he's looking for in the decreases of aging can be found with him. What the hell is going on with that?"

Jonas shook his head. Dane's confusion stemmed from the fact that there were absolutely no variances of mating hormones in the children born to the Breeds. "We don't test the children, Dane. You know that."

"You can't test children. Hybrid Breeds don't hit puberty until they're near eighteen, and most don't become sexually active until they're in their twenties," Dane snarled, his South African accent slipping with his anger. "The fuckers have lost their minds."

"That, or do they know about you?" Jonas posed the question.

Dane snorted. "Not a chance. Brandenmore so loathes Leo that if he knew, the world would know. Trust me."

"Perhaps he's found himself another hybrid," Jonas thought aloud. "Whatever the answer, we have a more serious problem."

"Your spy," Dane pointed out. "I know for a fact how secretive David's training is. Whoever knew is close."

David Lyons was nearly thirteen years old, and despite Elizabeth Vanderale's claims that Breed males hit puberty late, he seemed to be hitting it exceptionally hard. His temper, as well as his animalistic nature, was becoming impossible to hide. The training maneuvers were designed to help ease the primal awareness beginning to grow inside him, as well as to teach self-defense.

"Or lucky," Jonas bit out. "I want to question the captives myself. Let's see what I can get out of them."

"The Breed bogeyman." Dane's smile was cold as he referred to the nickname the press had given Jonas. "If what I saw outside is any indication though, your reputation is going to suffer. First Ely calls you a fucking sissy girl pussy; now you're petting your sister. Breeds and humans alike might start believing you're not a robot after all."

"Fuck off, Dane," he snarled and headed for the door. "And get your father and brother back on the fucking estate. I'll be damned if I need to deal with their deaths. The paperwork alone would make me fucking crazy."

Jonas made his way from the office directly to the secured rooms below the house. He needed his mate. He couldn't possess her, but the touch of her, her warmth, the gentle sound of her voice was another hunger he craved as well. He'd never considered that with mating heat. None of the other mated Breed Enforcers had mentioned it in their reports: that the need to simply be in the presence of their mates was so overwhelming that it was impossible to stay away.

Passing security, Jonas paused outside the secured safe room and waited until Merinus opened the door once again.

Rachel's scent hit him immediately. Her head turned from where she had been watching her child sleep in her arms, then she stood quickly and moved toward him.

She still wore the evening gown, minus the shoes. Her hair had slipped from its upswept style, and heavy strands fell to her shoulders.

Her face was pale, tearstained, the baby clutched in her arms. She had never looked more beautiful, or as sexy.

"Callan, Leo and Kane are cleaning up," he told Merinus and Sherra as he passed them to meet Rachel in the middle of the room. "They'll be returning soon."

He felt their relief, felt the love that seemed to fill the room. The children were all here, along with Leo's specially trained Enforcers, Breeds trained in the care and protection of the children should they have to escape with them.

The children themselves were calm. At eleven, Kane and Sherra's son appeared much more mature as he kept an eye on Leo and Elizabeth's newborns while Dawn talked to two of the Breed guards.

Tanner and Scheme's twins, ten months old, were playing quietly on a specially designed floor mat that held a variety of activities to entertain them. Merinus's newborn lay sleeping peacefully in one of the cribs set up in the room.

Only David, Callan and Merinus's thirteen-year-old son, appeared less than peaceful, and who could blame the boy?

Jonas would have approached the child, and had all intentions of doing so, until Merinus moved closer to him, blocking him from David.

"David asked to be left alone until he could talk to Callan." Her dark brown eyes were filled with pain. "I don't know what to do, Jonas."

This wasn't the Prima; this was the mother. She was uncertain, fighting to make sense of the danger this world provided and how best to protect her children.

"Then I would suggest respecting his wishes," Jonas stated quietly as he glanced to one of the Breed guards closest to David and gave him a silent nod toward the boy.

The Breed would be available if he felt David was becoming overly distressed.

"He needs to talk about it," she whispered as she crossed her arms over her breasts and tried to calm herself. "David doesn't do well when he broods over things."

"Sometimes a man has to brood," Jonas answered her, knowing the boy could overhear their conversation well. "He's being forced to grow up, Merinus, and as sad as that is, it's not something we can halt. David is well-adjusted, and he knows his father is willing to listen to whatever problems he wants to bring to him. Give Callan a chance to help his child the proper way."

The message was for David as well. He could discuss the issues with Callan, or Jonas would ensure the boy discussed them with his father. And David rarely liked Jonas's forced discussions.

"Rachel and I will be returning to the cabin now," he told the Prima. "If you need me, you have only to call the sat phone."

"Is the cabin safe?" Merinus asked worriedly as she glanced at a sleeping Amber. "Stay here, Jonas. One of the lower-level suites can be prepared quickly."

The lower-level suites were beneath the house, part of the design of the labs and taken for couples in mating heat that were forced to stay at the estate house for safety's sake.

Jonas shook his head. "I have adequate security, and it seems the danger has passed, for tonight. Besides, I know Rachel will be more comfortable with time alone with her child."

Rachel remained silent, thankfully. Jonas had no desire to stay there, where he could and would be disturbed at every chance. The animal inside him was already pacing in impatience to, at the very least, be alone with his family.

His family.

As they left the house, Jonas couldn't help but be amazed at the thought. He had been created to father children, and had been considered a failure by the scientists. Jonas knew what they didn't: He wasn't a failure, he just hadn't found his mate.

Now that he had, he feared the results.

Nothing mattered but protecting his mate and the child he had claimed as his own. The problem with that was, any child he would sire would be in even greater danger. He would be the child who would truly bridge Breed and man, to create a being that both races would ultimately fear.