Lion's Heat

CHAPTER 14

Jonas strode into his office the next morning, aware of the taut expression on his face and the tension that filled his entire body stretched tight. It was hard to miss the toll the mating heat was taking on him. And if he had missed it, then Ely was quick to point it out each morning.

Hours in the labs with Ely hadn't produced any answers, only more questions. Questions such as what the hell was the hormone in his mating semen?

Mating semen came from the barb only, ejaculated after the main release, and mixing with Breed semen, which held just a few human sperm. The mating semen seemed to strengthen the human sperm as well as laying in important Breed DNA and a hormone that eased the mating heat for a short period of time.

The mating hormone Jonas had ejaculated had held all the same biological components as any other Breed mate's, but it had held a few additions as well. Additions that Ely was still frowning over when he'd left an hour before.

Returning to the cabin, he'd found Rachel in the office, right on time, Amber in her crib in the room beside her and everything running with the same efficiency that it ran with in D.C.

The only thing not running right was Jonas.

"Lawe, Rule, with me," he snapped to the two Enforcers waiting in Rachel's office as he strode through it.

Lawe and Rule followed him into his office, closed the door behind them, then stood and watched him silently. He could feel their readiness, their tense preparation for what they sensed.

Jonas was a man running on borrowed time, because the animal inside him was growing stronger by the day.

"I want a complete investigative profile done on Devon Marshal," he ordered. "Go deeper than we went before. I want to know who breathed the air that son of a bitch has breathed before he did. I want to know every strand of hair on his head, and who the hell is supplying his drugs. And I want to know why I smelled the scent of Brandenmore on him when he arrived yesterday evening."

It had taken Jonas a while to figure it out. His senses were so screwed up with Rachel right now that he was dangerous.

"Crank said the bastard stank," Lawe grunted.

"Of Brandenmore," Jonas agreed. "My guess is the son of a bitch was in the limo. Attempts had been made to diffuse the scent, but it was there. If he was that close, it was only because they were certain they would get Amber out of Sanctuary. I want to know why he wants her, and what he's after, and I want to know now."

Rage was eating inside him at the thought of what Brandenmore, a genius in pharmaceuticals, could have planned for such a small child. Especially a child he knew Jonas would never allow him to take.

"Jess Warden is trying to reach you as well, Jonas," Rule informed him quietly. "The lawyers for Horace Engalls have filed a protest with Sanctuary against the Enforcers we placed on surveillance to keep him from leaving the country as well. They've demanded we stop following him and have also demanded an immediate hearing with the ruling cabinet to hear their arguments."

Which meant, according to Breed Law statutes, Engalls was pretty much fucked. It would first have to go to the pre-cabinet, six Breeds and three humans who would decide if the ruling cabinet needed to hear the arguments. Then, and only then, would it go to the ruling cabinet, of which Jonas was a member. Once the request was kicked back and vetoed, only then could it go to court, where at least five or more Breeds had to sit on the jury.

Sucked to be Engalls this year.

"Not happening," Jonas growled. "Have the Enforcers appear to back off. Let's see what he has planned. If he attempts to get on a plane, then I want them there as well. I want to know what he's doing, where he's going, and what the hell he's doing each time he goes to the men's room. And I want to know before he does it."

Engalls would try to run next. So far, Brandenmore was having incredible luck with his little escape to the Middle East. The country that had taken him in was also providing lawyers and financial resources designed to buy Brandenmore out of his current predicament.

"Dog's been trying to reach you as well." Lawe kept his voice low. "Seems Brandenmore has a nice little lab where he's staying. He hasn't left the royal palace yet that they can see, so there's been no chance to grab him, and Dog hasn't found a way to slip into Brandenmore's suite yet."

Jonas lips thinned. "Tell Dog he has forty-eight hours to capture Brandenmore, get him on a plane and be headed my way. I have a feeling we don't have much longer here."

Pulling up his email, he began to sift through it quickly, his eyes scanning each subject header as his lips thinned further.

The Breeds were either loved, or hated, according to which story was hitting the gossip rags and who liked them at the time. At present, several of the world's largest box office draws thought it was cool to have Breeds for friends.

Tanner Reynolds made a great movie star groupie, though his wife, Scheme, was a bit more standoffish. There were other Breeds, trained in the art of endearing trust and friendship, who were working the same angles under Tanner's careful eye.

The groups opposing the Breeds were looking for a war though, believing there were no more than the thousand or so accounted-for Breeds that they would have to face.

How wrong they were, and Jonas wondered the panic many governments would feel to learn just how wrong they truly were about the Breeds' actual numbers.

"Dog will try, but I'd bet against it happening," Lawe stated as he moved closer to Jonas's desk. "Just as I'd bet for Engalls attempting to run in the next forty-eight hours. The protest and filing with pre-cabinet is just an attempt to divert your attention and force you to travel to D.C. to handle it yourself. Which would either leave Amber and Rachel here, where a spy could get to them; or in D.C., where they would be more accessible to a well-planned abduction attempt."

Mates rarely traveled alone. If Jonas went to D.C., Rachel, and possibly Amber, would be accompanying him. And there was no way that would happen without a full unit of Enforcers covering them.

Jonas would have to pull back the unit covering Engalls, pull a team from a mission, or pull in one of the units he kept in the shadows, revealing there were still more Breeds who had remained hidden thus far.

A straggler here and there didn't hurt the society one way or the other. But if units started popping up, they were going to be in trouble.

"Keep Alpha Team One on standby," he ordered Lawe. "Inform mission control they're at my command."

Lawe nodded quickly. As a member of Alpha Team One, he knew exactly how often they were needed and how many missions they could be sent out on in any given week.

"Rule, I want you talk to Sherra. Pull in the two female units we have here at Sanctuary. No one is used to seeing us use the female units. Let's see how pretty and defenseless we can make them look, if you don't mind. I'd prefer they not be seen as a threat unless we have no other choice."

That "no other choice" was only a life-or-death situation.

"I want more teams added to the mountain patrols as well." Jonas frowned over the map of Sanctuary that he brought up. "So far, each time we've had an attempted kidnapping from Sanctuary they've used the ravine here, where Mordecai found evidence of a watcher, or the ravines here, farther up." Jonas pointed out the weak areas. "Hidden sensors are in place now, but I want several teams patrolling each of those areas from here on out. If Kane has any problems with it, then please have him contact me."

Kane Tyler was head of Sanctuary's security, and a damned good man for it. But Jonas could feel the edge of premonition pricking at him now. There was going to be trouble, and he had no idea from which direction it was coming. And neither did Cassie.

"Callan and Leo have requested that you come to the main house, along with your mate and child, tonight for dinner." Lawe seemed hesitant to relay that information. "I believe it might have been the Leo's idea."

The Leo. His father.

Jonas rubbed at the back of his neck. They wouldn't have asked just for the hell of it.

"Find out what time," he growled, feeling his tension ratcheting higher now.

Lawe nodded. "By the way, congratulations."

Jonas looked up from the computer and frowned. "For what?"

Rule and Lawe both stared at him as though he were crazy.

"You're mated. Congratulations. We scented the proof of it the minute Rachel opened the door and allowed us in. It's particularly strong . . ." Lawe trailed off as Jonas stared back at him in surprise.

"There has been no mating," he told the other man.

There hadn't been. If there had, Jonas wouldn't be in the physical hell he was in.

Lawe scratched at the side of his cheek. "Well, there's no scent of crazy lust coming from her, I admit." He cleared his throat nervously. "But the mating scent is there, Jonas. There's no missing it."

Unless you were the mate. His own scent was so familiar to him that he wouldn't have detected the mating scent itself on Rachel. That scent was for other males, not for the mate.

Ely was right; he needed to get Rachel to the labs for testing as soon as possible. If he carried the mating out, then the examination would be painful, too painful. Though according to his Enforcers, the mating had already been completed.

Which he knew for a fact wasn't possible.

"Has anyone else been in here?" he asked the two men, wondering how many others would be aware of that scent.

Lawe shook his head. "Just us. We were here when she unlocked the office doors waiting on you."

Jonas rose from his seat, his teeth clenched. He had to get Rachel to the labs for tests, there was no other way around it. But in doing so, he was opening himself up to a vulnerability he wasn't ready for anyone else to know, especially the Vanderales.

If Rachel was indeed displaying the mating scent, then that particular hormone would display variances that would reveal the DNA used in Jonas's creation. Elizabeth Vanderale's DNA. It would also show that his creation was far different than his files stated. He wasn't created to be simply a Pride leader, and commander. He had been created to breed the very animal that Breeds and humans alike feared the species would eventually become.

He couldn't ignore the fact that others knew this information. Scientists that had been at the labs and had escaped Breed justice. There was a slim chance Brandenmore at least suspected he was the Breed scientists still searched for. The one designated as Alpha One.

He was one of a few male Breeds given a unique designation during creation. He was created not to be the ultimate Breed, but to create the ultimate killer.

It was a hell of a legacy, he thought savagely.

"Get Dog in gear and oversee Alpha Team One," he ordered Lawe. "I'll contact Callan to see what time we're needed for dinner. Assign a Breed to Marshal, while you're at it. Make it a female Breed. Someone nonthreatening."

"Ashley," Rule murmured. "She at least appears nonthreatening."

She was a killer in heels. As one of the Coyote Breeds, and exacting of her privacy, there were no tabloid pictures of her, and even less information about her.

"Put her undercover," he ordered Lawe. "A little rich bitch looking for fun. That should be right up Devon Marshal's alley right now. Give her backup. Her sister Emma should work."

As a team, Ashley and Emma were hell on wheels.

"I was going to suggest both of them." Lawe nodded. "We'll have an update for you on Dog as soon as we speak with him, and I'll let you know when Ashley and Emma head out."

Jonas nodded shortly, waited, then blew out a hard breath as the door closed behind the two men.

Fuck! He jerked from his chair, his hand clamped to the back of his neck as he paced across the room. This was the last fucking thing he needed. A mating that wasn't a mating. Unknown hormones in his semen, and a variety of protests and actions being filed against him, the Bureau and Sanctuary at a time when he didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

To add to those particularly irritating problems was the nearly mindless lust tearing at his mind and tearing at his control. The past months had been hell, and it was now multiplying daily to the point that he hadn't even recognized Brandenmore's scent on Marshal's body last night.

How the hell had Phillip Brandenmore managed to get out of the Middle East without Dog's team being aware of it? To fly out, and then back in, and no one being the wiser was a hell of a feat to accomplish. Especially considering the fact that Dog would have been watching for it.

But as the Breeds had been trained, there were few things that were truly impossible.

He truly hoped that getting Rachel in for those tests before a true mating didn't prove to be one of those "impossible" things. If she was displaying the mating scent without a mating, then Ely needed to know why. And she needed to know why now, before any more surprises were thrown at them.

Rachel finished the report logs Jonas was required to submit to the Bureau of Breed Affairs Oversight Committee, a panel of several senators, Breeds and foreign ambassadors. The oversight committee was tasked with keeping an eye on the running of the Bureau, Jonas's actions as Bureau director and the official missions the Breeds participated in for the American and allied countries.

Each day, a report log was filed for the day before and sent to the secretary of the oversight committee. At the end of each month, Jonas met with them for any outstanding questions.

There wasn't a lot of factual information per se that went into the reports. But as Rachel read them, she was always amused at the inventiveness Jonas displayed in twisting many of his more calculated schemes and making them appear perfectly acceptable and logical.

The man had to have the DNA of an Irishman well versed in kissing more than one Blarney Stone.

Her head turned as his office door opened. That familiar little catch of her breath was stronger now. The memory of the night spent in his arms, her body humming with pleasure, caught at her senses, whipped across her flesh with ghostly fingers of sensation and had a smile tugging at her lips.

"Your report logs are getting better," she told him as she sent the file to his electronic notepad for his signature.

"Callan still gets a laugh out of them." He shrugged as he moved to the desk, his gaze hooded as he stared down at her. His nostrils flared as though searching for some scent he couldn't quite put his fingers on.

Rachel tilted her head as she stared up at him quizzically. "Is something wrong?"

"Many things," he told her. "Are you feeling okay today?" Propping her hand on her fist, she let her gaze lock with the liquid silver of his eyes. "I'm feeling fine. You?"

"I've been better." That undefined emotion in his eyes that had always drawn her raged now.

A frown pulled at her brow. He was unusually tense, and for Jonas, that was saying something. He gave tension a bad name. The man was normally drawn as tight as a bow string. For him to be more tense than normal was something to worry about.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" She was willing to try many things. The thought of going to her knees in front of him, her lips caressing the straining length of his cock, had her mouth watering.

"Actually, there is." As though he had made some decision within himself, his shoulders straightened and his gaze narrowed as he stared down at her. "I'm making an appointment for you with Ely this evening. We need to get started on the examination and tests you'll be required to participate in once full mating occurs."

Rachel stared back at him silently. She had determined, once, that she wouldn't be his mate. That she couldn't be unless she decided she was.

Had she made that decision?

She knew she had.

There was a part of her that knew she belonged to him, longed for him. There was a part of her that knew the mating heat was coming, it was simply a matter of time.

"So soon?" she asked, rather than refusing outright. "I thought, after the mating . . ."

"We need to get started now, Rachel." His tone was harder than it had been in past days. She was so used to him using the softer, gentler tone of voice that the normal tone was like a slight dash of cold water across her flesh.

She nodded though. "Ely will be doing the examination?"

She liked Dr. Vanderale but the other woman had the power to intimidate her. Rachel didn't like acknowledging that power where anyone was concerned.

"Only Ely." He nodded as though he understood her hesitation.

"Very well." She drew in a hard breath, mentally preparing herself for the coming tests. "I can do that."

He nodded sharply. "We've also been invited to dinner tonight with the Leo, his family and Callan and his. I'm sure you'll enjoy some time with Merinus."

His voice was oddly cool, even though she had agreed to what he'd asked of her, which indicated there was something more going on. She'd learned many of Jonas's ways, and one of them was that the more he expected a complication or a problem from one of his requests, the cooler he would become with whomever he was dealing with.

Rachel nodded again. "I'll check with Erin to make certain she can stay with Amber." The young lynx Breed had taken to Amber with surprising affection.

Jonas frowned at the statement. "Erin and Amber will be going with us. Socialization begins as an infant, Rachel. You want her to know how to deal with others, and how to interact, even as a toddler."

Her brows raised. Jonas's frown deepened.

"She's my baby, Jonas," she reminded him. "I appreciate what you've done to protect her . . ."

"She is our baby." He leaned forward, his hands planted on her desk with a suddenness that had her staring up at him warily. "Never doubt that I don't claim that child as my own. We will raise her together, we will protect her together. If you have other ideas, then perhaps you've been right to deny the mating."

He straightened as quickly as he'd leaned forward, his shoulders straight, his expression forbidding as he seemed to glare at her.

"Don't imagine you can demand those rights." Rachel was out of her chair immediately.

"I don't demand them. I have taken them," he growled, bending again until he was almost nose to nose with her. "Raising a child is a partnership, mate. Don't imagine otherwise."

"You're pissing me off." Her hands went to her hips. "Asking for something is a hell of a lot nicer than demanding it. What the hell is wrong with you, and since when did you decide you could arbitrarily decide that you have any rights over me or Amber?"

"When I knew you were my mate," he snarled back at her. "And why have you decided to suddenly become so damned difficult? I do know a few things about children. Cassie didn't turn out so bad, and all of Sanctuary has participated in raising her."

"Cassie has an excellent mother," she pointed out, exerting effort to be calm, her eyes narrowing. "And likely had a father who understood not to speak to her mother as though she knew nothing about raising a child."

Jonas was fighting for control; Rachel could sense it. She watched him, her heart racing, a sense of impending doom rising inside her as his eyes flashed from silver to mercury and back again.

He was testing boundaries he didn't want to tempt, not now, not yet. Likely, never.

"Amber has an excellent mother," he growled, obviously pushing the words past clenched teeth. "I never implied otherwise, Rachel. You have turned a simple discussion into a conflict that should not exist."

"Or perhaps you have." They were still nose to nose, eyes narrowed, the tension stifling. "Now that we've agreed Erin and Amber will accompany us, you can see about becoming prepared for the telephone conference you have with Senator Tyler in exactly one hour. After that, you have a meeting with the pre-cabinet concerning the latest attempt by various groups to gain access to a hunting permit for Sanctuary's northern boundary. You don't have time to stand here growling and snarling at me."

He flashed his incisors at her. She crossed her arms over her breasts and stared back at him with steely resolve.

"Mating heat is coming, mate." His voice lowered, rasped, stroked along her senses like dark velvet. "Let's see where all that anger gets you then."

Turning on his heel, he stalked from the ante office back to his own, and closed the door quietly behind him.

Very quietly.

Rachel flinched, then blew out a soundless breath.

Now, there was an attitude she hadn't seen from him before. If she wasn't mistaken, he had been seconds, inches, one last thread of control from kissing her.

For one wild, exciting moment, she had nearly kissed him instead.

And she'd had fun.

Smiling, Rachel took her seat and returned to the computer and her own work.

Not many people could say they had faced the bogeyman of the Breeds in a screaming match and came out unscathed. Rachel was betting she was the only one who could lay claim to that particular talent. And she looked forward to the next round.

She paused at the thought.

Hell, she knew she was in love with him now, because the only other person she would dare to yell back at was her sister. She and Diana had gone nose to nose many times over the years, and Diana hadn't always backed down, but she had always ended up laughing at Rachel's particular manner of "handling" her, as she called it.

She glanced at the door again.

She should stalk right in there and kiss him herself. She had no idea why he was holding back now. No idea what demons were shadowing him that he hadn't claimed her.

She knew he wanted to. She knew it was going to happen.

Yet, he was fighting it with every breath he took.

He was drowning.

Jonas sat at his desk, glared at the wall, and felt the stifling tightness in his throat, his chest. The taste of cinnamon and cloves was choking him; the need for her was stealing his breath and his control.

He parted his lips to breathe in roughly and a growl tore from his lips despite his attempts to hold it back.

His hands lay flat on the desk, claws extruding, digging into the wood. The glands beneath his tongue were so swollen, so sensitive, he was in agony. He felt as though his tongue were being ripped out.

He lifted the comm link from a drawer, attached it to his head and pressed the direct secured line to Ely's office.

"Jonas," she answered immediately.

"Rachel will be in this evening for the examination and tests," he informed her. "Get whatever you have to have while you can."

Silence filled the link for long seconds.

"I'll be waiting for her," she stated. "Amburg was in here earlier. He's asking for more blood from the baby. He found a slight anomaly in the last test he conducted and wants to investigate it further."

"I'll discuss it with Rachel."

"If you're bringing her this evening, then whoever is watching Amber can oversee my assistant extracting the blood," Ely suggested. "There's no need to tempt her refusal, Jonas."

He shook his head. "You've learned too well." He sighed. "She's my mate, Ely, not a particularly stubborn Enforcer. I won't go behind her back."

There had been a time when Ely would have never suggested such a thing; to the contrary, she would have protested it had Jonas made such a suggestion.

"Perhaps I didn't learn fast enough from you," Ely murmured. "Whichever, I'll be waiting for you this evening. Let me know by then how to proceed."

The line disconnected, leaving Jonas to stare broodingly into the dark room as he reflected on games, machinations and his past calculating attempts to ensure that his Enforcers met, mated and lived, if not happily ever after, at least with a measure of softness in their lives.

He didn't regret a moment of it, but damned if he wasn't paying for it now.