Lion's Heat

CHAPTER 20

Dawn was peeking over the horizon and found Jonas standing by the large living room window that looked out over the estate house. It was his early morning ritual. Amber was fed, diapered, wrapped in an incredibly soft blanket and staring out over Sanctuary along with Jonas.

He purred. It was a rumble he found he enjoyed. This was a sound of comfort and security, whereas the purr that vibrated in his chest for the baby's mother was stronger, tinged with passion and spiced with heat.

Here, in these moments with Amber, there was no mating heat. This had been the only peace he had found until he had completed the mating with Rachel. As though the child triggered something inside him that eased the heat and instead flooded him with gentleness and the need to protect.

How his life had changed with the appearance of Rachel and their baby. His entire existence had shifted, gone off balance and righted itself in a way he had never expected.

The fingers of sunlight caressed the third story, glistening across the windows and the widow's walk along the roof. He could barely make out the slightest differences between the roof itself and the four Breeds stationed there. He was going to have to have a talk with Callan and Kane about the guards. They had to be completely invisible, even to Breed eyes.

Perhaps it was time he discussed training a new team with Jag, the commander of Ghost Team. Sanctuary could use a few teams with the talents Jag and his Breeds possessed. Jonas knew they were out there; the four men were spreading themselves between the main house and Jonas's cabin.

Or perhaps it was simply time he began using the abilities he was trained for, rather than playing with the ones he had taken as a hobby.

The Bureau wasn't his passion, it was his game. He amused himself with manipulating the politicians, the bigwigs and financial movers and shakers who could be convinced to contribute so heavily to the Breed community.

It was the reason Jonas had slid into the position. It had been easily done. There had been no challenge. And the amusement value was rapidly wearing thin.

He had found in the past months that the position as Bureau director was becoming something he actually believed in, and that was frightening. There had been very few things that Jonas had ever believed in.

Now, looking out over the community the Breeds had created, that he had helped to create, Jonas no longer felt that hollow ache he had always felt before.

He'd wondered for years what he was truly fighting for, the Breeds or simply vengeance for their creation and the cruelty they'd suffered.

Looking down at the child that slept against his chest, he knew now exactly what he was fighting for: this tiny scrap of humanity and her too-delicate mother. The Breeds were free, that was an unending fact, and they would never allow themselves to be imprisoned again. Their mates and their children were in danger now. They were an endangered species, but they had the will to survive.

Narrowing his gaze against the slowly lightening landscape, Jonas drew in a hard breath as he realized time was running out in many ways. With the mating had come realization. Realizations he could no longer ignore.

As he stood there, Erin's Jeep moved slowly up the drive until it drew to a stop in the small parking area Jonas had assigned her.

The babysitter jumped from the Jeep, her hand landing protectively on the butt of the laser pistol, her eyes narrowing as she stared around suspiciously.

She did this every morning. Even if she didn't smell or see Ghost Team, she knew they were there. It wasn't an indication of Jag's lax security or abilities. Rather, it was an indication of the strength of her own abilities. She was a Breed he intended to keep careful watch over.

She was still young; she still had much growing to do. Until then, she was the perfect guard for the baby Jonas claimed as his own. Amber would need a diligent, instinctive guard, because as his child, she would be in nearly as much danger as Cassandra Sinclair was.

Still suspicious, and certain something lurked outside, Erin made her way cautiously to the door, unlocked it and pushed it forward.

Jonas stood back and waited.

When she rolled inside it was with a silence that surprised him, and with a quick efficiency and narrow-eyed determination as she quickly recognized Jonas by the window.

The weapon that had cleared the holster was quickly returned; her body became erect as she strode to the door, closing it just as silently and relocking it.

"Windows are secured," he assured her as she began checking the entrances to the house.

She ignored his warning, moving from room to room, even his own, where Rachel slept. The locks were all in place, the house clearly secured, as she made her way back to the living room where Jonas was placing a sleeping Amber back in her crib.

"What did you sense?" he asked her, knowing exactly what lurked in the dark.

"The same thing I sense every morning," she answered coolly as she stood to the side of the room, her gaze questioning. "Someone watches, lurks in the darkness."

"Have you caught a scent?"

She shook her head.

"A sign of a trail or presence?"

Once again, a shake of the head.

"Then you sense nothing," he accused her.

Her lips quirked. "They are there. Are they yours?"

She wasn't assuming they were his, she was asking.

"Intuition can make or break you," he told her. "Find whatever you sense."

She shook her head. "Telling you what I sense is my responsibility, Director. Protecting Amber is my job. Or are you changing the parameters you gave me?"

Jonas paused as though considering her question. "I'll place extra guards outside. As you say, your job is protecting the child. You'll be accompanying Rachel and me to the labs later this morning for more tests. The baby will be seeing the doctors once more as well. Have everything prepared to go."

"I'll make certain you haven't messed with my go-bag again."

Jonas almost grinned. He was prone to mess with the go-bag she had put together when first attaining the position. She was cautious, preparatory. She had placed in a bag a change of clothes, weapons, as well as diapers, formula, bottles, a pediatric first aid kit and warm clothes for the baby. Everything she would need in case of an emergency.

It was very similar to the go-bag Jonas kept prepared as well.

"Once Rachel awakens we'll be leaving." He nodded shortly as he headed for the bedroom. "Inform Lawe and Rule we'll be heading to the main house."

He went to awaken his mate. She slept peacefully, dreamlessly. She slept as a woman in love should sleep, safe in her lover's care.

He only prayed he could ensure that safety for their lifetime, as Leo had managed to ensure his own mate's safety.

As Jonas closed the door to the room, he stopped and closed his eyes. As Leo had protected his mate, his family. He had hidden them deep in the Congo, using an old ancient ruin as a base as well as a home.

He had gathered his "children," those Breeds who had been created using his and Elizabeth's genetics. If there had been other Breeds with them, then they had been rescued as well. But Leo had rarely gone out of his way to rescue those Breeds who had not been created with his and his mate's genetics.

His fists clenched at the thought of that. Harmony had suffered for untold years because Leo hadn't moved on the French labs. His sister had been tortured, punished, beaten and forced to kill because Jonas had been unable to find a way to protect her, when she should have been rescued.

Harmony hadn't been a child of the Leo or of Elizabeth. It was Harmony who had been the true child of LaRue, rather than Jonas. Jonas had been carried by the doctor, he had been claimed as LaRue's "get," but the truth was, he was the hybrid created using the sperm and ovum of a mated Breed pair.

And this was why Jonas hated him. This was why he struck at the Leo with every verbal arrow he could find, and it was why he ignored the mother who watched him with questioning, suspicious eyes.

Elizabeth sensed her child, despite Jonas's denials and icy refusal to relent.

Perhaps, though, Leo hadn't been as wrong as Jonas had believed he was, because as he opened his eyes and stared at his own mate, Jonas wondered if he wouldn't have done the same.

There had been no Breed community a century ago. There had been no nations willing to pay penance for the creation and torture of the Breeds. There had been one man, one woman, fighting to survive.

He would have done the same. He would have hidden his mate, he would have fought to rescue those Breeds he was certain would be loyal to him, as well as those created by himself and his mate.

"Jonas?"

He looked across the room to Rachel, who stared back at him drowsily. Once again, the scent of mating was clear, unmistakable, but the heat had cooled, and there was no biological, hormonal or any other reason to be found for it.

This particular anomaly, as well as the unfamiliar hormone found in Jonas's system, was making the scientists crazy as they fought to figure it out.

"Good morning, baby." He strode across the room, leaned to her and kissed her slow and easy.

The glands beneath his tongue weren't swollen. Their kiss was natural, filled with a different kind of heat, an emotional undertone that at once humbled and strengthened him.

"Morning." Her smile lit up his heart. It curled her lips, warmed her green eyes and flushed her cheeks as the sheet fell away from the gentle curves of her breasts.

He'd marked her shoulder, but he'd also left a mark on the upper curve of her breast.

Reaching out, he touched the small bite mark, at once proud and concerned at the wound he had inflicted.

Rachel glanced down and her lips twitched in amusement. "Do you remember what happened when you did that?"

His entire body clenched. She had tightened on his cock until he had exploded inside her as though he had died.

"Still, I should be more careful." He sighed.

"Yeah, more careful to do it again next time." She slid from the bed, casting a smile over her shoulder as she moved naked from the bed and headed toward the shower. "Do you have breakfast ready yet?"

He stared back at her. "These tests need to be done before we eat," he told her. "We'll have breakfast with Callan and Merinus."

She paused at the bathroom door and frowned.

"I'm sick of the tests."

She wasn't the only one.

"Hopefully, they'll been finished soon." If they weren't, then he wasn't going to handle it well.

"No, they'll be finished this morning," she told him as she turned and walked into the bathroom. "Because I'm done."

The door closed behind her and Jonas couldn't help but grin. He had to say, he rather enjoyed the fact that his mate wasn't the least bit intimidated by him or his reputation.

She was his lover, his mate. She was his other half and she had no problems whatsoever claiming her place.

Rachel endured another examination, more samples being taken. Blood samples, saliva samples, vaginal samples. There were scans this time, old-fashioned X-rays, skin samples, nail samples and hair samples.

It was as though the scientists were well aware that they were never going to get another sample from her.

"Are you certain you're not uncomfortable?" Ely Morrey asked, not for the twelfth time. Perhaps more.

Rachel turned a frustrated look on her. "I'm very uncomfortable," she replied sweetly. "I'm sitting here in a paper gown that shows my ass while the three of you"--she looked at Ely, Elizabeth and Jeffrey Amburg watching her clinically--"talk scientific jargon that makes no sense, and frankly gets on my nerves."

Elizabeth's lips twitched.

"You're showing too many anomalies for mating heat." Ely crossed her arms over her breasts and frowned back at Rachel. "Jonas is showing too many anomalies as well. This is so far beyond normal that we have to be certain to cover our bases."

"Why?" That part confused her just slightly.

"Because it's best--" Ely began.

"Tell her the truth, Ely." Elizabeth moved to Ely's side, her tone firm.

"This isn't information just anyone should have." Ely's lips thinned in disapproval.

Rachel arched her brow at Elizabeth.

"Mating heat is incredibly painful for the females," Elizabeth began.

"I know that part," Rachel broke in. "Painful. Aphrodisiac in the tongue, sperm that stills the heat and a kiss that makes it worse. The mating bite is forever and only after it's given does the heat begin to level off. But still a mate can't bear others' touch, nor can most females function outside the bed." She rolled her eyes. "Sounds like paradise for your men."

"All but Jonas," Ely growled.

Rachel stared back at her curiously. The other woman was angry and trying hard not to hide it.

"You and Jonas have produced a hormone that if we could figure out how it works, could help to ease the heat in our females," Elizabeth told her. "Even I, once every three months, experience that irrational, torturous need as my body attempts to force me to conceive."

"Even when you're pregnant?" Rachel asked.

Elizabeth paused. "The hormones are different then."

"Do you breast-feed? I breast-fed for the first few months, I know I had to be very careful of my diet. Is that a problem with mating heat?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I thought for years there had to be a correlation. There were only rare times that my desire for my mate was normal, Rachel. But I found nothing unusual then."

Rachel shrugged. "I'm not a scientist, Dr. Vanderale, nor do I pretend to understand what you're dealing with here. But I will tell you, I'm not dealing with it any longer. You have all you're getting from me."

"You're selfish." The accusation from Ely surprised her, and obviously surprised Elizabeth as well. "Jonas deserves better than a mate who refuses to make the sacrifices he's made all his life for his people."

"Exactly," Rachel stated coolly. "He's sacrificed all his life with little understanding and even less consideration from the majority of you. When was the last time Jonas was asked not to sacrifice for someone? Not to find a way to manipulate or work miracles? When was the last time he was allowed to be a man?"

"He's not a man, he's a Breed," Ely snapped back.

"And you're in love with him." The knowledge was more intuition than based on evidence. "But you're not his mate."

Elizabeth inhaled sharply.

"Jonas is just a friend," Ely argued stiffly.

Rachel rose from the gurney, gathered her clothing from a nearby counter and moved for the bathroom.

"And I'm finished with this argument. I refuse to argue with you, Ely." She turned back to the doctor, seeing the anger and confusion in her eyes. "Jonas thinks very highly of you, but I wouldn't suggest attempting to try to convince him that I'm not his mate. That friendship could be damaged in ways you don't want to face if you do so."

Stepping into the small bathroom, Rachel re-dressed as she fought to get a handle on her own emotions. Ely wasn't a threat to her relationship with Jonas, she tried to assure herself. They were mates; that was for life. There was no way to break it. And Jonas loved her. He had told her he loved her. She was his life.

Moving back to the main lab, she faced a single person, clearly waiting for her. Elizabeth Vanderale was working at one of the intricate machines that lined a counter.

"Ely sees Jonas as her white knight," Elizabeth said as she turned, propped herself against the counter and watched Rachel. "She's protective of him, Rachel. And perhaps confused by her own feelings."

"He's mine." She wasn't about to let him go.

Elizabeth nodded. "I couldn't have asked for a better mate for him. You'll complete him, Rachel. That's important."

There was something sad, something regretful in the other woman.

"Why is that so important to you? I haven't noticed Leo caring. The best he can manage is to cut at Jonas each chance he has."

Elizabeth glanced away and drew in a hard breath. When her gaze returned to Rachel, it was filled with sorrow, and longing.

"Jonas knows the answer to that, Rachel," she stated. "And only he can fix Leo's disposition where he's concerned. I've done all I can do."

"Because the boy is too damned stubborn by far."

Rachel whirled around. The Leo stood just inside the main door, a glare on his face as he moved across the room to his mate. "He's trying to throw us out and send us back to Africa," he snapped. "He never misses a chance to remind me that he doesn't want me here."

Once again, that particular flash of pain whipped through Elizabeth's gaze.

"The two of you have no idea how to handle Jonas." Rachel could only shake her head at them.

"And you think you can?" Leo's voice rumbled with irritation. "No one can handle that whelp."

"You don't handle Jonas, exactly. Try being honest with him. And stop calling him a by-blow and a whelp. How insulting can a father get to his own son? It's no wonder he finds every opportunity to remind you that you claim your home is in Africa, rather than here."

Rachel could feel the anger mounting inside her now. For too many months, she had overheard or been forced to watch the confrontations between Jonas and Leo, and for just as long she'd thought how cold and unfeeling Leo could be while his son was watching.

Let Jonas turn his back though. Once he did, Leo's gaze would darken with regret, anger and sadness. He kept a facade, a cold, unfeeling attitude whenever Jonas watched, only to become a regretful father later.

Leo glared back at her. "Think Sanctuary can survive without Vanderale Industries, do you, young lady?"

Did Jonas truly think they couldn't?

Her brow arched. "I have no doubt they could survive, Leo. It may not be as easy, but they would do better than survive. They would thrive with or without your help."

"All because of Jonas?" Leo snapped.

Her eyes narrowed as she took note of Elizabeth laying her hand on her mate's arm in warning. "I never said that, Leo."

"You're his mate. Like all his women, you think the man has no faults."

She turned to Elizabeth. "Your mate is out of control, Dr. Vanderale. When he can be the rational man I know he's capable of, please place a notice on his chest; otherwise, the rest of us may never know." She shot Leo a tight smile. "Excuse me, but I'm sure my daughter needs to be fed soon."

"You should be breast-feeding," Leo snarled as she turned away. "That sissy formula you're giving her isn't nutritious."

Rachel clenched her teeth and continued to the door. Her temper wasn't in the best of states. Whatever mating heat wasn't doing, she appreciated, but it seemed it was triggering reactions in her that she sure as hell wasn't expecting. One of those reactions was the temper she had mastered years ago, when she was far younger.

"There's no way that child will be a fitting mate for a Breed if you're not feeding her properly."

Rachel swung around. Elizabeth was glaring at her mate as Leo crossed his arms and stared at Rachel with that chilling intensity.

"I certainly hope she isn't a fitting mate as far as you're concerned." She advanced a step, temper slowly getting the best of her. "Because your opinion is one I would fully distrust, Mr. Vanderale. And coming from you, any opinion on parenting you would have would be completely hypocritical."

His brows creased into a heavy frown. "I have never been a hypocrite."

"You're definitely a lousy father," she retorted furiously.

"I'm sorry, Leo, but if it weren't for your wife, I'd pity your babes."

Fire lit his gaze. "There is nothing more important to me than my children."

"Nothing except your secrecy, your pride and your own ideas of right and right," she stated caustically. "Poor Dane, it's no wonder he's such a manipulator. He has to be to stay under your radar and to keep your love. He's probably had nightmares about losing your regard and suffering the hell of your disinterest as Jonas has."

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" he growled, his head lowering, his lips pulling back in what she was certain was intended to be an intimidating snarl.

"An asshole, just to start with," she informed him. "Shall I go on?"

"I've destroyed lesser little upstarts than you pretend to be," he warned her, his expression shifting, turning calculating--just as Jonas's gaze shifted whenever he was playing one of his interminable games. She'd already picked up on this particular game though, as well as the reason for it.

She shook her head, smiling mockingly. "You don't scare me, Leo. You do no more than amuse me."

Surprise almost got the best of him. Rachel watched his eyes widen in surprise, his lips thin as he nearly snarled in frustration.

"Does it work often, Leo?" she drawled politely. "Pissing off your sons' mates to see how they'll respond? To see if they're worthy to be a mate to a Vanderale 'get'?" She sneered. "I don't just feel sorry for your children. I feel sorry for your wife, too. And I must say, she has amazing sons, despite the bastard who sired them."

She turned on her heel, her spine ramrod straight, and stalked back to the door.

"I love all my children, Ms. Broen." Leo's voice stopped her at the door. "And you are more than a worthy mate for my son."

"You're still a lousy fucking father." She jerked the door open and stalked from the lab, her entire body shaking with the anger surging through her.

Manipulating bastard. Jonas had come by it honestly, she had to say, but he was by far kinder about it. He manipulated for the good of his Enforcers. He manipulated and calculated for the good of the Breed community as a whole. Never, at any time, had she seen an edge of cruelty in him.

The Breeds had refined themselves from their beginnings. Leo was still the animal the scientists had tried to create. Jonas was the Breed who gave an air of mystery and romanticism to this savage new race of humans.

Leo still lived in a world where hiding was the only option and games were the only way to survive. Jonas was creating a world where future Breeds had a chance to walk down the street in peace, play cards with neighbors and raise their children as others would.

A world Rachel wanted to be a part of.

Ely watched silently from the shadows of her office, her door open as Leo and Elizabeth yelled at one another like combatants set to exchange blows.

She had suspected for the past weeks that there was an edge of conflict between them, but she hadn't been certain until now. Watching Leo's mate as he raged at Rachel Broen, Ely had seen the explosion coming--one it hadn't taken long to blow sky-high.

It would have been amusing if Ely hadn't lost her ability to be amused months ago. Now she was simply clinical, bordering on cold, as she listened, trying to ignore the pain and aching sorrow Elizabeth Vanderale was feeling.

Elizabeth's voice was strong, clear. There was no hint of tears, nothing but anger shading her voice.

"When will you stop?" she yelled up at him, her small fists clenched at her sides furiously. "What the hell is wrong with you, Leo? I haven't seen you like this since we mated. You're like a lion with a sore tooth, and I for one am growing sick of it."

"You're not the one I'm trying to make sick of it," Leo yelled back. "The bastard ignores us as though we're not blood. He treats us as no more than guests to Sanctuary."

"And what do you expect?" Emotion now entered Elizabeth's voice. "How long, Leo? How long did you ignore the whispers that he wasn't LaRue's son? How long did you put off rescuing Breeds from that lab?"

"Because I knew he was protecting them," Leo charged, enraged now. "You know that, Elizabeth, we discussed it. Others were not so lucky to have a Pride leader such as Jonas. Others were suffering more."

"He's our son!" Elizabeth screamed, filled with pain now. "No wonder he refuses us the courtesy of acknowledging it. Not only did you allow his lab mates to suffer, but the very moment you were face-to-face with him, you did nothing but insult him."

Elizabeth turned away, and Ely watched as she dashed tears from her face. "I can't bear it any longer. That's my son. If I had known the game you were playing with him when it began, I would have instantly put a stop to it."

"We're Breeds, not fucking sissies," Leo snarled. "He's a man, Elizabeth, not a child. Our world is different from others, and you know this. Strength is what matters."

"That's your world." Elizabeth jerked her lab coat from her shoulders and threw it to a gurney. "I'm human, and our children are part human. You can't raise them like animals."

"They are animals." Frustration fed Leo's voice now. "We all are. How many more decades will it take for you to see this?"

She turned back to him, the scent of her tears strong now within the lab. "How long will it take you, Leo, to realize that you're not? It's an excuse all of you use for your own prickishness and inability to cope with any emotion. You want freedom. You want peace. But I'll be damned if any of the male Breeds I've met are willing to be human enough to ask what they demand from other humans. You're no better than they are, simply different."

She gave her mate no chance to protest. Instead, she stalked from the labs, the door slamming behind her. Ely slipped carefully back from the door that led into the labs and used the other door at the back of the room to leave her office.

This was something she couldn't keep to herself. A division in the ranks was too important not to report.