Navarro's Promise

CHAPTER 15

She wasn’t going to put up with it.

Mica could feel the anger beginning to build inside her the more the knowledge of Navarro’s hold on her penetrated her senses.

It was her fault as much as it was nature’s that she’d become mated to him though. She’d been the one stupid enough to fall in love with a Breed when she had been too damned young to even understand the implications of it.

And had she let go of it as she grew older? As she’d realized exactly what she would be facing if the worst happened?

She hadn’t.

She’d remained distant from him. She hadn’t pushed the situation. But it hadn’t been because she hadn’t wanted to. It had been because she’d been too frightened of loving a man, a Breed, whose very genetics would demand everything she had and then more in a life that would be more dangerous than it ever had been.

Loving a Breed and enduring the lives they lived required a strength Mica was never certain she had.

Navarro wasn’t blameless in this though. Pheromones, biology, physiology, chemical matches, whatever the hell the science of it wanted to label the phenomena, it was still a bonding, a connection, not that different from any other relationship. Mating heat simply refused to allow the Breeds, who had been trained not to feel, to dream or to love, to walk away from the man or woman that would love them with the depth it took to continue their species.

Man had created them, but God had definitely adopted them, and he had made the decision that they would survive.

It was a decision, that in their case, Navarro was attempting to cancel.

Ten days after arriving at Sanctuary, after being mated by the stubborn, taciturn Wolf Breed, Mica was still looking at full-blown mating heat while Navarro was skating by with diluted symptoms and the ability to walk away from her.

Oh, this wasn’t going to work for her.

It had taken her a while to find her footing, she had to admit, to find her “mad” emotion, but Navarro had no idea just how pissed off she was over it as she stood watching him the next afternoon.

She’d heard his warning to Josiah, and though she hated the fact he’d done something so possessive with nothing to back it up, she at least appreciated the effort. He claimed her, but he didn’t want her love, nor was he inclined to give her his love.

Lips thinning, she debated the best course of action in demanding his heart. She had a feeling simply making the demand wasn’t exactly going to work.

“You look like a woman with a grudge.” Merinus slipped out on the back porch where Mica stood watching him with Callan and Jonas as they met several of the pride commanders in the backyard.

“You could call it a grudge,” she said in agreement as she turned to Merinus. “Tell me, Prima, how do you secure a mate?”

“Secure his heart.” Her answer was quick, certain.

Perhaps she was the wrong person to ask.

“It should already be mine.” She turned and looked out to where he stood with the other men once again.

Merinus sighed deeply. “I believe he loves you more than he’ll ever love anyone, Mica, but he holds that part of him that couldn’t survive if he lost you back from you. I think it’s losing you that he fears, not loving you.”

“And that’s how he’s managed to hold back the mating,” she decided.

She was aware of Merinus crossing her arms over her breasts as they both watched the men then. “Ely agrees with me actually, as does Dr. Armani,” Merinus stated.

Nikki Armani, the Wolf Breed specialist had been telling her for years that the Wolf Breeds were far more stubborn and independent than the Felines, and Mica hadn’t believed her. After all, in the animal world, it was the predatory cats that were far more independent and less social than those of wolves.

“It was their training,” Merinus continued. “It was horrifying for the Felines, but for the Wolf Breeds, it was even more so in many cases. They weren’t considered as valuable or as intelligent. They were used as research subjects more often, and the files I’ve read have given me nightmares for weeks. No Wolf Breed mate will have it easy.”

“So how do I seduce my mate’s heart?”

Merinus gave a little light laugh. “I would say, Mica, you know Navarro far better than I do. What’s his weakness? Even more, what is his weakness where you’re concerned? What would force him to give up that part of himself that he’s holding back?”

“It’s according to the part he’s holding back.” She sighed.

“Mica, he’s your mate,” Merinus chided. “What part of Navarro do you never see? Never sense? What part needs to be seduced?”

How easy that answer should have been. “The recessed genetics,” she murmured. “Every time his inner animal begins to push forward, he finds a way to push it back.”

“Every Breed fights that inner animal in one way or the other,” Merinus agreed. “Recessive genetics are a bitch. If Ria and Mercury were here, they could tell you how that inner animal can destroy the Breed if they don’t allow it free.”

Wild and free.

The Breeds were men and women who carried the animals inside them. Animals that demanded freedom, that demanded supremacy over the human that fought to contain it.

“Recessed Breeds have a greater battle,” Merinus continued. “Mating awakens those genetics and changes everything for them. These aren’t men and women who adapt well to such change, or such loss of control. They’ve not had to deal with their animal, and dealing with it is something they will fight at all costs.”

“Even losing their mate?” Mica glanced sideways at the other woman.

Merinus was silent for a long moment before she glanced at Mica regretfully. “There have been times. I feared it would come to just that with Mercury and Ria. But his circumstances were unusual. Though”—a rueful grin pulled at her lips—“they’re all rather unique, aren’t they?”

“Women need a damned rule book to deal with them.” Mica sighed again.

“And where would the fun in that be?” The love Merinus felt for her own mated husband, Callan, was reflected in her voice. “You’ll never be bored, you’ll always be loved and warm, and above all things, they will do whatever is necessary to protect you.”

And that was the promise he had made to her, that no matter what, he would protect her. He was protecting her just fine. From everything but the mating heat.

“Callan says you’re fighting the arousal,” Merinus said then. “That you’re not going to Navarro, you’re waiting for him to come to you.”

“I’m not going to beg,” she gritted out. She felt as though she had been begging him as long as she’d known him. She would like, at least once, to see him come to her.

“And the heat is there for a reason,” Merinus stated. “Use it, Mica, or risk living in the hell you’re in forever, and perhaps losing Navarro in the process.”

Merinus turned and left then, entering the house once again and leaving Mica to watch Navarro thoughtfully.

The heat was there for a reason.

The emotions tearing through her, the anger she kept biting back, the emotions she kept such careful control of. They were all there for a reason.

Just as it would be for him. The genetics that would cement the mating heat were all there, and he was holding them back. He was denying them both, and she was tired of sitting back and hiding everything she felt, everything she craved.

Her lips thinned at the thought. For too many years she hid her emotions, always frightened that the anger and pain she felt would backlash if the Breeds suspected that because of it, she was capable of betrayal.

She’d seen Wolfe Gunnar ban several humans from Haven when he had sensed a family member’s hatred of the Breeds. Her fear of costing her family the protection Haven afforded terrified her.

Dash wouldn’t allow it.

Cassie wouldn’t allow it.

She had to hold on to that thought, believe in it as Cassie had always sworn she could.

Somehow, her friend had to have suspected what Mica was doing over the years, because she had promised her that no matter how angry a situation made her, she could always trust in her friendship and in her father’s.

She had to trust in it now, because it was the only way she was going to force Navarro’s animal out into the open. Wolf Breeds were incredibly protective, so much so that a mate’s pain could drive the Breed to violence simply because the animal genetics they carried inside went haywire.

Rather than hiding her pain, she was going to have to release it. She was going to have to force the animal inside him to tear free rather than attempting to convince Navarro to let it be free.

As she watched him, he turned slowly, his black eyes looking up at her from the rims of the dark sunglasses he wore.

Slowly, teasingly, he winked, surprising her at the flirtatiousness of the gesture, but also, the challenge.

Narrowing her eyes on him she let her tongue run slowly over her upper lip, dampening it, wondering if it would affect him as that little wink had her.

And it did.

She saw his expression before he cleared it.

She watched the slow shift of his body as her gaze dropped to the proof of his erection behind the denim of his jeans.

She felt her heart rate double, her stomach clench and a feeling of breathlessness sweep through her as she fought to hold back the rush of her juices, failing horribly.

Her pussy creamed furiously, heated, her clit swelling with a force that had her aching to moan with the need for release.

Just that fast. He could do it to her just that fast.

There wasn’t a hope in hell of being able to survive without his touch, and Mica didn’t even bother to tell herself she could. Staring back at him, watching him, awaiting him, she could only hope that she could one day own half as much of his heart as he held of hers.

He could feel her.

Navarro hadn’t imagined he could feel so much from one person with the distance that existed between him and Mica. As though they were connected in a way he’d hadn’t imagined possible.

He felt her heart break, and there were no words, no way to tell her how much he regretted that pain, how he would ease it if he could.

He felt her arousal, her need for touch, her hunger for something, though he knew figuring that one out was something he hadn’t quite managed yet. He’d been trying to figure out that hunger for years and hadn’t managed it.

But he knew why she hurt, and he knew he was the cause.

She should have protected her feelings, he thought. He’d tried to convince her of that from the beginning. She needed enough of an emotional distance that the distance he kept himself wouldn’t hurt her. That it wouldn’t break her heart.

It had hurt her anyway though, and knowing that somehow the mating hormone wasn’t as strong in his system as it was in hers, hurt even worse. Hell if he knew why. Dr. Armani had her ideas on it just as Ely did, and strangely, they were closely related.

He refused to let his emotions free.

Dr. Armani had gone even further to say that the reason was because his animal was recessed inside him. And unlike Dash Sinclair, he refused to allow that sleeping animal inside him to be free. Or perhaps, it wasn’t that he refused. Maybe the animal simply didn’t exist inside him as it had inside Dash. There was always the chance that his genetics weren’t actually recessed, but non-existent. It could be that he truly was simply human, with a few advanced senses.

Those advanced senses hadn’t helped him to save his brother’s life though. Not his brother’s nor his brother’s mate and unborn child.

Slashing, white hot pain seared his chest as the thought of Randal and Sophia.

So close.

Fuck, he’d come so close to saving them.

One day. Twenty-two fucking hours and twelve minutes.

The scientists had had the Coyote soldiers drag Randal and Sophia away exactly twenty-two hours and twelve minutes before the rescue of the Omega lab began.

Half an hour later, give or take a few minutes, the underground facility had exploded as Navarro and two of his men had fought to get to the couple.

He couldn’t protect them, and God knew he’d tried. He’d fought. He’d done everything he could, taken every chance he could have taken in his attempt to keep them from being discovered.

He’d failed.

What if he failed Mica? What if he was unable to save her when she needed him most, despite the promise he’d made to her. He’d never be able to survive it if he didn’t manage to hold back just enough to ensure he didn’t lose all his senses to her. Losing all his senses meant losing himself, and when he did that, he knew he may as well bare his soul to his enemies and allow them to begin shredding it then. Because that was exactly what they would do. The minute his enemies learned he had mated, then Mica would have a big red bulls-eye on her back.

Along with Merinus, and every other Breed mate, an inner voice reminded him. Their husbands protected them well, and still lived to find happiness. So far.

“Navarro, you still here man?” Gannon, one of Callan’s commanders, asked with a laugh, drawing his attention back to the group rather than the woman whose gaze he had held.

He didn’t flush. He had no idea if he should have been embarrassed, hell, he was still too damned off balance with the sense that Mica was sinking further inside him the longer their gazes remained locked.

“As I was saying,” Jonas continued after his gaze flickered from where the back door closed softly as Mica reentered the house, back to the group. “I think we can flush out our last spy here. They’re getting closer, getting braver each time they get closer to actually aiding Brandenmore in his escape.”

“Do we have any idea who they are yet? Can we at least narrow it down to one of the guards?”

Jonas shook his head with a tight grimace. “There’s no way to narrow it down to even a Breed,” he stated. “All we can say for certain? It’s a Breed. Only a Breed would know how to slip past the codes, and only a Breed would have been able to detect that first camera we placed in the vent above the entrance to the cell hall.”

Navarro crossed his arms over his chest as a frown pulled at his brow.

“Don’t we have something to detect the jammers immediately, without alerting our spy to it?”

“That would make it easier, wouldn’t it?” Jonas grunted. “But no. The advanced electronics should have canceled out the ability to jam it, but unfortunately, it seems they figured it out damned fast.”

“This is your last chance to catch that damned spy, Jonas,” Callan warned him, his tone commanding, filled with authority and anger. “It happens again and I’ll take care of it myself.”

Navarro slid a look to the pride leader, then to Jonas. He had no doubt Callan would find a way to ensure every Breed in Sanctuary understood the consequences of betraying the community. And he wouldn’t go through Breed Law to do it.

“You can’t do that, Callan.” Jonas sighed.

“Of course he can.” Navarro spoke up at that point as he turned his attention back to Jonas. “Volcanos aren’t the only place on earth where bodies can be hid.”

Jonas’s lips tightened. There were few, very few, and most of them stood together at the moment, who knew that several of the Breed’s enemies had become living sacrifices to a very active volcano.

“We can’t afford Callan or Wolfe to be tied to any action outside Breed Law,” Jonas growled. “Don’t encourage him, Navarro. He’s getting too damned close to becoming his father’s son the way it is.”

“Then I say let him alone,” McCullum, the Panther Breed commander said. “Let him get rid of the bastards as soon as possible. I for one would be a damned sight more comfortable in my own bed at night.”

“A decision for another day,” Navarro decided as he turned to Callan. “It’s your home, your people, and no one could blame you. Just remember, you get caught, and we all pay for it.” He turned and gave Jonas the same, hard look. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do today.”

“Things like securing a mate?” McCullum spoke up. “Be careful, Navarro, you may end up becoming the only Breed to lose his mate through stupidity.”

“Bastards need to keep your noses out of other Breed’s business,” he muttered as he cast the other man an icy look. “She’s my mate, and nothing’s going to change that. Not you, and sure as hell not Josiah.”

It wasn’t the first time he’d been given advice he didn’t need. She was his, and son of a bitch if he wasn’t sick of others believing differently.

As far as he knew there wasn’t a single damned Breed who had faced a problem like this. He could have done without it himself.

Pulling the kitchen door open, he stalked into the kitchen, the scent of his mate immediately hitting his senses with the sweet, hot smell of her arousal. Lush, sexual, the scent of vanilla and spice and a hint of honey.

Damn, that hint of honey smelled good. It was his favorite damned sweet until he’d tasted her.

Following the wicked delicacy, he turned, strode through the doorway and then along the foyer to the curved staircase that led to the second story. She’d returned to their bedroom. Would she be waiting for him, knowing he would come for her the second he scented the sweet, hot juices that had gathered on her pussy?

Damn her, she better be waiting on him.

“Thanks, Josiah.”

He came to a hard, shocked stop at the sound of her voice as he reached the top of the staircase, the sound of his mate’s voice, a hint of laughter in it, affection filling it.

Hell no.

He moved along the hall silently as he watched his mate, who stood in front of the Breed’s bedroom doorway, obviously talking to him.

“Come on, Mica, anything you need, sweetheart, you know that.” She shook her head as another soft laugh both stroked his senses and offended them.

Her scent hadn’t changed. She didn’t smell of Josiah. He hadn’t touched her, he hadn’t kissed her, and the need that he knew was only for him still surrounded her.

As he stalked up the hallway, it wasn’t Mica that realized he was there first; it was Josiah. Mica stepped back, surprise registering on her face as Josiah stepped out in front of her. With no shirt on. His chest, broad, though unlike most Breeds carrying a light sprinkling of dark chest hairs. His jeans rode low on his hips, the belt undone and Navarro knew without checking that he was aroused.

“She didn’t do anything, Navarro.”

Navarro didn’t answer.

Approaching Josiah slowly, his gaze locked on the woman behind him, he came to a stop six feet in front of them, then held out his hand. “Mica.” He spoke her name softly. “Let’s go.”

She moved to step from behind the other Breed when Josiah moved again, blocking her.

“Dammit, Josiah.” In typical Mica fashion she gave him a hard push, surprising him long enough to skip around him before giving Navarro a wary look.

“You don’t have to go with him, Mica,” Josiah promised her as Navarro caught her hand and pulled her close to his side, his arm falling over her shoulders.

Damn, now that felt good. Too damned good.

Gripping her upper arm, he turned and moved back along the wing to the main hall, and from there to the suite they now shared.

He wasn’t going to ask her what the hell she was doing there, no matter how desperately he wanted to ask. Nothing had been going on. Josiah was her friend, and Navarro knew her scents. She had no thought of betrayal, and he’d learned long before the rescues that nothing could change whatever a person decided they wanted the most. If she wanted Josiah, if his arms were the ones she wanted, then it would have been Josiah she would have mated.

That didn’t mean he was going to let it go. He couldn’t let it go.

He could feel the sudden hunger for her as it exploded through his system and sent a part of his control ricocheting through him before it was lost forever.

It was all he could do to maintain the wild, howling part of his psyche. That part of him that he didn’t know, didn’t understand, and hadn’t even been aware he possessed until now.

He pulled her into their suite, closed and locked the door securely behind them.

He stared at her. Just watched her as he released her and she moved across the room before turning to face him.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He had no idea where those words came from, why he even thought she would need the promise until he watched her swallow tightly, watched as he began unbuttoning his white cotton shirt.

“I never imagined you would.” She was breathing heavy, her face flushed, her golden green eyes filled with trepidation.

“You’re watching me as though you’re expecting me to rip your throat out.” He couldn’t help the rough, rumbled sound of his own voice.

She shook her head, and he swore the soft brush of her hair through the air sent the smell of her arousal rushing through him again. He couldn’t get the scent out of his head. He couldn’t stop what it was doing to him.

His cock was thick, hard and fully engorged. There was none of the mating sensitivity that he could detect, but the hunger for her, the need for her taste, her touch, was beginning to pound through his system.

She swallowed tightly.

“If you don’t want this, then say so now.” He shrugged the shirt from his shoulders as her eyes widened.

He couldn’t explain the hungers suddenly tearing through him any more than he could explain the dominance he could no longer keep a handle on.

She was his mate. That was all he knew, and he knew it for damned certain. She belonged to him. She had been born to belong to him, to be his mate, to touch him as no other woman ever had or ever could.

What more should matter?

Josiah didn’t matter. Ely’s fucking tests didn’t matter. All that mattered was that before he left this room, she would never allow another man to set him up, even unconsciously. And he had no doubt in his mind that Josiah hadn’t done just that. He was trying to prove to Navarro that he had a chance at Mica, when the opposite was true. He would never have a chance to touch her, she would always see to it. Especially once they finished with the need beginning to claw inside her.

He knew what was about to happen.

He could feel it. The need, the hunger, the pure iron-hard dominance raging through him was pulling a single white-hot need through his veins, burning through his senses.

He watched as she took a long, slow breath.

“Take off your shirt.”

She hadn’t told him to leave, she hadn’t told him no, and he knew she was well aware of certain aspects of Wolf Breed mating.

He’d been pushed, and he’d handled it well.

For more than a week. He’d been pushed, he’d been chastised. And then, he’d stood still, silent, and allowed another Breed to threaten to take what he knew was his and his alone. And he hadn’t killed him, simply because he knew Josiah was full of shit.

The other Breed wanted her, he’d always wanted her. From the moment she had landed her fist in his face Josiah had lusted for her.

But she belonged to Navarro.

And today, he was going to prove it.

“Undress, Amaya,” he warned her. “Do it now. Because I’d hate to tear all those pretty clothes.”

Because God as his witness, he didn’t think he had the control left not to.