Stygian's Honor

CHAPTER 11

Liza had learned over the years the fine art of the delicate lie as she worked, first with her father in the security division of the headquarters of the Navajo Nation, then as she began training to work with the Breed Underground Network.

Breeds could smell a lie or even the intent to deceive. Learning how to lie just in case it was a Breed one was conversing with had become second nature. But she had never had to learn how to lie about her attraction to a Breed, or her need. And lying about it was suddenly imperative. Otherwise, Stygian would end up with enough power over her to ensure that she was willing to do whatever he asked her to do. Just as she suspected Isabelle was willing to do whatever Malachi asked of her. Now, she understood, sort of, why her friend would stand so solidly with the man that called her “mate.” Especially if he gave her the illusion of respect and a choice.

Not that she discussed her suspicions with Stygian. He would of course deny all of it. After all, what man, or Breed for that matter, would want to admit that his woman didn’t have a choice.

Or did she?

As she showered, dressed and applied her makeup for work the next morning, she had to admit that she didn’t feel inclined to give Stygian anything other than sex. And honestly, the need for his touch was becoming so strong, so desperate she really wasn’t certain how long she would last before begging for it.

Crying for it.

Screaming for it.

It was really rather amusing if one looked at it from the right perspective. That was, if the person wasn’t the one suffering, then it would have been amusing, she told herself as they rode to the Nation’s headquarters that morning.

Yes, she would have been very amused, if it wasn’t her burning alive from the inside with the need to feel his touch. His possession.

She was certain she should be traumatized from it, after all, as a virgin, she should have been terrified of so much hunger for something she’d never experienced before.

“I think you should put in a request for a leave of absence as long as this situation in progress,” Stygian finally spoke as the black, unmarked Bureau of Breed Affairs SUV pulled up to the front entrance of the Navajo Nation Headquarters.

“I think you should do your job and let me do mine.” She clenched her teeth and cursed herself for the quick, uncensored response.

Damn, she hadn’t wanted to be quite so confrontational.

She hadn’t wanted to be, but her body felt miserable. She was too sensitive, her flesh too warm, her breasts too swollen and her clit far too tender.

She was too aroused and too upset and too many other things to even consider dealing with him on a less hostile basis.

Because, of course, it was all his damned fault.

“What did you want me to do, Liza?” He caught her arm before she could open the door. “Take advantage of the situation without giving you a chance to consider where it’s going?”

And, of course, he just had to step forward and throw himself full force into that confrontation didn’t he?

“Because I’m so damned stupid I couldn’t possibly have known it was headed straight to one of those nice big beds,” she agreed mockingly. “Why, you did the right thing, of course, Stygian. Far be it for you to allow yourself to just be male for a change. To let the situation go and have a little fun. I agree, that would be so very uncalled for.”

Damn it.

Pressing her lips together tightly, she promised herself she was going to keep the smart remarks to thought only.

What the hell was wrong with her? She couldn’t hold back her need for him, her anger with him, or her verbal responses that she’d never had a problem keeping to herself before. For the first time in her life, she really wanted a man. Wanted him so badly that even before he shared that tasty hormone and this burning lust with her, she’d ached for him. She had wanted him like nothing she had wanted in her life before him.

The knowledge of that was simply terrifying, because the reaction to him was so strong, so overwhelming that it felt as though it were coming from someone entirely different than the person she knew herself to be.

More than once she had felt the power of it, a surge of possessiveness and lust that she could barely contain, mixing with a response so primal as to be more animal than human. As though the need for him, the “mating” as they called it, made her more Breed than human.

“You’re pushing your limit.”

“Oh, I have a limit?” Eyes wide in false innocence, she stared back at him as though she had never imagined such a thing. “Why, Stygian, you should have let me know before now.”

“What I should have done was bend you over that fucking bed and paddled your ass before fucking you into a better frame of mind,” he growled as he released her.

Before she could let loose with a scathing comeback, he was out of the vehicle and striding around the vehicle to her door.

She would have unleashed the heated comments that flashed across her mind if they weren’t wiped completely away by the sight of him stalking, in a purely predatory way, his head high, shoulders back, chest as wide as hell, as he came along the passenger side of the vehicle. The sight of his erection bulging in his jeans as the wind whipped the loose cotton shirt close to his body threatened to take her breath.

Her mouth went dry, then began to moisten just as quickly as her pussy began creaming in need of him.

Oh hell, oh hell, oh hell.

Her door was jerked open.

Stygian’s lips parted as though to say something more before his nostrils flared and his eyes seemed to glaze in lust for the barest moment.

A muttered curse left his lips as Liza stepped from the vehicle and tossed him a tight, satisfied smile. At least she wasn’t the only one left aching with such misery.

She hoped it hurt him.

She hoped his balls actually ached with the need to come.

“We’re definitely going to discuss this later,” he warned her as he took her arm and led her through the wide glass doors of Council headquarters.

“Sure we will,” she muttered. “I’m going home tonight. I refuse to be locked in a tiny hotel room with you ever again.”

“We’ll have a suite tonight,” he assured her. “That room was only temporary.”

“Not happening.” Jerking her arm from his grip, she turned and flashed her badge at the security guard on duty before Stygian did the same.

“The hell it isn’t. Haven’t you seen yet that your home isn’t secure, Liza?”

“I’ve seen that unless I lock myself in a box I’ll never be safe again.” She didn’t like the surge of fear that raced through her at the knowledge.

“That’s not necessarily true,” he assured her as he led her to the bank of elevators.

“Isn’t it?” Suddenly, a sense of weariness overshadowed the anger. “Come on, Stygian, you know it’s true. Once the Genetics Council targets a victim, they disappear, one way or the other. That, or they’ve ended up married to a Breed and placed behind the walls of Sanctuary or Haven. They don’t have little brick houses with white picket fences—”

“Not true.” The elevator opened, empty for a change, and they stepped inside. “There are several couples living in residential America. Adapting isn’t always necessary, but possible.”

She shot him a knowing look.

“Tarek and Lyra Jordan don’t count.” She sighed. “That residential street has become yet another Breed-designated area with more than three-quarters of the homes taken by Breed couples where one partner or the other is Breed.”

His lips tightened.

“Tell me I can go home when all this is over and just adapt a little bit and be safe.”

His jaw flexed as his expression darkened.

Liza didn’t say more. There was nothing more to say, she had made her point. Her life would never be the same and they both knew it.

They arrived on the third and last floor of the Nation’s headquarters with a soft ping of the elevator.

A second later, the doors slid open silently.

And Liza nearly punched the button to return to the lobby.

“Liza.” Her mother jumped from the settee in the receiving lounge, her expressive blue eyes filled with fear and concern as Stygian led Liza from the elevator.

Almost as though he were aware of her inclination to run.

Jane Johnson rushed to her, her arms wrapping around her as Liza returned the embrace, her eyes closing for one thankful moment as her mother’s warmth and love surrounded her.

“We came home as soon as possible.” Her mother held her shoulders as she leaned back, her blue eyes filled with tears as she cupped Liza’s cheek, her soft hand trembling as she tucked the side of Liza’s hair back over her shoulder.

It was a habit her mother had. She would tuck Liza’s hair back as though to be certain she could see her entire face. “Are you okay, baby? Daddy and I were terrified when Jonas Wyatt called last night.”

“Mom, I’m fine.” She hadn’t realized how hurt she had been when Jonas Wyatt had told her that her parents had agreed to stay in New York if the Breeds provided her protection. A part of her had known her parents would come running no matter their trust in her, simply because they loved her. The idea that they weren’t coming home had caused a hidden ache to begin building inside her, one she had refused to acknowledge until now.

She hadn’t known until this moment how much she had needed her parents.

“That Jonas Wyatt just kept talking right over your father as though he wasn’t even speaking,” Jane told her irritably, a frown creasing her delicate face. “So he just shut up and let the director talk and agreed to the protection, and whatever else that arrogant man was promising. Then he hung up the phone and we left. Of course, you know I was packing as they spoke.” She laughed in delight as she then slid her arm around her daughter’s waist and pulled Liza to her affectionately. “As though we’d ever stay away at such a time.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Liza stopped and let her mother hug her again, feeling a security she’d always depended so heavily on.

Her parents were always there, and their love had always been assured. Liza realized that the past days’ uncertainties had been worse simply because she had known her parents weren’t close enough to touch, to run to.

“And here’s your father.” Jane released her, stopping long enough to give her a loving kiss on her cheek before Liza saw her father moving from Ray Martinez’s office.

Tall and broad, at fifty-six her father was still a handsome, powerful man.

A full head of dark blond hair was cut to a short, almost military length, while the hard, chiseled features of his face softened at the sight of his daughter.

Liza didn’t wait.

She moved quickly across the room to find herself enveloped in her father’s strong arms as he bent to receive her.

“Daddy,” she whispered, uncertain of what to say as his arms tightened around her.

“I have you, baby.” She felt his kiss at her brow, the warmth of his love and concern.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t stronger,” she whispered against his chest. “I’m sorry I couldn’t figure this out before they called you.”

She’d never wanted the life she chose to worry her parents, and had prayed she would have the training she needed if she ever came against a situation that would endanger her life.

“Sweetheart,” he chastised her gently as he cupped the back of her head and held her to his heart. “It wouldn’t matter if you were my daughter, or my son or how strong you were, I’d come running the minute I knew you were in trouble. Don’t you know that?”

She had always known it, and that knowledge had always given her a confidence that had helped her make more than one decision in her life.

“You and Momma didn’t have to come back so soon,” she said, knowing that the quickly hidden feeling of loss she had felt when Jonas told her they weren’t coming would have only built inside her.

“Didn’t I?” He pulled back to stare down at her with one of those soft, approving smiles that always filled her with such a sense of accomplishment. “Sweetheart, a battalion of Coyotes couldn’t have kept me away.” He kissed her brow again before looking over her shoulder. “I understand I have this young man to thank for your safety?”

“Well, he’s not so young,” she muttered, flicking a glare over her shoulder. At the last second, her father saw the softening of that glare though, the warmth in her gaze and the way her gaze lingered on the Breed that had taken a protective stance just inside the door of the anteroom.

She was in love.

That realization pricked at his father’s heart even as it filled him with pride but also a fury born of fear. Because he couldn’t allow it. This man would destroy his daughter’s life.

He had read the report on this Breed.

Stygian Black was a powerful enforcer, but he was also one who stood by his word and his own code. He was a man—a Breed—that Audi knew would follow his daughter into any battle she chose and always watch her back, protect her too-delicate body, and guard her too-compassionate heart.

He would also, Audi knew, instigate the revelation of secrets Audi had prayed would never need to be revealed.

And he hated the Breed for that. Hated him for the fact that he knew Stygian Black would take his daughter away from him. By time the Breeds finished in Window Rock, the child he loved, the child he would die for, would no longer even exist. And that knowledge made him wish he was the man he had been thirty years before. The man who could kill and not suffer a conscience born of the soul he had found when he’d met his Jane.

“To me, he’s young.” Her father chuckled as he pulled her close to his side and extended his hand to Stygian. “Mr. Black? It’s good to finally meet you,” he lied convincingly enough that his daughter relaxed in relief.

“You as well, sir.” Stygian stepped forward and accepted her father’s handshake, his expression as respectful as his demeanor. “I hope you were able to complete your business?”

“Everything’s fine.” Her father nodded.

Liza knew her father, though, and she knew he would be spending the better part of his time on the phone now that he was back, completing that business.

“You can go back now, Dad.” She looked up at him, knowing she would be okay now.

He had come for her, he was here to protect her, to support her. Knowing he had made that sacrifice, as much as she regretted it, still soothed the little girl who would always need her father’s guidance and offer of protection.

“The hell I can.” He all but glared down at her as her mother gave her a firm look. “I think I’ll be right here, Liza. There’s no way in hell I’m going anywhere while this is going on. Ray filled me in on the attacks, and it sounds to me as though it’s a little more dangerous than Mr. Wyatt let on.” His glare shifted uncontrollably to Stygian and deepened. “He ignored my calls this morning by the way. It took forever to get ahold of him.”

Stygian rubbed uncomfortably at the back of his neck. “Mr. Wyatt does have a tendency to do that,” he agreed. “I’ll contact his wife and make certain he gets in touch.”

“No need.” Her father grunted. “Mr. Wyatt and I have spoken. I’ve had to listen to his preaching about making the situation more dangerous by returning. I swear, Jane already had us packed and ready to leave before that man finished telling me all reasons why I wasn’t needed here, and I just had to listen to it again. Last night, I just agreed with him, got off the phone and headed straight for the airport. It’s more than obvious he has some growing to do as a father if he ever imagined I wouldn’t be here as quickly as possible.”

Stygian watched Audi and Jane Johnson with their daughter, but he paid more attention to Liza. To the scent of her relief and the easing of that tightly held fear inside her.

She had needed them here, he realized.

She had known she was safe, known Stygian would never allow her to be harmed, but her father had always been her protector, and she needed him as well. Stygian realized then he should never have agreed with Jonas’s decision to assure the father it was fine to conclude his business before returning.

“I’d like to discuss the security you’re using to ensure her protection,” Mr. Johnson informed him as Liza moved from his hold and headed to her office doorway.

Stygian could sense the other man’s tightly leashed anger, and his dislike. He was fooling no one but Liza, and possibly his wife. That knowledge had Stygian steeling himself for what he knew was to come later.

They followed her to the small sitting area across from her as she moved to her desk, her mother following close behind and chatting quietly about the trip to New York.

“I’d also like to know what you’ve learned about the assassin that shot at her.” Audi’s rage was so heavy now Stygian swore it would begin glowing red around him any moment. The fact that he was restraining it, hiding it so well from his daughter, was a testament to the control he’d honed as a younger man in Black Ops.

“Yes, sir.” Stygian nodded, remaining polite, respectful.

An assassin with the Bureau of Breed Affairs, Mathias Slaughter, had once told him that should his mate’s father ever decide he wasn’t good enough for his daughter, Mathias would still treat the man with the utmost respect and consideration simply because his mate would always love that man as her father. The pain she would feel if her mate and father should ever dislike each other would be too great, the assassin had stated. The Wolf inside him had sensed the little girl that every woman was, who needed to always have the illusion that her father could do no wrong. It was a security, a safety net that even a Breed couldn’t provide.

Stygian hadn’t understood the reasoning at the time, but now, as he sensed Liza’s father’s disapproval of him, it made more sense. Never did he want his mate to hurt, to lose that innocent, vulnerable part of her inner self that her love for her father kept alive.

For just a second in the elevator he’d felt her reluctance to face her parents. That part of her had been terrified that her father would disapprove of her actions and her choices as an adult, and Stygian had sensed her need for that parental approval.

Now, it was as though part of that deepening pain she had felt was slowly easing away. The fear of her parents’ disapproval had eased away, leaving her stronger, more confident in herself. The arousal was still burning through her senses, but that sense of desertion had eased away.

She was close to her parents, and they were dedicated to her.

Taking his mate from her home and those she loved would be as Malachi had said of Isabelle: like stealing a part of her soul from her body.

“Mr. Black. The president and I would like to discuss with you the Breeds’ security measures for our daughters.” Audi Johnson turned to him then, his expression relaxed and friendly, though his eyes told another tale.

The Breeds’ report that Audi Johnson had been in Army Intelligence with Ray Martinez years before hadn’t been exaggerated.

Just what he needed, an outraged father. No doubt he had clearly sensed Stygian’s interest in his daughter.

“Yes, sir.” The inquisition.

Her father wasn’t in the least pleased over how this situation had been handled or the attacks on his daughter, and it was clear the Breeds were being held responsible for the attention she had suddenly garnered from the Genetics Council.

Stygian almost allowed his lips to quirk into a grin at the latent anger and air of determined antagonism he could suddenly feel coming from Liza’s father. Jonas had created a situation here, and as usual, one of his enforcers would be forced to face the flames he had lit.

“Daddy.” Soft, a daughter’s gentle tone with a hint of reprimand.

Audi turned to her. “I have to make certain they know what they’re doing, sweetheart. That’s my job.”

And she didn’t believe him for a moment.

“Trust me,” she said softly, but even Stygian heard the edge of steel in her tone.

Slowly, her father’s demeanor softened, but only slightly. Giving his daughter a quick nod, he glanced back at Stygian and indicated the Navajo president’s office.

With a last glance to Liza’s concerned expression, he gave her a reassuring smile before following her father.

With a brief knock on the president’s office door, Audi Johnson opened it before leading the way inside.

The tension inside the room was thick enough to cut with a knife, as the saying went.

Nation president Ray Running Wolf Martinez wasn’t alone. Sitting behind the heavy walnut desk, he was glaring at the man sitting before it.

Jonas Wyatt.

Standing to the side of the room, between two wide, tall windows, stood Rule Breaker and the Russian Breed known only as Cavalier. The Lion and Coyote Breeds didn’t always get along, unless they were working with Jonas. And they only worked together with Jonas when the situation was likely to become explosive.

Stygian nodded to the two high-level enforcers before staring back at Jonas with silent demand.

“Your boss lied to us,” Audi stated as he moved to stand behind Ray Martinez as he cast a short glare to Jonas. “He attempted to downplay the danger that our daughters are facing, as well as the reasons for it.”

“You should have expected that.” Stygian suspected that was exactly the reason they were all there now.

Jonas hadn’t expected Johnson’s return, Stygian knew. He’d clearly believed Liza’s father would bow to his wisdom and stay put in New York where he couldn’t interfere or begin calling in his own contacts or instigating his own investigation.

“I returned for a reason,” Audi grunted.

Jonas, as arrogant as always, sat uncharacteristically silent, his expression curious as he watched the two men behind the desk.

“This is not a situation I appreciate,” Audi Johnson stated, his gaze encompassing them all.

“Liza needed your return for the sake of her heart, not for her safety,” Stygian inserted, wondering if the other man intended to try to pull his daughter from Breed protection. And he could, Stygian feared. Liza trusted her parents above anyone and everyone, and it would be a stupid man that doubted that. “My life stands before her and any danger that could stalk her, Mr. Johnson.”

He wasn’t certain what to say or how to say it. He was a Breed trained to kill in silence, not to seduce or to trick. He wasn’t given to flowery statements nor was he given to reassuring anyone in any way. All he had was his strength and the truth. The pure determination to ensure his mate survived, no matter the obstacles.

Both Ray and Audi watched him carefully, though they said nothing.

In Liza’s father’s eyes, Stygian saw an easing, slight though it was, of the antagonism that had gleamed there.

“Very pretty,” Jonas murmured, though his words lacked his customary mockery, before he turned to the other two men. “Are we finished now, gentlemen?”

The president glared back at him. “Director Wyatt, this Nation is not your personal playground,” he stated with icy disdain. “And I resent your attitude that it is.”

Jonas rose slowly to his feet.

Tension increased tenfold as his expression tightened. Expressionless, his mercury gaze lacking emotion, he was the Breed he had been created to be: merciless, powerful, expertly engineered manipulator with a full agenda where the Navajo were concerned.

These two men had every right not only to distrust him, but also to be highly suspicious of any and all motives Jonas may present. He was a man fighting for more than his own life, or the survival of the Breeds now. And he had been dangerous enough with those agendas. Now, he was fighting for the life of his child, and that child was more precious to him than even his own soul.

Audi Johnson’s gaze narrowed as the Navajo president slowly followed suit and rose to his feet as well.

“My daughter lies with a fever high enough to kill another child.” His tone was so harsh, so grating, Johnson and Martinez flinched. Stygian stared back at him, surprised to see him laying his cards so clearly on the table. An unheard-of move for Jonas. “My child lies in pain and stares up at me, gentlemen, and asks, as only a two-year-old can, why it hurts so bad and why Daddy can’t fix this.” For a second unheard-of occurrence that Stygian knew would never be mentioned, Jonas’s gaze gleamed with the dampness of an emotion that went far beyond tears. “So don’t think for one moment that I won’t be here, taking over where I can, testing your weaknesses and betraying whoever I have to betray to save my child. Just as you would. So let us not misunderstand each other now, nor in the future. That child is more important to me than your entire fucking Nation, and your lack of cooperation is something I find not only reprehensible but immoral.”

Stygian felt his chest tighten. He’d seen it himself. Seen the pain and fear in the little girl’s eyes when the feverish episodes descended on her. And he knew, if that child were his and Liza’s—his by adoption or by blood would make no difference—he would do whatever it took, however he had to do it, to ensure that pain was never felt again.

“There’s nothing we can do.” Ray Martinez’s voice rang with the truth as a sudden angry conflict seemed to battle inside him. Understanding gleamed in his gaze, was emphasized by the clench of his fists and the frustration in his voice. “We’ve made the request of the people and none have come back with an agreement. I don’t have the access codes into the database, Director Wyatt. I cannot access it for you.”

“I want Honor Roberts and Fawn Corrigan.” The kid gloves were off as Jonas made the demand. “Fuck your database, Mr. President. I couldn’t care less about it, any more than Gideon Cross could. He’s here for the same thing, and by God, if I don’t find those girls first, then he may kill them once he does find them.” He leaned against the desk, palms flat, his expression savage. “Is that what you want?”

Both Johnson’s and Martinez’s gazes flashed with fear before they could hide it.

There was no way Jonas missed it. And Stygian had no doubt the director wasn’t certain exactly what that fear was. What Stygian did know was that, somehow, the pair was hiding something.

Liza’s father straightened his shoulders. “Twelve years ago,” he stated heavily, “there was a crash in the desert several nights before our daughters crashed into a high ravine in the desert. Two girls died in that first crash.”

Jonas’s growl was rife with violence. “There was no report of it.”

“A young Breed was traveling with them. He told us the girls were running from the Genetics Council and begged us not to report it. No one else knew of the crash or the deaths. We elected to follow the Breed’s request to give him time to run. When no one came looking for them, we decided to keep it out of the reports. Until you arrived, Director Wyatt, no one seemed to care.”

Stygian narrowed his gaze.

They weren’t lying. There was the scent of truth and overwhelming sadness, almost of grief, as though they had known the girls. But there was no reason to believe they were lying.

Jonas stared between the two men; both Rule and Cavalier watched them closely as well.

“What did you do with the bodies?” Jonas’s voice sounded strangled.

“They were incinerated in the desert, presumably to hide their existence there,” Audi stated. “The young Breed walked away that night and stated that even his own past was gone. We assumed the two girls were Breeds as well, and from the same lab as he.”

“And you are only now telling me this, why?” Jonas asked.

“Because you’re only now telling us the truth of why you’re here,” President Martinez stated implacably. “Had you been honest to begin with, Director Wyatt, perhaps you would have been told sooner.”

“I want to see the area where the bodies were burned,” Jonas informed them, his tone implying he wouldn’t be denied. “We’ll leave at first light in the morning.” He turned to Stygian. “I’ll need you there, but to ensure Ms. Johnson’s protection, perhaps you should bring her as well.”

“There’s no need for that,” Audi Johnson rejected the idea instantly. “I’ll take care of her while he’s gone.”

Jonas’s smile was cold. “You’ll be with us. And so will she.”

With that, he turned, motioned to the two Breeds with him and stalked from the room.

As the door closed rather loudly behind him, both men turned to Stygian, their gazes accusing, as though it were his fault they had been forced to face the director.

He gave a quick shake of his head. “I rarely agree with him, but I wouldn’t go head-to-head with him, so I rather doubt the two of you would have any luck with it.”

Only Jonas’s mate was known to have been able to outargue or outyell him when the situation warranted it.

“Then you should talk to him,” Audi announced. “Number one, there’s no reason for Liza to be in the desert at first light in the morning. And there’s no reason for Director Wyatt and his entourage to remain here in Window Rock. He has the information he needs, now he can leave. And I believe you should discuss this with him.”

Stygian’s brows lifted as a chuckle escaped him. “Why would I do that?”

The very idea was ludicrous. Judd and Gideon were still out there, and the information they held could still be of use to them.

He lifted his hand before the two men could say anything more. “Let me tell the two of you something,” he growled. “It offends me on a level I can barely understand that the two of you, who nearly lost your daughters at one point, would even consider asking that man to give up the battle he’s fighting.” A snarl slipped free. “Get your fucking asses over to that hotel and see that child. See her laboring for breath, the damned fever burning her alive from the inside out, so painful she struggles to just breathe. Fuck you two. Get the fuck over there and see what you’re asking him to turn his back on.” The thought of Amber’s pain, her tears, was enraging. “You’re asking him to walk away before he knows in his soul there’s nothing left to search for. You’re asking him to give up on that child’s life. And let me tell you something right now, gentlemen. He’d die and see your godforsaken asses in hell first.”

“Why are you yelling over something Dad would never do?”

Stygian swung around.

The awareness that Audi Johnson and Ray Martinez wanted Liza in that room no more than he did almost slapped Stygian against the side of the head. The fact that it was his own damned fault didn’t sit well with him.

Raking his fingers through his hair, he stared back at her, more irritated with himself than anyone, and just pure pissed off at the two men behind him.

Damn, and she loved her dad. Hell, he knew that look in her eyes. Daddy could do no wrong and he wasn’t going to disabuse her of the idea. Because he could do wrong. He was doing it right now, standing there demanding that Jonas Wyatt leave Window Rock before he knew there was no way in hell he could save his daughter.

“You would go to see Amber, wouldn’t you, Dad? If you knew anything that would save her, you would tell him.” She stood in the doorway, and for the first time since Stygian had met her, he saw complete trust in her eyes.

Son of a bitch. Why couldn’t she look at him like that?

She was his mate. His woman, and she stared at him with such suspicion that it ate into his soul.

Turning, he stared back at the bastard she put so much faith in and, before he could stop himself, he said, “I’m sure Director Wyatt would be more than happy to allow the visit, Mr. Johnson, should you and President Martinez have a mind to accept the invitation.”

Both men stared back at him with dark, hostile gazes.

“We can set that appointment up on our own,” the president said smoothly as he threw Liza a reassuring smile. “We’ll let you know once it’s been set, dear.”

“Of course, Uncle Ray,” she stated, her voice soft but with a glimmer of doubt that Stygian knew her father had to have heard.

Her gaze turned to his then, the soft gray filled with somber doubt.

“Can I go home now?”

She hadn’t asked her father or her boss. She wasn’t asking permission to leave, she was asking if it was okay to return to her home rather than the suite they had taken.

Stygian started to shake his head.

“I think it best you return to the house with your mother and me, Liza.” Audi moved from behind the Nation president’s desk, walking slowly to the door as Liza tensed.

“That wouldn’t work, Dad.” Her hands clasped in front of her as Stygian glimpsed the shaking in her fingers and the uncertainty in her gaze as she watched her father now.

Seeing it tore at his heart. For possibly the first time in her life, she was seeing the human her father was rather than the superhero he had always been to her.

“Liza, your life is in danger.” He paused several feet from her, suddenly aware of the distance she had placed around herself.

Stygian hated sensing it. He hated how she suddenly retreated within herself, watching, waiting, while another part of her seemed to be considering whatever it was that was suddenly so painful for her.

“Yes, I agree with you, Dad, it is.” She breathed in deeply as Stygian tried and failed to restrain the urge to go to her. “But as much as I love you and Mom—and as much as I respect your strength—even I know the Breeds are more qualified and better able to protect me.” And what he knew was left unsaid: that she would never be able to live with a reality where her father had died so she could live.

Going to her but not quite touching her, he could feel her fighting to maintain her distance even as she seemed to lean closer.

Stygian could feel the uncertainties in her, a determination slowly growing within her, and a fear and pain that she had buried so deep, buried so far within herself, that he wondered if she even knew the reason for it.

Johnson’s gaze narrowed on both of them, no doubt taking in the appearance of solidarity that mating always seemed to bring.

“Then your Breed force can come to the house as well.” Her father’s smile was tight, the hostility in his gaze barely hidden as he glanced at Stygian then.

Audi still saw his daughter, despite her place in the Breed underground or with the Navajo Law Enforcement Agency, as a vulnerable child rather than the woman he knew she was. He was a man fighting to deny that his daughter was a woman, which made little sense to Stygian.

Certainly, Liza was inexperienced where men were concerned, he could sense that, just as he could smell the untainted sexuality that assured him it had been quite a long while since she had had a lover. But as far as her father was concerned, she was as pure and unspoiled as a young virgin.

“No, Dad.” She shook her head again. “I know you’ll worry, but if I go home, leaving again will be harder on all of us than it was before. I’m safe. And as long as I stay where I am, under Breed protection, you’re safe as well.”

Taking those few steps to her father, she let him embrace her before reaching up and placing a kiss to his cheek. “I love you, Daddy, and I love Mom, but I have to do this the way I feel is best. I’ve been making my own decisions far too long to be able to give up that freedom now.” As she stepped back from her father, she turned to Stygian. “Are you nearly finished?”

“Nearly,” he agreed. “A few minutes longer.”

“I’ll be outside. Don’t start yelling at them again. It upsets Ray’s secretary, and I imagine she gets enough of that from Ray himself.” She tried to smile at her father and the man she called an “uncle” before her expression became so femininely stubborn and commanding that he knew what was coming before it left her lips. “And I’ll see you and Ray this evening at the hotel. We’re all going to visit with Amber.”

“Liza, if she’s that ill—” Audi’s nostrils flared, his gaze becoming shuttered as he began to protest while Ray Martinez stiffened and the sudden scent of deceit hit Stygian so hard it was all he could do not to react to it.

“Then we all need to see it.” Her lips trembled for a brief second as Stygian sensed the slow, deepening fear inside her. “Please, Dad,” her voice lowered, uncertainty filling her then. “This is something I need you to do.” She looked to Ray then. “I need both of you to do it.”

Audi glanced away from her a second as though shoring his strength to deny her request.

That was his intention, Stygian could see it in his shuttered gaze when his eyes met Liza’s again. Then, within a heartbeat, what determination he’d been able to muster shattered. A grimace twisted his expression before he gave a slow, resigned nod. “We’ll be there, sweetheart.”

Stygian caught Ray’s expression too. Audi may be unable to deny his daughter, but Stygian was certain Ray wouldn’t have a problem with it. He had no intentions of showing up.

“Good.” Liza drew in a long, almost weary breath. “I’ll go to work then.”

She moved toward her father rather than the door, though. Audi met her at the side of Ray’s desk, his arms opening for her as he accepted his daughter’s embrace. Her arms wrapped around his neck and for a second, she held on to him with a desperation born of a young woman’s fears and a daughter’s uncertainties.

Kissing her forehead, Audi released her a moment later, then watched silently as she turned and left the room. Quiet, thoughtful, Stygian could feel the woman and the daughter battling inside her and the need she was fighting to hide, the fears she refused to reveal.

She didn’t speak as she neared him. Stepping to her enough to force her to pause, he gripped her shoulders and bent his head to her ear. “I’ll let Jonas know they’re coming.”

She nodded shakily, and the scent of her tears almost did him in. “And I’m leaving early,” she informed him. “Just after lunch, if that’s possible.”

“Whatever you want is possible.” Releasing her, he let his hands linger against her shoulders for a moment before releasing her and watching her leave the room.

As the door closed behind her, he turned to the two men watching silently.

Her father didn’t remain silent for long.

“I know what you’re after,” Audi Johnson rasped furiously, careful to keep his voice low. “Stay out of my daughter’s bed, Breed. She deserves better than the likes of you.”

“Better than a Breed?” He gave a short, mocking laugh as he was now forced to face the reason for the man’s dislike. “Well, now, doesn’t that just suck, because I’m exactly what she’s going to get. And keep.”

“Don’t bet on it,” Audi snapped. “She has better sense than to allow herself to be fooled by you for long.”

Stygian stared at the two men then, sensing their determination to see him out of Liza’s life, forever.

It wasn’t going to happen.

“For Liza, I’ll ensure she’s unaware of the fact that you disapprove of the man she’s chosen, because it would destroy her should she ever learn that you believe she’s too inept not to allow herself to be fooled, or that you believe the man she’s falling in love with is somehow inferior,” he growled. “But never doubt, Mr. Johnson, should you ever attempt to destroy what I’m building with your daughter, I will make certain I take her so fucking far away that you’ll never have the chance to hurt her again. Do I make myself clear?”

Audi’s lips curled in disgust. “She would never go.”

“Yeah, she would,” Stygian assured him. “Her confidence as a woman and a warrior has stemmed from your belief in her. If she finds out you’ve lied to her, that your belief in her was an illusion, then you’ll destroy her. When you destroy the young girl that still lives and breathes in her soul, then you’ll destroy the ties that have held her to this area so firmly. And when you do that, I promise you, she will leave with me.”

He didn’t give them a chance to retaliate before he turned and pulled the door open. Stepping into the outer office, he faced the knowing sadness in Liza’s gaze and the worry and fear in her mother’s.

The animal inside him rose with predatory awareness.

She knew. A part of her was aware that more had been going on in the office than he or her father would want her to know.

Taking a seat in the outer office, close to the door, Stygian sat back, determined to bottle the anger and pretend it didn’t exist.

He should have expected it, he realized. It was a common problem to those Breeds who had mated human women. Even those who professed a lack of prejudice suddenly found it in surfeit whenever their daughters, or close female relatives, found themselves mated to one. As she worked, her father came and went, moving about the offices and taking care of business as head of security for the Nations headquarters and the president of the Navajo Nation. Audi maintained the illusion of politeness, and Stygian followed suit. But hell, Liza was no fool, and she was so damned intuitive that he swore she would have made an excellent Breed.

It was just after lunch and her determination to work through it, that she closed down her computer and straightened the papers on her desk before lifting her gaze to him.

“I’m ready to go,” she told him. “I e-mailed Ray and asked for half days for a while, and he’s agreed.”

“Besides, he and her father both know Liza needs to concentrate on her safety now,” Jane stated gently as she followed her daughter and rose to her feet from the couch across from Liza’s desk.

Stygian had little doubt that the change of hours had been the mother’s idea. She’d been nervous, antsy, each time the elevator pinged an arrival, and Stygian knew each time the doors slid open that Jane had braced herself for trouble.

She was terrified for her daughter’s safety, even more so than her husband was.

“Very well.” Stygian nodded, relieved at the decision. “I’ll call down and have the car brought around.”

“There’s actually an elevator that goes directly to the underground parking area.” Jane smiled back at him. “I’ve talked to Audi, and your driver can have his parking slot next to those elevators for the time being. That should eliminate any problems that could arise. The underground garage is used only for Ray, high-security visitors, and the tribal chiefs, and it’s heavily secured. Everything’s already been arranged and the guards on duty have been informed.”

Stygian had been aware of the parking garage and had made a note to discuss parking arrangements before they left for the day. Having it taken care of by Liza’s mother was a relief. The primal anger the other man had roused inside him earlier still had yet to settle.

Stygian held back his surprise. Her mother had remained in the room with them, chatting with Liza whenever her daughter had time and keeping coffee in full supply.

“Thank you, Mrs. Johnson.” He nodded cordially.

“No, thank you, Stygian. And you call me Jane.” Moving to him, she took his hand between hers and stared up at him, her eyes damp with emotion. “Just take care of my baby. Anything you need to ensure her protection, you have only to let me or her father know and it will be taken care of.”

Stepping away, she turned back to her daughter, said her good-byes and returned Liza’s hug fiercely. “I’ll be here when you come in tomorrow,” her mother promised.

“Mom, that’s not necessary.” Surprise filled her voice. And fear. She didn’t want her mother there. In case there was danger, she didn’t want her parents anywhere near her.

“It’s very necessary, Liza,” her mother assured her firmly. “You’re my daughter, and I will be here. Now, rest, and we’ll talk tomorrow.”

He knew now where Liza had gotten her stubbornness, he thought in amusement as Liza gathered her purse and briefcase and moved to him.

She was more distant than she had been earlier, though, as they made the ride to the lobby and walked toward the SUV parked outside the doors. Opening the back door, he helped her in before following her. Nodding at Flint as he glanced in the rearview mirror, he gave him the go-ahead to leave before reaching over and covering Liza’s hands as they clasped in her lap.

She was fighting something, fighting some fear or uncertainty that perhaps even she didn’t understand. He could feel her confusion, though, and that dark pain brewing brighter and hotter deep inside her and, he suspected, causing the silent retreat.

He hated the lack of emotion and sense of warmth that was always a part of her.

How the hell did she do it? Was it voluntary or subconscious? And where the hell did she go?

Rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand, warming the cool flesh, he released the unusual, if quiet, sound of a primal question.

It was a sound he had never made before, one he’d never heard—somewhere between a half growl and a low questioning breath of a hum. As though the animal he carried inside him was calling out to her itself.

Her head whipped around as her heart gave a hard leap.

The animal he was raged inside him before that spark of her inner spirit showed itself in the surprise and eased his anger.

Just a spark. Just a hint of the woman she was.

And what he sensed coming from her all but froze his soul in terror.

For a second, he didn’t sense the woman he knew, in any way.

For the briefest moment, it was a stranger he felt, a stranger he touched.

With his gaze locked with hers, her entire being open as Stygian gave the primal animal he was free rein to call to her, he realized he had opened a door inside her that he had never imagined existed, and for one heart-stopping second he swore he was going to receive an answer to he animalistic call.

And just that quickly, it was over.

Whoever, whatever, had nearly stepped forward, retreated just quickly.

“Is everything okay?” Liza asked, and he sensed her confusion, her uncertainty over what had just happened.

He didn’t know what it was. He had no idea how to identify or describe what he had just felt, what he had just glimpsed inside her.

But he was determined to find out. One way or the other he would learn exactly who or what he had found hiding so deep inside the psyche of the woman he loved.

The woman he was determined to mark as his mate.