by Lora Leigh
Her sister was beginning to look exhausted. Exhausted and worried out of her mind.
“We also managed to secretly kidnap one of the researchers involved in the testing at the Brandenmore labs, Jenny Austin-Carrew,” Callan Lyons, alpha of the Feline Prides, stated as he stood from the small table when they reentered the room. “She was a higher-level research assistant, and we’re hoping she actually worked extensively with the head scientists.”
“Have you questioned her yet?” Diane asked.
He gave a shake of his head as his wife, Merinus, moved to his side.
“Ashley was wounded before Jonas could begin questioning her regarding her work. We came right out here with her sisters, Dacey and Marcy. They were still at Sanctuary.”
Ashley’s sisters. The Truing sisters were true sisters. Sharone Bryce hadn’t been conceived by the same mother or the same genetically altered sperm that had been used to fertilize her each time she had conceived.
They were all littermates though, created in the same lab and overseen by the same scientists.
There were no records concerning how the sperm had been altered or who the main donor had been. The five girls, Emma, Ashley, and twins Dacey and Marcy, looked nothing alike, though. They could have been born of completely different genetics rather than from the same donor with the same animal genetic profiles.
“The twins are at the hospital with her,” Merinus stated. “Sharone and Emma are . . . hunting.” Merinus’s pause had Diane shooting Lawe a hard look.
“What or who are they hunting?” she asked.
“They’re with Thor searching for any signs that the Coyote team that bribed Holden Mayhew to kidnap Malachi’s mate didn’t have any friends as backup,” Lawe told her softly. “They’re questioning some of the people Mayhew and the team came in contact with and building a profile of their movements as well.”
They were being kept busy and out of trouble.
Diane raked her fingers through her hair then shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans and glanced at the others before asking: “Do we have any intel concerning the whereabouts of the girls or the Bengal Judd?” She hated the fact that part of this mission had been taken from her.
“So far, all we have is the suspicion that Terran Martinez brought them to his ranch. A few hours later they were picked up by a group of warriors wearing war paint and disappeared,” Jonas told her.
“Where did you get that information?” Diane asked him, her gaze narrowing in surprise.
“An anonymous call that we haven’t been able to trace.” His jaw tightened angrily. “Terran isn’t confirming or denying the report. He says that if such individuals came into the city looking for safety, then they were now safe, and neither he nor anyone involved at the time would know where they were, who they were with or anyone that could give them that information.”
Diane nodded slowly. “When the Navajo first learned of the children who had been rescued whose genetics matched some of their missing, they created a group whose job was to ensure the protection and hidden identities of those children. I haven’t been able to find even a hint of anyone who could even guess at who any of them are, but Braden Arness’s mated wife, Megan, and her family, confirmed the stories of them.”
The Lion Breed Braden had mated a Navajo empath from New Mexico with close ties to Window Rock. The assassin class Breed now worked with his wife whenever his skill set, or her investigative gifts were needed.
“We’ve informed the chief as well as his father, the medicine man, and Terran, who’s currently the Navajo’s head legal representative, of the situation regarding Amber. Their refusal to give us the identities of at least the two girls and allow us to debrief them concerning their stay at the labs will be viewed as an act of hostility toward the Breeds. As such, the Navajo Nation will no longer be considered a sanctuary for our people, and they’ll be pulled out with all haste.”
Diane sighed wearily as she stared at Callan’s forbidding expression.
This was simply the wrong way to go about it.
Shifting an accusing look toward Lawe, she clenched her teeth in anger at the fact that Jonas had decided it wasn’t prudent to wait for their arrival and allow Diane to do what she did best. Find the people she was looking for.
She didn’t like going behind Lawe’s back, but that was exactly what she and Thor had agreed to do as they waited for Lawe outside the hotel the morning they’d left.
If he thought giving Thor another assignment had changed that, then he was wrong. It had instead given Thor the chance to work as he and Diane preferred. Under the guise of a completely unrelated mission while Diane remained with Lawe and kept the Breeds off his back.
It was usually the other way around. She investigated while Thor ran interference with whichever parties were deemed the most hazardous to their job. But, she knew how to handle this part. She and Thor had perfected both areas of the mission parameters and understood how each worked.
“The Navajo won’t know who they are, where they are or, after all this time, how to reach them,” Diane informed them all as she faced them impatiently. “There’s not even a number that’s called anymore. No one knows how the group becomes aware that a pickup is needed, but they’re always there.”
“Then they have a Breed working with them,” Jonas guessed.
Diane shrugged. “Getting anyone to talk to any of you will not happen,” she told them. “I have some ideas, and once I begin investigating—”
“Once we begin,” Lawe injected.
She glanced up at him, feeling her chest tighten at what she knew she had to do.
“No, once I begin,” she reiterated softly. “They won’t talk to me if you’re around or anywhere close enough to identify them. You’re a Breed, Lawe. To them, you’re the same as a Coyote, a scientist, or a rogue.”
She watched his gaze turn to ice as Jonas cursed softly.
“I hate to keep repeating myself, but I know what I’m doing,” she stated, knowing that with the exception of her sister, possibly, no one there was willing to believe her at this point because of the fact that she was now a mate.
Her chances of investigating were thin to none, but this was her role to play, and if she simply stepped back, then there was no way Lawe would accept that she and Thor hadn’t planned something else.
“Diane, you’re the strongest woman I know,” Rachel said with an edge of bitterness, a clear indication she’d tried to discuss the matter with Jonas. “But the danger to mates right now won’t allow a single Breed in the vicinity to allow you to investigate this on your own.”
Despite the grief she heard in her sister’s voice, the knowledge it could mean her daughter’s life, Diane realized that even her sister couldn’t help her here.
“And all of you are willing to lose Amber for this?” She met her sister’s gaze and watched the tears that welled in her eyes.
“There’s nothing on this earth I wouldn’t do to protect my baby.” Rachel’s voice hitched on a sob. “But nothing is going to change how they’ll surround you or their determination and vows to protect you. Nothing will change the fact that not even my child is as important to Lawe or to the animal genetics that are a part of him as his mate is. Even Jonas’s orders won’t sway him.”
Diane refused to accept that.
Her head lifted as she stared back at the males watching her. “Every damned one of you will get over it,” she told them coolly before turning to Lawe. “You will get Thor back here if that protection is all important to you. He’s not a Breed; he won’t be seen as suspiciously as you will be.”
“He follows your orders,” Lawe growled. “If you told him to back off, then he would do just that. Your safety will always be endangered by the fact that you’re his commander.”
There was truth to that.
“He would cut off his own arm and tell me to go to hell before he’d allow me to do anything to place myself in a situation that would risk my capture by anything o
r anyone associated with the Council,” she informed them all firmly. It did about as much good to argue with them as it did to attempt to use fuel to put out a fire. And she knew that, to the bottom of her soul.
There wasn’t a chance in hell he would ever step back if that were the case.
But she was better at what they were doing than Thor was. She knew how to listen, how to talk to women and how to put men at ease. Thor’s size alone intimidated everyone. Emma and Sharone were Breeds, and the fact that the information they had acquired so far had been stolen by listening to conversations, rumors and suspicions before being pieced together, just frustrated her.
She watched Lawe’s jaw tighten, saw the denial in his eyes, though he didn’t voice it. The muscle in his jaw jerked as he glared back at her for long, silent seconds.
The tension in the room was palpable. His gaze moved to Rachel’s, and Diane knew what he saw there, knew the plea that filled her sister’s face, while Jonas had moved away, turning his back to the exchange.
Diane stared at him.
He was gripping the back of a chair with claws that had retracted and pierced the upholstery. Smears of blood from the sharp-tipped protrusions showed against his cuticles as he glared at them.
He was forcibly distancing himself. He could order Lawe to allow it, he could convince him to, but he wouldn’t give into the urge to do just that. At least not yet. She knew his devotion to his mate and to the child he called his own. He would do it if he considered it the only option but only if all other options had been extinguished.
Diane closed her eyes for a second, praying for strength. He was going to make her crazy before the night was over, let alone the mission.
This was their last chance. She could feel it.
If he wasn’t willing to bend now, when the situation was so desperate, then there would never be a chance that he would allow her to participate in protecting their own child if such a situation ever arose.
“Don’t,” she whispered despairingly. “Don’t make me hate you, Lawe, because you stood in the way of saving my niece. I’ll never forgive you.”
It was no longer a game. Facing her mate, facing the battle that never seemed to end, she realized she’d had enough.
Thor could do this without her. He had before. But it was her niece. She needed to be a part of this.
Lawe’s gaze locked with hers as she watched the struggle that waged in his expression as primal fury flashed in his icy gaze and lightened it further.
His eyes were such a flaming blue now that she swore she could see the animal raging inside him, demanding supremacy. Demanding that the man protect, dominate, and use whatever means necessary to ensure his mate’s well-being.
“I want to hear your plan first,” Lawe growled.
She stared at him in shock. He hadn’t just said that. Had he?
“Lawe?” Jonas’s head jerked up, his gaze intent, the silver depths suddenly seeming to shimmer, to shift in light and color until they almost seemed reflective.
Lawe’s expression was torn, tormented. “You’re right, Jonas. It’s the wrong time for this battle between me and my mate. She keeps telling me that, and I keep refusing to understand. Until now,” he stated heavily. “She’s doing nothing I wouldn’t do in her place. Hell, I would have shot me long before now if I were my mate, for standing in my way.”
Diane’s lips parted, hope surging inside her now.
She harbored no illusion that this could be the start of an attempt to compromise, because she knew better. Lawe’s devotion to all children, but to Amber in particular, was pulling at him. The fact that he and Jonas were more than fellow soldiers, that they were close friends, played a large part as well.
She watched the claws retract within the tips of Jonas’s fingers, barely holding back a shudder when nothing showed but the normal nail now, and the bloody cuticles. He wiped his hand over his face and moved back to his mate, taking her in his arms before turning back to Lawe.
“We all need to hear the plan,” Callan stated. “And trust me, Diane, it will be vetoed if it puts you at risk in any way. Are we clear on that? I’m not your mate, and I can’t be swayed by your emotion.”
Diane glanced at Merinus, wondering if she had an ally there.
Merinus’s lips twitched. “Your sister is one of my dearest friends,” she said gently. “And I know my soul would shatter if anything happened to either of my babies. But know this, Diane, Callan and I have a trust I won’t break. As cruel, as inhuman and brutal as it sounds, Rachel can have other children. If Lawe loses you, though, then we lose not just you, but Lawe, and any children you may have.” She glanced at Rachel as the other woman turned her head into Jonas’s chest in grief, and her eyes flashed with sorrow. “Rachel and I have discussed this. If I ever feel there’s danger to either of you, then I swear, your mates will know about it.”
At that moment, Diane almost hated the other woman.
“Amber can never be replaced,” Diane assured the female alpha coldly. “Know this, all of you. If Amber dies because any of you stood in my way, or took this from me, then I swear I’ll make damned sure I make all of your lives hell.”
Merinus’s gentle expression never changed. “We never doubted that for a moment,” she breathed out roughly. “But it won’t change the fact that your and Rachel’s safety is paramount.”
“Then I need your assurance,” Diane demanded of them. “I want your vow that none of you will take it over and decide you can achieve your ends without me.”
She stared at Callan first, then Lawe and Jonas. They stared back at her, and she almost sneered. Oh, how well she knew Breeds. That thought had been uppermost in all their minds. She may be furious at them all, including her sister at the moment for even considering a continued friendship with the prima, but it didn’t make her stupid.
“You’ll have it.” It was Lawe who broke the silence. He turned to Diane. “As long as you’re in no immediate danger and as long as I’m confident you have a chance of survival, then the operation won’t be taken from you or interfered with in any way.”
She lifted her head, debating with herself, knowing that if any being on earth would keep his word, then it was Lawe. And in turn, Callan and Jonas. But none of them had ever been tested in such a way either.
She swallowed tightly. “There’re a few things I’ll need, and I’ll need your patience.”
“Let’s hear it first.” Callan and Merinus resumed their seats at the table as Diane, Lawe, Jonas and Rachel followed suit.
Diane hadn’t expected such easy compliance, she had to admit. She’d expected threats, anger, and when all else failed, she’d expected Jonas to trump all other means of convincing her by using her love for Rachel or, worse for Lawe, against her. Hell, she’d even been prepared to continue to play the silent warrior while Thor, Emma and Sharone tracked down information.
She knew a few things about Breed law. She knew her refusal had broken several statutes, which could result in her and Lawe’s imprisonment if it were pushed. And it would have been, if it weren’t for the fact that the babe in question belonged to Jonas. If not by blood, then by love.
“The past two days I haven’t just been sitting on my ass. Thor, with Emma and Sharone, using the guise of searching for Council Coyotes, has been gathering information. Rumor, suspicion and discussions held behind closed doors but not out of Sharon’s ability to hear from a window, a door or other hidden means, has come through. The group responsible for protecting Honor, Fawn and Judd doesn’t even have a name,” Diane warned them. “At least not one I’ve been able to learn. What I have learned is that Judd, Fawn and Honor weren’t the first or the last children to have disappeared with an anonymous group of men disguised by war paint. There have been others. Children who were brought to them, even before the rescues began, as well as at least one hybrid whose mother was killed, and whose father was fatally wounded.”
“Why not come to us?” Callan growled, anger and concern fillin
g his face now.
Diane shook her head. “Not all Breeds trust either Sanctuary or Haven,” she reminded him. “The spies found within both bases pose a risk to those Breeds who were created for special purposes or who were already a part of political or private enterprises the Council considered long-term goals. They’re Breeds that, for whatever reason, couldn’t afford ever to be identified as Breeds. Then”—she breathed in deeply—“there are the missing children. The six that a Breed known as Harmony Lancaster had locations for, but they had disappeared before your teams could get to them. Hybrid babes who were taken