Navarro's Promise

by Lora Leigh

  ng 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 tea
r all those pretty clothes.”

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

  CHAPTER 16

  She knew.

  Mica swallowed tightly. She knew enough about mating heat and Wolf Breeds that she knew what had happened. She didn’t know what had caused it. She had no idea how the loss of control had occurred, but as she stared across the room at him, she realized that she was seeing the primal genetics he possessed for the first time in all the years she had known him.

  It should have frightened her.

  She should have at least been wary.

  Instead, she was doing just as he suggested, she was stripping her clothes off. Slowly.

  She knew the creature facing her, and still, she was teasing him with the slow, lazy movements, with her gaze locked with his, with the scent of her arousal no doubt reaching out to him.

  And as she did, she watched as he undressed as well. Each article of clothing that dropped to the floor exposing the steel-hard, tense lines of muscle and darkly tanned flesh until finally, he wore nothing but his arousal as his fingers curved around the base of his cock and palmed the heavy flesh with a grimace of pleasure.

  Thick, heavy, ridged with dark, throbbing veins and glistening at the tip with slick moisture. The sight of his fingers stroking the hard flesh, the heavy veins throbbing with hunger, had the breath trapping in her chest, a sensual weakness rushing through her.

  Moisture rushed along the clenched muscles of her pussy as her womb felt as though a hard spasm ripped through it. Sexual hunger, sensual need and an erotic knowledge of what was to come had her feeling dazed, uncertain, and filled with weakening anticipation.

  “Josiah is pushing his luck, Mica.” His voice was low, the hint of a roughened growl layering it as he began to move toward her. “You’re going to put a stop to this, aren’t you, Amaya?”

  Her lips parted, but not to speak. Oh, she wasn’t about to make it that easy for him. Nothing she did, nothing she said, would change what was going to happen, and she didn’t want it to. That didn’t mean she was going to submit from the start. She had him this far, she wasn’t about to let him off that easy.

  “And why should I put a stop to it? I’m not doing anything wrong, Navarro. And I haven’t seen Josiah do anything wrong.” Lifting her hand, Mica allowed her fingers to trail down along the curve of the inside of her breast, the feel of her nails rasping against the sensitive flesh sending a shiver up her spine.

  His eyes narrowed.

  “Are you sure this is a game you want to play?” he asked softly as he came closer to her, his fingers moving from his cock as his hand lifted, his fingers following the same path hers had made.

  The rasp of his calloused fingertips against her flesh, stroking so close to the tight, hard tip of her nipple had her breath catching in excitement.

  “Are you sure it’s one you want to play?” she asked. “Don’t make demands you can’t back up, Navarro.”

  She touched him.

  She was dying to touch him.

  With her fingertips alone she caressed down his chest, stopping just short of the straining length of his cock, feeling his abdomen clench beneath her touch, stomach and thighs tightening to iron-hard tension.

  Hers.

  He was hers.

  Swallowing tightly, she fought to breathe as his fingers cupped her breast, thumb raking over the swollen, hardened tip of her nipple.

  “Please,” she whispered.

  She needed. She needed so much more than he was giving her. A firmer touch. The heated, erotic pleasure and the burn of his cock working inside her.

  And more.

  So much more.

  As she stood beneath his touch, feeling his fingertips rasping against her nipple, stroking a hunger and a need that clenched her womb and had her hips jerking forward.

  The sensitive flesh of her pussy raked against his hard thigh, the swollen, slick bud of her clit. It pulsed. Throbbed.

  Spreading her thighs, Mica breathed in roughly as the hard muscle of his upper leg pressed forward, the pressure against her clit sending a stroke of agonizing need racing through every cell of her body as one hard hand gripped her hip and jerked her forward on the heated flesh.

  “Navarro.” Weak, pulsing with hunger and dazed, oh God, she felt so dazed, so weak, but strong enough to grip his shoulders with desperate fingers and to clench her thighs around his to ride the incredible pleasure rushing through her. “Oh God, it’s so good. So hot.”

  His head lowered, his lips brushing against her shoulder just before his teeth raked it sensually.

  “It’s going to get hot,” he growled at her ear as he caught the lobe for just a second before releasing it with a quick lick and moving his lips to her neck.

  “You know what you’ve done.” His voice was now closer to a growl. “Don’t you, Amaya?”

  “I didn’t do it.” She breathed in roughly, her head falling back as a low, drawn-out moan escaped her lips and her hips rode his thigh harder, fighting for release, feeling it surge through her.

  “You knew.” He nipped the sensitive flesh of her neck, the pleasure burning through her womb and into her cunt.

  Clenching. Slick, hot moisture easing along the walls of her vagina, creating an internal caress as Navarr