“I think we all are,” Jonas breathed out roughly. “Unfortunately, we have guests.”
“And I’m off duty and in mating heat,” Mercury growled. “I’m taking my mate to our cabin.”
Because the adrenaline was crashing inside her, combining with the mating heat now that the danger had passed, now that the Breeds determined to destroy their own society were in custody.
Jonas nodded as he turned away. Ria turned, watching as he moved to the ballroom entrance, coming to a stop as Callan carried Ely in his arms and moved for the hallway.
The doctor was unconscious, her face paper white, a smear of blood beneath her nose attesting to the fact that the drug she was on was attempting to destroy her exceptional mind.
Callan’s face was carved from stone; his wife’s was wet with tears as she followed behind him. Ely was a cherished part of the community; she was their hope for the answers to the questions about their own physiology, and she was a friend.
“Will she survive, Elizabeth?” Ria asked as her grandmother moved to her, Leo close on her heels, as he always was.
“If she’s strong enough, Ria. If she’s strong enough.”
Elizabeth patted her arm and moved past her, Leo’s arm wrapping around his wife to pull her close to his side as they followed Callan and Merinus.
Seconds later, Horace Engalls, his wife and Phillip Brandenmore were escorted from the ballroom under enforcer guard, their expressions both furious and terrified.
It was over, Ria thought. As Mercury turned her to the doors and they moved to leave the party, she let herself believe it was finally over.
“We have about eight hours,” Mercury growled at her ear as they entered the limo and the enforcer assigned to the car whisked them from the ball that had nearly turned into a blood-bath. “Do you think that’s enough time?”
He lifted her to his lap, bent his head to her lips and licked her, with heat, with gentleness.
“I won’t let you go,” she whispered. “I can’t.”
He touched her hair, her face. “Do you think I want to be free, Ria?”
“What if she’s your mate? What if the first tests were right, and she was meant to be your mate?”
He shook his head. “She’s not my mate, Ria. Ever. She never was. I’m holding my mate right here, in my arms.”
“I love you, Mercury,” she whispered on a soft, almost hidden sob. “I love you too much.”
“Never too much, sweet Ria Never too much.”
The animal didn’t prowl. It didn’t crouch and glare. It sighed in contentment, watched its mate through the man’s eyes, feeling the animal that reached out to him from the woman as well.
The animal in the man purred, ignoring the man’s surprise as the sound rumbled in his chest. But the woman purred right back, and she laughed with a hint of tears.
Behind her eyes, within the unconscious depths of her being, the mate of the animal in the man stared back at it.
They were animals contained. Hidden parts of the man and woman that were no longer forced to silence. Genetics, yes. They were a part of them, the spirits the man and woman contained, no longer separate, but connected fully. And mated.
Animal to animal. Man to woman.
And as the man carried his mate into their lair, laid her gently on their bed and completed the union their bodies needed, the animals connected.
They were as they were always meant to be. Soul to soul. Heart to heart. Pulsing and alive. They were Breeds, and they were proud.
TWO DAYS LATER
The lab was cool to protect sensitive equipment that didn’t require the warmth Ria did. She sat on the gurney, forcing herself to relax as Mercury leaned against the wall and watched her silently.
Alaiya had demanded that the mating tests be completed quickly, mostly because her tenure in the Bureau of Breed Affairs was being reconsidered. She knew she was on her way out. Not out of Sanctuary perhaps, but out of the upper levels of Breed hierarchy. She had ignored her commander’s orders. Defied him. And she had lost control of herself during that last confrontation with Ria.
Breed Enforcers had to always maintain control, until the full phase of mating heat was established. Hers hadn’t been established.
“You’re mates.” Elizabeth stepped from the office she was using while overseeing Ely’s duties at Sanctuary.
Elizabeth Vanderale was in her element here. Working with Breeds, adding to her knowledge and experience as well as Ely’s.
“And Alaiya?” Ria knew she was Mercury’s mate, there was no doubt in her mind, and she had no intention of releasing him. No matter the outcome of these tests.
“Well, she’s definitely mated someone, but hers doesn’t match the heat in your and Mercury’s systems.” She frowned, shaking her head. “Someone altered the tests Ely had done. They’ve been altering them for months, in several Breeds she ran tests on. She didn’t catch it because the drug had already begun infecting her mind. Charles, one of her lab assistants, would tell her not to look for the anomalies, and she didn’t.”
The information had been easy to find over the past two days. Months’ worth of altered tests, coded transmissions and attempts to drug other Breeds.
The two lab assistants, Charles and the older nurse, Maydene, had been working for nearly a year for Engalls and Brandenmore. But they had been smart where selling the information was concerned. They slipped it out, but then refused to supply the code to unlock it until they’d received full payment.
Something they would never see now.
“Does Alaiya know?” Mercury asked.
“She knows,” Elizabeth breathed out heavily. “But she isn’t accepting it yet. She swears Mercury is her mate and that I’m the one altering the tests. She will be best avoided for a while.”
“I don’t have time to avoid her.” Ria slid from the small cot and glanced at Mercury. “I’ve already told Leo. I’m not returning to the main offices when the two of you leave. I’ve taken a position here, with Sanctuary. They need someone they can trust in Security Control, someone who can understand the systems they have and how to monitor any further attempts to break them. Leo’s going to turn one of the newer satellites over to Sanctuary control, and Dane will never rest if one of his babies isn’t being watched over.” She grinned at that. Dane loved technology. Especially Vanderale technology.
“I already assumed that.” Elizabeth smiled gently. “Leo and I will be staying awhile anyway. I want to continue to watch over Ely. She’s coming along nicely, but once the drugs are out of her system, she’s going to have a hard patch to overcome.” She glanced at Mercury. “You’re her friend, you know. She’s desolate over what she nearly did.”
“She’s still a friend.” He nodded sharply. “I’ll be assigned permanently to Sanctuary now. I’ll be heading the security detail we’re reworking for the labs and for Ely. She’ll be taken care of from now on.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “They may have destroyed her. Bringing her back from this won’t be easy.”
“We’ll bring her back.” Mercury was arrogant, certain of himself. Ria grinned in pride.
“So, mate, ready to go home?” she asked him. Their cabin was prepared, one within Sanctuary’s secured walls, but also within the heavily forested mountain that surrounded the estate.
Mercury’s gaze fired, artic blue eyes that burned. She loved those eyes.
She loved him.
With a smile, he escorted her from the labs and to the main floor, urging her to walk faster as he whispered in her ear exactly how he intended to please her.
“All night,” he growled as she fought to restrain her laughter. “Couch. Chair. Floor.”