“Unfortunately, even I have to agree with Jonas,” Callan sighed, his amber gaze holding a wealth of compassion as he sought out Rule’s. “If Jonas relents here, then any mate whose family members strike against us has precedence to get away with it unscathed later if it goes to trial. Just as with human law, we’re setting the strength or weaknesses of our own mandates with each action we take, just as we’re setting the strength of our honor and the example we make to our people if we attempt to subjugate the laws we set up ourselves.”
“That’s a complete crock.” Dane leaned forward, his green eyes flashing furiously as he faced the group. “No one knows but those of us in this room, and your enforcer Thor, that anything is even amiss. By admitting to it to anyone, the McQuades would be signing their own death warrants. There’s no sense in destroying a young woman who has, from your accounts, Jonas, done everything she could to ensure the success of the Breed communities and the Breeds by working with this sect of warriors you’re so certain can lead you to Gideon. Show your willingness to stand by the loyalty she’s given by attempting to rectify this in a reasonable manner, and perhaps it would build enough trust that Rule could convince her to give him the information she may hold.”
At this moment, for this meeting, Dane was a direct link to his father, the first Leo, who was overseeing the meeting via the comm link Dane wore with a specially designed additional video monitor attached to the audio wand. And the Leo’s opinion was never discounted.
Often argued, rarely obeyed, but never discounted.
Jonas glared at his brother before turning back to Rule. “Would it work?”
The question was in no way an agreement, but it was a sign of consideration. And for that alone, Rule refused to lie to him. He owed Jonas far more than just the truth to this question.
“At this time?” Rule breathed out heavily as he gripped the back of the chair that sat in front of him. “No. She’s loyal to them, believes implicitly in them. I can’t even get her to admit she works for them, let alone give you what you need to identify one of them.”
Jonas turned back to Dane. “Any other suggestions, Junior?” he questioned him mockingly.
“Arrogant little fuck,” Dane muttered as he sat back in his chair heavily. “You’ll be the death of me, you know.”
God only knew what their father was muttering. Both father and legitimate son had their issues with Jonas. And it was well known that he had his issues with them as well.
Jonas only glared at him for a moment before turning back to the room.
A chill of foreboding raced down Rule’s back as the director’s gaze hardened and turned icy, and he knew what was coming.
Just as he knew that the pain it would cause his mate was more than he could allow her to face.
“No one here regrets this more than I,” Jonas stated as he turned to the alphas who were listening silently, considering each argument and its merits. “As director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs, gentlemen, I’ll need your signatures on both the arrest warrant as well as the—”
“I’ll stand in the McQuades’ stead.” The decision sliced at his soul, and Rule knew, if accepted, the decision would ultimately destroy him. It would separate him from his mate, his brother, and the freedom he’d risked his life to attain. It would all be taken from him and he’d serve the rest of his life once again confined to a cell.
It was a decision the man was willing to make.
It was a decision the animal accepted with a sense of quiet resignation.
Breed Law was a complicated, honor-driven set of mandates created to adapt and strengthen the Breed community as a whole. But it was written by compassionate men who believed in the inner strength and honor of the Breeds it was made to protect. It was also written to protect what they considered the very heart of the community as a whole. Their mates and their children. And the fact that there were times when certain circumstances could arise that would threaten their mates or their children within Breed Law. For those eventualities a Breed could purchase a onetime pass for whatever the mate would have to face. A pass that would forever imprison him and ban him from any Breed associations.
Shock held the room silent for long moments. Never had a Breed requested Self-Warrant, or even suggested requesting it for anyone. That one was now doing it, not for his mate, but to ensure that his mate did not face the pain of her parents’ actions, was unthinkable.
“The hell you will.” Lawe surged forward, suddenly enraged as his mate gasped, gripping his arm and being nearly dragged behind him before Lawe came to a hard stop. “I won’t allow it, by God, you will not do this.”
“You have no say in it,” Rule informed him, though he never once took his gaze from Jonas’s. “If the McQuades refuse or don’t have the information that will exonerate them, and if Gypsy refuses to give it, then I demand Self-Warrant. I’ll take their punishment as my own.”
“Why?” Lawe roared out, enraged now, his eyes burning as Rule met his gaze calmly. “For God’s sake, Rule, tell me why you would give your life for those fucking bastards.”
“She’s my mate,” Rule sighed heavily. “The burden she carries each day where her brother’s death is concerned is destroying her a little more every year, Lawe. It eats away at her soul like acid. If she lost her parents to Breed Law, she would never be able to live with the guilt of it. I’d lose her anyway. At least this way, she has a chance . . .”
“No,” Lawe snarled, trying to break his mate’s grip to rush to his brother, to try to knock the sense back into him that Mating Heat seemed to have knocked out of him. “Goddammit, Rule, I won’t accept—”
“There’s no one else I can trust to look after her, Lawe,” he stated heavily, knowing the burden his brother would carry with the request he was making. “No one else I could ever make see what I see in Gypsy, but you.”
“I won’t do it,” Lawe snarled, enraged. “There’s not a chance in hell.”
Sorrow surged through Rule as he opened a small part of himself to the emanations of the bond swirling around him. He gave his brother but a few small seconds to glimpse what had lived inside him since the moment he’d met Gypsy’s eyes across that crowded bar.
The aching sorrow for the pain he sensed inside her, but also the depth of the pain he sensed that gouged at her tender soul. The nightmares the animal inside him sought to ease for his mate, and the love he’d felt for her since the night his animal instincts had bonded with her, nine years before.
The sound that broke from Lawe’s throat was a roar of pure rage, shocking everyone but Rule. There was a reason he hadn’t allowed his brother in for the past two months. A reason he’d kept that shield firmly in place. Because his mate’s pain, her nightmares and her inability to accept that she deserved every ounce of the pure, steel-core devotion he felt for her was gouging those same wounds into his spirit as well.
Gypsy didn’t love him, not as he loved her. The potential for it was there, he believed. Given a bit more time, he could have helped her heal enough of her inner self that she would have accepted his love for her, and accepted that she could love in return. But now, the chances of that time ever coming were diminishing by the second.
Jonas didn’t speak for long seconds. Then he strode stiffly to the monitors on the wall and activated the link.
“Yes, Director?” Thor stepped to the video console immediately.
“Bring them out,” Jonas snapped.
What the hell was he up to?
Less than a minute later, Hansel and Greta McQuade stepped from the blacked-out room into the videoconferencing module.
Greta had been weeping, while Hansel stood resolutely beside her.