Merinus stared at him in disbelief.
“Dayan, what makes you think you can do this? The breeding isn’t voluntary; you know that from Callan and me. It’s hormonal. If Dawn or Sherra were your mates, you would know it by now.”
“No.” He shook his head, a maniacal smile crossing his face. “See, I know something you don’t. The women don’t go into heat like you did, Merinus. They don’t mate like Callan mated you. When they ovulate any bastard can breed them, your brother and Sherra proved that.”
Merinus blinked. “What the hell does my brother have to do with this? Which brother? Dammit, I have seven of them and every one of them will skin your ass alive and tack your hide on their wall for a trophy if you don’t stop this shit. That is if Callan leaves anything left of you.”
He smirked at her, the gun never wavering.
“Brother Kane was a soldier at the labs, Merinus. He was chosen to rape her when she went into heat the first time, and he did an admirable job. Even planted a cub inside her. I, of course, had to rid her of it. I can’t tolerate another man’s offspring within my Pride.”
Merinus wavered in shock. She felt her knees go weak.
“You’re lying,” she gasped. “Kane wouldn’t do that. He would never hurt an innocent woman.”
Dayan shook his head in pity.
“But he did Merinus. Didn’t you ever wonder how Kane knew about a supposedly Top Secret experiment before your father received Maria’s box of evidence? How he knew when everyone associated with that lab was dead? He survived my attack somehow. Survived my rage. But he’ll pay for it soon enough, for good.”
“I don’t believe you.” She believed Kane might have been there, but not for the reasons Dayan said, and sure as hell wouldn’t believe he had raped anyone. She knew her brother too well for that.
He frowned at her darkly. “I have no reason to lie.”
“You have every reason to lie,” she told him angrily. “You’re a traitor to your own people, Dayan, there’s no honor in you. You couldn’t be trusted to give the weather accurately.”
“You have a smart mouth, bitch,” he snarled. “If I weren’t already determined to kill you, I’d kill you for that alone.”
“And you’re a fucking prick with some real faulty illusions of grandeur.” She glimpsed Callan’s shadow moving slowly along the steps from the corner of her eye. “The others will take you apart themselves. You won’t be able to hide the scent of Callan’s blood on your hands. Their senses will pick it up, Dayan. They’ll know.”
She saw the glimmer of uncertainty enter his eyes.
“They won’t know,” he bit out, but his protest wasn’t as strong as it should have been.
“They can smell blood. They know the scent of their own, their DNA ensures it. Do you think you can wash away the scent of their deaths from your body? Do you really think they won’t know?”
“Only Sherra and Dawn will be left.” He shrugged. “I’ll kill Taber and Tanner myself.”
Merinus laughed at him, shaking her head as Callan moved closer. She had to keep his attention on her.
“You won’t get within a mile of any of them,” she told him mockingly. “They’re smarter than you are—”
“Callan wasn’t,” he denied. “I caught his woman.”
“Have you?” she asked, jerking back, falling to the floor as Callan’s roar sounded through the room.
She scrambled around the chair as she heard the scream that erupted from Dayan’s throat. The gun went flying when Callan tackled him. Merinus grimaced as it flew in the opposite direction of the chair. Breathing roughly, watching the struggling men carefully, she began to crawl around the room.
Feral growls filled the room, crashing furniture, flying fists. Dayan was like a savage animal, but Callan more so. With feet kicking out, fists hammering into flesh, the two men fought around the room, vying for supremacy. As Merinus reached the gun, she heard a scream of resounding pain that sent a chill down her back.
Callan had managed to tackle Dayan, maneuvering the other man in front of him, his arms locked around his neck. As Merinus’ eyes widened in horror, Callan gave a final, savage wrench. The sound of the other man’s neck breaking had bile rising from her stomach. Dayan’s eyes were wide with surprise and defeat, horror washed over his dying expression as Callan allowed him to drop slowly to the floor.
Merinus raised shocked eyes to her lover. He stared at her, his expression cold, brutal. He never blinked, he offered no apology, but she saw the misery and grief in the glitter of unshed tears in his eyes.
He was covered in blood. His bare chest marked with the scratches of Dayan’s longer, sharper nails. He wore only a pair of blood splattered sweat shorts. His feet were bare, his legs marred with ugly cuts and bruises, splayed apart, the muscles still tight, taut with the danger that pulsed in his body.
Merinus was breathing harshly, her heart pounding in her chest, her hands clutching the forgotten gun.
“Fuck, you need another shower now,” she whispered as she swallowed tightly, then grimaced at the inane comment. “Oh God, Callan—”
Her hand went over her mouth as she fought the sickness rising in her throat. Dayan stared at her, his eyes vacant, wide in that last second of horror as he stared at her. She dropped the gun, her body shaking so hard she could feel her bones trying to rattle.
“Merinus.” Suddenly he was kneeling beside her, not touching her, his voice broken with his grief, his regret. “Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head desperately, fighting her tears.
“Oh God, how do I help you?” She turned to him, heedless of the blood that marred his body. His blood and Dayan’s.
His arms came around her hesitantly as she threw herself in his arms.
“Help me?” he whispered, his voice rough as he touched her hair, her back, as though frightened to embrace her. “You’re safe now, Merinus. It’s okay.”
She shook her head against his chest, the tears finally falling from her eyes, humiliating her with her weakness in the face of danger. She was such a wimp, she thought. He had saved both their lives, scarred his soul with the necessity of taking his brother’s life, and she needed his comfort. She should be comforting him instead.
“I’m so sorry,” she gasped through her tears. “I’m so sorry. I’m so weak, Callan. I’m so weak.”
She clutched at his shoulders, too weak to stand, fear still echoing through her system, the horror of the violence quaking through her system. As Callan tightened his arms around her, the sharp sound of the front door splintering tore them apart.
Merinus screamed as the door flew inward. Callan shoved her towards the chair, his sharp order lost amid his growl of rage as he dove for the gun Merinus had dropped.
“Merinus. Callan.” The harsh voice of her brother had her swinging around in time to watch Callan come up in a lithe, graceful move to his knees, the pistol gripped in both hands, his face a mask of rage.
“Callan.” She fell toward him; terrified he wouldn’t stop in time.
He was ahead of her. The gun went up, his finger falling quickly back from the trigger.
Dazed, breathing hard from shock and reaction she watched the way he crouched as the room began to fill with the presence of others. Her brothers and father, even her uncle, Senator Samuel Tyler was there, along with the vaguely familiar near dozen men who followed Kane. Taber and Tanner, Sherra and Dawn and Dr. Martin brought up the rear. Everyone but the Senator and the good scientists were armed to the gills, weapons showing, bodies taut and ready.