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“Contained and secured.” Noble came through. “We have visual, four points. No other air traffic, and all water traffic is being redirected for the next three hours only.”
Dash blew out a hard breath and stared back at Dawn. “Time to dance, Cougar. Let me do the talking; you smile and be pretty.”
She stared at him in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“Civilian forces are fascinated with the female Breeds. Hopefully, these will be too. Let’s not show how slick our women are if we can get by with it.”
Dawn’s lips almost twitched in amusement. Even the Council had never known what they had created when they stepped into creating the female Breeds. The females’ delicate builds, at times preternatural beauty, and air of delicacy had been a disappointment in the labs. The females were naturally cunning though, in ways the males weren’t. Instinct had perfected that ability.
So few of the females had survived though. The males numbered in the hundreds, the females only a few dozen. But those who had survived were more dangerous than even the male Breeds wanted to admit. And were filled with such fury, such hatred, that even Sanctuary worried about their survival.
Like Dawn, the torture the females had endured had scarred them psychologically in ways the males hadn’t been. It had created killers that even the Breed Cabinet didn’t understand, in ways that the females never shared with any but their own kind.
Like the Lionesses Dawn had commanded at Sanctuary. They had formed groups. They hunted in groups and they killed with deadly efficiency.
Women were supposed to be the gentler sex, but the Council had ensured that all the gentleness was raped, maimed and tortured out of their females before they ever reached maturity.
It was another secret the Breed community kept closely guarded. They kept their females as tightly within the compound as possible, protected them when they no longer needed protection, and fought to preserve the belief in the civilian population that their females were no more dangerous than any civilian-trained female.
There were times it was laughable. Because the females that had come from those labs were more feral than any human woman Dawn had ever encountered.
She played her role. She stood back, watched the men and few women investigating and used shy looks and a soft voice. She fooled the men, but she knew the women suspected. Instinct to instinct, she felt that connection and let it pass.
Her demeanor and unthreatening air allowed her and Dash to negotiate for information and concessions. What they wouldn’t give Dash, they were more willing to agree to with her.
As she worked, she was aware of Seth watching her, his eyes narrowed on her and the scent of his arousal and his jealousy flowing around her. He didn’t like seeing her in the midst of these men, working their ignorance and their superiority. And that was too damned bad. Because this was his life. If it wasn’t, she would have left Dash to deal with the species-superior bastards who stank of their prejudice and their hatred.
They didn’t care why Breyer had been murdered. As one of the detectives stated, “Play with fire and someone will try to burn you.”
Seth was playing with the Breeds, and evidently that was reason enough to die in the eyes of these men.
By the time the body had been bagged, the evidence collected and the statements taken, the sun was rising over the island and the guests were wandering slowly to their beds.
Dawn stood beneath the shelter just past the heli-pad the authorities had used to land, and she watched their heli-jets lift slowly into the air, bank and head back to the mainland with the body and Breyer’s family.
“They’ve been corrupted by the Council.” Mercury stepped from the darker shadows of the small radar and control room used to bring the jets in.
Dawn nodded slowly. She had sensed it more strongly in the head investigator. Whoever had planned this already had their cards in place and was waiting for that winning hand.
Mercury leaned against the doorway of the electronic room, his gaze narrowed on the rising sun, the savagely hewn, lionlike features tight with disgust. “Makes a Breed want to go hunting.”
Dawn watched him carefully, seeing the glitter of death in his dark eyes. “You’ve been around Jonas too long.” She sighed.
And he grinned with a flash of savage, sharp canines. “Maybe Jonas has been around me too long.”
Shaking her head, Dawn moved from the heli-pad and strode across the cement walk that led back to the main estate grounds. She was careful to stay in the shadows or within the lush patches of vegetation that afforded cool comfort beneath the heated rays of the sun.
She watched the area closely, her senses reaching out—sight, smell, instinct. She sensed something, but couldn’t put her finger on it, couldn’t get a scent or hear anything to place with it.
She paused next to one of the low-branched sheltering trees and watched closely, cautiously. Was it the heat making her feel off balance? Making her feel as though she were too easy to see and someone or something was curious? Perhaps dangerous?
She narrowed her gaze and swept it over the areas where an assassin or sharpshooter could be hiding with a line of sight. She couldn’t sense anything, couldn’t feel anything moving but the breeze.
But she could feel the heat. She could feel the swollen folds between her thighs, her clit throbbing, her juices building once again around the sensitive little bud.
Her nipples were so tight and hard they were painful beneath the soft cotton of her tank top. They rasped against her bra and sent a shiver racing over her flesh at the remembered feel of Seth’s mouth devouring them.
She shook her head and moved quickly back to the house, keeping low and within shelter, watching her back even though she wasn’t certain there was anything there. And all the while her flesh ached for Seth’s touch, for the man she was certain didn’t really want her, despite the lust tearing through him.
