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Seth watched as she walked away, her back straight, her shoulders stiff as she moved toward the hall. She would be close; he knew she wouldn’t go far. But that didn’t ease the need to touch her, to hold her.
He turned back to Carrington, staring at him coldly.
“Insult her again, and I’ll force the sale of your shares,” he kept his voice low, though he didn’t give a damn who heard what he had to say.
He watched the sweat pop out on Carrington’s forehead, a clear indication that the other man was becoming increasingly concerned. Let him worry. Let him twist in his bed at night worrying about future profits. Seth twisted mentally every fucking night, remembering what the Council had done to Dawn, remembering and hating the bastards for every second of pain they had put her through as a child.
“This has nothing to do with business,” Carrington snapped. “Weren’t you the one that warned me to keep it separate?”
Seth stepped closer. “Do you have a soul, Carrington?” He growled. “Let’s see if you have one. Go back into that room.” He pointed to the meeting room. “Reload those discs and watch them. Watch them and know they’re the truth. Imagine the lash of those whips on your own flesh as a child. A fucking baby, too young to defend yourself. And imagine the discs you didn’t see in there. The ones where they raped children to death.” He clenched his fists at his sides to keep from using them on the other man. “Imagine your child, your precious Caroline, staring back at a camera in death, as every atrocity that could be committed against her young body was committed.” Rage was burning inside him.
Before Seth could stop himself, before he could contain the brutal talon-sharp fury tearing at his mind, he gripped the sides of Carrington’s jacket and jerked him close, nose to nose, and let him see the murderous emotions burning inside him.
“Do you have a soul, you spineless little fucker, or are you just as fucking demented as those bastards you helped fund for all those years?”
Carrington lost all color in his face. He stared back at Seth, horrified.
“They didn’t show you those babies they raped, did they, Carrington?” he snarled brutally. “All those years they sent reports to those certain few who fully backed them, they never showed those poor, pitiful, bloodstained bodies. But you know what? Those that survived? Some of them were made available to the monsters that backed them. Were you one of them?”
Carrington was shaking his head, slowly, almost shocked. “That was propaganda,” he wheezed. “The Breeds, they lied.”
Seth threw him back. “Is that how you salve your conscience?” he bit out, then stared at the incredulous expressions of the board members watching the scene. “Is that what the Council and their fucking puppets cutting my throat with you are telling you? Propaganda? Let me tell you propaganda. Let me tell you how they fucking destroyed babies.” His expression contorted, the images of what they had done to his Dawn, his woman, flashing through his mind. “How many of you paid for the privilege of helping? By God, let me find out one of you, just one of you, did, and I’ll destroy you. Pray to God, get on your knees and beg him not to let me find out any of you were involved so deeply, or I promise you, hell hath no fury like that which I’ll visit on you. Every last fucking one of you who dared.”
“They proved those discs were false.” Carrington was still shaking his head. “The Breeds did that themselves. They proved it. The Breeds don’t disprove it. They refuse to address it.”
“Tell you what, let some bastard rape your daughter until she’s mindless with the pain. Until her blood is flowing from her body and her eyes turn glassy, and see how many of your good buddies you want to see it, Carrington.” His chest was tight, his rage thundering through him. “Any of you. Those who survived, do you think they want you to see their pain? Do you think they care at this point what men like you believe? Those who supported those fucking monsters? Fuck you. Every damned one of you. Negotiations are off. My lawyers will contact yours next week. I don’t negotiate with pedophiles or those who defend them. Get the fuck off my island.”
He turned and stalked from the group, his body vibrating with a killing rage as Dawn stepped from the hall and stood watching him, her eyes dark with pain, her face pale. And concerned.
She glanced back at the board members, and for a moment, just a moment, he thought tears glittered in her eyes before she blinked them back.
“Seth, wait.” Dane was behind him. He caught Seth’s arm and pulled him to a stop as Seth reached Dawn.
“Back off, Dane.” He jerked his arm out of the other man’s grip and turned again.
“Let me talk to them now, Seth,” Dane hissed softly. “Listen to me, you have them scared now, let me pull them in. We’d have no fight if we strike now.”
“Listen to him, Seth.” Dawn dug her heels in, her voice soft but resonating with pain. “Don’t go to war unless you have to.”
He paused, his body vibrating with the need for just that. War. All but a few of those board members had personally supported the Genetics Council over the years. A few he knew would never turn against them, but if they could get a majority, if they pulled in the right vote, then those few would have no choice but to follow them.
“I won’t back down.” He felt murderous. He wanted to tear the bastards apart, he wanted to go back, he wanted to wipe out every fucking scientist and soldier who had dared to touch Dawn or any other child in their care.
“Let me mediate this point,” Dane urged him again. “Let me work them now that you have them running scared. This, my friend, is what I’m good at.”
Seth nodded sharply. “No negotiations, Dane. Negotiating is over. I want the full concessions that I asked for. Period. Or they can get fucked.”
With that, he pulled Dawn closer and moved her toward their room. He didn’t want them to look at her, he didn’t want them to see her or to breathe her air. They were an insult to her presence, an insult to every child breathing, Breed or not.
Dawn was his. His woman. His breath. He hadn’t realized that until she came to him. He hadn’t realized how long he had waited, how hard he had hoped that she would come to him. He’d be damned if he would back down an inch now. Dawn and her people weren’t the only ones depending on him. The children he would have with her needed him to stand for them now. If he didn’t, who would stand for them later?
Dane watched Seth and his mate disappear around the corner of the hall. He pushed his fingers through his hair and glanced back at the board members watching him in concern as he appeared undecided.
Appeared, as he wasn’t in the least undecided. He had expected this to happen, he had planned for it. Anyone with an ear to the ground where the Breeds were concerned knew that Dawn was Seth’s mate. Especially anyone with Dane’s senses. Breed senses, senses made stronger by the human blood that flowed through his veins.
Dane was the worst sort of predator. He preyed on the emotional weaknesses of his enemies. Their greed. Their lust for power. He preyed upon it, helped to weaken it, then built it back as he needed it. He needed these men in place, but not at the risk of destroying the Breeds they benefited.
Exhaling roughly, he played the part of concerned businessman and reluctant mediator. That role he knew very well.
