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He had mated a Breed. A hybrid Breed. One with familial ties to the Leo, Dane, Jonas and Callan. A frightening thought.
Leo’s granddaughter. Why didn’t that surprise him?
“Look at the drug requisitions,” Ria was explaining to Callan, Kane and Jonas, turning the screen to allow them to see it more clearly. “Codeine, morphine and here, this little puppy.” She pointed to one of the longer names on the screen. “It’s similar to a hallucinogenic. Bad, bad news for overworked, overstressed Breeds. The effect it has on our brain processes is similar to that of the drug the Council created to restrain the feral displacement in Mercury. We have a Breed mind-control drug coming into Sanctuary in minute quantities, right under your noses.”
“And with no attempt to hide it,” Jonas bit out. “Ely wouldn’t drug us.”
“Ely’s being drugged, Jonas,” she stated clearly.
“One of us would have scented it,” Mercury pointed out then. “A few of the enforcers that guard the labs have the best sense of smell developed within the Council labs. Ely couldn’t be drugged.”
She shook her head. “It’s nearly undetectable. The drug has a hold on the Breed; it’s highly addictive to the brain, and it’s not detectable until the effects it produces are at full strength. She’s still fighting it. I don’t have the sense of smell a Breed has, so I can’t detect it at all.”
“What are your talents?” Callan asked smoothly.
“Exceptional night sight and an ability to break code and detect patterns. I’m a logistical expert with a high rating in mental procedures. As a hybrid, naturally born of a Breed and mated human, my genetics are virtually impossible to detect without a deep-level genetic screening because they’re recessed. Until mating heat. No hybrid can hide once mating heat begins. In my case, I needed the mating hormone Mercury produces to kick-start my hybrid genetics.”
“You say that as though there are enough hybrids to detect the phenomena,” Kane suggested. “How many are there?”
Her look was cool, composed; only her eyes burned.
“I’m a hybrid, you know that now. How many there are, where they could be or why they’re hybrid is none of your business.”
Kane’s brows arched. “But you’re Leo’s granddaughter. That means Dane is your father.”
“Or Callan or Jonas or any number of Breeds who were created using his sperm or any child born of mating with the Breeds who were created from them. You’re asking the wrong person questions.”
“Is Dane your father?” Callan growled. “Because if he is, then someone should point out parental responsibilities to him. You were in a series of foster families. The Vanderales didn’t raise you. Leo and Dane both neglected your safety.”
She rose from the desk and collected the external drive attached to it. “You have seventy-two hours to play with this program and find your traitor, Pride Leader Lyons. After that, it’s gone. Don’t bother trying to copy it, I created it. Trust me, I know my job. You don’t have the time to figure it out.”
“She’s Dane’s daughter,” Jonas snapped. “Only he’s that damned arrogant.”
She simply smiled calmly, but Mercury knew what the others didn’t. There was nothing calm about her.
“I’d prefer
my status as hybrid remain a secret as long as possible. My Breed scent will become unmistakable before too much longer, but I’d prefer the true status of it remain between us,” she stated.
“She places a lot of trust in us,” Jonas growled.
“In you, Mr. Wyatt, I place about as much trust as I do in Dane. Both of you are going to end up strangling in your own webs one of these days.” She turned to Mercury. “Are we ready to leave?”
“More than.” He could feel the need pumping through him, adrenaline racing through his body, arousal tearing through his balls and hardening his cock further.
Every angle in her body was stiff with defiance. He could see it now, smell it. She had drunk her coffee against his advice. Caffiene only heightened mating-heat arousal. She had argued with Dane and pitted her wits against Kane and Callan’s questions. And the animal inside her had been drawn into the open, the heat of her arousal pulsing through her, refusing to allow its captivity by that incredible will of hers.
Her animal was stretching free, and he could feel it reaching for him.
The scratches on his back and shoulders made sense now. Only a female Breed scratched with such force. And the bite that throbbed on his shoulder. He should have known. The moment her teeth sank into his skin, he should have realized what he was dealing with.
He rose from his chair as she moved from behind the desk, her body sliding with sensual power; the new clothes, the female animal growing in power inside her, gave her a smooth, erotic glide that had him clenching his teeth at the covert looks she received from the other men.
There was no lust there. All were fully mated, with the exception of Jonas. But curiosity, awareness of her, was evident.
No wonder she had hid that inner core of herself for so long. One look at her now, and there was no mistaking the female animal lurking beneath her flesh.
“I should warn you, Alaiya is still lurking around,” Jonas stated.
