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tists’ tests weren’t advanced at that time, and they had no idea what they were dealing with where mating heat was concerned.”
“Ely’s testing can’t be trusted either.” Dane sighed. “I suspect she’s been comprised somehow. She’s currently restricted to her quarters, and according to the human, Jackal, she’s irate and suffering extreme agitation. I received a report from Ria, via Callan’s personal network, as she used the secured program to track those transmissions, that there’s a possibility Ely’s being drugged with something similar to the drug used on Mercury in those labs.” He named the medical designation of the drug and Elizabeth frowned.
“Undetectable by Breed senses until the subject has been well compromised,” she murmured before turning to Leo. “It’s a powerful mind-altering drug, especially where Breeds with certain weaknesses are concerned. I’ll need equipment. Put one of our American contacts on alert for my requirements. This has to end here, Leo. We can’t allow them to suffer like this. The right equipment, the knowledge I’ve gained . . .”
“Could destroy the Vanderale family, Mother,” Dane urged her gently. “Think about this carefully. If you place yourself at Sanctuary’s disposal, word is going to leak. Just as mating heat and the aging decrease has leaked.”
Elizabeth stared down at her sleeping daughters. She brushed the back of her fingers against the nearest child’s cheek before lifting her gaze to Leo.
“We’ve lost children,” she whispered. “What will we do, Leo, if David is lost, Callan’s child and heir? Callan is our son too. Not bred just from the semen the labs stole from you, but bred from both of us. Can we excuse ourselves, that our own safety was paramount?”
“If I must.” Dane’s father was harder, often more logical, and definitely less willing to take certain chances. But Dane knew what was coming anyway. “But in this, Elizabeth, I’m starting to agree with you. I don’t want Sanctuary to suffer as we did. Perhaps, if Callan and Jonas, Dane and I can hammer out some agreements while we’re here, then we’ll see how much more we can accomplish.”
“I want to be in Sanctuary first thing in the morning,” she told her husband and son. “The girls will go with us; the compound is more secure than the house, especially with our force protecting them.”
“Mother, Sanctuary is a time bomb right now,” Dane said and groaned.
“We were invited to attend the pre-Thanksgiving celebration,” Elizabeth reminded him. “What we do in private while visiting with the Lyons family is another matter.”
“And when Vanderale suddenly donates advanced medical and research equipment?” he asked her. “Journalists are going to go crazy.”
“There are ways to ensure silence,” Leo told him. “I’ll deal with this, Dane. You coordinate security and help Ria find out what the hell is going on here. I want this taken care of, then I want a team of our own Breeds in place. Permanently, Dane.”
Dane winced. “Jonas isn’t going to like that, Father.”
Leo grinned. All teeth, his amber brown eyes filling with amusement. “That young whelp. He’ll find out exactly how he came by those manipulative instincts of his. I’m not an old man, Dane, despite my age. I still know what the hell I’m doing here.”
That was true. Unfortunately, Callan and Sanctuary were becoming Leo’s weaknesses. And Elizabeth’s. Because Callan was one of the few children created using both their genetics. And he was a pride leader before his prime, just as Leo had been.
If Dane weren’t fully confident of his place within the hierarchy of his father’s pride, he might have been a shade jealous of his younger brother. Instead, he was very much worried. Unlike Dane, Callan hadn’t yet realized, not clear to the bone, exactly how deceptive other Breeds could be. Especially traitors.
“The Leo has landed,” Ria said softly as she pulled the small, slender sat phone she carried at her hip free of its holster and read the coded message. “He’ll be at Sanctuary in the morning.”
As would Elizabeth. Ria forced herself to remain relaxed, calm, as the limo pulled into the lane that led to the cabin. Tomorrow, tests would begin being given by someone she knew she could trust. Elizabeth knew more about mating heat and Breed physiology than any other scientist could possibly understand. She had lived through the mating, the various phases of heat, the conception and birth of two sets of twins and Dane. She had tested herself, experimented on herself, and when Leo began forming his own personal army to rescue the children he knew were being created with his sperm and the eggs stolen from Elizabeth before their escape from the labs, she’d had other Breeds and other mates to compare her findings to.
And now she would have her granddaughter to test. Her granddaughter and the rabid little female cat determined to steal the mate Ria had taken.
Ria stared at the back of the tinted glass as the limo drew to a stop in front of the cabin. The two Breeds from the front left vehicle approached the cabin and went through it for a security check before Ria and Mercury entered.
Did they know? she wondered. Lawe and Rule were exceptionally perceptive for Breeds, and they had Jonas’s trust. Did they know what she was? She had no doubt they were aware by now that she was a Breed. It was becoming impossible to keep that animal contained. Before Mercury, it hadn’t been a problem. Before the mating, she’d had no concerns that it could ever slip free, because her control was too ingrained.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked the question quietly as they waited for Lawe and Rule.
Ria stared into the forest, with its covering of snow, and the predators that were making their presence known. The lions seemed to follow Mercury. She had seen that in Africa, on the estate Leo had built deep within the Congo. There, were some Breeds, those like Mercury, who could control the fierce, wild creatures.
“I told someone once,” she finally said quietly. “My first lover. A month later, Dane had to kill him. He was trying to find the Council, to connect with them and to sell me to them.”
Dane had shown no mercy. The moment he learned what was going on, he had arrived at her new apartment, torn her lover from her bed and ordered Ria to the car. They had flown to the Congo. Twenty-four hours later she had watched as Dane put a bullet in her lover’s brain. He was twenty. And she had thought she loved him.
She pushed her fingers through her loose hair, aware of his hand settling over her thigh, comforting, warm. She shook her head and refused to look at him.
“The Vanderales didn’t raise you themselves?”
She shook her head. “They oversaw me, though. Dane was always about when I needed him. But they couldn’t risk the questions it would raise if they took in an orphan and raised her. Especially an orphan tied to the victim of a violent act. My mother was in a vehicular accident with several other cars, but what no one knew was that she crashed the vehicle herself. She killed herself, the Coyote Breed that had taken her hostage and the occupants of two other cars, to protect the Vanderale secrets. Once the Vanderales learned about me, they were afraid the Coyote might have already reported his findings to the Council, and that I would be compromised as well. They protected me, but they protected themselves as well.”
“Dane’s your father?” he asked.
“No. Dane’s my biological uncle. My mother was a Breed that Leo and his force rescued. She was created using the genetics stolen from the Leo and Elizabeth. I’m their natural granddaughter. My parents disappeared from Leo after their mating. When my father died, she returned, but never told them about me.”
