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Ria pushed her hands into the back pockets of the snug pants. “I did once.” She lifted her eyes back to her grandmother.
“Is that what you believe we thought?” Elizabeth asked her. “No, dear, Jason betrayed you. You were a child, and we were so worried about protecting you, about making certain the pride as a whole was protected, that we didn’t make allowances for your need for family. Which all Breeds have, you know.”
Elizabeth was excusing her actions, and Ria had expected it of her. They had always excused them. She was young. She hadn’t understood. They had tried to make her guilt over the choice she made easier.
“Dane would have killed him anyway, Ria,” Elizabeth said softly, guessing the turn of her thoughts. “He was offering not to do it where you could see; he wasn’t offering not to pull the trigger. When Jason attempted to gain money by betraying you to the Council, he signed his death warrant. There was no way Dane would have allowed him to live.”
“Jason wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t told him.”
“And he wouldn’t have died if he’d had an ounce of humanity in him,” Mercury snarled as he stepped around the curtain and glared at her. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Elizabeth’s brow arched as Ria felt her teeth snap together.
“I’ll let you know the test results when I have them,” Elizabeth promised. “I took Alaiya’s earlier, performed the examination.”
Ria’s head jerked back to her grandmother.
Elizabeth’s expression was compassionate. “She’s showing signs of mating heat, Ria. But that doesn’t mean anything. It merely means she’s been in contact with her mate.”
“She kissed Mercury.”
Elizabeth’s gaze turned to him, almost accusatory.
“It was no more than a press of lips,” he snapped. “Do you think I’d risk my mate by chancing another woman having that part of me?”
Elizabeth frowned. “In every mating I’ve researched, for heat to begin, there has to be an exchange of the hormone in some way and it has to be compatible.”
“Trust me, there was no exchange,” Mercury growled. “Except with Ria.”
“An interesting mystery then.” Elizabeth turned back to where the vials and samples waited on the lab counter, next to the equipment that had arrived that morning and been put in place. “Go on then. I’ll get things started here before Leo brings the twins to me. We should know something soon.”
“Don’t forget the party tonight,” Ria reminded her. “Dane has already ordered my attendance.”
“I’ll be there.” Elizabeth nodded, though she didn’t turn away from her samples. “Go on now, and we’ll talk later.”
The party wasn’t one Ria was looking forward to. The pre-Thanksgiving buffet and ball had Sanctuary in an uproar already. Leo was stalking the upstairs halls, as were a dozen members of his security force, as they protected the twins and other Breed children confined there for the day. No one was allowed upstairs without authorization, including Breeds, whether they were enforcers or guests.
The room Ria and Mercury had been assigned was on the basement level, on the other side of the labs. Her dress and accessories waited there; the hairdresser assigned to Merinus and the other female mates of the ruling family would be attending her as well.
It was a mess. This was why she didn’t do parties, she told herself as they moved up the stairs that led to the first floor of the mansion. In her alternate persona, she didn’t have to go through this. She didn’t have to worry about dressing her hair, making up her face, smiling at all the surprised looks or dealing with the false friendliness.
Not that she felt that way about the ruling family. But this party was for the Breeds’ benefactors—corporate CEOs, senators and political figures, billionaires and groupies. And all eyes would be on her because most of them knew the plain paper pusher, not the woman they would see tonight.
“I could help provide security for the party,” she told Mercury as they stepped into the long hallway. “We could just find a dark corner and make out.”
“You’re not providing security. The dark corner is an option.” She heard the smile in his voice. “And I’m not working security tonight, at least not in uniform. I’ll be attending as a representative of the Breed Enforcers and one of Jonas’s assistants. He palms off on me the fat, balding little guys who want to hear war stories.”
She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes. “And you deal with this how?”
“I usually growl, flash the canines and watch them run for cover,” he chuckled. “Even Jonas thinks it’s funny.”
“Jonas would.”
She could feel her palms sweating. Engalls and Brandenmore would be at this party. It was obvious they hadn’t gained what they were after at the last one. They had procured this invitation as they had the other, by pulling immeasurable strings at the last moment.
As they turned the hall corner, another door opened farther ahead, and Alaiya stepped from Jonas’s office. Her cheeks were flushed in anger, her expression twisted with it, as she glared back at Ria.
“Hello again,” Ria muttered.
