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“Will she survive, Elizabeth?” Ria asked as her grandmother moved to her, Leo close on her heels, as he always was.
“If she’s strong enough, Ria. If she’s strong enough.”
Elizabeth patted her arm and moved past her, Leo’s arm wrapping around his wife to pull her close to his side as they followed Callan and Merinus.
Seconds later, Horace Engalls, his wife and Phillip Brandenmore were escorted from the ballroom under enforcer guard, their expressions both furious and terrified.
It was over, Ria thought. As Mercury turned her to the doors and they moved to leave the party, she let herself believe it was finally over.
“We have about eight hours,” Mercury growled at her ear as they entered the limo and the enforcer assigned to the car whisked them from the ball that had nearly turn
ed into a blood-bath. “Do you think that’s enough time?”
He lifted her to his lap, bent his head to her lips and licked her, with heat, with gentleness.
“I won’t let you go,” she whispered. “I can’t.”
He touched her hair, her face. “Do you think I want to be free, Ria?”
“What if she’s your mate? What if the first tests were right, and she was meant to be your mate?”
He shook his head. “She’s not my mate, Ria. Ever. She never was. I’m holding my mate right here, in my arms.”
“I love you, Mercury,” she whispered on a soft, almost hidden sob. “I love you too much.”
“Never too much, sweet Ria Never too much.”
The animal didn’t prowl. It didn’t crouch and glare. It sighed in contentment, watched its mate through the man’s eyes, feeling the animal that reached out to him from the woman as well.
The animal in the man purred, ignoring the man’s surprise as the sound rumbled in his chest. But the woman purred right back, and she laughed with a hint of tears.
Behind her eyes, within the unconscious depths of her being, the mate of the animal in the man stared back at it.
They were animals contained. Hidden parts of the man and woman that were no longer forced to silence. Genetics, yes. They were a part of them, the spirits the man and woman contained, no longer separate, but connected fully. And mated.
Animal to animal. Man to woman.
And as the man carried his mate into their lair, laid her gently on their bed and completed the union their bodies needed, the animals connected.
They were as they were always meant to be. Soul to soul. Heart to heart. Pulsing and alive. They were Breeds, and they were proud.
TWO DAYS LATER
The lab was cool to protect sensitive equipment that didn’t require the warmth Ria did. She sat on the gurney, forcing herself to relax as Mercury leaned against the wall and watched her silently.
Alaiya had demanded that the mating tests be completed quickly, mostly because her tenure in the Bureau of Breed Affairs was being reconsidered. She knew she was on her way out. Not out of Sanctuary perhaps, but out of the upper levels of Breed hierarchy. She had ignored her commander’s orders. Defied him. And she had lost control of herself during that last confrontation with Ria.
Breed Enforcers had to always maintain control, until the full phase of mating heat was established. Hers hadn’t been established.
“You’re mates.” Elizabeth stepped from the office she was using while overseeing Ely’s duties at Sanctuary.
Elizabeth Vanderale was in her element here. Working with Breeds, adding to her knowledge and experience as well as Ely’s.
“And Alaiya?” Ria knew she was Mercury’s mate, there was no doubt in her mind, and she had no intention of releasing him. No matter the outcome of these tests.
“Well, she’s definitely mated someone, but hers doesn’t match the heat in your and Mercury’s systems.” She frowned, shaking her head. “Someone altered the tests Ely had done. They’ve been altering them for months, in several Breeds she ran tests on. She didn’t catch it because the drug had already begun infecting her mind. Charles, one of her lab assistants, would tell her not to look for the anomalies, and she didn’t.”
The information had been easy to find over the past two days. Months’ worth of altered tests, coded transmissions and attempts to drug other Breeds.
