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Feral displacement had once nearly driven Mercury insane. The death of the young Lioness he could have mated, likely cared for, had triggered a surge of such violent adrenaline in his body that he’d had to be confined in a special cell in the labs until a drug could be created to control him.
Kane shook his head. “I don’t believe that. I saw those videos of Merc from years back the same as you did, Callan. What Mercury is going through now isn’t some kind of bullshit feral fever.”
“She’s doing initial tests now on that last vial of blood. She thinks he’s beginning to lose control.”
Kane had seen the security videotape. What he saw concerned him, made him wonder what the hell was going on, but it hadn’t made him worry about Merc’s sanity. Evidently, Callan felt the same or they would be sending enforcers after Mercury now. But Ely didn’t make determinations without evidence either.
“I didn’t see anything to indicate force.” He propped his hands on his hips and stared at the entrance to Sanctuary, grimacing at the chanting of voices from the other side of the iron gates.
Protestors, again. They’d been amassing over the past weeks, no doubt drawn by more horror stories in those rags about human sacrifices. Shaking his head, he turned back to the pride leader and watched Callan curiously.
“What proof do we have that he mated to that Breed girl that died?” He headed up the steps as he asked the question. “Could we be looking at another anomaly in mating heat?”
“Ely says no. The mating hormone was detected in him in those labs, just as the feral fever was detected,” Callan told him. “The mating hormone was recorded in him from the tests for weeks before she was killed. Mixing with it was the unknown hormone they couldn’t explain. It seemed to mix with his blood, like adrenaline, or perhaps with the adrenaline during moments of stress, anger or danger. It was present after several missions as well. The day he learned the girl had been killed, he went feral. Hell, Kane, he punched his hand through a Coyote’s chest and tore out his heart. Even for a Breed, that’s not normal.”
Kane remembered those videos as well.
“They were smug about the death. The trainer was laughing and the scientist was less than sympathetic over the loss. Would either of us have done anything differently at the loss of someone we cared for?”
Callan glanced back at him as they moved through the mansion. “After restraining him, the scientist had the foresight to extract blood immediately. The adrenaline was so spiked with the unknown hormone that they decided it was some sort of fever. They used him to research it, then developed a drug therapy to control it.”
“A super downer,” Kane grunted.
“A drug perfected to control that particular hormone. They were still testing it when the rescues took place. He was slowly taken off the drug therapy after the rescues, but there was never a change in his control, until now,” Callan sighed as they entered his office. “And I have to agree with Ely, he’s not acting like himself. Mercury has never shown anger toward anyone in Sanctuary before.”
“Until someone accused him of attempting to rape a woman? Perhaps his woman?”
Callan rubbed one hand over his face as he collapsed in his chair and breathed out roughly. “Until now. And Ely doesn’t seem to know what the hell is going on.”
That one Kane very much doubted, and as he stared back at Callan, he knew his brother-in-law felt the same.
They had fought this fight for eleven years now. The battle to preserve the Breeds’ freedom and hold on to their secrets until they understood them themselves. The battle to protect their people, and their children.
Kane thought of his son, not much younger than Callan’s, and felt the same concern he knew ran through the other man’s mind. They couldn’t afford Mercury’s loss of control. He was the Breed that frightened little children on the street for God’s sake. The savage features of the animal stamped on the face of the man.
“What now?” he breathed out heavily.
“Pull Lawe away from the cabin and find Mercury. I’ll call Jonas back from D.C. Merc is one of his enforcers; maybe he can help us figure out what the hell is going on here. And how to control it.”
“And the woman?” Kane asked. “Can we afford to piss her off any further than we have already?”
Callan’s lips twisted thoughtfully at the question. “We need to convince her to let Ely take those samples, but after she stole that blood from Merc, Ms. Rodriquez isn’t going to allow Ely within touching distance of her.” He stroked the side of his jaw in contemplation. “And I swear, that video looked more like a Breed in mating heat than one experiencing feral displacement.”
“He stood between her and us until he stomped out of the house,” Kane pointed out. “He was protective and angry. And I can’t blame him for the anger.”
“He lost control after the episode in the lab.” Callan’s voice was tight now, hard. “And that isn’t acceptable. He’s a Breed. We were bred to have control over that part of ourselves and he’s lost it. That I can’t tolerate. Have Lawe find him and get him back to Sanctuary. Let’s see if we can’t talk to him and convince him to resume the tests.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Kane had a feeling he wouldn’t.
Callan shook his head wearily. “Hell, I don’t even want to consider that option, Kane, and neither do you.”
CHAPTER 7
Ely handed the vials to Charles Fayden, her lab assistant, with a vague smile at his murmured offer to replace them for her. He was one of the few Breeds allowed to assist in the mating tests, and he was showing quite an aptitude for them.
She inserted a sample of the last vial of blood she had taken from Mercury into the test vial, sealed it and placed it into the machine Vanderale had helped her to acquire.
She waited impatiently while the individual hormones were separated, then extracted the sample and placed it in the computer analyzer. The answers that came up didn’t bring her any comfort.
