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“There isn’t enough of the mating hormone in Navarro’s saliva, blood or semen to have a base to begin testing a hormone therapy that will be effective. I’m sorry, Mica. I’ve never seen anything like this in all the years we’ve been testing for mates. It’s not the first anomaly, just the first one of its kind. This seems to be a year for Mother Nature to screw around with Breed hormonal reactions and mating heat.”
Not enough mating hormone?
Mica struggled to make sense of the words.
“So, Navarro isn’t a walking hard-on this morning,” she whispered.
Ely shook her head. “Yesterday, yes. The day before, definitely. But somewhere in the past twenty-four hours the emotion-based hormones that drive the mating heat seem to have begun disappearing from his system. They’ve become amplified within yours though, driven and made stronger by whatever emotions you keep bottled inside you.” Her gaze was somber. “I am so sorry, Mica, that it had to be you who seems to be proving my theories that the mating heat reacts in large part to the emotions, both conscious and subconscious, of the mates involved.”
“So Navarro has no emotions.” She felt blank inside. As though everything she knew about herself and the world had been stripped away from her overnight.
“I’m certain he has emotions,” Ely said, her voice soft. “But I know his creation, his training. He was trained to annihilate even a suspicion of any emotions beyond hatred. And he would have succeeded perhaps, if it weren’t for the fact Navarro wasn’t raised entirely at the labs. He was there during the rescues by choice, Mica. An attempt to save his brother and his brother’s mate before the scientists there learned of the mating. Navarro was taken from the labs by his grandparents.”
“Morton and Elsie Blaine.” Mica remembered them. She’d actually seen them from a distance a few times when they had come to Haven to see Navarro.
“Yes.” Ely nodded. “After the age of ten, he was raised by his grandparents. Unfortunately, he had a Counciltrained nanny. And that nanny was a monster, as was the butler the Council managed to get into the Blaine household. Navarro didn’t have a chance to develop the emotions that were bred out of him, Mica. The fact that he’s as compassionate as he is is surprising.”
The Blaines’ daughter had been kidnapped by the Council and used as a breeder. Navarro and Randal were a result of that union, but the Council refused to allow Morton and Elsie to buy Randal as they allowed them to buy his twin, Navarro. They had never seen their other grandson before he was killed during the rescues.
Randal had been their insurance against the Blaines striking back at them.
And Mica believed they would have. Morton Blaine might not have been able to destroy them, but with his financial empire and the powerful friends and favors he had gained over the years, he could have hurt them, if nothing else.
That, or destroyed all the Breeds by making sure the world learned of them in a more threatening light than had occurred with Callan Lyons announcing their presence.
“So, simply put, he realized he might be beginning to feel something for me, and destroyed it?” Mica asked with bitter sarcasm.
Ely nodded hesitantly as Mica felt her chest clench with the hurt that suddenly exploded inside her, which even she couldn’t hide.
She swore she saw Ely flinch as well as the emotion struck through Mica’s soul, rending it in half.
“So Navarro is no longer in mating heat?”
Once again Ely nodded. “All but the smallest traces of the hormone are gone from his system.”
Mica’s fists clenched around the edge of the thick pad beneath her as she fought the need to rock in agony.
A distant part of her couldn’t believe the horrendous pain welling inside her now. It was like a wildfire, sucking the life out of everything in its path.
“And that leaves me where?”
“A mate, without a mate,” Ely stated, her voice incredibly gentle, her brown eyes filled with pity.
She pitied her. Ely was watching her and feeling sorry for her, Mica thought.
She swallowed tightly. “Let’s get this over with then.” She had to force the words past numb lips as she realized she was nearly gasping for breath. “You need samples, right?”
“Blood, saliva and vaginal.” Ely clasped her hands in her lap. “You should be prepared, Mica, it may be very painful. And there’s nothing I can do to ease the pain. Most female mates seem to have a horrible physical reaction to even a female touch during the strongest phases of mating heat.”
Once again Mica nodded shortly, as Ely reached for the supplies in the small basket at the end of the gurney. “I’ll get the blood first, then we can do the rest.”
As Ely took the blood, Mica could feel no pain. There was a heavy layer of discomfort, a feeling of disgust and loathing each time Ely was forced to touch her, even through the latex gloves she wore, but the extreme physical discomfort was absent.
She was a mate without a mate.
“There.” Several minutes and four vials later, Ely pushed back from the bed. “Change into one of the gowns and we’ll get the rest of it finished as quickly as possible.”
Mica moved from the gurney, feeling the ache of loneliness and the loss of what she hadn’t even dared to hope for, but had fantasized of. Navarro’s love.
