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right lied to the Breeds, but the hint of deception was always there.
“This has nothing to do with me.” Liza clenched her teeth over the words, the anger and hurt clearly sensed by all the Breeds there.
Especially by Stygian.
“You, Claire and Chelsea now have everything to do with this, Liza.” Terran breathed out roughly, accepting the truth himself when before, he had fought it. “I’m sorry. If there was something I could do to stop this—”
She gave a hard shake of her head, obviously refusing to argue with Terran for some reason. “I understand.”
But did she?
Stygian could see her face, her eyes.
Understanding wasn’t there.
But neither was resentment. At least, not toward Terran.
“If we had the information we needed, if we had the genetic profiles in the database that matched Gideon’s, then we could find him. Find him, and we’ll find the others,” Stygian informed her. “Find them all, Liza, and this all goes away.”
The scent of Terran’s anger was unmistakable, just as the scent of Liza’s rejection of the solution swirled through the room. The energy tightened his chest.
She agreed with Terran’s decision.
Son of a bitch. She was agreeing to give in, to end this fight for her independence rather than see the Navajo open that Genetic Database to the Breeds. What the hell did those records hold that caused the Navajo to be so frightened?
He hadn’t met a single member of the Navajo Council or citizen of Window Rock who didn’t feel the same way. Every member in a position to aid the Breeds’ cause would die before giving up the information. Even for a cause as worthy as Amber’s.
“We have a message out to every member who has donated to the Genetic Database,” Terran stated roughly, “requesting any member willing to release their genetic information come forward. None have. Until the Breed in question makes that request, the database cannot be opened to match the profile.”
And only the requesting Breed could receive the information.
They could have made the idea work if they had known of a single Breed born of Gideon’s dam. Unfortunately, to their knowledge, those littermates had all been destroyed long ago.
The suspicion that Gideon would take refuge with blood relations was high. He would know the Breeds would encounter a roadblock in tracking him through bloodlines, just as Gideon would know Jonas would use every means possible to do just that.
Liza’s lips parted in an irate, feminine grimace that was uniquely charming and yet filled with such emotional distress that it was all Stygian could do to hold back a snarl of fury.
Now he knew exactly why Breeds were so damned irritable when their mates were.
“I want to go home.” She inhaled wearily, and suddenly, Stygian could feel the exhaustion pulling at her.
Weariness and uncertainty and a sense of defeat.
Because she knew she couldn’t go home. She knew the place she had called home would be denied to her until Honor, Fawn, Judd and Gideon were together.
The weariness and uncertainty he could understand. He could even allow it. The defeat was another thing entirely.
“Not tonight. The damage to the house hasn’t been repaired yet, and we’re still trying to track down a few leads concerning the two Breeds Claire killed. A room has been reserved here for you. You can return to the house when it’s safe again,” Stygian assured her, his fists clenching at his sides with the need to go to her.
That need was a hunger that raged and tore at his guts, yet he could sense the knowledge that doing so right now would do more harm than good. Liza didn’t want his strength at the moment, she needed her own. And she would never be certain she had done all she could to escape the obstacles fate had placed in her path at the moment.
“He’s right, Liza.” Terran turned to her as Stygian watched her lips part and the gleam of battle enter her gaze. “Let us get the windows repaired and get some additional security to the house. Then we’ll rethink the matter.”
Once again, she bowed down to Terran’s request when she was ready and eager to fight Stygian’s.
His back teeth clenched to the point that he was amazed his teeth didn’t shatter with the pressure.
“What will it really matter, Terran?” Liza asked then, the bitter disillusionment in her gaze beginning to bother Stygian in ways he couldn’t explain, even to himself. “The only difference between the Genetics Council and the Breeds is the manner in which they manage to extract the information from their victims.” She turned back to Jonas then. “It doesn’t matter how they hurt me, how they torture me or how much of it they make my father watch. There’s no way he can access that information, Mr. Wyatt. There’s no way I can access it.”
