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The genetic abnormality she had been born with would have killed her within days. She’d been missing a gene vital to hormonal and immunity development. One he’d been able to replace with the Bengal Breed genetics.
By the time she was eight, he’d known that getting her out of the research center was imperative. Like Judd’s, her development would progress in ways science, as it stood, would never be able to understand.
He’d planned everything with such precise detail. Everything but the bullets ricocheting off a boulder and slamming into his chest, thigh and abdomen. He hadn’t planned for that, nor had he planned for the transfusion forced on him.
His Breed instincts had been unable to process the strength of the forced bond that began snapping into place. And he’d known Cat as he knew no other. The only way to force her away from him was to make her hate him.
There had been so much left to do to ensure her safety.
Then fate had stepped in once again and the Genetics Council soldiers had recaptured him and returned him to the research center.
Forcing back those memories, he glared beyond the opened doors, forcing back the volatile rage that filled him whenever he allowed himself to revisit that particular hell.
Cat shifted next to him, rolling to her side before sitting up on the edge of the bed.
Frowning, he watched as she rose from the bed, dragging the sheet along with her and wrapping it around her nakedness almost protectively. Inhaling slowly, he felt his Breed senses suddenly rioting, the insanity that was never more than a breath away blinking awake in sudden, furious awareness.
Graeme was out of the bed instantly, striding to her as she reached the balcony doors. Gripping her shoulders and turning her to him, he stared into eyes filled with bleak bitterness as he realized the scent of his mate was no longer present.
This wasn’t his mate.
“Claire?” Where had she come from? He hadn’t scented her in months, had begun to suspect she no longer existed.
She existed, though.
Cat’s scent was so subtle, so diluted by the awareness of the protective spirit that existed within her, that she almost wasn’t there.
“Aren’t you so handsome,” she said wistfully, staring up at him with a curiosity so lacking in anything sexual that he could only ache for the life she’d never had. “But I knew from Cat’s memories of you that you would be. She’s very lucky.”
“Why are you here?” The deepening of his voice, the rage building in his senses, was the only warning he ever had of the monster he could become beginning to make itself known.
Somehow, she sensed that creature and the threat it could be.
“Don’t hurt me.” Fear flashed across her face. “Please. I’m here for Cat, I promise.”
The stripes were beginning to shadow his face, his neck.
Releasing her abruptly, Graeme stalked to the other side of the room, desperate now to push back that part of him that could rise with merciless intent to destroy anything, anyone, that stood between him and Cat.
He wouldn’t last long. His instincts were rioting and yet he knew that releasing that rage would terrify this timid shadow of a child that should have been allowed to pass when her body could no longer sustain life.
The stripes eased away. The grip on his control became firmer before he turned back to her.
“Cat’s mine.” He fought to keep his voice gentle, unthreatening. “She has to return.”
“She’s only asleep.” The scent of Claire’s fear was like a cloak surrounding her. “She doesn’t know I’m here. She can’t know. Promise me. I swear, I’m here for her.”
A sharp nod was all he managed. At the moment his voice would terrify her.
“I had to warn you,” she whispered, still holding the sheet to her. “I just wanted to see the night for a moment first.” She glanced toward the balcony doors, the haunting sadness that was so much a part of her doing little to ease the instinctive need to force her back into hiding.
When he didn’t speak, she gave a small sigh before meeting his gaze warily. “Breeds can smell a lie. I wouldn’t lie to you. I’ll just be here for a few moments. Is that really so bad? I just wanted to see the night before warning you . . .” She frowned, obviously fighting to choose her words.
“What’s Cat up to?” He knew his Cat, and he had sensed her secrets. He was willing to wait, to gain her trust, but he had to do whatever it took to satisfy the young woman who had protected Cat for more than a decade. If she didn’t leave quickly they would both regret it.
“If I betray her, then I’ll be like everyone else, in her eyes,” she said softly. “I can’t tell you her secrets, but she’s taught me there are other ways to say what must be said.”
“Say it, child.” He forced back the guttural tone filled with rage long enough to warn her that she didn’t have much time.
