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“It’s part of his genetics,” he stated then, the amusement of moments before easing away. “Where the combinations of genetic material used to alter the sperm and ova that created me shifted to advanced biology and genetic engineering, Jonas’s was deliberately programmed to create a Breed with the ability to lead many, with a demeanor to ensure their loyalty. That of a father. Unfortunately for the scientists, the twist in those genetics created a calculating and domineering personality that often can’t see the trees for the forest.”
“He gets lost in the bigger picture.” She nodded, turning back to the house.
“Cat.” Firm, gentle fingers gripped her arm before she took that first step. “Will you run from me?”
The wary somberness in his tone had her frowning as she turned back to stare up at him.
For once, he wasn’t hiding from her.
Cat swallowed tightly, her heart beginning to beat heavier as her breath caught in her breast.
“What?”
Reaching up, his fingertips caressed slowly along the line of her jaw.
“Graeme . . .”
“You’ve always been mine,” he whispered, his voice a breath of sound. “You believe I deserted you, that I left you undefended. I was at your back until the night the Unknown took you from that hotel while I kept Council soldiers at bay. I was half-mad, still healing, the need to ensure your safety like a sickness inside me. I lost you that night, when they took you to Orrin. I searched for months and couldn’t find you. I believed you were safe and I left to finish what had to be done to ensure your safety. But I didn’t desert you. I couldn’t desert you, you were all that made my life worthy. Not my experiment, Cat. You were and are, the reason for my existence. And nothing but you mattered. Nothing but you has mattered since the day Bra
ndenmore laid a four-day-old infant in the arms of an eleven-year-old creature spiraling into a long, dark tunnel filled with abject insanity. You saved me. You have always saved me.”
Who was this Breed?
It was Graeme, she knew it was, but the Graeme she knew would have never opened himself so completely to her or to anyone else.
“Graeme . . .”
“If I lose you, my sanity will be lost forever,” he whispered, his head lowering to her lips, brushing against them, caressing them with such tenderness, such hunger, that a cry nearly escaped her. “You are my sanity, Cat. From that first moment you looked up at me with a newborn’s trust until I take my last breath. You are my sanity.”
• CHAPTER 17 •
Was he simply telling her what she wanted to hear?
Staring up at him, Cat remembered how easily he once manipulated the soldiers, scientists and techs in those labs.
The same ones he’d killed before escaping when they’d retaken him.
He had a way of looking inside a person, knowing their greatest desire and making them believe they could acquire it. That only with his help could they acquire it.
And he knew her. He knew her so well.
She had no doubt he’d quickly learned exactly what she ached for, what she’d needed most from him in the years she’d spent away from him. It wouldn’t be all that hard to figure out. She’d idolized him as a child, weaved fantasies of how they would escape and travel the world. Then she’d shared them with him. When her pain had been so great she’d begged to die, he’d reshared those fantasies with her and added to them. He’d painted pictures of great adventures and how she would never be alone. Because he’d always be a part of her life.
But he hadn’t been.
He’d left her alone with nothing but those fantasies and a love for him that had continued to grow despite her bitterness and the losses she’d faced. A love that had grown as she had grown, and as she had grown, it had only entrenched itself deeper inside her.
But that didn’t mean she had to reveal it to him. It didn’t mean he’d realized it existed. That part of herself she kept hidden in the deepest reaches of her soul. In a place that never saw the light of day, and rarely saw her own realizations.
“I know I’ve always been important to you, Graeme,” she whispered, her heart beating with a heavy, sluggish pace as that emotion threatened to escape and swamp her. “You made me yours when you made me your experiment . . .”
Fury burned in his eyes as a sharp, commanding growl silenced her. Some commands she could ignore. That one, even she hesitated to ignore.
“That is not all you are to me now or then,” he snarled, the abrupt shift from gentleness to frustration threatening to give her mental whiplash.
A vicious growl rumbled in his chest as he turned from her, raking both hands through his hair before whirling back to her just as quickly.
“You think what I feel, my dedication to you and to your safety, has been because of that fucking research?” The fury pulsing in his tone had her brow lifting, one hand moving to her hip and her eyes narrowing as she watched him.
