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“She’s gone,” she whispered then, feeling his arms surround her as he pulled her tighter against his chest. “Completely gone.”
His hand stroked over her hair as his lips pressed against her forehead. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.” And that sorrow was there in his voice.
Cat sat up slowly, feeling him follow her, the power he carried so effortlessly reaching out to her.
“What happened, Cat?” he finally asked as his arms pulled her to him once again, holding her close. “I felt you die.” The agony of that sensation filled his voice. “I felt it. How are you here now?”
Cat swallowed tightly before pushing away from him enough to turn to him, to allow him to hold her gaze. “I don’t know.” And she didn’t.
Frowning, she fought to remember more than the vague impressions she’d awakened with.
“I felt my spirit leave my body, but I wasn’t dead.” She shook her head, shaking her head tightly. “Claire didn’t want to go, she was certain it wasn’t time. It was like being half asleep, not certain if you’re dreaming or not, words didn’t penetrate wherever I went, just the certainty after a while that everything was going to be okay. When I woke, I was in a sweat lodge similar to the one where the first ritual was performed when I was twelve. Orrin and Terran were there, and Honor.” Her eyes widened. “Honor was there and it was just Honor. Liza wasn’t part of her any longer. Four of the Unknown helped us up and led us to another building, where we were given water and some kind of soup they said would help us regain our strength.”
“I don’t believe I can see Terran, Orrin or Lincoln without killing them,” he warned her gently. “Forgiveness will be a long time coming, Cat.”
“Orrin said you would feel that way.” She nodded, still fighting the fog that filled those memories. “I felt something else there, Graeme.” She stared back at him, that sense of knowledge so strong she grew frustrated with her inability to remember. “I don’t know what it was, but something else was there.”
“Cat, whatever it was, it will come to you once your senses have worked it out,” he promised her. “You’ve spent too many years with your Breed senses trapped in a way, unable to fully stretch out and learn to process information correctly that it will take time for them to strengthen. Once they do, those impressions will strengthen.”
Maybe he was right. Settling closer against his chest, one hand over his heart, she forced herself to let the inability to remember what had happened ease.
“There’s so many things to talk about, and so much I want to do,” she said then. “Honor’s parents will be facing Jonas and Rule, most likely today. But Honor was desperate to contact Stygian and then her parents.” The question of her own parents she held back, uncertain what to say.
“Helena and Kenneth are scheduled to arrive in Window Rock next week,” he told her, holding her in place when she would have turned to face him once again. “Dr. Foster has been in hiding as well since he left the research center, just before Bennett arrived. But he went to the Graymores, your parents, because they were familiar with him when you were born, and he’s explained what happened and why it was necessary to hide you. They’re very anxious to see the daughter they never forgot.”
Her parents. She was suddenly so frightened of seeing them that she instantly rejected a meeting so soon.
“We should wait . . .”
His arms tightened around her. “Cat, they love you. They will see nothing but beauty and light when they s
ee you, because it shines from you like an inner flame. Never doubt that.”
She doubted it, highly. But she knew Graeme. He’d made the meeting, it would take more than her objections to sway him now.
“Let them love you, Cat,” he whispered then, turning her to face him, staring at her with wild green eyes and such love it immediately warmed every part of her. “No one can love you as deeply as I do, nor belong to you in the ways I belong to you, but parents center a female, even I know that. It’s a center no man or mate can give to his woman when she’s loved by those who gave her birth. Let yourself get to know them, to love them. They’re good people, I promise you that.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I should have trusted you more . . .”
Two hard fingers pressed to her lips as a rakish grin tilted his lips. “That goes without saying. I’ll remind you of it in the future, I’m certain. Trust me now, Cat, you have nothing to fear in your parents. I promise you this. If you believe nothing else, believe in that.”
“I believe in you,” she whispered as his lips slid away and she let her lips touch his. “I always believed in you, G.” Even when she wouldn’t admit it to herself, she knew, she’d always believed in him, always loved him.
He was her G. Her love and her life. With him, all things were possible . . .
• EPILOGUE •
She had to remind herself of that, many times, a week later as she and Graeme flew into Window Rock, courtesy of the Bureau of Breed Affairs secured heli-jet.
Security was still a concern, as were the journalists as Raymond’s tribunal hearing neared and news had been leaked that his daughter Claire Martinez had actually died years before, and a Breed female had been given her identity in a desperate act to save the escaped feline female. The Bureau’s head of public relations had released the information along with Raymond’s crimes and his many threats against Cat over the years to reveal her identity, culminating in his attempt to torture her before turning her over to the Genetics Council’s Jackal team the night he was taken into custody.
The revelations had prompted a firestorm of media coverage and the renewed awareness of the atrocities still being inflicted on those Breeds rumored to still be held and experimented upon. The strengthened awareness of the Breed plight, weakened the arguments protesting groups waged against Breed freedoms and rights, with several new laws in Breed protections passing quickly by lawmakers eager to gain political points with what appeared to be a steadily growing movement still in favor of the mutated humans, as they were now being called.
The furor had been ignored by Cat in favor of Mating Heat and learning as much as possible about the parents she was about to meet.
Helena and Kenneth Graymore were strongly in favor of Breed awareness and rights. Kenneth, CEO and majority shareholder in a company deemed a family legacy spanning generations of Graymores, was not just a heavy contributor to the Breeds but also one of their biggest clients. The Breeds’ reputation for providing reliable, loyal protection and security personnel was unsurpassed and highly depended upon in the Graymore businesses.
Helena Graymore had stepped into fighting for the rights of Breed children and the Breed community’s refusal to subject the few offspring and living Breed children freed from the labs from further research or experiments labeled as evaluations. She’d recently taken her fight to Europe, where Breeds were denied visas to travel and forced to submit to “evaluations” periodically, which were rumored to be as invasive as the research done before they were freed from the labs.
