The Man Within (Feline Breeds Book 2)

by Lora Leigh

“When she awakens,” he said softly. “I’ll come down then.”

  “Now, Taber. There may not be time when she awakens.” Merinus stepped forward then, her voice firm. “You go with Doc. I’ll sit here with Roni. Besides, she might need a more calming influence than you when she awakens.”

  Taber wanted to deny it, but he knew she was right. Roni didn’t need to face him when she first awoke. Hell, he was terrified of facing her. Of seeing the hatred and disgust she must surely feel for him now. How would he ever convince her how much she filled his heart when he had taken her as little more than an animal?

  As he left the room he was aware of Callan following him, sensed the strange discord in his leader, and sighed wearily.

  “Shoot me,” he muttered as they entered the lab on the basement floor of the mansion several minutes later.

  “What would be the point?” Callan asked, a thread of amusement coloring his deep voice. “I shoot you and there goes Roni’s mate. She may not thank me for that later.”

  Taber removed his shirt as the doctor indicated he should. He knew what was coming. Blood samples, saliva, semen and perspiration samples. The list went on and on and the very thought of them had his body tightening in distaste.

  “She might kill me herself when she sees me again,” he grunted, his anger building by the second. “I took her like an animal, Callan. I fucking drugged her, then raped her. Like an animal.”

  “Stop, Taber.” Callan shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest as his golden-brown eyes narrowed. “It wasn’t rape. I could smell her heat when you brought her into the house. And we both know the hormone doesn’t react unless you’re with your mate.”

  “She said ‘no’.” He shook his head, unable to stare his leader in the eye any longer. “She said ‘no’, Callan, and I ignored her.”

  Taber extended his arm for the doctor and his wicked needles as he avoided Callan’s gaze. Son of a bitch, this wasn’t how he had foreseen his first time with Roni. He had wanted—hell no, he had needed—to touch her gently, to ease her into the mating.

  “My studies indicate that the ferocity of the mating is mutual, Taber.” Doc Martin slid the needle into his arm with no more than a small prick. “Wait and see how she feels when she wakes up. The heat of lust often makes little sense when reality returns. Even if you aren’t a Breed.”

  “She can’t go back, Taber. You know that,” Callan told him softly. “Besides, we have other problems. From the minute that story hit the airwaves, movement began among the Council members and their known soldiers. Her home was set ablaze within the hour and there are indications that orders have gone out to take her, no matter what, before conception. She’s in more danger than Merinus ever was.”

  The Council. Rather than negotiating with Washington and trying to play fair, they should have slipped into the homes of the bastards running that little show and sliced their throats. They didn’t deserve the mercy that had been afforded them.

  In the past three months, since the discovery and rescue of nearly a hundred other Feline Breeds that Kane had located, the Council had waged a silent, deadly war against them. They hadn’t been neutralized as the government had promised they would be. They weren’t powerless as Kane had hoped would happen.

  In the past month alone, four of their liaisons to the government and military had been murdered. The last, a young female, had been returned to them in pieces, literally. And now Roni would be in even more danger. They needed her to understand the mating process that had been leaked to the media. Needed her to figure out the best way to control, or to destroy, the creations that had escaped them. Taber was determined that anyone who tried to take her would die.

  Taber’s lip lifted in a snarl. “Let them try, Callan. I won’t play nice this time.”

  Through the years they had tried to be merciful. They ran rather than killed, and they killed only when no other answer was available. They had gained more amusement, more satisfaction, in seeing the soldiers running back to base in disgrace rather than in pieces. But if one dared to touch Roni, then he swore there would be too many damned pieces for anyone to attempt to collect.

  “None of us will play nice in such an event,” Callan assured him. “But this worries me. The Council has lain low until now, with the report of the second known mate to the Felines, and suddenly they’re moving. It leaves me wondering what they’ve been planning while they were so silent.”

  Taber grunted. They had been waiting for the other shoe to drop for three months now, knowing that eventually the day would come when they had to face the monsters of their past without the public support they’d garnered. But moving now made no sense.

  “What do they want?” Taber shook his head. “No one has even tried to threaten Merinus since we came forward. Why now?”

  “Because Kane has every damned C.I.A. agent in the world swearing vengeance if his baby sister is touched, and he has the clout to back it.” Callan grunted. “The Tyler family name is protecting her, for now. I don’t know if it would hold the same weight for Roni, or even if this is the reason why the Council hasn’t moved yet. It’s too soon to tell. At the moment all we have are questions and supposition. I need more information to be certain of anything.”

  “Could be the hormones the female produces during heat,” the doctor spoke up as he stuck a swab between Taber’s lips and poked it under his tongue.

  Taber frowned down at the impatient doctor as a low growl vibrated from his chest.

  “Stop that.” Doc frowned back fiercely. “Remember who circumcised you. It could be castration next.”

  “You’d have to get the chance first,” Taber snapped, ignoring the doctor’s chuckle as he walked away with the saliva sample. “Is he getting grouchier or what?”

  Callan shook his head as he flashed Taber a laughing glance.

  “Get my jollies where I can, young ‘un,” Doc griped as he messed with the various vials and solutions on another table. “Now, go pee pee in the cup for the good doctor and get me some little soldiers while you’re at it, and then you can run along and play again.”

  Taber grimaced as he flashed the doctor a killing glance.

  “You’re getting damned strange in your old age, Doc,” he growled as he took the two small plastic containers from the doctor and stomped back to the bathroom at the end of the lab. “Hope you at least left my fucking magazines back here. A man needs more than your cackles to get the soldiers to move, ya know.”

  Chapter Ten

  He didn’t need the magazines and wasn’t bothered by the cackles. Taber’s libido was raging and all it took was the remembered feel of Roni, her sweet heat and the rippling contractions of her tight pussy, to bring his little soldiers spilling into the container as the doctor requested.

  He returned to the lab a short time after leaving it, placing the capped containers on the table before turning back to Callan.

  “What else do I have to look forward to?” he grunted. “First, I lose control with my mate, now I’m in Frankenstein’s lab jacking off. Are we having fun yet?”

  Callan chuckled, though Doc Martin only grunted with the absent-minded attention of a man thoroughly engrossed in whatever the microscope was telling him.

  “Come on,” Callan sighed. “I have the reports in the office upstairs. From the look of things, it appears as if we have several orders going out, though we haven’t busted that code completely yet. Our informants are nervous as hell and money has started shifting around in select accounts again. Kane has his sources working overtime, as well as the brothers, but it could be days before we know what the hell is going on.”

  The story of their lives, Taber thought, grimacing in disgust. The past three months had felt like years. The progress they made by revealing themselves to a sympathetic society was marked by each hurdle the Council placed before them. Even more alarming was the rise of several groups spouting a “pure blood” agenda. Breeds weren’t human, they had stated. Their animal DNA prohibited them
from any human rights to which they would have otherwise been entitled. The bastards were fanatical monsters and growing in number daily.

  “We have the perimeter fences wired for sound and ready to record,” Taber told him as they quickly took the stairs to the second floor. “The animals were released last week and they’re working out wonderfully. Just make certain to keep Merinus in the protected areas until we know how well Cabal’s connection with them is working.”

  Cabal was an enigma and often a worry. He was the only Breed so far to show a natural connection with the predatory felines that Cabal’s DNA came from. There was currently a Bengal tiger, a lion and two cougars now guarding the woods. All female. All under the control of Cabal St. Laurens.

  “So far, they’re as tame as kittens,” Callan grunted as they entered the office.

  “But I’m keeping an eye on things. Kane and Gray are moving into the house tonight to provide added protection for Merinus, and we have most of our people back within the perimeters until we figure out what the hell is going on.”

  What the hell was going on?

  “Why would they need a mate before conception?” Taber frowned as he picked up several of the reports they had and began reading. “There has to be something they’re looking for.”

  “I’m going to assume, as does Doc, that it has something to do with the hormones that mark them genetically during the heat,” Callan replied. “It produces the pheromone that instinctively warns off all other men, including those who aren’t Breeds. Combine that with the aphrodisiac qualities and it’s damned hard telling what those bastards have up their sleeves.”

  “Anything from the Wolf Breeds?” Taber asked, frowning down at the papers.

  The solitary, wary group of Wolf Breeds had made contact less than two months before. It had been assumed they had died in the lab explosions during the attempted rescue, though Taber had suspected otherwise. The Felines had laid the groundwork for contact immediately upon learning of them and had made certain everything would be in place to help them should they need it.

  “Their liaison, Faith, is in place to begin meetings. They’re wary, though, even more so than we were at first. They’re working with the ambassador the President assigned to the Breeds, so I’m confident that will work out well. We also have some industrialist out of South Africa poking his nose into things, making some damned good offers of help. Hopefully, he’s serious. In the meantime, though, we have the fucking Council to deal with, and that’s always interesting. So, no, we’re not having fun yet.”

  Taber cursed silently. The Council had gotten smart fast. They changed their codes and passwords often enough to drive Kane and his men crazy trying to work them out.

  Soldiers were being shifted around constantly. Some were no more than distractions, while others regularly threw whatever wrench they could into the diplomatic efforts between the Breeds and the government protecting them.

  “We can’t stay on high alert forever,” Taber sighed, shaking his head. “The men will get too complacent when nothing happens.”

  “Yet, we can’t give them a chance to strike, either,” Callan sighed. “Kane should be here tonight. We’ll figure out our best course of action and go from there. But from the looks of these reports, Roni is our main concern. Now, how much of a danger will she be personally?” Callan’s voice hardened as he asked this question.

  Taber laid the papers back on the desk and turned to face the man he called his brother. He knew what Callan was asking. Given her father’s history of illegal and less than savory business dealings, it only made sense to question the daughter’s loyalty as well. At least, in most cases. But if there was one thing Taber knew about Roni, it was the fact that she was nothing like her father.

  “No more than Merinus would be.” There was no question of Roni’s loyalty, just her love. “You’ve known her as long as I have, Callan. She’s never betrayed a friend or a trust. But she’s scared, and will most likely be out for my blood when she wakes up. I can’t think she would be a danger to anyone but me.”

  Callan nodded. “Pretty much what I thought, too, but we have to be certain. Whatever you think you did to her, fix it. Trust me, an irate mate is more than you want to deal with.”

  The expression on his face was so self-mocking Taber couldn’t help but laugh. He knew exactly how Callan suffered when he managed to get on the wrong side of his feisty little wife. She had a mouth that could castrate a man at twenty paces, and if that wasn’t effective, then he slept in one of the spare bedrooms until she got over her ire.

  “I’ll have to tell her about her house,” he sighed.

  With her home destroyed, Taber knew she had nothing else now to hold onto from her childhood or her past. It would all be gone, destroyed in a cruel, merciless act against a woman innocent of the crimes the Council laid at the Breeds’ feet. But she was a mate. Any way they could hurt her, would hurt them.

  “You take care of Roni, I’ll take care of the rest of it.” Callan pushed his fingers wearily through his hair. “We’ll need to make plans to begin building cabins within the estate, though. If we don’t, this house could end up filling fast with the pitter patter of little feet.”

  He didn’t sound upset over it, merely worried.

  “The children will be in more danger than we were, Callan,” Taber told him softly. “Doc needs to figure out how to control this before it’s out of hand.”

  “Merinus went out of heat when she conceived.” Callan shook his head. “She hasn’t suffered from it since, though my DNA still marks her.” He sounded haunted. “She still carries it.”

  They weren’t entirely certain how that happened, but Merinus still carried traces of Callan’s unique DNA in her blood. It hadn’t changed her body, hadn’t reshaped her genetics in any way. Rather, it had marked her blood, her saliva, even her perspiration, with traces of the same hormonal variances that Callan carried.

  He should have stayed away from Roni, Taber thought tiredly as he glimpsed the shadows in Callan’s eyes. They worried constantly that somehow, some way, the Council would manage to get their hands on Merinus and her unborn child. During high alert times Callan rarely slept and would re-check their security on the hour—damned near every hour.

  “I can’t let her go,” Taber whispered. He only wished he could.

  “I know.” Callan wiped his hands over his faced wearily. “I know exactly how you feel.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Roni came awake, bathed in perspiration, her flesh feeling irritated and achy.

  Her breasts were swollen, her nipples throbbing. Between her thighs her pussy clenched, wept, as she remembered the hard driving thrusts of Taber’s cock inside the narrow channel.

  It hadn’t been the romantic interlude she had always fantasized about. There had been no candlelight, no Taber on his knees begging for forgiveness. Instead, there had been blistering heat, intensity, and some unnamed desperation clawing between both of them that refused to be ignored. The orgasm that ended it had blown all her preconceived notions of what an orgasm could be right out the window. Now, if she could just get him to do it again.

  She would have to find him first, though. She looked around the room. Night must have finally fallen. The room was dimmer than before, lit only by the soft glow of the lamp beside the bed. The heavy dark wood of the furniture gave the room a safe feeling. Sturdy, uncluttered, and yet uniquely Taber’s.

  On the far side of the room hung a large photo of him standing in front of the garage he had owned in Sandy Hook. Several trophies he had won in shooting contests were displayed on the dresser beneath it. Taber hadn’t been an excessively public person, but he had been well known. Well known and well trusted.

  She tried to get her bearings, to fight the insidious arousal building in her.

  He had said she was in heat. That she would be unable to deny him. Unable to deny his touch. This went beyond denial; this was a beast clawing at her womb, screaming out in demand for the explosi
ve orgasm he had given her before.

  She moaned weakly as she turned to her side, wondering at the tight cramps in her lower abdomen. With each spasm her vagina pulsed and throbbed in accompaniment. With each twisting contraction her anger grew. Taber had done this to her. Where before her arousal and need for him had been only a hypersensitive irritation, it had now become an agony.

  “God, it could only happen to me,” she whispered into the silent room as she stared at the wall across from her.

  “Not exactly.” A sympathetic female voice spoke behind her, and Roni whipped around, clutching the comforter to her bare breasts as her eyes widened.

  She remembered meeting Merinus the day before, though only vaguely. Her mind was consumed with the memory of the heat, the driving need that had tormented her.

  And Taber. Fierce, savage, determined to claim her, despite the fact that he had been the one to walk away, months before.

  The other woman watched her with deep brown eyes filled with compassion. She was slender, about Roni’s height, with long, light brown hair. Her expression was calm, sympathetic, and brought a lump to Roni’s throat.

  She had never truly had friends, at least not once they met her father, and this woman’s gentle manner made her realize all she had given up over the years.

  Despite the luxurious surroundings of the estate and what Roni remembered of this house, Merinus didn’t appear to adopt a “lady of the manor” attitude. She was dressed in faded jeans, a loose cream-colored cotton shirt, and sneakers. She seemed the type to be more at home camping in the great outdoors than supervising a mansion.

  “Where’s Taber?” She looked around the room to be certain he wasn’t there.

  “He’s with Callan at the moment. He’s head of security here at the estate, and some of the new measures they’re putting in place required his attention.”

  Merinus stood up from the chair she had been sitting in and padded over to the bed.

  “I have some clothes that should fit you laid out in the bathroom if you would like to wash up and get dressed. I’d suggest a bath for now. It seems to ease the worst of the mating effects for a short while.”