The Man Within (Feline Breeds Book 2)

by Lora Leigh

  “A swab only,” Martin demanded. “For God’s sake. This isn’t just her, Taber. It’s the future.”

  He tensed, intending to pull her from the table and stalk from the room.

  “No. He’s right.” Her arms tightened around him as shudders quaked through her. “He’s right. I can do this. I can.” But she didn’t release her hold of him.

  “I’ll hold you, baby.” He lowered her slowly to the gurney, remembering Sherra relating how Callan had been forced to do the same for Merinus. “Just hold onto me, Roni. I won’t let you go.”

  It was hell. Roni forced back her screams as everything inside her protested the doctor’s touch, his tests, his soothing voice. She knew she was leaving deep marks in Taber’s back from the grip her fingers had on him, but couldn’t seem to care. It was that or scream.

  That, or fight to be free.

  She breathed in hard and deep. She could do this. She wasn’t a quitter. She could fight. She had forgotten that in the past year since Taber’s desertion.

  She knew how to hold herself together when the fear was like a beast clawing at her stomach.

  One second at a time. One minute at a time. One hour at a time. It had saved her before. She could think later, when the pain had eased, when the terror had lessened and her mind had absorbed the rushing change that had fallen into her life. Then she could find safe ground. Then she would think.

  “Tell me what to do,” he whispered against her ear. “Tell me what to do to make this better. God, I should have let you be . . . ”

  “You leave me again and I’ll kill you!” She jerked violently as the doctor used his demon’s tools to examine her. “I swear to God, Taber. I may not be woman enough for you, but if you leave me after this, I’ll make you pay. I’ll cut your black heart from your chest myself and then I’ll carve your cock into so many tiny pieces you’ll never find them all.”

  And she would, she promised herself as she throttled back the scream wanting to break free from her throat. She could feel the tension in Taber as well, the furious growls coming from his chest, his protective, fierce hold on her body. He was hers for now. She would deal with the future when she had to.

  Thankfully, once it was over, it was exhaustion that claimed her. Her body, her mind, had taken all it could take and blessed darkness closed over her.

  As she slipped into unconsciousness, she could have sworn she heard Taber whisper. “I’ll never leave you. No matter what you want . . . Never again . . . ”

  But she hadn’t wanted him to leave the first time.

  Chapter Seventeen

  When she awoke, Roni could feel the need beginning to crawl through her, building again.

  Rather than looking for Taber, she went in search of Merinus. She needed answers, answers only the other woman could give her.

  “I will assume you’re pregnant.” Roni fought to keep her voice calm as she came to a stop at the small glass table Merinus sat next to on the back deck of the house. “What’s next? What do I have to look forward to?”

  The other woman was watching the construction of a high fence an acre from the sheltered porch, her expression pensive. The men worked on the twelve-foot high barricade being stretched from post to post with an almost fanatical vigor, as though nothing were more important than getting the steel-linked barrier in place.

  “You know,” Merinus said softly, sighing with aching regret, “this estate was so beautiful when we first saw it. Stately, graceful, despite the horrible experiments that occurred in the buildings that once stood where those men are working. Everything was peaceful, as though its very elegance distanced it from the horror practiced by those who owned it.”

  Merinus tapped a perfectly manicured nail on the glass top restlessly. “Now look at it. Fences everywhere. Wild animals turned loose for protection, and nightly attempts to break the security Callan is trying to enforce. The bastards will never stop until they’re put out of their insane misery, like rabid dogs.”

  With each word, anger pulsed and throbbed in the other woman’s voice. She turned her head, her gaze meeting Roni’s fiercely. “Yes, I’m pregnant, by a man I would have gladly given my life to save, Roni. A man who has faced more horror than you can ever imagine. Daily, he faces his worst nightmare. Nightly, he awakens in a sweat after having dreamed the child and I were taken. Who is suffering more? Me, who he protects? Or Callan, who knows the consequences should it happen?”

  Awareness pulsed like a hidden ache in Merinus’s voice. Her love for Callan throbbed in every syllable. Her fear for him and her unborn child was like a living fire in her eyes.

  “It would seem to me both of you are suffering. You don’t sound unaware of the dangers or the consequences, Merinus.” Roni tilted her head to the side as the brown eyes watching her warmed only marginally.

  “No, I’m not, but you are.” She waved her hand to the vacant seat across from her. “Share some coffee with me. Decaf, unfortunately.” Her lips twisted with a hint of self-mockery. “I so miss the caffeine.” The last words were drawn out, dripping with an almost palatable thirst for something that didn’t even have a taste.

  “Decaf doesn’t stress you.” Roni shrugged as she took her seat. “And whatever the hell those men do to your body, the caffeine only makes it worse. I found that out after Taber decided to do the marking thing on me.”

  “The marking thing?” Merinus laughed in delight, a bit of the strain easing from her face. “That’s as good a word for it as anything. But damn if it can’t be fun.”

  Roni glimpsed the remembered fire in Merinus’s gaze. Her eyes were soft with the memories, her lips curved as though they brought her comfort.

  “You don’t . . . burn anymore?” Roni asked her hesitantly, wondering if she would ever sit outside Taber’s presence again and not ache for him.

  “Oh, I burn.” Merinus sat back in her chair, her gaze flickering once again to the men working. “But it’s natural now. I wanted Callan when he was no more than a picture, a story, a man who had suffered. I wanted him like nothing I had known before in my life. A compulsion. A need I wasn’t about to deny. The hormone only kept me from denying it. When I conceived, it was done after I had realized and admitted how much we were a part of each other. It wasn’t something I felt was forced on me.”

  Roni looked away. Hadn’t she wanted Taber just as well? From the time she had been eleven to the minute her soul had shattered with that letter he sent her, hadn’t she dreamed, longed, loved?

  “I was at Dayan’s funeral,” she whispered.

  She’d gone because not going would have caused questions to be asked. She was a known friend of the family, and no one knew how Taber had broken her heart, or how cruelly Dayan had treated her. She remembered though how desperately she wanted to go to Taber at the time, to ease the grief that lined his face. “It was after Taber marked me. But I remember how desperately I hurt for him, not sexually, but because I could see his pain.”

  “Dayan’s death changed them all,” Merinus told her quietly. “You don’t know what happened to Dayan, do you?”

  Roni nodded hesitantly. “He was killed saving you . . . ”

  “Oh no.” Merinus shook her head, her tone harsh. “That was what we told the media, Roni. Dayan died by Callan’s hand when he tried to kill me. He killed Callan’s mother, Maria, years ago because she had nearly talked Callan into going to the press, and he was determined to kill me for the same reason.”

  Roni didn’t disbelieve her, and wasn’t entirely shocked. Dayan hadn’t been completely sane. The day he had brought her Taber’s letter, he had pinned her against the wall of the bedroom over the garage, his breath rasping, his eyes burning with lust as he offered to train her to satisfy Taber.

  “When he brought me Taber’s note, letting me know Taber didn’t want me, he tried to attack me,” Roni whispered. “It felt like knives going into my skin when he held me. I had never hurt so bad.”

  “Taber’s note?” Merinus leaned forward, shakin
g her head in confusion. “I knew you two had a history, but I was unaware of what it was.”

  Roni pressed her lips tightly together before licking them nervously. She had never told another living soul what had happened. Briefly, bitterly, she told Merinus the whole story, including Dayan’s part in it.

  It was humiliating, remembering how much she had depended on Taber over the years, knowing he would save her, take care of her, rather than forcing her to take care of it on her own. She had learned, though, that she could care for herself. She had lived and worked, and had slowly been making a life for herself. At this moment that small salve to her ego was in much demand.

  “I hadn’t seen Taber since,” she finished, breathing in deeply. “Not until he jumped out of that damned helicopter and made the situation that much worse. Now if I’m going to get through this, I at least need to understand what the hell is going on. I’m terrified because my body is tying me to a man who can destroy me. Who has destroyed me.”

  “Whew.” Merinus breathed roughly as she pushed her fingers wearily through her hair. “What are you going to do?” Merinus asked. “This doesn’t sound like Taber, Roni. I know him. He would have never touched you—period—if he hadn’t been dying for you. But his need to protect you would have gone deeper than the hunger driving him. Which could have made him react more hurtfully.”

  “That excuse doesn’t help much.” Roni shook her head, knowing that Taber would have indeed have been capable of trying desperately to protect her.

  He had shown it in the doctor’s lab. His voice had been hoarse, his body so tight, so filled with fury on her behalf that he had trembled with her. The tone had been a rumbled, primal sound, the words barely recognizable as he promised her everything he could think of in return for what was being done to her.

  “I need to be able to trust him, Merinus,” she whispered painfully. “I need more than some damned addiction to his sperm or his kiss. I need his love . . . ”

  Merinus leaned slowly back in her seat. “Surely he’s told you.” She shook her head. “Roni, he has to love you, otherwise that hormone would not have kicked in as it had.”

  Roni gave her a mocking, half-angry look. “Would I be worried if he had told me he loved me?”

  The other woman’s eyes narrowed. “Assholes. I swear to God if all men aren’t the most hardheaded, stubborn, exceptionally dense assholes. I swear they all need to be . . . ” She jerked as wood exploded mere inches from the side of her face, catching her cheek and temple as it sprayed violently around them.

  “Gunfire!” Roni screamed out as she came to her feet, throwing the table out of the way and pushing Merinus to the floor of the porch as fire seared her shoulder. “Taber!” She was screaming his name as hard pings began to vibrate around the porch. “We’re under fire!”

  Men were screaming now; the roar of a lion echoed through her head. Lion? Good God, was it one of the Feline Breeds or a real lion? It sure sounded real.

  Cement splattered inches from her, a hole tearing into the floor as she pushed Merinus deeper into the shadows of the porch and the dubious protection of a woodpile that had been stacked to the side. There wasn’t a chance in hell of making it to the door, and from the angle of the gunfire even less a chance of making it around the side of the house.

  “Taber!” Her screams joined the frantic cries from the yard.

  “We have one down! One down!”

  Roni turned back and looked out into the yard, watching the workers scatter, one of them hauling a wounded man on his back as they rushed for shelter. There was very little.

  There was more gunfire. The rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapons, the single sharp bursts of revolvers. And still, wood and cement flew around them as she sheltered Merinus’s unconscious body.

  She could smell her own blood, feel the tearing pain in her shoulder from a bullet, the crawling of her flesh as she lay over Merinus, fighting to keep the deadly little missiles from tearing into Merinus’s body, harming her or the child she had spoken of so tenderly.

  Men were everywhere, but none close enough, or in position to reach them and drag the other woman to safety. Roni heaved a sobbing breath, screaming out Taber’s name again as another volley of gunfire came much too close for comfort.

  She felt the wood tearing loose from the side of the porch just above her head, raining into her hair as she hunched protectively over the other woman.

  “Roni!” Thank God. Nothing had ever sounded sweeter than Taber’s voice in that moment.

  She lifted her head, watching in amazement as he came sailing over the low rock wall that separated the grounds from the outer working area. In his hands he carried a lethal, powerful M-16, spraying a round of gunfire over the heads of the fleeing workmen into the area the enemy fire was coming from.

  At the same time, the terrible roar she had heard earlier sounded again. Behind Taber, Callan cleared the fence as well, but he came unarmed, his expression savage, rage echoing through the animalistic roar as he caught sight of his fallen wife.

  Simultaneously the back porch became a haven rather than a trap. Feline Breeds, male and female, placed themselves between the porch and danger, guns blasting as Taber and Callan rushed for them.

  Taber snatched Roni from her position in a surge of strength that amazed her, keeping her off her feet as he threw them both into the open doorway of the kitchen. Callan was no more than a half second behind him.

  “Doc!” Callan’s enraged, grief-stricken scream echoed around the house as he seemed to fly by them, bearing his unconscious wife in his arms.

  “Are you hurt?” Taber rushed behind him, half-carrying Roni as he forced her farther into the house.

  “No . . . ”

  “Fuck, you’re lying to me!” He must have seen the blood. “Come on. Downstairs. You’ll be safe there.”

  Safe. Her head was swimming, her shoulder was throbbing like hell from being shot, and all she wanted to do was have him throw her to the floor now and fuck her until she screamed. She moaned in defeat. At this rate, she would be pregnant before three days were up. No more heat, no more bond, and Taber would be gone again. Just as before.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Well, it was official. Morphine didn’t ease the mating heat, either. But at least the symptoms were a shade more bearable. The good doctor was able to check her shoulder and dress the flesh wound quickly as they all kept a careful eye on Merinus.

  The other woman had finally awakened, none the worse for wear. The force of the wood that had hit her temple had merely rendered her unconscious for a while.

  There was minor bleeding but no complications that the doctor could see.

  Callan wasn’t listening, though. He sat beside the small hospital gurney, his body hunched over the bed, arms wrapped around his wife as he held onto her protectively. His large hands ran over her tangled hair, her back, the slight mound of her abdomen where, the doctor assured them, the babe rested safe and sound.

  His voice was broken, hoarse with emotion as Merinus tried to soothe the fury trembling through his body. Twice she had been forced to whimper, a more than obvious fake sound of pain, to keep him from rushing back outside when news came that the assassins were contained. Two were dead; another was alive but wounded.

  Doc Martin had not yet moved to treat the mercenary locked in one of the empty supply sheds.

  “Matter of priority,” he had said calmly when she asked him about the doctor’s oath he had taken. “Besides, if that one dies, there’ll be more to take his place.”

  There was a hatred so unforgiving within the older man that Roni shivered at the force of it.

  Taber had said very little. He had held her as her shoulder was bandaged and still hadn’t moved but inches from her side as she lay on her stomach, fighting exhaustion and arousal. He smelled too damned good and she was so tired.

  “Take your wife to her bed, Callan,” Doc finally said wearily as Callan’s head rose, his body still trembling in reaction. “She
needs to rest. And you need to assure yourself all is fine. The danger is over for now. Same for you, Taber.”

  He turned back to Roni. “Take her upstairs and care for her. Tomorrow is time enough to worry about other things.”

  Martin’s shoulders were slumped, his voice tired and so filled with sadness Roni wanted to weep for him. As he moved away from the bed, Callan rose from the chair he had pulled to Merinus’s bed and approached Roni slowly. As she looked into his eyes, she knew this was a man she never wanted to cross.

  The golden-brown orbs were almost a full amber, glittering with an animal savagery, and she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill.

  “I know I can’t touch you,” he sighed as he went to one knee in front of her and looking up into her eyes. “I know what you did, covering her body with your own. My men were screaming the information at me as I ran for that damned porch. If I could hug you, I would. If I had riches, I would bestow them upon you. If I had anything to show you the gift you gave me in saving her life, then it would be yours.”

  His voice was soft, throbbing with all the pent-up emotion that he was fighting.

  “Morphine’s a great little drug,” she whispered conspiratorially, lying through her teeth. “I didn’t even feel a twinge when the doc dressed the wound. You can hug me if you need to.”

  A small smile tilted his lips, involuntary and chastising. “You are still the little imp you always were,” he said gently, shaking his finger at her. “I know better. I could smell your pain as the doctor worked on you, and it flayed my soul to know that it had happened. She would have been defenseless . . . ” He swallowed tightly.

  “She’s fine.” Roni knew she was feeling a little giddy from the drugs when she gave Callan a mock frown. “But I want a gun now. I know how to use it.”

  “It’s yours.” He nodded firmly, not even bothering to glance at Taber to be certain, as she had expected. “Side arm or rifle?”