Lion's Heat

by Lora Leigh

  ache. There were times in the labs when the pain had been excruciating.

  "I'm going to shower," he told her, fighting back the lust. He would wait on her as long as he could. "We need to return to the labs as soon as we can. Get some breakfast, and we'll leave once I'm ready."

  She turned to him, frowning. "We were just there last night, Jonas. Why do we have to go back?"

  "The mating heat is different enough from others that Ely will need more samples now that we've completed the mating," he informed her. He glanced at Amber, wondering how much to tell Rachel, fearing upsetting her. Hell, she'd been through enough, he didn't want to see her worry more. "And I'd like to have Amber checked once again as well."

  She stilled. He could smell that edge of fear now.

  "Why, Jonas? And don't bother lying to me."

  He grimaced. Yeah, it was just his luck that he had a mate with an overdeveloped sense of women's intuition.

  Sighing, he explained the scent, and the time line for the changes in the child. She asked few questions, merely watching him, her green eyes large in her suddenly pale face as her hold tightened on her child.

  "It's nothing dangerous," he assured her. "If it was, Rachel, I'd know." He prayed he would. As a primal, his sense of smell was off the charts when compared to other Breeds. That didn't make him infallible though, and he knew it.

  Rachel licked her lips nervously. "And they'll be able to figure out what's causing that change?" she asked him.

  "That's the idea." He nodded. "If nothing else, they can rule out any problems."

  "If she were sick, you'd know, wouldn't you, Jonas?" she suddenly asked fearfully. "If she were really sick."

  He moved to her then. He couldn't bear to see the fear in her eyes.

  Reaching her, he touched her cheek with his fingers before bending his head to kiss her gently. "I would know," he promised, his lips moving against hers. "Any human or Breed disease, both Ely and I can detect, sweetheart, I promise you. And I smell no disease, no sickness, simply a change I want to have checked out."

  There was nothing more that he could tell her, but for the first time in his life he wanted to be able to pull the answers out of his ass to ease the fear traveling through her.

  Instead, he turned and headed to the shower. There was nothing he could do but take her to those who could find the answers. And pray that he was right.

  Rachel watched as he left the room, slowly rocking Amber and trying to still the panic that threatened. She was a wuss, she thought, just as Diana had always accused her of being.

  She wasn't an adrenaline junkie, and she worried. Rachel was the worrywart, Diana was the daredevil. But the thought that something could be wrong with Amber, that Phillip Brandenmore had harmed her child, was enough to make her stomach roil with fear and rage.

  Laying a kiss to Amber's brow, Rachel laid her back in her crib before pacing to the fireplace and staring into the low, comforting warmth of the fire.

  She lived for the day Jonas managed to get that bastard out of the Middle East and into Breed custody. She wanted to be there. She wanted to make certain he felt the same fear, the same lack of security and terror her daughter had felt.

  She wanted his blood, slowly. She wanted to hear him scream in pain, watch as he begged--the way she had begged while Amber cried and cried for her.

  She could still hear Amber's screams as the baby heard her mother's voice, knowing her momma was near, yet a stranger held her without tenderness or care.

  Rachel could still remember the way he held her. His hand to the back of her neck braced against his chest.

  He had hurt her baby. He had terrified both of them, and she wanted him dead. Rachel had a very bad feeling that once the truth was revealed, she would have no compunction whatsoever about pulling the trigger to take his life. Her female intuition was making her sick now. It had been ever since Jonas had mentioned the change in Amber's scent. As though the very thought of some unknown illness had triggered a knowledge inside her that she couldn't fully decipher.

  Moving back to the crib, she quickly undressed her baby, turning her, checking her for any outward signs of problems. She knew Brandenmore had injected Amber with something. Elizabeth Vanderale and Jeffrey Amburg had been certain it had only been a sedative. That had made sense. Amber had been screaming, the sound of it raking across her own nerves because of the fear in her daughter's voice. It would have irritated Brandenmore. He would have wanted her quiet.

  So why hadn't he killed her?

  Rachel pressed her hand against her stomach at the thought. Brandenmore didn't care about one small child, and he had meant to kill Rachel when she returned anyway. If he hadn't had plans for Amber, then why leave her alive? And if he did have plans for her, then it would be nothing that a mother could find but nightmares within.

  Brandenmore was a scientist. He could have created something that hid itself within the sedative. Something that would have begun working long after initial tests were run. That was how he worked, according to the file she had read on him. He was subtle, vicious. Completely and totally deceptive.

  She was shaking. She could almost feel her world shattering around her as she stared down at her still-sleeping daughter. Could she survive it if something happened to her baby?

  She couldn't. Amber had matured her. Her daughter had given her a reason to live that hadn't existed before her birth.

  Biting her lip, she fought to hold back the fear, the tears. Jonas could smell it. He might be in the shower, but who was to say that his sense of smell wasn't strong enough to feel the complete panic threatening to tear her apart?

  Amber had known fear much too soon. She'd known pain too soon. Surely that couldn't bode well for the values she wanted to teach her daughter: acceptance, compassion, a small measure of trust that the world could be kind, at least sometimes.

  And perhaps the world was trying to show Rachel otherwise.

  "It's going to be okay, Rachel."

  Jonas's soft voice had her whirling around to meet the dark cloth of his shirt as it stretched over his chest. Lifting her head, she stared into his eyes as he smoothed a tear from her cheek, which she hadn't even been aware she had shed.

  "How can you be certain?" she whispered as his arms came around her. "How can I protect her, Jonas, when he's already done something to hurt her?"

  Her fingers clenched in the fabric of his shirt as she fought to control the racing of her heart, the shudders beginning to wrack her body.

  This was her baby. Her child. So innocent, so dependent on her mother to ensure that she wasn't harmed. She'd already failed her.

  "Because I'll ensure it." His tone was so certain, so confident. "We have the finest minds working in Breed research. Scientists that exceptionally intelligent, Rachel, will find out what, if anything, Brandenmore has done. And if they don't"--he gripped her arms, holding her back at she stared down at her, the arrogance and pure determination in his expression brightening his eyes to a neon silver--"if they don't, I'll bring Brandenmore here, and trust me, once I have him here in my territory, he will talk."

  That confidence sank into her. She had never seen Jonas break a promise. Even when she had been certain there was no way he could make something he had promised the Breed cabinet to work, he'd still managed it.

  He manipulated, he connived. He threatened, he wasn't very good at cajoling, but he knew how to terrify a person. And he always, always did as he said he would.

  "She's just a baby," she whispered, trying to explain her fear.

  "Shhh." He laid his finger against her lips. "She's our child. She may not share my blood, Rachel, but she's captured my heart, as you've captured my soul. Never doubt, no matter the cost, I will protect our child."

  Not her child. Not his child. Their child.

  For the first time in Rachel's life, standing there in his arms, she felt that long-buried fear of desertion slowly ease away.

  It would never be easy, living with Jonas. It might
never be calm. But as she stood there, his arms wrapped around her, his warmth sheltering her, she knew it would always be exactly where she wanted to be. And something that nothing, or no one, could ever steal from her.

  CHAPTER 18

  The Leo was waiting on them in the labs, along with Elizabeth Vanderale; their son, Dane; Dr. Ely Morrey; and Dr. Jeffery Amburg.

  Rachel had never paid much attention to the labs on previous visits, her attention always splintered by Jonas, that she'd had no time to consider much besides the danger they were facing.

  That first night, Amber's unnatural sleep had held her attention solely. The second time she had been there, the discomfort she had felt during the examination Ely had performed and Jonas's unnaturally volatile mood had distracted her.

  Now she stood holding Amber as Jonas, Leo and Dane seemed to confront each other.

  She saw the lab was now painted in muted greens, tans and fall reds, rather than the stark white it had been when first taken over by the Breeds.

  The gurney sheets were brightly colored, real pillows laying at one end. There were comfortable-looking chairs, sheer drapes falling from ceiling to floor in the far corner where a reading chair sat, and heavy, brightly colored screens hiding the necessary equipment needed to aid the scientists.

  "You two can bloody well stop getting on my nerves." Dane finally sighed as he glanced from Leo to Jonas, a heavy frown creasing his brow as white brows lowered over his bright, emerald green eyes.

  Leo's lips thinned in irritation.

  "Leo, I don't have time for this," Elizabeth added weight to her son's disgusted proclamation. "You're here to help, not to make everyone more agitated than they already are."

  Leo grunted, but his golden gaze shifted to the child Rachel held. His expression relaxed as his lips seemed to want to tilt into a grin.

  "She's a lovely child." He stepped closer as Rachel shifted her gaze to Jonas, her nerves making her ill.

  "Settle down now, Ms. Broen." Leo smiled. A faint quirk of his lips, which added weight to Jonas's vow that nothing bad was going to happen here. "May I hold your precious angel?"

  Rachel licked her lips before turning Amber over to the tall, roughly hewn patriarch.

  Amber whimpered for several seconds before settling back down, her eyes staring up at the unfamiliar male as Leo made a small, almost purring sound as he held her. It was a sound she had accidentally caught Jonas making one night as she pretended to be asleep while he slipped Amber from her crib for a bottle and diaper.

  "The purr is distinctive," Leo told her as he glanced up at her. "A mated Breed has many different sounds that they don't make before they mate. The purr they have for their mates. The one they have for their child." He ran his finger over Amber's cheek as his gaze lifted to Jonas. "She's a perfect addition to Sanctuary, I believe."

  Jonas shrugged as he crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to wait.

  "I'm nearly a hundred and thirty years old, Ms. Broen." His smile was quick, amused, as he glanced at her. "Can you tell?"

  "I thought your arrogance was rather defined for a mere century," she quipped, barely refraining from rolling her eyes.

  Leo chuckled, obviously taking no offense. "That comes from being the leader of a Pride of hardheaded, rough-bitten, less-than-congenial Breeds in the wilds of Africa," he assured her. "You develop it better than they do, or you suffer."

  "You also learn the fine art of bragging," Elizabeth snorted, though she did so with an edge of pure love as she gazed at her mate. "Get on with it, Leo. I'm certain Rachel would like to leave here sometime today with a knowledge of what's going on."

  "The Leo has a hell of a way of wasting time," Dane informed her.

  "Watch your language, Dane." Jonas frowned, his brows lowering with dark warning.

  Dane's own brows lifted in surprise, though those green eyes held understanding. "Of course, brother. Forgive me."

  An apology from a Breed, how interesting. But the bit of byplay helped ease her nerves marginally.

  "Come here, little one," Leo crooned, the gentle purr in his chest increasing as he turned and walked to the rocking chair that sat on the other side of the gurney. "Let the Leo get a feel for your scent here. Though my own angels are going to protest a bit when Papa returns with the scent of another babe on him. They're a bit possessive, you know."

  He continued to speak to her as he rocked, his head lowered, his nostrils flared, as he obviously drew in her scent.

  Rachel rubbed at her arms as she felt Jonas move behind her. His hands settled on her shoulders, his strength and warmth behind her lending her courage.

  Leo frowned, then his brow cleared. He smiled a bit, managed to get a chortle from Amber and frowned again as Dr. Amburg watched the scene curiously. Elizabeth moved behind her mate, her hands settling on his shoulders as she watched Amber reach up for the long strands of hair that fell over the Leo's shoulder.

  Coarse, a rich tawny blended with black, russet and golden browns.

  "Her mother's scent is strong," Leo murmured to Elizabeth.

  "I assumed," Elizabeth agreed quietly. "She looks much like her mother. She'll be a replica of her when she gets older."

  "The day will come when strangers will believe you're twins rather than mother and daughter." The Leo chuckled as he glanced at Rachel.

  Rachel couldn't speak. She knew what was going on. The Leo was using his own senses to draw in the scent of whatever was changing in her child.

  "Dane, could you come here?" Leo rose from the chair as Dane moved to him. "Hold her for a moment."

  Dane accepted the slight weight as Rachel felt her stomach knot in panic again.

  Dane spoke gently, easily, to the baby. He obviously had experience with children. Within minutes, he had Amber cooing, her eyes bright, her lips stretched wide in a smile. Her daughter, even at her young age, was quite content with the male attention she was gaining.

  "I can't stand this," Rachel whispered as she felt Jonas's head against the side of hers.

  "Easy, love," he whispered, laying a kiss to her ear as though there weren't five others standing there who glanced at him, their expressions registering momentary shock before they returned their attention to Amber.

  "There are slight physical changes," Elizabeth remarked, then glanced at Rachel. "May I remove her gown?"

  Rachel nodded jerkily.

  The examination took a toll on her nerves. If not for Jonas, Rachel didn't know if she could have survived the ordeal. It seemed to last forever before they laid Amber on a gurney covered in a soft russet-colored blanket.

  Ely and Amburg moved closer as Elizabeth took several pressure vials of blood, swabbed Amber's mouth, then, surprisingly, swabbed under her arms, behind her knees and again behind her neck.

  "Sweat collects continually beneath the arms, behind the knees and along the back and front of a baby's neck," Elizabeth explained as she stored the samples in sterile containers. "We can use her diaper for a urine sample. That's imperative at this point. We need as many differing samples as possible to see if any changes are occurring in her."

  "There's definitely no disease or illness," Leo stated as he glanced back at Rachel. "I agree with Jonas's determination that her scent has changed though. I was here the night you brought her in and took a moment to check her scent then. It's different, and the change isn't natural."

  Dane remained silent as they glanced back at him.

  "Dane." Leo frowned. "You're often better with the babies than I. What did you sense?"

  Dane shook his head. "What you found, Father. I'd be interested in seeing the results of the samples the doctors are taking though."

  "Jonas's scent is heavy," Ely stated then, her hand stroking over Amber's head as the baby tried to catch her fingers. "You hold her often?" she asked Jonas.

  "Often." Behind her, she felt the slight movement of Jonas's nod.

  "Could the changing scent be a marker of some sort?" Elizabeth turned back to her husband a
nd son.

  "Of some sort." Dane nodded, his expression too cool, too restrained for the man Rachel had always sensed he was.

  "Are the two of you ready now?" Elizabeth turned back to them, a comforting smile on her face. "It will be a while before we have the results back, and we'll need yours as well."

  Rachel moved to the gurney, where Amber was once again chortling up at Dane.

  "She's physically fine, Ms. Broen," he assured her. "I promise you, if she stays this healthy, she'll grow up to give you gray hairs despite the fact that you're barely going to age a year or two by the time she's mature."

  She had to accept their assurances; she had no other choice. She had come to know Leo and Dane over the months she had worked with the Bureau. She had spent quite a bit of time in Sanctuary and had socialized with them often. They were as bluntly honest as Jonas could be. They were manipulating as hell; it seemed to be a family trait as well as a Breed trait. But they wouldn't lie to her about this. Besides, her stomach was finally settling down, assuring her that there was no lie to watch out for.

  "Elizabeth, please take enough of Ms. Broen's and Jonas's samples to allow me ample amounts to conduct the tests we discussed earlier," Amburg asked.

  "What tests?" Rachel turned to him quickly.

  Amburg smiled coolly. He wasn't a warm man. "Simply an array of medical tests, Ms. Broen. Unlike the Breeds, I don't have a sense of smell, and I like to have my own assurances before I begin searching for other answers."

  He was lying.

  Rachel glanced back at Jonas to see his gaze narrowed on the doctor. Jonas knew he was lying as well. When he turned back to her, though, his gaze wasn't concerned or worried. Doctors were always evasive, she told herself, though she couldn't quite convince herself that everything would be fine.

  She knew it had to be fine. Anything else was unacceptable.

  The tests conducted on her and Jonas went quickly, smoothly. Within a few hours, she was back at the cabin, trying to rub away the discomfort that still lingered on her skin from the effect of Ely's and Elizabeth's touch as they examined her.

  Amber was tucked in her crib, resting comfortably in the room next to Rachel's office. The sitter, Erin, rested in a chair next to the crib and read one of the stack of books she kept in the room.

  The Breeds were readers. Even Jonas had hundreds of books stacked on shelves throughout the cabin. Sanctuary boasted a well-stocked library, in addition to the extensive collection in Buffalo Gap.

  As Rachel paced her office, she tried to ignore the steadily burning ache in the core of her sex. She was becoming so aroused it was almost painful. And the strangest part was the need for the taste of Jonas's kiss. Her mouth watered for it.

  She was torn between pacing the floor and worrying about Amber, and walking into Jonas's office, tearing him from the computer and forcing him to fuck her.

  Her eyes closed at the thought as she paused beside her desk. She wanted to ride him. She wanted to straddle that hard, muscular body and work his heavy cock inside her.

  No. First she wanted to ride his lips, his tongue.

  She swallowed tightly. A kiss first.

  First she wanted his kiss, his tongue plunging into her mouth, spreading that taste she needed so desperately, then she wanted the rest of it. All of it.

  Amber appeared fine. It was her scent, and according to Jonas, Leo and Dane, the change was so slight that it could well be the changes that came from the changes in her body as she grew. It could be an effect of Jonas's scent on her, and the fact that he was now Amber's mother's mate. It could be a variety of reasons.

  She didn't have to worry right now. And though she could never put it completely out of her mind, her body was forcing her to concentrate on Jonas.

  Her body was demanding her mate now. It was demanding his kiss, his touch. His possession. Mating heat had picked a hell of a time to kick in. She felt besieged on all sides. Fear and worry for her daughter, emotions for Jonas that she wasn't always certain how to handle, and facing a future that had no chance of true peace or safety. At least not for decades to come.

  She was trying to decide if the fact that she may be there in those future decades was a good or bad thing. According to everything she had been able to find out, the aging retardation had been tracked at one year per decade. In a hundred years, she will have aged only ten.

  Because of the mating heat. Because of the need amplified within her body, digging heated claws into her womb and filling her clit, her pussy, with such raging hunger that it was impossible to deny.

  And the urges that hunger fed into her.

  She rubbed her hand along her lower stomach, feeling her womb flex, clench. It wasn't just the need for sex. It was a need for complete intimacy. The need was overwhelming, wild. It was as primal as the claws that had retracted from the tips of his fingers.

  "Rachel."

  She opened her eyes to see him standing in the doorway to his office.

  Her breath caught audibly now. She could no longer hide her response to him. Her pussy flooded with her juices, the memory of the pleasure he could bring her racing through her system.

  She didn't feel like herself. She felt those urges she had always kept carefully restrained rising inside her, trying to break free.

  Rachel had always been perfectly happy being the peace-maker, sitting back and playing it safe while she worried incessantly about her wild sister.

  If she had felt a need for adventure, she had always tamped it down quickly. Diana was wild enough for both of them, and she was smart enough, confident enough, to survive those adventures.

  Watching him now as he moved slowly across the room, she was once again reminded of the animal he was. So powerful. There were times he seemed invincible.

  His eyes were narrowed, living mercury roiling in the darkened features of his face. Hunger and emotion filled that gaze. Emotions she hadn't yet learned to decipher, but felt she was growing closer to the answers.

  "You had only to come to me," he growled as he reached her, caught her hand and began drawing her to the entrance of the main house.

  Pausing, he turned back.