Lion's Heat (24 page)

Edgewood's look was one of ice as he stared at Devon.

"That's not legal," Devon stated. "I didn't fully understand what she intended to do with Amber. And that's besides the fact. Child Protective Services is to have the baby until the charges have been decided anyway."

"It doesn't work that way, Mr. Marshal," Cassie said sweetly. "Child Protective Services has no jurisdiction here."

"Amber is not a fucking Breed brat," Devon snarled, his tone nasty, his expression filled with disgust. "That fucking law doesn't apply to her."

"A fucking Breed brat. What an interesting choice of words," Cassie stated succinctly. "As though our children have no worth. Is that how you see it?"

"Shut up, Devon," Edgewood warned him.

"Don't tell me to shut up," Devon snapped. "And hell yes, that's how I see it. Amber is a Marshal. She's human, not a damned animal or an animal's whelp."

Jonas tensed. Rachel felt the dangerous tension that slowly tightened his body.

"Do something with your client, John," he ordered the attorney. "Before I do."

Whether it was the sight of the incisors flashing at the sides of Jonas's mouth or the look of murderous fury in his gaze, Devon subsided with a childish pout and glared at Rachel once again.

"This changes things, Mr. Edgewood." The mayor lifted his head from the document before glancing at the Child Protective Services agent. "Ms. Blanchard? Do you see anything I don't?"

"I agree with your assessment," the kindly middle-aged child services representative stated as she too closed her file. "The child can't be taken from Sanctuary."

"Sanctuary has no rights over non-Breed children," Frost defended their position.

"Read your file, Daniel," Edgewood advised him. "Mr. Wyatt himself has signed the documents necessary to incorporate Ms. Broen's child into Sanctuary, which has been written into Breed Law and signed by our president as well as by Congress. She doesn't have to be a Breed; her mother merely has to be considered a Breed's mate, which by her presence, I assume she's agreeable to?" Edgewood stared back at her.

Jonas's tension ratcheted by several degrees.

"I'm agreeable." There was no way she couldn't be. She couldn't lose her child, and she was well aware she was fighting a losing battle where Jonas was concerned.

"Whore!" Devon sneered, a long, drawn-out hiss of viciousness.

Rachel's hand tightened on Jonas's thigh as she felt him move. The insult was designed to draw a reaction from Jonas, one Devon and/or his lawyers could use against the Breeds and Rachel in a battle to take possession of Amber.

He didn't move. He sat still, silent, his full attention locked on Devon as Rachel felt the promise of retribution pouring from him.

"Daniel, Ryan, please take Devon back to the limo," Edgewood snapped as Cassie rose slowly to her feet, centering an imperious, icy glare on the other man.

"Mr. Edgewood, before you file any motion with any court, or attempt to take one of our children from Sanctuary, perhaps you should do a full investigation into Breed Law and all the steps necessary to so much as file an intent to file," she informed him. "Mating laws are complicated, exacting and, trust me, created to be unbreakable for the next two centuries. Think of that before you attempt to have Ms. Broen's child placed with anyone other than her mother."

Edgewood grimaced before gathering together the files and documents Cassie laid out for him and storing them in his case.

"I apologize for my client, Director Wyatt," Edgewood expressed as he snapped his case closed and prepared to leave.

"No apology necessary, John," Jonas drawled as he too moved to his feet. "Think nothing of it."

Rachel shivered at the sound of intent in Jonas's voice, and Edgewood was no man's fool. His sharp glance settled on Jonas before he nodded slowly and turned back to Cassie with a muttered, "I'll be in touch."

The room cleared, and seconds later the dark blinds over the windows slowly eased up once again.

"This isn't the end of it," Cassie informed them both. "And a piece of advice to both of you: Marshal could demand proof of the mating, which unfortunately you cannot provide until you actually mate."

"How long do we have, Cassie?" Jonas asked, his voice tight.

Cassie paused, glanced at Rachel, then smiled gently. "Enough time, Jonas. I don't think we need to worry." A small frown edged at her brows then. "At least, not yet."

Rachel rubbed her hands together, still feeling chilled and frightened.

"When did you do all this?" she whispered, turning to Jonas. "The paperwork, accepting Amber into Breed society, declaring me as your mate?"

There was a hardness to his face that was almost frightening.

"I declared you as my mate before her birth. Once she was born, I filled out the paperwork to accept her as my daughter."

"You
adopted
her?" she asked incredulously.

He shrugged his shoulders before rubbing at the back of his neck. "I didn't adopt her, I accepted her. There's a difference. A Breed isn't required to adopt a child. Once he or she is accepted as the Breed's responsibility, then it's his child, whether that child lives in Sanctuary or in Haven, or not. It's simply a part of Breed Law to ensure that a mate cannot be governed by society's laws any more than a Breed can be. We're self-governed, completely, unless we declare aggression against the nation itself, not just its laws or law enforcement agencies."

Rachel knew Breed Law was deliberately complicated, and much of its explanations left out unless one were given permission to see a particular law in full. The red tape required to do so was lengthy and expensive.

It had been done in such a way as to remind the nation and the world that they were paying for the hell the Breeds had endured. For two centuries, they were given rights and allowed a leeway that was inconceivable at any other time or with any other race.

"You should have asked me." Pushing her fingers through her hair, Rachel fought to get a handle on her emotions and her fears.

Stepping into a mating was a hell of a lot different from deciding to sleep with a man, or agreeing on marriage.

"Why?" He motioned Cassie and Crank from the shelter as he closed the automatic shades on the windows once again. "What would telling you have accomplished?"

"I would have known."

"You could have protested and therefore delayed paperwork that would have protected Amber," he informed her matter-of-factly. "My main objective was protecting you and your child, Rachel."

"My God, you act as though she belongs to you," she burst out, wondering at his motives.

"You belong to me, therefore Amber is my responsibility," he stated. "I knew you were my mate. In accepting you, I accepted your child as my own."

"That doesn't make sense." There was no way a man could simply accept a child as his own without knowing the mother or loving her.

She didn't understand.

Jonas could feel the confusion that swirled in her, part anger, part fear.

"It's part of Breed genetics." He sighed, wishing he could make her understand, wishing she could accept this as easily as Elizabeth Sinclair had accepted it.

But then, her mate, Dash, had come for her because of their correspondence. It hadn't come like this. A bond had developed with the child before birth, because her mother was his mate.

Animal genetics were a bitch.

He watched as she breathed out roughly, raked her fingers through her hair once more and stared at him as though she weren't quite certain she knew who he was.

"Male lions kill the young when they take another male's pride," she muttered in exasperation.

"Human males love the children of the women they love," he completed for her. "We're not just animals, Rachel. We're men with a few added genetics. Nothing more, nothing less." Which wasn't a lie, but wasn't really the truth either.

"Devon isn't going to let this go this easily." She moved away from him, staring at the darkened windows. He felt her fighting to make sense of what her life had become.

"Devon has no choice." It was that simple. "All the money in the world, all the lawyers he could buy can't change Breed Law, Rachel. We ensured that."

A mocking smile twisted her lips. "You act as though the Marshals will play fair after this."

"You act as though Breeds will." He chuckled, though the sound was tinged with a warning of danger. "Come on, let's get the hell away from here and those damned reporters out there."

He touched her again. His hand pressed against her lower back, steering her back to the doorway, where Enforcers waited to escort them away from the entrance and the reporters who could just as easily shoot with bullets as with flashbulbs.

The ride back to the cabin was made quickly, silently. Rachel kept her arms wrapped across her chest as she fought to hold in not just the questions that raged through her mind but also the emotions that tore at her control.

She was falling in love with him, and she couldn't help it. There were just so many ways Jonas had proved his complete dedication to her. His hunger for her. His need. His determination to protect her.

He didn't call it love. To him, she was his mate, pure and simple. The one gift God had given him that could never belong to another man.

But he didn't call it love. He didn't recognize it as love. Moving into the house, she walked into Amber's room, informed the young Breed female watching the baby that she could leave, then lifted her daughter from the crib.

"Cassie's on the sat phone. She needs to talk to you." Jonas stood at the doorway, his gaze dark. "Would you like me to hold Amber while you talk to her?"

Silently, she handed Amber over to him, watching as he cuddled her close to his chest, his eyes still watching her carefully.

That look. There was complete arrogance in it, yet a vulnerability that tugged at emotions she didn't want to admit to.

She lifted the phone to her ear. "Cassie?"

"Go to another room, Rachel. We need to talk." Cassie's tone brooked no refusal. For a teenager, she could sound amazingly mature. "And don't bother to make excuses to Jonas; we both know he just heard every word I said."

She rolled her eyes as she glanced at Jonas, noticing how well he pretended he wasn't hearing every word Cassie said.

Breeds were a pain in the ass.

Shaking her head, she moved from the bedroom, through the living room, then into the kitchen.

"Good," Cassie expressed as she stepped into the far room. "So how are you feeling?"

How was she feeling?

"Cassie, are you doing drugs?" she asked carefully.

The young woman laughed lightly. "I don't do drugs at all, Rachel. I simply wanted to assure you that the legalities of Amber's acceptance into Breed society has no loopholes. There is nothing the Marshals can do to break that clause."

"What they can't acquire legally, they'll acquire illegally." Rachel sighed. "Amber will never be safe."

"No adult or child within Sanctuary is safe, Rachel," Cassie said softly. "No Breed mate or friend is safe. It's simply a part of our world."

A part of their world. And it didn't matter if they were child or adult, friend or mate. Anyone associated with the Breeds came under fire at one time or another.

She had known that, Rachel told herself. She was aware of it from the beginning, but until now, it hadn't truly hit her. She and Amber had never truly been safe; they had been living merely on borrowed time. Sooner or later, she would have been targeted because of her job, her friendship to Merinus and Kane, or simply because she believed so deeply in the freedom of the Breeds.

"I'm fine, Cassie," she finally told the young woman. "I just need some time to think."

"Thinking is perhaps what you don't need to do, Rachel," Cassie said gently. "Maybe now it's time to simply feel. Good night, Rachel."

The line disconnected, leaving Rachel staring into the kitchen with a vague sense of impending anticipation. Nervousness.

Disconnecting the phone from her end, she turned and headed back to the bedroom, only to come to a stop, once again amazed by the man, the Breed, who claimed her.

He was diapering Amber as though he had done it many times before. And he had, while Rachel slept.

"Cassie likes to poke her nose into things when it's not needed just as well as she does when it is." Jonas fixed the undershirt Amber wore before pulling her gown back around her feet.

The baby kicked, gurgled, her fists flailing as she stared up at Jonas with childlike wonder.

"She worries, I think," Rachel whispered.

Jonas nodded, picked Amber up from the bed, held her close to his chest and reached for the bottle he had obviously prepared earlier.

"Go bathe, Rachel." He watched her, his silver eyes calm rather than raging as normal. "Relax for a while. The next adventure will come soon enough."

The next adventure.

She almost smiled. That was similar to many of her sister's views. And it was nothing less than the truth.

Hopefully, the next adventure wouldn't be quite so hard on her nerves.

CHAPTER 13

The bath helped, but Rachel found herself not quite as sleepy, nor as tired, as she should be. Pulling on the long, warm gown that had been provided for her and a matching robe, she took a deep breath before leaving the bathroom.

She found Amber's crib empty when she reentered the bedroom. She touched the ultra-soft comforter on the mattress and felt her heart clench in something akin to panic.

Jonas was drawing her in. He was tying her to him in ways she wasn't certain she wanted to be tied to him.

Love.

She had thought she loved Devon. Those months in Switzerland had been incredible even though the job she had gone there for hadn't quite worked out.

She had thought it fate when she met Devon.

He had been bright, funny. She hadn't even known who his family was for months. Not until his father had arrived, dour, disapproving, and informed her that she wasn't good enough to marry into the elite Marshal clan.