Lion's Heat (37 page)

"No, they'll be finished this morning," she told him as she turned and walked into the bathroom. "Because I'm done."

The door closed behind her and Jonas couldn't help but grin. He had to say, he rather enjoyed the fact that his mate wasn't the least bit intimidated by him or his reputation.

She was his lover, his mate. She was his other half and she had no problems whatsoever claiming her place.

Rachel endured another examination, more samples being taken. Blood samples, saliva samples, vaginal samples. There were scans this time, old-fashioned X-rays, skin samples, nail samples and hair samples.

It was as though the scientists were well aware that they were never going to get another sample from her.

"Are you certain you're not uncomfortable?" Ely Morrey asked, not for the twelfth time. Perhaps more.

Rachel turned a frustrated look on her. "I'm very uncomfortable," she replied sweetly. "I'm sitting here in a paper gown that shows my ass while the three of you"--she looked at Ely, Elizabeth and Jeffrey Amburg watching her clinically--"talk scientific jargon that makes no sense, and frankly gets on my nerves."

Elizabeth's lips twitched.

"You're showing too many anomalies for mating heat." Ely crossed her arms over her breasts and frowned back at Rachel. "Jonas is showing too many anomalies as well. This is so far beyond normal that we have to be certain to cover our bases."

"Why?" That part confused her just slightly.

"Because it's best--" Ely began.

"Tell her the truth, Ely." Elizabeth moved to Ely's side, her tone firm.

"This isn't information just anyone should have." Ely's lips thinned in disapproval.

Rachel arched her brow at Elizabeth.

"Mating heat is incredibly painful for the females," Elizabeth began.

"I know that part," Rachel broke in. "Painful. Aphrodisiac in the tongue, sperm that stills the heat and a kiss that makes it worse. The mating bite is forever and only after it's given does the heat begin to level off. But still a mate can't bear others' touch, nor can most females function outside the bed." She rolled her eyes. "Sounds like paradise for your men."

"All but Jonas," Ely growled.

Rachel stared back at her curiously. The other woman was angry and trying hard not to hide it.

"You and Jonas have produced a hormone that if we could figure out how it works, could help to ease the heat in our females," Elizabeth told her. "Even I, once every three months, experience that irrational, torturous need as my body attempts to force me to conceive."

"Even when you're pregnant?" Rachel asked.

Elizabeth paused. "The hormones are different then."

"Do you breast-feed? I breast-fed for the first few months, I know I had to be very careful of my diet. Is that a problem with mating heat?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I thought for years there had to be a correlation. There were only rare times that my desire for my mate was normal, Rachel. But I found nothing unusual then."

Rachel shrugged. "I'm not a scientist, Dr. Vanderale, nor do I pretend to understand what you're dealing with here. But I will tell you, I'm not dealing with it any longer. You have all you're getting from me."

"You're selfish." The accusation from Ely surprised her, and obviously surprised Elizabeth as well. "Jonas deserves better than a mate who refuses to make the sacrifices he's made all his life for his people."

"Exactly," Rachel stated coolly. "He's sacrificed all his life with little understanding and even less consideration from the majority of you. When was the last time Jonas was asked
not
to sacrifice for someone? Not to find a way to manipulate or work miracles? When was the last time he was allowed to be a man?"

"He's not a man, he's a Breed," Ely snapped back.

"And you're in love with him." The knowledge was more intuition than based on evidence. "But you're not his mate."

Elizabeth inhaled sharply.

"Jonas is just a friend," Ely argued stiffly.

Rachel rose from the gurney, gathered her clothing from a nearby counter and moved for the bathroom.

"And I'm finished with this argument. I refuse to argue with you, Ely." She turned back to the doctor, seeing the anger and confusion in her eyes. "Jonas thinks very highly of you, but I wouldn't suggest attempting to try to convince him that I'm not his mate. That friendship could be damaged in ways you don't want to face if you do so."

Stepping into the small bathroom, Rachel re-dressed as she fought to get a handle on her own emotions. Ely wasn't a threat to her relationship with Jonas, she tried to assure herself. They were mates; that was for life. There was no way to break it. And Jonas loved her. He had told her he loved her. She was his life.

Moving back to the main lab, she faced a single person, clearly waiting for her. Elizabeth Vanderale was working at one of the intricate machines that lined a counter.

"Ely sees Jonas as her white knight," Elizabeth said as she turned, propped herself against the counter and watched Rachel. "She's protective of him, Rachel. And perhaps confused by her own feelings."

"He's mine." She wasn't about to let him go.

Elizabeth nodded. "I couldn't have asked for a better mate for him. You'll complete him, Rachel. That's important."

There was something sad, something regretful in the other woman.

"Why is that so important to you? I haven't noticed Leo caring. The best he can manage is to cut at Jonas each chance he has."

Elizabeth glanced away and drew in a hard breath. When her gaze returned to Rachel, it was filled with sorrow, and longing.

"Jonas knows the answer to that, Rachel," she stated. "And only he can fix Leo's disposition where he's concerned. I've done all I can do."

"Because the boy is too damned stubborn by far."

Rachel whirled around. The Leo stood just inside the main door, a glare on his face as he moved across the room to his mate. "He's trying to throw us out and send us back to Africa," he snapped. "He never misses a chance to remind me that he doesn't want me here."

Once again, that particular flash of pain whipped through Elizabeth's gaze.

"The two of you have no idea how to handle Jonas." Rachel could only shake her head at them.

"And you think you can?" Leo's voice rumbled with irritation. "No one can handle that whelp."

"You don't handle Jonas, exactly. Try being honest with him. And stop calling him a by-blow and a whelp. How insulting can a father get to his own son? It's no wonder he finds every opportunity to remind you that you claim your home is in Africa, rather than here."

Rachel could feel the anger mounting inside her now. For too many months, she had overheard or been forced to watch the confrontations between Jonas and Leo, and for just as long she'd thought how cold and unfeeling Leo could be while his son was watching.

Let Jonas turn his back though. Once he did, Leo's gaze would darken with regret, anger and sadness. He kept a facade, a cold, unfeeling attitude whenever Jonas watched, only to become a regretful father later.

Leo glared back at her. "Think Sanctuary can survive without Vanderale Industries, do you, young lady?"

Did Jonas truly think they couldn't?

Her brow arched. "I have no doubt they could survive, Leo. It may not be as easy, but they would do better than survive. They would thrive with or without your help."

"All because of Jonas?" Leo snapped.

Her eyes narrowed as she took note of Elizabeth laying her hand on her mate's arm in warning. "I never said that, Leo."

"You're his mate. Like all his women, you think the man has no faults."

She turned to Elizabeth. "Your mate is out of control, Dr. Vanderale. When he can be the rational man I know he's capable of, please place a notice on his chest; otherwise, the rest of us may never know." She shot Leo a tight smile. "Excuse me, but I'm sure my daughter needs to be fed soon."

"You should be breast-feeding," Leo snarled as she turned away. "That sissy formula you're giving her isn't nutritious."

Rachel clenched her teeth and continued to the door. Her temper wasn't in the best of states. Whatever mating heat wasn't doing, she appreciated, but it seemed it was triggering reactions in her that she sure as hell wasn't expecting. One of those reactions was the temper she had mastered years ago, when she was far younger.

"There's no way that child will be a fitting mate for a Breed if you're not feeding her properly."

Rachel swung around. Elizabeth was glaring at her mate as Leo crossed his arms and stared at Rachel with that chilling intensity.

"I certainly hope she isn't a fitting mate as far as you're concerned." She advanced a step, temper slowly getting the best of her. "Because your opinion is one I would fully distrust, Mr. Vanderale. And coming from you, any opinion on parenting you would have would be completely hypocritical."

His brows creased into a heavy frown. "I have never been a hypocrite."

"You're definitely a lousy father," she retorted furiously.

"I'm sorry, Leo, but if it weren't for your wife, I'd pity your babes."

Fire lit his gaze. "There is nothing more important to me than my children."

"Nothing except your secrecy, your pride and your own ideas of right and right," she stated caustically. "Poor Dane, it's no wonder he's such a manipulator. He has to be to stay under your radar and to keep your love. He's probably had nightmares about losing your regard and suffering the hell of your disinterest as Jonas has."

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" he growled, his head lowering, his lips pulling back in what she was certain was intended to be an intimidating snarl.

"An asshole, just to start with," she informed him. "Shall I go on?"

"I've destroyed lesser little upstarts than you pretend to be," he warned her, his expression shifting, turning calculating--just as Jonas's gaze shifted whenever he was playing one of his interminable games. She'd already picked up on this particular game though, as well as the reason for it.

She shook her head, smiling mockingly. "You don't scare me, Leo. You do no more than amuse me."

Surprise almost got the best of him. Rachel watched his eyes widen in surprise, his lips thin as he nearly snarled in frustration.

"Does it work often, Leo?" she drawled politely. "Pissing off your sons' mates to see how they'll respond? To see if they're worthy to be a mate to a Vanderale 'get'?" She sneered. "I don't just feel sorry for your children. I feel sorry for your wife, too. And I must say, she has amazing sons, despite the bastard who sired them."

She turned on her heel, her spine ramrod straight, and stalked back to the door.

"I love all my children, Ms. Broen." Leo's voice stopped her at the door. "And you are more than a worthy mate for my son."

"You're still a lousy fucking father." She jerked the door open and stalked from the lab, her entire body shaking with the anger surging through her.

Manipulating bastard. Jonas had come by it honestly, she had to say, but he was by far kinder about it. He manipulated for the good of his Enforcers. He manipulated and calculated for the good of the Breed community as a whole. Never, at any time, had she seen an edge of cruelty in him.

The Breeds had refined themselves from their beginnings. Leo was still the animal the scientists had tried to create. Jonas was the Breed who gave an air of mystery and romanticism to this savage new race of humans.

Leo still lived in a world where hiding was the only option and games were the only way to survive. Jonas was creating a world where future Breeds had a chance to walk down the street in peace, play cards with neighbors and raise their children as others would.

A world Rachel wanted to be a part of.

Ely watched silently from the shadows of her office, her door open as Leo and Elizabeth yelled at one another like combatants set to exchange blows.

She had suspected for the past weeks that there was an edge of conflict between them, but she hadn't been certain until now. Watching Leo's mate as he raged at Rachel Broen, Ely had seen the explosion coming--one it hadn't taken long to blow sky-high.