Lion's Heat (4 page)

"Is the baby unharmed?" Jonas questioned when she finished relating that evening's horror, rushing from the elevator as it deposited them inside an underground garage she hadn't even known existed.

"She was when I left." Her voice quivered.

Jonas had never said Amber's name. It was always "the child," or "the baby."

"She's hungry," she whispered, staring up at him. "And cold. They took her blankets. I know she hasn't been changed."

She was dying inside. Amber was such a good baby. She never cried unless she was cold or hungry. She loved to watch the world; she loved to watch her mother. The few times Rachel had defied Jonas's orders and brought Amber to the office, the baby had always seemed mesmerized by his voice. She listened. She watched. And now she was alone, without warmth or comfort.

"I can't stand it, Jonas." Her stomach cramped with pain, both from the blow she had received earlier, as well as the knowledge that her child was hungry and cold. Confused. Frightened. "Please, Jonas, don't let them hurt her."

"No one is going to hurt her." He stepped to the SUV and deposited her in the backseat.

Chimera jumped in the other side as Jonas slid in beside Rachel, cushioning her between them as Dane took the wheel and Lawe rode shotgun.

"Weapons." Lawe turned, an opened bag at his feet as he pushed the weapons to Jonas.

Rachel watched, terror building inside her as she saw more than the lethal laser and explosive ammo-contained weapons Jonas strapped on.

She saw a small army preparing for battle, and her child, her three-month-old baby, so defenseless, so tiny, was going to be smack in the middle of the war.

"Jonas, please." She couldn't breathe. Her chest tightened with panic, with a sense of terror so overwhelming it threatened to cut the air from her lungs.

His head turned, those eerie silver eyes flashing with living rage as he stared back at her.

"I put that child's life above my own," he suddenly stated, the growl in his voice a horrible thing to hear now. This was the animal she had heard whispers of: the Breed, whom so many feared.

Looking down, she watched as he quickly checked his weapon, his statement reverberating through her head. Jonas placed too many people above himself, she had often thought. He was a manipulator, he was calculating, but there was nothing cold, nothing cruel about him other than his demeanor.

"How many are there?" Dane Vanderale's tone was harder, if possible, and colder. Rachel hadn't imagined anyone could be harder and colder than Jonas, but Dane had him beat.

"There are four. Phillip Brandenmore is with them."

Silence filled the vehicle for long moments.

"Lawe is in place," Rule stated into the silence. "There are four men inside. Brandenmore has the child in a carrier next to him."

"He's prepared to take the baby with him," Dane stated.

"Shut the fuck up, Dane," Jonas snarled, and Rachel knew Jonas understood the implications of the report.

Rachel felt herself shaking from the inside out. She knew enough of the Breed history, the labs and the scientists to know that her baby would become no more than a research project.

Pain tore through her abdomen at the thought. A sob tightened in her throat, nearly choking her.

"Look at me." The harsh sound of Jonas's voice had her gaze lifting to him. "No one will hurt that child. Do you hear me?"

"Jonas." Dane's voice was warning. "Let's concentrate on doing what we can."

Don't make promises that couldn't be kept. She heard the underlying message as Jonas held her gaze, his eyes terrifying as the color shifted and swirled.

"No one will hurt that child." His eyes raked over her, his expression turning savage as he reached out, a single finger whispering over the bruise on her face. "And they'll die for this."

The bruises on her face were an affront to the animal crouched and snarling within him. He could feel the beast, the savage wildness that he had always fought threatened to rise to the fore.

This was his mate. No matter that he hadn't claimed her. No matter that he had no intentions of taking her. She was his, and God help the ones who had dared to lay a hand on her.

He could smell the scent of her blood, her pain. Even now, her body was drawn tight with the physical agony that raced through her system.

"Call Sanctuary," he ordered Chimera. "Have the heli-jet waiting close to fly us home. I want Ely and the medical staff prepared and ready for us to fly in."

Chimera gave a quick nod of her head.

"Lawe, Dane, give the order." Dane glanced back at Jonas in the rearview mirror. "The child's life is priority," he ordered them. "Nothing else matters."

Surprise flickered in Dane's gaze before he turned back, just as Jonas felt it emanating from Chimera and Lawe.

He had been attempting the capture of Brandenmore and his cohorts for years now, before they had ever been aware who, or what, was stealing information from Sanctuary or why. For the past year, nothing had mattered but capturing the bastard, alive, in the act of attempting to steal the information he wanted.

They needed him alive. They needed the chance, the opportunity, as well as the reason to place him under Breed Law during interrogation.

The interrogation mattered little in the face of the child's life.

His child.

God, how he wished that child was his rather than another's. How he wished he had been the one to sire the babe, to hold Rachel, to bring her pleasure.

If the world were a different place, if he were a different man. If there wasn't more risk in taking what was his than there was to maintaining a distance from it.

"We're moving in," Dane stated quietly.

"Jonas, please." Rachel's voice was ragged, her fingers gripping his arm, nails biting into the black sleeves of the black combat uniform he wore. "Please, Jonas, don't let them hurt Amber. Please."

Amber. The babe. His soul ripped apart at the thought of that child in danger.

"Stay in the vehicle, Rachel." He glanced at Chimera once again and received a quick nod in reply.

Rachel's life was in her hands. Her only responsibility was the protection of his mate.

The SUV drew to a stop, and Jonas let the animal free where he normally kept it leashed.

To every Breed there were two sides, alternate parts of their psyche that often worked together. But in certain instances, one became more dominant than the other.

The Lion that raged inside him now demanded dominance. His mate had been attacked, harmed. The child the animal and the man had claimed so many months ago was now in danger.

Not a single man would walk from that house without spilling precious life blood for his part in the bruises that marred his mate's flesh. For his part in the fear that even now, Jonas could scent raging from the child.

Moving into the small yard, he used the shadows that reached out from the houses surrounding it. The block Rachel's home sat on was small, quiet. Families lived and worked here. Children laughed, and parents watched after them.

Sliding in along the window that looked into the living room, Jonas caught a glimpse of Phillip Brandenmore, the owner of Brandenmore Research. The man who was determined to use the Breeds to create a drug that could decrease aging and could be sold for millions per user sat in front of the flat-screen television, a frown on his face as the babe whimpered at his side.

Amber was tired. The animal scented her weariness. She had cried until she had exhausted herself. She was cold and hungry. No one had fed her. No one had changed her. No one had placed a blanket over her fragile body to block the slight chill in the room.

Her mother kept the house warm. The first thing these strangers had done was turn the heat down, taking away the warmth. Then they had stripped her comfort, her security.

The animal inside Jonas sensed Amber's fear, and crouched with predatory intent inside him.

"They have a Coyote with them." Rule spoke through the communications link at Jonas's ear. "He's currently in the kitchen with a pot of coffee. Stupid bastard."

Coyotes could be lazy. They were savage in battle, merciless in a pack, but those that stayed with the council or moved into the less acceptable areas of the world were downright lazy.

"Take him out first," Dane ordered as Jonas eased along the window, checking Brandenmore and the child's position before pulling back.

"I'm going through the window," he told the others. "Brandenmore is alone in the living room."

"Coyote's in the kitchen, we have a sentry on the front porch, we have one in the bedroom upstairs," Rule reported. "They're not expecting trouble."

They hadn't expected anyone at the office tonight. They had thought they could send Rachel back, force her to do their dirty work, then kill her. And only God knew what they had planned for the child.

"Jonas, he'll use the baby." Dane's voice was matter-of-fact, regretful, but realistic.

"The child is priority," Jonas repeated.

"There's no way to get to Brandenmore before he gets to the baby," Dane stated. "Think about it, Jonas."

Jonas glanced in the window again. Brandenmore's gun hand was within inches of Amber's head, the small, snub-nosed laser elite in his hand.

The animal inside him was screaming. From the first moment that Jonas had realized Rachel was his mate, he'd had a connection to the child. Defenseless, and yet confident of her place in her mother's world. She'd known no danger, no fear--until now.

Now she was experiencing sensations she should have never known. Exhaustion. Hunger. Drugs.

Jonas inhaled slowly. The baby was tired, but she was quiet because she had been drugged as well.

She was frightened.

He heard the tiny mewls, little squeaks of sound as her fists clenched and released. She wanted to cry, but she didn't have the strength.

"Dane, if this child is harmed, we're going to have problems." Jonas heard the growl in his own voice, felt the hidden claws as they parted the tips of his fingers, shifting beneath the regular nail beds and tearing forth.

Blood tipped, curved and sharp. His fingers flexed, his senses became sharper, edged with the hunger for blood and vengeance.

The problem had already arrived. The Lion, always kept so carefully leashed, had slipped free. In a moment of weakness, an awareness of the danger the child--his child--faced and it was there.

A snarl molded his lips, canines flashed in the darkness, a growl rumbled in his chest, deep-throated, predatory.

"Boss, we're in position." Rule knew the sound. "I have the Coyote, Lawe has the sentry in front."

"Dane converged on Brandenmore," Mordecai, the Coyote team member, gave the final order as Jonas, man and animal, moved into action.

The Genetics Council that had created the Breeds had one purpose in mind: the ultimate killing machine. The Breeds were created, enhanced, and trained for any and every situation that could be conceived.

They hadn't been created to save lives. They hadn't been trained to care, to mate or to love. But what they hadn't been trained for had made them better, faster, stronger.

It had made them the most dangerous creatures on the face of the earth.

The ultimate weapon.

Glass crashed, shattered.

It had taken precious minutes, patience Rachel had never believed she could have before she had the chance to tear open the door and fling herself from the SUV.

She made it to the side of the house, no farther. Hard, restraining fingers latched onto her arm, dragging her back as she watched the dark, snarling figure throw itself into the living room window.

The sound of glass breaking and an animal's snarl were the only sounds in the night. A shadow moved on the front porch, and silhouettes twisted and churned against the curtains covering the kitchen window.

It was the broken glass that held her horrified attention.

Shards, dark tipped with blood, were jagged in the frame. There were no sounds, not even so much as a child's whimper.

"Let me go." Her voice was reed thin, hoarse as she felt the tears falling once again.

"He'll kill me." Chimera's tone was regretful. "I've risked enough letting you this close."

Rachel's head jerked back to the other woman. "This close?"

Eerie green eyes glanced toward the house before coming back to rest on Rachel. Chimera's shadowed features tightened with some unnamed emotion. "She's your daughter. You have the right."

As the final word passed Chimera's lips, all hell seemed to break loose.

A roar, unlike anything Rachel had heard in her life, shattered the silence of the night.