Each indrawn breath was agony, tearing at her chest, sending waves of pain surging through her system.
She didn’t know if she could bear it. Her ribs weren’t broken, she doubted they were cracked, but the bruising would be extensive. She could feel it, spreading across her side, around her back, into her chest.
“Get a safe distance from them,” Navarro snarled. “She’s in pain. She won’t be able to hold this position for long.”
“Look, the bastards are damned suspicious,” the other Breed argued. “They’ve been on my ass since we pulled out. We need to troll nice and easy to the hotel. We’ll take the underground parking garage. Without a pass, they can’t follow us.”
“Navarro, just a little bit.” She couldn’t hold back the plea any longer. “Please, it hurts.”
“Move so much as an inch and they’re going to have us before we’re close enough to the hotel to be safe,” the driver bit out furiously. “Just a few more blocks, Navarro. You don’t have a fucking inch to spare. You’re already all but crawling into the front seat here.”
Navarro could feel the impulses raging inside him, tearing at his senses as he fought to hold his place. Another part, a more primal, intent part of his mind demanded he move, that he ease the pain he could more than feel. He could smell it. A thick, rich scent of heat, like wood burning. In Mica, it was stronger than that of an ember, but not yet a blaze.
Scents were odd; different emotions, different levels of sensation or feelings could inspire the body to radiate far different scents.
With Mica, a woman he knew could bear, and hide, a certain amount of discomfort, the fact that he could scent the heat of the pain so clearly was telling. She was hurting, and the longer he lay there, the pressure of his body against hers, the more the pain increased.
He could sense it. The knowledge of it had his muscles tensing, had him fighting to keep his weight from her as much as possible.
“We’re almost there,” he assured her as he turned his head to catch a glimpse of the buildings they were passing. From between the front seats he could glimpse the towers, watching as each passed by and counting off the streets left to go. “There’s a nice warm room awaiting us, Mica. A hot meal, a hot shower, then I’ll check your ribs and see the damage those bastards managed to do. I’ll care for you. Haven’t I always cared for you whenever you needed?”
“Yes.” The tightly worded response destroyed him.
He’d never wanted anyone’s trust, especially a woman’s, but he wanted hers.
She made him wish, when he’d learned years before not to wish. She made him hunger, she made him want to learn how to dream.
The contradictions were often disconcerting because he couldn’t ignore them, and emotions were something he’d learned to ignore as a child.
With Mica, he found it impossible to ignore anything she forced him to feel. Especially the arousal.
“I remember the first time I saw you,” he whispered against her ear as he felt her trembling beneath him, the scent of pain growing stronger as it wafted from her. “Do you remember, Amaya?” Night rain. She reminded him of the dark peace, the gentle touch of a summer rain at night.
“I was fifteen.” Stress filled her voice, pain tightened it. “They were calling Cassie names.”
Some of the younger Breeds, those who had been rescued from the labs while still in their teens. They had dared to stand before Cassie and call her a freak when they detected the slightest hint of her Coyote genetics.
They had made Cassie cry before they even realized who she was. They’d known only the scent of her, Wolf and Coyote mixed. And at that time, Coyote had been a hated scent.
“You pushed in front of her and blacked Josiah’s eye.” He closed his eyes tight as he fought against a wild, impulsive need to tell the men following them to go to hell and lift his weight from her immediately.
“Josiah deserved it.” Her voice was tighter, a hint of a sob, the scent of tears ripping at him.
“Josiah deserved it,” he agreed before turning his head. “Cougar, dammit, tell me we’re in safe territory.”
“They’re still on our fucking asses and that body heat sensor is still active,” Cougar snarled back. “Five more minutes, Nav. She’s not dying, it just fucking hurts.”
The scent of her pain was affecting Cougar as well. The other Breed was hard-core, cold to the pit of his soul where males, human or Breed, were concerned. But he hadn’t quite learned that women were just as strong, and a hell of a lot more dangerous in some cases than any man could ever hope to be.
Women were Cougar’s weakness. Mica was Navarro’s. And it made no sense. She wasn’t his mate. He’d pushed that limit, tested her response to him; he’d kissed her, and still, the mating hormone hadn’t risen inside him.
“Navarro please . . .” she whispered again, her breathing shallow, the scent of her tears destroying him. “I can’t breathe.”
The soft heat of an ember that indicated her pain was now beginning to glow brighter, threatening to blossom to a full flame.
“Three more minutes,” Cougar assured him, his voice tighter. “Bastards are still on our asses.”
“I’m going to kill them,” Navarro promised. “Find out who it is, Cougar. They’re dead.”
Mica whimpered beneath him.
Son of a bitch, he hated hurting her.
“We’re coming up on the hotel,” Cougar stated. “Once we turn in, we should be home free.”
“Just hurry the fuck up!” It was Mica’s voice, vibrating with pain now, thick with tears but heavy with anger.
“I thought you said she was sweet and shy, Nav,” Cougar snorted then. “She sounds like a brat to me.”
“I see a black eye in his future too.” Clenched teeth, feminine ire and that damned pain.
“I know how to duck,” Cougar assured her. “I always was better at that than Josiah was.”
“But Josiah also knows how to keep his mouth shut now. A lesson you need to learn,” Navarro stated warningly, a flare of jealousy he couldn’t have expected rising inside him at the flirtatiousness in Cougar’s voice.
He shot a glare toward the other Breed and found himself biting off a growl.
“If he doesn’t hurry, I’m going to kick his ass,” Mica promised painfully.
Navarro wanted to grin at the irritation in her voice, and he would have, if he hadn’t known it was caused by pain.
She didn’t make idle threats. He’d seen her go nose to nose with Breeds before, and they didn’t always back down simply because she was protected by Dash Sinclair.
“Here we go,” Cougar murmured.
As he made the turn, Navarro was suddenly thankful Mica was on her stomach, not on her back. If she had been on her back, staring up at him, he wondered if he could have withstood the temptation of her kiss, despite her pain.
She made him hot. She made his dick damned hard, and she made him feel, whether he wanted to or not. He couldn’t help it. No matter how he fought it, she made him as hungry as a damned rabid Wolf and as off balance as a human teenager after his first love.
“We’re clear.” The relief in Cougar’s voice had Navarro realizing the tension that had been tightening inside him.
Navarro shifted back quickly, his hands moving to her back, one easing against her side to check for injury.
Her clothes were sodden, chilled against her flesh, but he could feel the heat of her beneath the clothing, indicating a deep, painful bruise.
There was no scent of broken bones, of blood or internal bleeding. Just her pain, and the wounding of the flesh clear to the bone. The knowledge of the pain she must be feeling had an effect on him that he couldn’t have anticipated. Regret that seared him, and a fury toward her attacker that assured his death if Navarro ever learned his identity.
“The elevator goes straight to the penthouse suite,” Cougar informed them as Navarro clenched his jaw and helped Mica sit up in the seat.
Gripping her ribs, she
eased up with his help, her golden green eyes almost the color of a Breed’s. Almost. That gold was sparse, like small flakes of glitter that peeked in and out of the soft green.
“Let’s go.” The moment the SUV pulled up to the underground elevator, Navarro was out of the vehicle, moving around quickly to throw Mica’s door open and help her from the seat.
“I can walk. I’m just not in the mood to have your heavy ass laying all over me.” She almost slapped at his hands as she glared up at him while moving gingerly from the backseat.
He almost winced at the biting tone. He’d learned young, though, to never back down, no matter the strength of his adversary.
Ignoring her glare, he gripped her arm and steered her quickly to the elevator as he pulled the electronic key card from the inner pocket of his coat.
Sliding it into the security strip, Navarro glanced around quickly, his gaze narrowed, his senses on high alert as the door slid open.
“He man,” she muttered as he pushed her gently inside the small cubicle.
“Brat.” Affection rose inside him as he chose the penthouse suite from the digital menu.
“Jonas went all out, I see.” A delicate, feminine sound of ire was sniffed from her delicate little nose. “And all for little ole me.”
Glancing down at her from the corner of his eyes, he wondered exactly how to diffuse the temper he could feel brewing. He hadn’t been trained in this particular combat situation. The war of the sexes wasn’t exactly on the list of training assignments the Genetics Council scientists and military advisors had approved.
“All for you,” he finally agreed. “Once we realized a team had been sent to capture you, your team was ordered to bring you in. Unfortunately, they had already been identified by the men sent for you. They took your team out before the Coyote tried to grab you. Cougar and I were here on another assignment when the distress signal went out and we came to help.”
They had been there to meet with someone Jonas had been searching high and low for. Years of investigative work had gone into locating this particular scientist. The moment Navarro had caught the call on the comm link that Mica’s team had been hit, he’d left the assignment immediately.
He could still hear Jonas screaming through the link and Lawe and Rule’s amused laughter as he and Cougar sped away to the heart of the city.
“I had a team?” She sounded faintly surprised.
“Of course you had a team,” he informed her as the elevator slid to a smooth, soundless stop. “You’ve always had one, Mica. Since the day Cassie declared you were her best friend and informed her father that her ‘fairy’ said she needed you, you’ve had a team covering you.”
He felt her stiffen, as though that information had somehow surprised her, or upset her. The faintest scent of anger, a heat more like a volcano preparing to erupt than the embers of pain, drifted to him.
“That long?” Her voice was faint, disappointed.
Without waiting for the doors to fully open, she stepped into the penthouse, obviously ignoring every rule of entry she had ever been taught.
Shaking his head, Navarro stepped in front of her with a sharp growl, his gaze slicing back at her in warning and, thankfully, bringing her to a stop as he moved ahead of her.
“Anger is no excuse for ignoring the rules,” he snapped.
The thing about Mica? A man had to take control immediately. Begin as he intended to go on. She could push right over anyone who thought she should be spoiled or treated gently.
“Being male is no excuse for arrogance, but I’ve noticed Breed males have it in abundance,” she retorted without an ounce of the sweetness displayed in her voice.
She would make any man a hell of a woman, mate or wife. She wasn’t weak, but neither was she a shrew. She could be gentle, she could soft, or she could be an explosive, as unstable as hell in the wrong hands.
She would be a handful, Navarro had always known that, but there was a part of him that looked forward to the challenge. A part of him that was glad she wasn’t his mate, while another part mourned it.
Thankfully, so far, as he seemed to be safe of the dangers of mating; he refused to marry, and he wouldn’t allow himself the convenience of a mistress or a steady lover.
He was created for deception, created to deceive and to lie, and trusting a man, or a Breed, created and trained for such things, wouldn’t be easy for any woman. But even more, he was one of only a few such creations, and his gifts, or his curse, was needed for the survival of the Breeds at large. Mating would change that. It would change him. And Navarro wasn’t certain if he was ready for that.
He knew well what he couldn’t have, no matter the desires that haunted him in the darkest hours of the night. And this woman, sharp and so very prickly on the outside, heated and warm on the inside, was the very thing he couldn’t allow himself.
He ignored the arrogance comment and opted instead to draw the sub-shot burst from beneath his jacket before checking the suite carefully.
Cougar would be back soon with the equipment to ensure there were no electronic or video bugs, while Navarro knew Jonas was currently working on a plan to get Mica out of the city as secretly as possible.
The team they had bypassed earlier wasn’t the only one sent for her, scouring the city to locate her even now.
Hell no.
At last count, there were twelve teams searching high and low for Mica. Twenty-four men determined to take her. There were surface-to-air, handheld missiles in the city, and plans to waylay anyone who tried to drive her out or any heli-jet that dared to fly her out. If they could catch sight of it.
Find a hole and stay put, Jonas had warned them, until he found a way to get her back to Sanctuary or to Haven. Keep her under wraps. Keep her safe. And do it all while trying like hell to stay out of her pants had been Navarro’s warning to himself.
Unfortunately, the last part was the very order he was truly afraid would never be obeyed.
Getting in Mica’s pants was one of the first things on his list of things to do while Jonas and Stygian searched for an escape route out of the city. He didn’t have to change to fuck her.
He almost winced. No, he could never fuck her. A woman like Mica, a man, no matter his species, could only make love to such a woman, whether he allowed himself to love her or not.
And this would be his only chance to have her; it might well be his last chance to know exactly what he was leaving behind. It was time for him to go before nature caught up with him and gave him a mate. It was time to return to the life of lies and illusion he’d been a part of before taking the mission to search for Jonas’s scientist.
Besides, Mica was a weakness that could get them both killed.
CHAPTER 2
Standing beneath the steaming hot spray of the penthouse shower and allowing it to wash away the bone-deep chill that had seeped inside her, Mica finally felt she might live rather than die from the cold.
She hated the cold. She hated winter. She hated having to feel the chill of it or to look out the window and see the snow swirling. That had made the night worse than it would have been otherwise, that bone-deep cold. She’d been terrified she would never be warm again.
With the warmth came a determination to ignore the danger she knew was also swirling outside the doors of the hotel. She closed her eyes and forced herself to slip into the darkness there, to create that wall between her and the reality of the memories that threatened to take hold.
That whole head-in-the-sand attitude never failed to make Cassie crazy when they were together.
Mica loved ignoring the fact that she didn’t have a real life. That she was always surrounded by danger, Breeds, and the realization that at any time the Breeds’ enemies could strike out at her instead of her friends.
They finally had.
A hard, rough breath shuddered through her as she pushed back the knowledge again. It was harder this time. Of course, she hadn’t faced another night quite like tonight either.
Yep, she was an ostrich. Feathers, plume, head in the sand, whole nine yards.
Well, except those long bird legs. She still had the short legs. But the rest of it. Yes indeed, just list her name with the feathered genera of the world, because she wasn’t about to open her eyes and accept reality anytime soon.
She’d just put that little thing on her to-do list for next year, maybe.
“Are you okay in there?”
Mica jumped, startled to hear his voice so close, just outside the frosted glass of the shower door.
“I’m fine. Go away.”
She needed just a few more minutes to assure herself, to convince herself she wasn’t here standing beneath the pouring hot water because she had just spent hours in the driving rain running from Breed enemies. After all, she wasn’t a Breed, right? She was as human as they came, and no one could say any different.
“Go away? Mica, my feelings might be hurt. Are you certain you don’t need your back washed? Or perhaps your front?” He was clearly amused, the exotic edge of his voice stroking over her senses.
God, she loved that little hint of an accent. Just a hint, one was never certain it was really there, but the sound of it just stroked across her senses like an erotic caress.
“You’d have to have feelings first, Navarro. And I’m able to wash my back, and my front, perfectly on my own.” A feminine sniff of disdain met his suggestion, though she could feel her heart trying to race in excitement.
This wasn’t the first time Navarro had made such a comment, but they never failed to steal her breath.
She couldn’t help it. Unlike many other Breeds, there was simply something about Navarro that she couldn’t force herself to ignore.
Or perhaps she didn’t want to ignore it. The excitement, the sense of wonder, the surge of aroused adrenaline were a pleasure in and of themselves that she seemed to be becoming addicted to.
“You’re wounding my heart, Amaya,” he drawled. “I believe I may have to come up with some punishment in retaliation.”
One of these days, she was going to ask him exactly what that word meant. She knew it was Japanese, but she hadn’t yet forced herself to learn the meaning of it. If she learned it simply meant friendship, or some kind of child, her ego might be irreparably stripped.
“As long as that punishment doesn’t include invading my shower or anything cold,” she assured him, though she could feel every cell in her body threatening to send out a scent that would attest otherwise.
“Mica, I want to see your ribs.” His voice hardened imperceptibly.
Mica’s nipples hardened.
Just that fast, the thought of him touching her ribs, so close to the swollen mounds of her breasts, and she was becoming flushed with an arousal she couldn’t hide.
Would the water cover the scent?
Heat flushed her face at the thought of being unable to hide the telling scent of an arousal so strong that even now she could feel the betraying slickness gathering between her thighs.
“I’m just sore,” she tried to assure him as her fingers glanced over the area. “Nothing’s broken, just bruised.”
She stroked the curve of her own breast, her fingertips eliciting a wave of pleasure that swept through her entire system.
She would love to have him touch her. To feel his fingers stroking over her flesh gently, his lips touching her, not just kissing her, but stroking against her flesh, covering her nipple, suckling it, licking it.
“I would rather see that for myself. We’re going to be leaving soon. I need to know the true condition of any injuries in order to know how to proceed should we run into trouble.”
Of course he did. Breeds believed in always being completely prepared, often to a level that bordered on the ridiculous. Even her father, an army Special Forces soldier, wasn’t as detailed as Breeds were without even thinking about it.
“It’s fine, Navarro.” She closed her eyes, fighting the need to have him touch her.
“I would like to see for myself that it’s simply a bruise,” he stated firmly. “When you’ve finished, I’ll be waiting for you in the bedroom.”
Opening her eyes and turning her head, she watched as he left the bathroom, the shadow of his tall, leanly muscled physique easing from the doorway.
Pushing her face beneath the pouring water, she debated running cold water rather than hot, but the memory of that icy chill was still too sharp.
As aroused as he had her, still the thought of anything but warmth washing over her sent a wave of fear crashing through her mind. She was afraid the thought of icy rain would only be a fearful thing in the future now, rather than simply something to avoid as it had been before tonight.
Pushing the thought and the memory of that chill to the back of her mind, Mica finished her shower before shutting off the water and wrapping a towel around her sodden hair. Drying quickly, she pulled on a thick, ultra-soft white hotel robe and belted it loosely.
She hoped he had thought to get her more clothes; otherwise, her stay here was going to be pretty awkward, she thought, as she quickly towel dried her hair.
Running her fingers through the heavy, straight strands, she quickly used the blow-dryer to knock most of the dampness out of them. She didn’t want to feel anything cold against her flesh for a long time.
When she moved from the large, luxurious bathroom to the bedroom, she came to a slow, hesitant stop as she saw Navarro sitting on the bed, his gaze directed to the e-pad he was scrolling through as he waited on her.
His head lifted.
Eyes as dark as the black of night stared back at her silently, unblinkingly.
Mica cleared her throat as a wave of nervousness washed through her.
He’d changed clothes. Sodden black mission pants and the lightweight black shirt were gone. In their place perfectly creased, obviously pricey black jeans and a white long-sleeved cotton shirt tucked snugly into the band. A black leather belt cinched his hard waist, and on his feet he wore obviously expensive leather boots.
Never let it be said that Navarro Blaine didn’t know how to dress, and how to dress well.
His hair was pushed back from his face, falling to his nape, and the thick, heavy strands invited her fingers to explore and play.
It was as straight as her own, though thicker, heavier, the midnight color such a ri