She was tired, and evidently she looked tired too.
She was aware of the other three men watching her curiously.
“I have my gear, Thor.” She straightened as the doors slid open and a couple left the elevator. Their expressions were wary as their gazes moved over the less than reputable-looking group.
Diane snickered up at Thor as she stepped into the elevator and caught his disgruntled look. Readjusting her gear on her shoulders, she almost wished she had taken him up on his offer.
Yeah, she would have loved to have had Thor haul her gear for her. His shoulders were a hell of a lot stouter than hers, and he carried his own gear as though it weighed nothing. But her uncle had warned her that no matter how tired or wounded she was, she had to pull her own weight if she wanted them to respect her. The day she couldn’t haul her own gear, and she wasn’t wounded, was the day her men would start protecting her instead of following her. It would be the day she would lose her command.
She’d fought too many years for their respect to risk that. She wasn’t going to give it up because she’d missed a few nights’ sleep in order to return to the States in time to follow the lead she had been given and to complete her mission.
“Man, I need a cold beer, a warm woman and a soft bed,” Aaron said, sighing as he leaned against the elevator wall, his brown eyes reflecting the same weariness they all felt.
Diane snorted as she leaned against the wall as well and waited for the tenth floor. “Cold beer, warm shower, and that soft bed.” She sighed.
The thought of a warm man slid through her mind and she immediately, forcibly, pushed it back.
“Here we go,” Thor breathed out in relief as the doors slid open. “I’ll let you know about that accountant, boss.”
“I’ll be there,” she promised. “Once Wyatt hears my report we’ll probably be heading out for that vacation we’ve all dreamed of.”
It was the only distraction she had to use to explain her own disappearance once she gave the impression of having given up on this mission.
She wasn’t about to give up.
The girl she was looking for was too important and there were too many forces converging around her for Diane to give up now.
“Night, boss.” Thor headed in the opposite direction to his room.
“Night, boss,” Malcolm echoed as he crossed the hall to his room.
“See ya, boss.” Aaron followed Thor, and headed farther up the hall, his shoulders drooping just a bit.
Aaron got his wish to head home to see his parents. Brick could pick up with the woman he’d been living with for the past few years, while Malcolm had a sister he intended to visit. Thor kept talking about budgets, accountants and balancing the books. She threw a careless wave over her shoulder to her men as she headed down the hall to her room. Reaching the door, she nodded to the Breed Enforcers assigned to guard the floor of the exclusive D.C. hotel reserved for Breed VIP visitors to the city.
Tonight, it was home.
She could feel the grime of the past three days on her body, and the long hours spent in the middle of the desert before that hadn’t helped. And it seemed no matter the direction she went, the information she was searching for was always one step ahead of them. Just as the woman was.
• • •
Lawe stepped from the stairwell entrance, preferring it over the elevator to help alleviate some of the tension that tightened his muscles.
As the door closed behind him, the ping of the elevator had him pausing as the doors slid open and Rule stepped into the hall.
Dressed in black, the Lion Breed Enforcer insignia on his right shoulder and his black hair pulled back from his face to reveal the strong features and brilliance of his topaz eyes, he didn’t look like Lawe’s twin. There was a resemblance, though, one strong enough that the genetic line wasn’t in doubt.
He paused as he turned and saw Lawe, a frown marking his brow.
“Jonas didn’t mention you were scheduled to be here.”
Lawe’s lips tightened.
“Do you ever get tired of his machinations?”
Rule snorted. “Don’t we all. If it weren’t for the fact that killing him would only cause more problems, I would kill him myself.”
It was a regular refrain from damned near every Breed that came in contact with the director.
Rule tilted his head then as he stared back at Lawe questioningly. “Why are you here?”
“Because Jonas is playing games with us,” Lawe growled. “He knows she’s my mate, Rule.”
Rule nodded sharply. “It would be hard to miss. She carried your scent when I first met her. I wondered if you would tell me when it happened and why you walked away from her.”
The curiosity in his twin’s gaze was impossible to miss. Lawe had been ignoring it for months, and didn’t intend to explain it now either.
“I haven’t mated her.” Lawe’s teeth clenched at the speculation in his brother’s eyes. “Jonas sent you to try to push me to it.”
Rule’s lips thinned. He didn’t like Jonas’s games any more than anyone else, but Lawe could see something more swirling in his brother’s gaze. Something that had him tensing at the possibility that his brother could become a problem where Diane was concerned, just as Jonas was becoming one.
“No mating huh?” Rule asked softly. “Tell me, Lawe, what do you think of Jonas and Ely’s position that if a Breed doesn’t claim his mate, then a genetic relation, or brother, may have that chance?”
Lawe’s nostrils flared with his attempt to hold back the instinctive anger that shot through his system because of the question.
Jonas and the Breed specialist, Dr. Ely Morrey, seemed to be under the impression that if a female wasn’t physically mated, then the first stage of mating heat made her vulnerable to other males.
That first stage, when the minute quantities of the hormone appear on the fine hairs covering a Breed’s body, or when something as simple as a brush of his lips to her flesh could infect her with enough of the hormone to activate her ability to become a mate. That combined with an emotional response, Ely had hypothesized, could allow her to mate another Breed.
Lawe had no idea if it had ever happened in the past, but he’d be damned if he’d allow Rule and Diane to prove it.
“Don’t go there, Rule,” Lawe warned him softly. “I don’t think your horoscope declared today to be a good day to die.”
Rule reached back and rubbed at his neck as he gave a heavy sigh.
“Jonas wants you out of this,” Rule said as he dropped his arm back to his side. “I agree with him. You don’t want her, you don’t want the mating and I understand why. That doesn’t mean she should be left vulnerable to any Breed looking to complete it. A Breed perhaps unable or unwilling to utilize her strengths.”
“Use them you mean?” Lawe questioned with icy disdain. “Don’t sugarcoat it, Rule. We both know Jonas doesn’t want to lose her and her team. He knows I’ll pull her off active duty the second I can.”
Rule shrugged. “She’s a hell of a warrior. You’ll destroy her if you do that, Lawe. On the other hand, I think I could handle it.”
Lawe couldn’t help but laugh, though the sound held little amusement. “Go find your own woman. This one’s off-limits to every other Breed with the mistaken intention to even attempt such a thing.”
“But you’re not claiming her,” Rule pointed out softly. “You know, Lawe, we’re brothers. Identical twins, despite the differences in our looks. I don’t want to love a woman to the point it marks my soul. If you don’t want your mate, give me that chance. I’d take care of her.”
Was he serious?
Lawe stared back at Rule and once again was struck by the strange chill that had entered his brother’s eyes in the past months. There was the chance that his brother was entirely serious.
“Why don’t you just run on home while I consider your request?” Lawe grunted though he felt that dark-animal corner of his being awakening and att
empting to overtake his humanity.
Rule’s lips quirked. “While you’re considering it, I’ll just step in here and get things started, why don’t I?” Despite the amusement, there was an edge of warning in Rule’s tone.
The snarl that curled Lawe’s lips and flashed his canines was the first indication that the animal genetics were slipping the leash he kept on them.
Rule didn’t back down. His brow lifted instead as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Lawe. “You don’t do that often,” he pointed out coolly. “You’re letting her get to you.”
“No, you and Jonas are getting to me,” Lawe growled. “What the hell makes you think you can force a mating? Even Cabal told us he’d had no attraction for his twin, Tanner’s, mate. What makes you think it would be different for you? Hell, what makes Jonas and Ely believe such a thing could even be considered?”
“Because they were created differently, Lawe. We’re actually twins. Fraternal perhaps, but still the genetics are stronger than Tanner and Cabal’s, and we share a bond they didn’t. It’s worth finding out if those genetics would allow me to claim the woman you don’t want. Besides, it’s information Dr. Morrey may be able to use in the future if my ability to be her mate is possible.”
Lawe almost shook his head, hoping to force a level of belief into his senses. To actually accept that his brother would consider such a thing.
“You would take what’s mine?” Lawe asked, unwilling to admit to the confusion.
“You’re not claiming her, Lawe,” Rule growled. It was a low, rumbling sound that hinted at the same internal anger Lawe was feeling. “You don’t want her. I don’t want a mate that could destroy me. It seems a fair enough exchange to me.”
“You don’t want her either. Not as she deserves. So what the hell makes you think it would be worth the fight I’ll give you? Get the hell out of here, Rule.” There wasn’t a chance he was going to let his brother around his mate. “Get out of here before I do something we’ll both regret.”
His brother started to turn and move up the hall toward Diane’s room. Lawe could see his intent, feel it, and he wasn’t having it.
He was moving even before he was aware of the impulse. For that brief moment of time the animal inside him rose up and acted before he could rein it in.
Rule was against the wall as Lawe pressed his forearm tight and hard into his brother’s throat. The Breeds standing guard farther up the hall stepped forward then deliberately restrained themselves from moving from their posts.
The VIPs they guarded were more important than their feline curiosity or instincts concerning the violence rising between the two brothers. But they still watched curiously and Lawe was still very much aware of them.
“No!” he said with a snarl in his brother’s face. “Don’t destroy the bond we’ve had since our birth, Rule. Back the fuck off.”
Rule’s lips curled in amusement despite the powerful arm Lawe had pressed into his throat.
The mocking amusement he’d had moments before returned to his gaze. “The scent you put on her can be washed away eventually,” Rule warned him. “It’s not strong enough to do anything but cause a Breed to pause and then assure him she’s Breed compatible. If I don’t take my chance, then another Breed will. Which would you prefer, Lawe? That another mate her or that one you know will protect her with his life has her?”
“Another Breed won’t get the warning you’re getting. I’ll fucking kill him. Stay the hell away from her or I’ll make damned sure you wish you had.”
Before the animal raging through his senses could strike out and harm the brother he had pledged to protect, Lawe jerked back before stabbing his finger on the elevator control panel.
The ping of the elevator sounded before the door slid open.
“For both our sakes,” Lawe stated quietly with much more restraint than he actually felt.
Their gazes locked in silent confrontation, each gauging the other’s intent and the strength behind it before Rule finally gave a slow nod.
“This time,” Rule stated softly. “This time, Lawe. But before I see another take what I know should be yours, I will step around you and claim her myself. One way or the other, no matter the enmity it may cause between us.”
Lawe clenched his fists at his side and forced himself to hold back the anger that pounded through his veins and kept his animal instincts on a sharply honed edge.
He hated that feeling. That feeling that there was another entity rising inside him and threatening to steal the control he’d honed over the years.
His gaze remained locked with his brother’s until the elevator doors slid closed and the small cubicle carrying Rule made its return journey to the lobby of the hotel. He stood, watching the numbers on the digital display count down the elevator’s progress until it reach the lobby.
He made himself stand there, watch, and wait as he fought the primal instincts tearing through him.
He’d managed to keep it at bay during the past months since he’d rescued Diane and realized she was his mate. He’d reined it in and assured himself that he could deny that savage impulse to claim her. Each time they’d come in contact, each time the battle became harder, but he’d still managed to walk away.
As he stalked to her door, that control he’d had most of his life was fading away. The animal part of him was clawing its way to the forefront of his senses, and its attention was locked on a single, subtle scent.
The scent of its mate.
The mate that even now the rational, logical part of his brain was screaming to deny. He couldn’t have her. He wouldn’t allow himself to risk her. But he could ensure, at least for a little while, that the scent he placed on her was strong enough to keep even Rule at bay.
For a little while.
• • •
Diane had finished dinner and cleaned up her mess when she suddenly paused just inside the kitchenette, her gaze slicing to the door at the sound of a keycard sliding through the lock.
The soft hiss was a sound most people would have never detected, but most people hadn’t been trained by her paranoid uncle.
Perhaps paranoid was the wrong word to use. Her very cautious uncle.
In that second, her weapon cleared the holster she wore at the small of her back. The small laser-powered personal defense handgun had the look of the old-style Glock the military once issued, but it contained all the power of the adjustable laser-powered rifles.
The bursts of fiery energy could knock a man off his feet or put a hole in him the size of a bowling ball.
“Put your weapon down, wildcat. It’s just me.”
Diane froze, the weapon still held at her thigh by both hands as the door swung open and he stepped in.