by Lora Leigh
g her from Jason’s sight for the few precious seconds she needed to jerk her link from her purse and attach it to her ear.
A shot fired and he fell. The smell of blood filled the room, pouring from the chest wound as Noble pressed his own hand to his chest and fought to hold the blood inside his body. The other Breeds didn’t move, but the air of savagery that filled the room was nearly stifling now.
“Move between me and what’s mine again…,” Jason sneered, before turning to her. “Now come here, little cat.”
Dawn slid away from Seth quickly, feeling his rage as she did so, as Stygian moved between them and the Breeds surrounded him. They would restrain him if they had to, but Seth was smarter than that. He watched her with tormented eyes, but she saw the determination in his face. He would never stand still if she tried to leave the room with Phelps.
She glided several feet away, then stopped.
“Dawn, we can’t get a bead on him. Cassie’s head is in the way,” Jonas spoke through the link. “You have to get him to shift.”
She moved again, several more feet, but though he turned with her, he kept Cassie in a fully protective position in front of him.
“You’ve lost your edge,” she told him calmly. “Against me, as well as Seth. You showed yourself too soon, Jason. That was a miscalculation on your part.”
He made a tsking sound. “I like your voice better when you’re screaming and begging God to save you.” He grinned. “Did he ever save you, Dawn?”
She arched her brow and spread her arms. “I’m free.”
“You were for a time,” he agreed. “And now Daddy is here to collect you.” He chuckled at his own joke.
And Dawn smiled as she shook her head. “You’ll never get out of here alive, Jason.”
“Everything’s in place, Dawn,” he assured her. “I’m smart, remember? I trained your animal asses and I can take you out whenever I want to. As many of you as I want.”
Dawn let her gaze drift to Cassie. She was staring at her parents, tears washing over her face as Elizabeth’s broken voice whispered her name.
“Let Cassie go.” She bargained then, stepping close as Seth snarled Dawn’s name. “And we’ll go.”
Jason laughed at that, as she had known he would. “Not going to happen,” he promised her. “She’s payday. You’re my reward. I’m going to strap you down, pump you full of those nifty little drugs the scientists wouldn’t let you have before, and I’m going to fuck you until you’re screaming in pleasure. Fuck you and tape it and send it to your fiancé.” He smiled tauntingly at Seth. “He can see how a real man tames your particular Breed.”
“He doesn’t need drugs to make me scream in pleasure, Jason,” Dawn pointed out as the Breeds closed in around Seth.
“Dawn, damn you, stop,” Seth hissed. She heard him, but Jason didn’t. He was laughing at her, but there was fury in the sound.
The black fury toward this man had settled inside her, hardening into a knot of resolve in her soul. She had made a vow, one that had meant so much to her that she’d had to forget it to live. She had vowed, to herself and to God, that she would wash her hands in this man’s blood.
“Don’t talk like a nasty whore, little girl,” he snapped back at her. “I’ll teach you better once I have you alone. You’ll bow for me. You’ll go to your knees and beg for me.”
Dawn widened her eyes. “What a little fantasy world you live in. Shall I tell you my fantasy?”
The link crackled at her ear. “Be careful, Dawn. We can’t lose Cassie to a madman’s bullet,” Jonas warned her.
He wouldn’t kill Cassie. Jason knew what she was worth alive, with her virginity intact. Whatever plans the Council had for her involved that innocence. But Dawn knew well how they used innocence against the female Breeds.
The guests were watching the scene that played out before them in horror. Cassie had made an impression on all of them, with her laughter and wry sense of humor, her teasing jokes and her habit of drawing out even the shiest of the group.
They had known she was a Breed, but there had been no one who had been able to resist her appeal. They watched her now, as Dawn did, their hearts in their throats.
“Let her go, Jason,” she warned him again. Softly. “Number one, you’ll never make it out of here alive with her.”
He smiled. “I could blow her brains out right now, be out that door and gone before any of you could recover from the shock.”
Elizabeth’s muffled sob tore through her.
Dawn shook her head. “We’re too well trained. The second she dropped, you’d be dead.”
He watched, his finger caressing the trigger, a growl threatening to give away his location as Breeds raced for a position to get a bead on the man holding the dark-haired girl.
He was in the perfect position. High enough to see everything going on through the ceiling-high windows, his sights trained on the back of Jason Phelps’s neck. He could take the shot, he should take the shot, but the risk held him back.
If he did it, at this angle, the bullet would tear through the spine at the back of the neck, releasing Phelps’s grip on the gun as he fell. But there was a 90 percent chance that when the bullet tore out of the front of the neck, it would tear a slice through Cassie Sinclair’s scalp.
It wouldn’t kill her. Maybe.
He grimaced, tested the wind again, and prayed it held. He was high enough to hide his scent from the Breeds below for the time being, except, perhaps, one. The one several branches below him trying to get the same bead that he had.
Hell, why did the bastard have to grab that particular female? The one guaranteed to weaken him, to make him caress the trigger rather than shoot.
Dawn would have been a regrettable casualty, but his fascination with her wouldn’t have held him back as this one did.
He lowered his eye to the sights and adjusted again. He couldn’t let this one young woman change the course of the battle between the Council and the Breeds.
If Phelps escaped with her, Dash Sinclair would move heaven and earth to take her back. He would slice through suspected Council members like a swath of overriding fury, and the Breeds that followed him would wash in the blood he shed.
The Breeds would forget political maneuvering and show the world the savagery they were capable of. That couldn’t be allowed.
He inhaled slowly, forced back the tension that would have gathered inside him and lined up the shot. Just one small shift was all he needed.
“Dawn, we just need a small shift,” Jonas spoke softly through the link. “We have sight, we just need more room. You have to maneuver him.”
She glanced around the room. Callan was there as well, Jonas’s words causing him to tense and bounce on his feet. She knew what he would do. He would place his own life in the path of a bullet to force Jason to move that needed quarter of an inch.
He was their pride leader. His safety and the safety of his family was uppermost. She couldn’t allow him to make that move.
“Let her go, Jason.” She moved closer, lowered her voice, watched him carefully. “You can get out of here with me. You can never escape with Cassie. They will kill her first. Cut your losses.”
“So you can kill me the moment we step into the night?” He laughed. “It’s not going to happen, little girl.”
Cassie was pale, her eyes large, the tears shimmering on her face. There was no way to get a message to the girl, though Dawn knew, she knew, Cassie’s training was better than this. Cassie should have already disabled him, should have already made a way for Jonas to get a shot. Unless she knew something, sensed something none of them did.
“You were easy, Dawn,” Jason chided then. “The minute you thought your precious Seth was in danger, you came running. You should have run right back to Sanctuary instead.”
She let a ghost of a smile touch her lips. “But if I had, I would have never remembered you, would I?” she pointed out and watched his eyes widen with surprise, almost in fear.<
br />
“You remember all of it?”
“I remember all of it, Jason,” she assured him. “Years’ worth.” She forced herself to laugh lightly. “And you didn’t even faze me. You’re barely a hiccup on my little radar now.”
He frowned heavily, his finger flexing on the trigger of the gun held to Cassie’s temple.
The girl’s lips were trembling, her expression stark, but not with fear. Rather with pain as she watched her parents.
The bond between Cassie and her parents was absolute. It had been forged in steel, her mother’s connection to the Wolf Breed naturally including the child that had brought them together. Seeing her pain, seeing the same knowledge Dawn saw in Cassie, would be killing Dash and Elizabeth. The knowledge that their daughter was meeting death without a fight.
“I’ll become your radar.” He chuckled. “Now get your ass over here with us. We’re going home, baby. Where we can play all by ourselves.”
All by themselves. Dawn moved slowly across the room, praying the others stayed in place. She just had to get beside him, get in place and then she could jerk Cassie that needed distance to save her from a bullet to her brain.
“To the left, Dawn,” Jonas directed her. “That will turn him where we need him.”
She moved to the left, still going forward, pretending to skirt around a couple huddled together as they watched Phelps.
“There’s a good little kitty. Come to Daddy, little girl.”
The bastard moved.
He leveled his eyes on the sight, readjusted and recalculated the odds.
The shot would still strike the girl, but not as deep. He could only pray the wind stayed calm and the players before him stayed in place.
“Dawn, a little more to the left,” Jonas ordered quietly.
She moved more to the left, always advancing, one slow, hesitant step at a time, as Phelps followed her with his gleeful eyes.
He smiled. Yeah, that was better. Just a little more.
Dawn could feel her heartbeat, slow, steady. There was no panic, there was no fear. She knew this maneuver. She had trained with it, perfected it. Any hostage situation or variable imagined and she had gone through it. She needed to get close enough, to get in position. She would have to move swiftly, but Breed reflexes were faster than human, and for all his strength and experience at killing Breeds, the Council soldiers still hadn’t yet figured out that the Breeds trained now to adjust to the knowledge the Council had on them.
They didn’t fight as they’d been trained. They didn’t react as they’d been trained.
She could feel Seth behind her; she sensed Callan a bit to her side. Both men were tensed and prepared to jump.
Just a little more, she thought. Be patient. Let me fight my own battles.
Callan’s protection was absolute and she knew it. He would easily sacrifice himself to save one of the female Breeds under his care. Just as Wolf Gunnar would do, as Dash would do.
They had their own mates, their own children, but the value they placed on all females and their protection would push them to extreme lengths.
She was several feet from Jason now. Frustration was lining his face.
“If you don’t hurry, bitch, I’m going to hurt her,” he warned. “I might not kill her, but I can spill her blood easy and get away with it.”
Yes, he could. But Dawn didn’t hurry. She stepped carefully, cautiously.
“I said now.” The gun shifted from Cassie’s temple toward Dawn and a roar sounded.
“No!” Dawn screamed as she tried to jump for Callan.
Horror flashed through her brain as the gun aimed and fired, the bullet slamming into Callan. And he kept coming.
As though it were a dream, slow motion, time slowing almost to a stop. Jason Phelps’s head exploded as Cassie jerked, blood spraying from the side of her head. She toppled forward, hand outstretched, her beautiful eyes closing.
Dawn felt that child’s life flash before her eyes. The little girl that bargained for chocolate, her smile flashing, her blue eyes gleaming with laughter. The child that saw “fairies,” ghosts Cassie had told her about not long ago. Shimmering forms of lives long past who came to her, whispered secrets to her.
She had watched Cassie grow. Sanctuary had been the haven Dash had brought his family to when he needed additional protection for them.
Before Dawn’s eyes Cassie had grown from a child to a young woman, always laughing despite her feelings that she would never fit in, that she would never be accepted because of her dual genetics.
And Callan. She stared at the blood pouring from his chest, his golden hair fanned out around him, his aristocratic, beloved features still and pale as Breeds rushed for him and Dash bellowed in white hot rage as he rushed for his daughter.
And it was Dawn’s fault.
“No. Oh God, no!” She froze; she didn’t know where to run, what to do.
Screams were echoing in her head, orders barked furiously into the link about an unknown shooter, location and trajectory.
And all Dawn could see was Cassie and Callan. So motionless, so pale. Their wounds those that few Breeds had survived. Callan’s to his chest, Cassie’s to the head.
God in Heaven. An enraged roar tore through her as Seth’s arms surrounded her, jerking her to his body as the pain struck in blinding waves through her head.
She jerked from him, fury pumping through her as she fell on the body of the bastard that had hurt so many. Callan’s pale face filled her vision. The image of Cassie, broken, taken from them, filling her head as her hands sank into warm, rich blood and her head tipped back, her roar shaking her body.
Oh God. All because of her. They were gone because of her.
“I have you, sweetheart.” Seth’s rough voice was in her ear as he dragged her back from Phelps’s cooling body. “I have you. I have you, Dawn.”
She collapsed in his arms, sobbing, holding on to him because she couldn’t hold on to herself anymore. She screamed Callan’s name as Breeds tried to staunch the bleeding, as she heard the words losing him ricochet in her mind.
No! They couldn’t lose him. They couldn’t. She hadn’t told him she was sorry. She hadn’t told him she understood why he had tried to protect her from Seth. He hadn’t hugged her. He hadn’t growled at her with that playful half-warning growl that assured her everything was fine between them.
She was losing her brother. Her pride leader. She was losing him, and the agony that lanced through her had her holding tight to Seth. Begging him, begging God, because she didn’t know how to endure this guilt.
Callan and Cassie had died because of her.
His rifle secured on his back, he jumped from the trees soundlessly, ducked and ran. He could hear the screams from inside the house. The Cougar screaming her pride leader’s name.
Fuck, that wasn’t supposed to happen. Callan Lyons had thrown himself at Phelps just in time to take a bullet. His own bullet had slammed into Phelps less than a breath later, the bullet tearing through his neck as someone else struck Phelps’s head, taking Cassie Sinclair down as well.
Regrettable. Damned fucking regrettable, and he was pissed off over it. But there was no time to stick around and make certain his aim had been true and his own calculations perfect. He had tried to save the girl. A first for him; he had never tried to watch out for casualties before, especially those who deliberately stood in the way.
Cassie Sinclair was better trained than that. She had a fucking suicide wish, and allowing her to follow through on it made him want to shake the shit out of her.
He sprinted across the mansion grounds, a shadow racing around the shadows racing to the house. The Breeds were pouring in from all quarters because their pride leader was down.
He could hear the reports on the link he had managed to acquire and disable the tracking receiver on. He had heard the orders for the Breeds to converge on the ballroom.
“Callan’s down,” someone had yelled into the link. “Son of a bitch, the basta
rd got him. I repeat, our pride leader is down. He’s down.” There was a heavy silence then. “Oh God, we’re losing him…We’re losing him…”
Fuck! This mission hadn’t gone at all as planned.
CHAPTER 25
The sixth-floor ICU and surgery had been cleared ahead of the Sanctuary heli-jets landing on the helipads on the roof of the hospital.
Feline Breed doctor, surgeon and Council-trained scientist Elyiana Morrey was already prepped and waiting with her Wolf Breed counterpart. They had three Breeds arriving. Pride Leader Lyons; an enforcer, Noble Chavin; and the young Wolf-Coyote Breed, Cassandra Sinclair.
Wolf Gunnar and his mate were on their way in, as were teams of Wolf Breed Enforcers, several of which had arrived due to proximity to the hospital.
The Breed community was converging en masse, protection and security paramount as the pride leader’s family was flown in. His mate and his son. Possibly the heir to the mighty kingdom his father had built.
Initial reports weren’t good. The chest shot was severe, resulting in massive bleeding. They had already lost him once. The great Callan Lyons could be lost to them all before he ever reached surgery.
Waiting with Dr. Morrey were several human surgeons. In a nearby operating room there were three more awaiting Noble, working beneath her assistant. She cast them all a hard glare.
“If we lose Lyons, for any reason, the four of you will die before we leave this operating room.” She nodded to the Breeds that had been forced to scrub up and placed in the room, their rifles held ready. “Don’t fuck with me, gentlemen. You’re the best the Council had in this area, and killing you will not affect me. Killing your wives and seeing your daughters tortured will be my pleasure. Understand that well.”
And they did. They had created the monster they were facing. These four. Each of them had had a hand in her genetics and in her training. They were the best of the best, and in their eyes she saw their fear and their determination to succeed.
“If Lyons dies, they die. It’s your job to then seek out their families, and on their bodies you will practice every torturous method of pain the Council ever taught you,” she ordered the enforcers.
They stared back at the scientists, their gazes flat, hard. All Lion Breeds. All a part of Sanctuary. Their loyalty and their love for their pride leader was absolute.
“The threats aren’t needed, Ely.” Only one had the nerve to speak so comfortably with her.
Her smile was hard as she heard the announcement that her pride leader was within seconds of the surgery. “Pray you’re right, Montaya.” She flashed her canines and growled. “Because liking you above the others won’t save you. It won’t save you, your wife or your daughters. Gentlemen, don’t fail.”
The nurse quickly tied off her mask as the surgery doors burst open, Jonas at the head of the gurney, and Ely felt tears flood her throat, felt pain rush through her body as she glimpsed the wound.
Dear God. She had given an order to kill so many. The damage was severe, the chances so slim. She turned her eyes to Montaya, and rather than anger or rage at the knowledge of the additional blood that would spill if Callan died, she saw only compassion and determination.
She jumped to the gurney as he did, moving quickly, working with him as she had so many times before to save the Breeds that had been brought into the labs. They knew wounds. They knew the Breed physiology. If anyone could save this man, they could.
Seth clasped Dawn to him as they rushed into the waiting room filled with Breed Enforcers, leaders and Callan Lyons’s family.
Merinus sat with her son, David. Even at eleven the child sat straight and tall, his eyes dry, his body perfectly balanced between patience and curiosity about his surroundings.
Merinus.
Dawn fought back her sobs as Merinus turned to her, her lips trembling, her eyes welling with tears as she fought to blink them back.
“I’m sorry.” Dawn knelt in front of her. “I’m so sorry.”
The tears were falling from her eyes again.
Dressed in jeans and one of Callan’s T-shirts, the pride leader’s wife looked ravaged.
Merinus shook her head as a tear fell. “It’s not your fault, Dawn. He wasn’t going to let Phelps touch you, ever again. That was his decision. Not yours.” Her voice was husky, filled with tears.
“I’m tellin’ you all, Dad’s going to be okay.” David breathed out wearily as though he had repeated this many times. “You’ll see. He’s tough.”
Merinus’s hands shook as she brought them to her mouth and turned away from her child. Unlike David, they knew the extent of Callan’s injuries.
“Merinus.” Wolf Gunnar and his mate, Hope, stepped forward then. “Dawn.” He stared down at her, his savage features and dark eyes filled with compassion. “Our enforcers are in place, both here and at Sanctuary. Everything’s secured until Callan can take the reins once again.”
Merinus nodded, tried to speak and couldn’t.
Callan. She whispered his name. She prayed and fought to curl into herself to bear the pain. How would she live if he was gone? How would she go on and raise their son as he expected her to? How could she bear it if she lost him, and he hadn’t even known of the child she was carrying now?
She touched the tears on Dawn’s face and tried to tighten her lips against her sobs. This sweet child that Callan loved as he loved his own. The one that awoke him with her nightmares and left him helpless with his rage because he couldn’t heal her above all others.
She loved Dawn herself as a sister, a dear, dear friend. But Callan’s love ran deeper. Nearly as deep as a father’s love and just as binding. He couldn’t have borne that bastard laying a single finger on her, for any reason.
“Dad’s gonna be okay,” David snapped again. He was so sensitive. He could feel the helplessness, the fears running through the room.
Merinus shook her head.