by Lora Leigh
She had to believe that. She had to. If she didn’t, she might well lose her mind.
As the thought raced through her, a commotion in the hall began. Gasps, curses, Breeds rushing to make way for something, someone.
Merinus jerked to her feet and pulled her son next to her, uncertain what this new threat was. As it materialized in front of the door, shock raced through her.
It couldn’t be.
She reached out, then pressed her hand to her lips as his gaze found hers. Beside him, another man and a slender woman were consulting with a doctor, but it was the first male that held her rapt attention.
It was Callan, and yet it wasn’t. The same imposing features. The same mane of hair falling to his shoulders, the same golden, piercing eyes as he found her.
It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be who she thought it was. Who she knew it was.
“That’s Grandpa.” David suddenly piped up. “He smells like Dad and Jonas. And that’s my uncle Dane. I told you he smelled like Dad.”
And David had told Callan many times that Dane Vanderale smelled like him. The problem was, no Breed but David had detected that scent. The Breed’s gaze slid to David, fierce, filled with pride before returning to Merinus.
“How’s my son?”
His son. Merinus stared back at him, as much in shock as every Breed standing in the room.
This was the first Breed to have ever been created. The fabled first Leo and the mate he had stolen from the Council lab he had been created within nearly a century before.
He was rumored to be more than a hundred and twenty years old, yet he looked in his prime, only a few years older than her beloved Callan.
He could have been Callan’s brother rather than his father, and now Merinus knew why Leo Vanderale was so rarely in the public eye. So rare that no one had detected the disguise he obviously used in public, yet hadn’t bothered to use here.
The photos Merinus had seen of him showed a much darker-haired Leo. Eyes more dark brown than golden amber shot with darker hues. The lines on his face in those photos weren’t present now, and the powerful, corded body was very much downplayed in public with what must have been an exceptional eye for clothes and artificial enhancements.
The Leo’s mate, the scientist that had been rumored to be a genius in the genetic workings of the Breeds at the time, still retained a glow of youth. And, like her husband, had drastically altered her appearance at the public events she had attended and in the photos she’d had taken over the past years.
Straight, long dark hair, gray eyes, pert features and clear, unblemished skin. This wasn’t the woman whose hair was shot with gray, whose face was lined to make her appear two decades older than she looked.
They had preserved their secrecy throughout the decades. There had never been so much as a hint that Leo Vanderale could be a Breed, nor that his son could be the first fully grown breed-human hybrid.
Her eyes flashed to Dane Vanderale. He barely looked thirty, but he had to be older. There was proof that Elizabeth Forteniare had conceived before she and the first Leo had escaped confinement in the labs so long ago. There were rumors that the child had survived birth. Dane had to be that child, and no one had ever known.
“So much shock.” His voice was well modulated, just a hint of a foreign accent present in his voice. “Did you think I wouldn’t arrive when my son lies so close to death?”
The first Leo. He was the first Leo and he had been so close for so long. Dane Vanderale stood, strong and sure beside him, and Merinus saw the resemblance then. The same proud features, piercing eyes. The same cocky, arrogant assurance.
Breeds stared at the vision as though staring upon a deity they hadn’t believed existed.
The first Leo. Alive. So close. And the father of the Breed that had made a way for his people, a place on earth that none had been able to steal.
“You took your time,” she whispered.
And he grimaced. Pain and longing filled his eyes as the small woman beside him turned to him. He lowered his head, listened and nodded before motioning Dane toward her.
“My wife, Elizabeth.” His lips quirked. “A strong name, I believe.” He glanced at Dash and a tearful Elizabeth. “She’ll oversee Callan’s surgery and go then to Cassie. Cassie is stable, I’m told, the shot was a surface wound, but the bruising to the brain is a concern.”
Merinus shook her head, shock still racing through her.
“She’s his…”
“Mother?” he asked. “Yes. Elizabeth’s ovum was extracted before our escape. Several, actually. She was the Council’s foremost authority on Breed genetics and physiology. He’s her son. She won’t lose him.”
“But she couldn’t come to him,” she cried. “Ten years they searched for you. Ten years they begged you to come out of hiding. His parents. David’s grandparents, and you didn’t give a fuck?”
“I gave enough of a fuck to care about whether the world knew our secrets and our weaknesses,” he growled, flashing his canines. Like Callan. Warning her back. Arrogant and certain of his power. “I gave enough of a fuck that I helped weed out your spies before I made my decision to reveal myself. Blame me if you must. But those secrets were more important than my personal needs or Callan’s. Let alone that arrogant by-blow Wyatt.” He sneered the name, though not with hatred, but with a challenging, brooding tone.
He looked like Callan, but Merinus knew to her soul which son carried his temperament.
“My son, Dane.” He indicated the man who had followed the Leo’s mate to surgery. “He’s been my eyes and my ears.”
Dawn stood beside Seth, staring at the Leo. She couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t possible.
Seth was holding her upright. She couldn’t have kept herself balanced on her own. The Breeds that filled the room were in as much shock as she was.
Around the Leo were more Breeds. They were unfamiliar, harder, colder. They looked like the creatures the Council had created. The killers they had dreamed of.
“My security force.” He indicated the dozen armed Breeds. “And now my sons.” He stared around the room, inhaling slowly and nodding as though pleased. “And David’s right. His father will be fine. He’s too damned stubborn to be otherwise.”
CHAPTER 26
Two days later, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, Dawn stepped silently into Callan’s ICU room and stared at the man who had saved her.
Seth was at her side, as he had been for the past two days. She gripped his hand and moved to the bed, staring down at the monitors that beeped and flashed and created a subtle buzz that flayed her nerves.
“He would hate being here,” she whispered on a sob. “It’s like the labs. He hates hospitals.”
She moved her hands to the metal rail on the bed. He looked as strong and as sure as he always had. Pale. Tired. But strong.
She knew the Leo and his wife had spent countless hours in here with him. The powerful first Feline Breed, along with his other son, Dane, had given their own blood to transfuse Callan. Ely had sworn the combination of it had helped stabilize Callan as nothing else could have. Elizabeth Vanderale, the Leo’s mate and wife, stood on the other side of the room monitoring her son’s progress.
She looked younger than Merinus. Brunette hair and gray eyes. Slender. Poised. She didn’t look old enough to be an intern let alone the foremost authority on Breeds.
“You’re crying.”
Her gaze jerked down. Callan watched her through slitted lashes, his gaze flickering to his hand where a single teardrop had fallen.
“I’ve been doing that a lot.” The half sob, half laugh had Seth wrapping his arms around her from behind, surrounding her with his strength.
She couldn’t have made it without him. She had never faced anything so horrifying as watching her beloved brother die. Even the memories rushing back inside her hadn’t hurt as much. God help her, if it had been Seth, she would have never made it.
“You never cry,” he rasped, flicking a d
ark look at Seth. “It’s your fault.”
And Seth only chuckled.
“I hear I have parents.” He grimaced, his gaze slicing to the mother across the room. “David’s ecstatic.”
He was off balance. Dawn could feel it, and she knew the other woman did as well.
“Yeah. He threatened to thrash Jonas yesterday.” Dawn smiled, though tears still slipped down her cheek. “I offered to sell the tickets until he growled at me.”
“I wanna buy one,” Callan sighed. “Save it for me.”
“I promise.” She swallowed tightly, reaching out to touch his hand. “Callan…”
“Say you’re sorry and I’ll thrash you.” He glared at her, though weakly.
“I was angry,” she whispered.
His jaw tightened and she swore she saw the sheen of tears in his eyes. “I’d do it again, so save your breath.”
“And I love you for it,” she whispered. “You were right, Callan. I wasn’t strong enough.” Her voice broke and she shook her head tightly. “I didn’t understand.”
He watched her, his golden eyes somber, filled with his own pain at those memories.
“You were the important one,” he finally whispered. “Even if you hated me for it. Protecting you mattered.”
She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, before whispering, “Thank you for saving me. God sent you to me, and I’ve thanked him as well.”
She straightened slowly and saw the surprise, the single tear that eased from the corner of his eye. He swallowed tightly, licked his lips, then glanced at the small woman who eased to the side of his bed.
“She won’t let me hug you,” he grunted. “I claim a rain check. And one of those tickets.”
Elizabeth Vanderale was hiding her tears, but Dawn felt them, sensed them.
“He needs to rest now,” she said softly. “And if I don’t let Merinus in, he’s going to start ignoring my chiding.”
“My mate.” He tried to glare at her, but his lashes drifted down. When they closed, Elizabeth’s lips pressed together to hold back her tears as she nodded at Dawn and Seth.
Seth led Dawn from the room, his arm around her, and as they walked down the hallway, the last of the pain, the dark fury and the past eased away from her.
She had done as she’d vowed. She had washed her hands in Jason Phelps’s blood. She had seen him defeated, broken. And she was walking away from it.
“I want to go home,” she whispered as they stepped into the elevator, Stygian and Styx moving in behind them.
“The heli-jet can have you in Sanctuary within a few hours,” he promised.
Dawn shook her head, turned to him and framed his face with her hands. “No, Seth. I want to go to our home. Now. Just the two of us.”
The joy that lit his eyes flamed in her heart.
“We’ll go home,” he promised, his head lowering, his lips stealing hers. “Right now.”
The kiss was a promise. A dedication. She had awakened to his love and she would never sleep without it again.
EPILOGUE
He slipped into the hospital room. And that was damned hard to do. There were so many Breeds positioned through the hallways, hard-eyed, merciless and waiting on blood to spill, that it was risking life and limb.
He was trained for stealth though, and he was trained to get in where others couldn’t.
It was the sixth floor, a short climb up the shadowed wall. Cutting the window was a pain in the ass. And why the hell he was doing this he couldn’t figure out.
Fine, she had gone down. Collateral damage, right? How many other Breeds had died for the sake of the community at large? He couldn’t count how many dozen on two hands and all toes.
But here was his stupid ass, climbing up a sheer wall and cutting into a window as he struggled to activate the security rerouter.
This was a three-fucking-Breed job. He was one Breed. Insane crap.
But he just couldn’t let it go. The memory of her crumpled on the floor of that damned ballroom, blood spilling around her head. It was just too much. He couldn’t sleep for it. And when something messed with his sleep, then something had to be done about it.
Silently he eased the cut glass inside the room, inhaled slowly and grimaced. He’d disguised his scent as best he could, but it wasn’t going to hold for long. They’d catch him in under five minutes flat and then all hell was going to break loose.
But he was in, and stepping across the short distance to the hospital bed where she lay.
Her parents must have dressed her in that immature neck-hugging gown. It was longer than he preferred. All prim and proper like some Victorian-era priss. She should be in silk thongs to display that fine ass, and nothing else. Because she had a fine curve to that ass.
He gritted his teeth and grimaced in frustration.
There was a bandage around her head, but all those beautiful curls were still there. They flowed around her like black silk.
He reached out and touched one, whistling soundlessly at the feel of it. Damn, it felt fine. And in that second his cock went hard as a rock as he imagined the feel of that hair against his sensitive flesh.
That would be some damned erotic sensation there.
As he stared at her, something besides arousal twisted at his gut though. Something like…regret?
Hell, had he ever felt regret?
He shook his head, rubbed the back of his neck in confusion and tried again to figure out what the hell he was doing there.
Cassandra Sinclair was none of his business. If her father, Dash Sinclair, had so much as a thought of the creature sniffing around her, he’d hunt him down and tear him limb from limb.
But this was almost worth it.
He reached out, ran his finger down the fine, ultra-smooth flesh of her cheek and knew he had never touched anything so soft.
I dare you. The memory of her pretty pink lips forming those words had his lips quirking.
He leaned close, feathered her hair from her ear and whispered. “Never dare me.”
She jackknifed in the bed. Her eyes flew open, and a scream of pure terror erupted from her lips with such a suddenness that he couldn’t counter it.
He cursed, jumped for the window, grabbed the rope he’d secured beside it, and in the time it took for her screams to die he was on the ground and running.
Damn. Guess he shouldn’t have warned her, he thought with a smile. But he had. And he hoped, for her sake, she remembered it.