Navarro's Promise (20 page)

“Morton and Elsie Blaine.” Mica remembered them. She’d actually seen them from a distance a few times when they had come to Haven to see Navarro.

“Yes.” Ely nodded. “After the age of ten, he was raised by his grandparents. Unfortunately, he had a Counciltrained nanny. And that nanny was a monster, as was the butler the Council managed to get into the Blaine household. Navarro didn’t have a chance to develop the emotions that were bred out of him, Mica. The fact that he’s as compassionate as he is is surprising.”

The Blaines’ daughter had been kidnapped by the Council and used as a breeder. Navarro and Randal were a result of that union, but the Council refused to allow Morton and Elsie to buy Randal as they allowed them to buy his twin, Navarro. They had never seen their other grandson before he was killed during the rescues.

Randal had been their insurance against the Blaines striking back at them.

And Mica believed they would have. Morton Blaine might not have been able to destroy them, but with his financial empire and the powerful friends and favors he had gained over the years, he could have hurt them, if nothing else.

That, or destroyed all the Breeds by making sure the world learned of them in a more threatening light than had occurred with Callan Lyons announcing their presence.

“So, simply put, he realized he might be beginning to feel something for me, and destroyed it?” Mica asked with bitter sarcasm.

Ely nodded hesitantly as Mica felt her chest clench with the hurt that suddenly exploded inside her, which even she couldn’t hide.

She swore she saw Ely flinch as well as the emotion struck through Mica’s soul, rending it in half.

“So Navarro is no longer in mating heat?”

Once again Ely nodded. “All but the smallest traces of the hormone are gone from his system.”

Mica’s fists clenched around the edge of the thick pad beneath her as she fought the need to rock in agony.

A distant part of her couldn’t believe the horrendous pain welling inside her now. It was like a wildfire, sucking the life out of everything in its path.

“And that leaves me where?”

“A mate, without a mate,” Ely stated, her voice incredibly gentle, her brown eyes filled with pity.

She pitied her. Ely was watching her and feeling sorry for her, Mica thought.

She swallowed tightly. “Let’s get this over with then.” She had to force the words past numb lips as she realized she was nearly gasping for breath. “You need samples, right?”

“Blood, saliva and vaginal.” Ely clasped her hands in her lap. “You should be prepared, Mica, it may be very painful. And there’s nothing I can do to ease the pain. Most female mates seem to have a horrible physical reaction to even a female touch during the strongest phases of mating heat.”

Once again Mica nodded shortly, as Ely reached for the supplies in the small basket at the end of the gurney. “I’ll get the blood first, then we can do the rest.”

As Ely took the blood, Mica could feel no pain. There was a heavy layer of discomfort, a feeling of disgust and loathing each time Ely was forced to touch her, even through the latex gloves she wore, but the extreme physical discomfort was absent.

She was a mate without a mate.

“There.” Several minutes and four vials later, Ely pushed back from the bed. “Change into one of the gowns and we’ll get the rest of it finished as quickly as possible.”

Mica moved from the gurney, feeling the ache of loneliness and the loss of what she hadn’t even dared to hope for, but had fantasized of. Navarro’s love.

Pulling one of the soft cotton gowns from the small rack in the bathroom linen cabinet, Mica blinked at the moisture in her eyes, uncertain why this seemed to be affecting her so strongly.

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been fully aware that Navarro had no intention of loving her. That this heat stuff was something he would escape if he could.

But she hadn’t believed he
could
escape it, any more than she could.

Sucked to be her. Navarro was escaping and she was burning alive with the need for his touch.

Typical.

She should have never expected less.

Hell, she should have expected just this.

Navarro sat in the vid-comm conference room, relaxed, leaning back in the comfortably padded chair, arms relaxed casually on the rests at his side, watching Wolfe Gunnar; Del-Rey Delgado; their mates, Hope Gunner and Anya Delgado; and their seconds in command, Jacob Arlington and Brim Stone on the large screen. Now joining them were Dash and Elizabeth Sinclair, to assess the information coming in as the video conference, Navarro hoped, was winding to an end.

“How much longer, Callan?” Wolfe questioned as his gaze sliced to Navarro from the mounted large-screen video communications board.

“As soon as Jonas can get the heli-jet here safely,” Callan stated with no regard to the fact that Wolfe was all but ordering him to make it happen. “I understand your concerns, Wolfe, but moving Mica at the moment simply isn’t possible. We believe the risk is too high.”

Wolfe grimaced as he turned to Dash Sinclair, the Wolf Breed who had arrived to assess the present danger and decide the next course of action where his goddaughter was concerned.

Dash was presently staring a hole through Navarro, and the angered, knowing glitter in his amber eyes would have been enough to have any other Breed sweating.

“What aren’t you telling me, Callan?” Dash turned his gaze to the pride leader.

It seemed all eyes turned to Navarro, and in each case there was a sense of confusion and perhaps a hint of a question.

“At the moment, Dash, the only thing you’re not being told is information we’re not certain of.” Callan turned back to the screen and the other Breeds’ intent look. “As soon as I have the information and can verify it though, then you’ll be the first to know, I promise you this.”

“And if Mica were to find a mate while she’s at Sanctuary?” Dash asked coolly. “Would you tell me immediately, Callan?”

“Dash, the minute I verified and Dr. Morrey reverified the tests, then you would know,” Callan assured him sincerely. “That is not information I would keep from you.”

Now there was a load of shit if Navarro had ever heard one. He slid a look in Callan’s direction, expecting to see a warning in the Feline Pride leader’s gaze to hold to the lie. Rather than the warning though, what he saw was somber confusion and, amazingly, pity.

“And you, Navarro?” Dash asked then. “Would you tell me if Mica had mated?”

Navarro’s brow lifted.

“Dash, Navarro doesn’t carry the mating scent. I give you my word on it if that’s what you’re questioning,” Callan spoke up.

Navarro was careful to show no reaction. No surprise, no confusion. He’d never known Callan to outright lie in such a way, especially in front of witnesses. It was such a gross disregard of the agreements between Sanctuary and Haven that even Navarro questioned the decision.

“There are rumors he mated her, Callan.” Dash frowned back at both of them. “I can’t disregard those whispers.”

“We’ll figure it out on our end and get back to you,” Callan promised. “Would you trust me to do that?”

Dash stared at the pride leader for long moments before turning back to Navarro to give him a probing look. Finally, the other Breed rubbed at the back of his neck in irritation before giving a tight nod. “I’ll trust you, Callan. But remember if you will, Mica is family, and she’s an only child. Her parents . . . worry.”

Yeah, they worried their little princess would end up getting fucked or worse yet, horror of all horrors, mated by a Breed. It wasn’t that they were prejudiced or even disapproving of the Breeds. It was simply that they believed their daughter deserved better.

And with that thought came a surge of possessiveness Navarro barely caught in time to tamp it down and dispose of it. The night before had been relatively comfortable. The agonizing arousal that had marked the time since he’d first mated her had eased.

The realization that he’d taken her as an animal beneath the trees had shaken him to his soul. He’d wanted nothing more than to push her to her knees, press her shoulders to the forest floor and fuck her until she was screaming for him, begging for him as he rocked into her from behind.

The image of that, even now, had the power to slip past the walls he had built around it and cause his dick to harden with need.

Hell, he was getting tired of sitting here. The more he listened to them talk about Mica, the harder it was to deny his need for her.

Thankfully, the conversation ended, the vid-comm darkened, and then, uncomfortably, all eyes turned to him as the door to the conference room opened and Josiah walked into the room.

Anger spilled from the Breed in waves.

His eyes snapped with steel gray blue flames as he raked his fingers through his shaggy dark blond hair and glared at Navarro.

“Did you know the presence of the mating hormone in you is now negligible?”

Surprising. Hell, the day was just getting more interesting by the moment, wasn’t it? Negligible? That meant Mica would no longer be his mate soon. That had happened only once before with Callan’s pack sister Dawn and her mate, Seth Lawrence, but it had taken ten years and the complete removal of Seth from Dawn’s life during that time for it to happen, not ten fucking hours.

Should he regret it?

He could feel the need to claim her once again trying to rise inside him and he fought it. Mica didn’t need this. If the heat was receding, then it would be a blessing for her. She had dreams, plans, desires that he knew did not include a Breed. It didn’t include the hell their lives could become if public sentiment turned against them.

“You’re acting as though it’s a crime,” he stated as the others continued to stare at him as though he had somehow deliberately caused this.

It felt like a crime against nature.

He hadn’t neglected her as the need burned between them. He’d taken her, satiated her, stilled the hunger raging inside her until last night, just before going to her, he’d realized he felt . . . normal.

He wasn’t iron-hard and hurting with a sexual pain he couldn’t make sense of. Oh, he wanted her, he hungered for her, but it was no longer that desperate, amplified lust that he couldn’t control. And that lack of control had been destroying him to the point he’d actually feared the animal he could feel crouched and waiting inside him.

Just waiting for Navarro to drop his guard, to relax his attention and give it a chance to jump free. And it would—straight in the direction of the petite, too stubborn, too independent woman he believed he had mated.

Even now, he could feel that snarl brewing in his chest, an unquenched fury threatening to spill from the tortured center of his soul that he only rarely acknowledged.

That didn’t mean he didn’t want an explanation.

Rising to his feet, he didn’t bother to excuse himself—rather he stalked to the door with every intention of leaving and garnering those explanations immediately from the doctor herself.

“Let her go.” Josiah was suddenly blocking his way, a snarl on his face, his gaze filled with his anger as Navarro stared back at him with a sudden, icy fury.

Behind him, Navarro could feel the others rising from their chairs, the tension in the room building to a smothering point as he faced off with the other Wolf.

“Back off, Josiah,” Navarro warned as he felt the adrenaline surging through him, a wild, burning hunger for action, to take out his enemy, to go for the throat and to taste blood.

The genetics of the Wolf. The animal was awakening again. If it awoke, if he allowed those instincts to rise inside him once again, then nothing, no one he cared for might ever be safe again.

“Back off?” Josiah sneered, his Wolf flashing in the snarl at his lips and the dilation of gaze. “Fuck you, Navarro. Stay the hell away from her. If she’s lucky, real fucking lucky, then rather than rising inside her and torturing the hell out of her as it did last night, maybe the heat will dissipate in her as well.”

“No.” Navarro gave his head a hard shake. “I would have smelled her pain, her arousal.”

It wasn’t possible. His senses rated off the charts. There was no way to even measure his ability to detect scents, to sense disturbances, and he hadn’t sensed Mica’s? That wasn’t possible. He refused to believe it.

Josiah scoffed. “As if you didn’t. Even I scented it, Navarro.” Rage clouded the Wolf’s voice, roughened and rasped it until it was more animal than human. “You’re not a worthy mate and you should be barred from approaching her.”

Navarro felt as though his brain were clouding for the briefest moment before he fought back. Instinct, hunger, rage and animal fury threatened to overwhelm him before he managed to get control of them. He forced them back, restrained them as he had all his life. Since birth. Since before birth.

Navarro turned slowly to Callan, Jonas, and Dane Vanderale.

So far, the current Vanderale heir and hybrid Breed had remained silent—watching and amused, but silent. But Navarro knew if Dane took a side, then that side would be sure to win, against all odds.

Navarro couldn’t take that chance. He wouldn’t take that chance. The very thought of any of them taking her from him had rage threatening to shake his control.