Navarro's Promise (9 page)

“Hmm,” Mica murmured. “Can’t you just imagine Jonas or Callan on the school board?” she asked facetiously.

She could, and Mica was very aware of the fact that there wasn’t a chance in hell she would want to go head-tohead with one of them.

Merinus winced. “I believe that might be what they were frightened of when that rule was forced upon us, if the letters from the school board were any indication.”

No doubt. Mica couldn’t help but laugh at that one. Anyone who met Jonas Wyatt, let alone anyone who dared to come beneath the intent stare of those eerie silver eyes, learned quickly that he wasn’t a Breed one wanted to confront.

He was quite simply spooky on a good day. Unless you had grown up getting to know him, as Cassie and Mica had done for the past fifteen or so years.

And Callan, though less terrifying, was definitely not comfortable to be around when one was disagreeing with him.

“Well, if you have no comment on Cougar, what about Navarro? Though personally, I am partial to the Lion Breeds.”

No kidding. Mica only shook her head in reply to the prima’s preference.

“There’s not much known about Navarro,” Merinus continued. “Sherra and I were checking into his lab files, and they’re amazingly light on information.”

That didn’t surprise Mica in the least. Wolves were much less prone to allow what few files existed on them into the shared data bank. It seemed that for the most part, the Felines were less concerned about who knew what. Their attitude was that they were badasses, they knew it, and they didn’t care who else knew it.

Wolf Breeds on the other hand felt it much better to keep such information in-house. Or preferably to themselves.

“And your matchmaking point is?” Mica asked in amusement.

Merinus frowned back at her. “I’m actually just completely curious. As I said, there’s no information available.”

“As you said, Wolves’ files are amazingly light on information,” Mica reminded her. “I’ve asked, but no one I’ve talked to seems to be answering.”

A little moue of displeasure pouted the other woman’s lips. A charming expression of good-natured displeasure that reminded Mica why she so enjoyed this woman’s company and loved her like a favorite aunt.

“So, you’re stuck here for a while, as I hear it.” Merinus finally stared back at her more seriously.

“Jonas said the heli-jet would be arriving this evening to fly me to Haven.” But Jonas wasn’t above lying if he felt he needed to.

“And it was supposed to be.” Merinus nodded. “But we had a call from Russia. It was needed there immediately, and it may be a few days before they’re finished with the extraction. You’re safe here, while our enforcers are looking at a tight situation if transportation isn’t available.”

And that was the final word on it. Mica couldn’t argue the need to save enforcers when she was just as protected here as she would be in Haven.

“Have my parents been notified?” She knew her mother and father would be haunting Haven, waiting for her to arrive.

“Your father is screaming because your pack leader Wolfe is refusing to allow him to travel to Sanctuary to bring you back himself. Your mother has petitioned the Lupina, Hope, for help in getting here.” She smiled sympathetically. “I’ve talked to both your parents, as has Callan, and assured them of your safety.”

That wouldn’t help her father though. She was his only child, his daughter, his princess as he called her. He wouldn’t trust anyone to protect her unless he was there himself.

“It’s a good thing Cassie and I wear the same size clothing then,” she sighed. “At least I’ll have something to wear while I’m here.”

“I’m sorry about this, Mica,” Merinus expressed gently. “But at least you won’t feel too homesick. Jonas has ordered Navarro to stay as well. It seems you’ve acquired a Wolf Breed bodyguard that does more than follow you at a distance. This one was told to stay as close as possible to your ass, if I heard Jonas correctly.”

She’d been raised around Breeds, she knew to hold back her reactions, but Mica consoled herself with the fact that everyone slipped sometimes. If the look on Merinus’s face was anything to go by as Mica’s head jerked up from her coffee, then she had definitely slipped.

Merinus’s brow arched. Mica felt herself flush in awareness that she’d been well and truly caught.

Then Merinus smiled. Mica had known the other woman for more than twelve years. Like Cassie, she’d spent vacations at Sanctuary, been hidden there during times of danger, and had gotten to know this family as well as she knew Wolfe and Hope Gunnar, the pack leader and lupina at Haven.

And she knew Merinus could smell interest. And that was all it took to get her matchmaking instincts shifting into overdrive.

“Well, perhaps your visit will be more exciting than we anticipated.”

And that was the one thing Mica was both terrified of, as well as looking forward to.

CHAPTER 5

Breeds were trained from childhood to exist on little sleep, to take power naps, eyes open if necessary. Outside of training, they had learned how to set an internal clock while leaving their primal senses open, in order to slip into a deep, healing sleep for as long as possible.

Eight hours. It had been a long time since Navarro had found the time, the ability or the awareness of external security to actually sleep for more than three to four hours.

He was rarely at Haven long enough to lock himself into his small home and simply sleep, and the rest of the time he was either off base on a mission or tracking down the remnants of the Omega lab and the remnants of the Genetics Council now working with the pure blood societies to find a way to destroy the Breeds.

It had been fourteen years since the Breeds had revealed themselves, and still there were those who believed they had no place in the world and no right to be there. That because of their creation, because they were created rather than born, they had no rights to their freedom.

So many years since the revelation of their existence, and still they were fighting that battle.

It was a battle Navarro feared they would never win. A battle he feared would end up seeing them once again in hiding and fighting to simply survive.

Now he was showered and dressing in the fine cotton khaki pants, dress shirt and the comfortable leather boots he preferred when not on mission.

Stylish.

He brushed back the thick, straight black strands of his hair before striding from the large bathroom and through the bedroom, coming to a slow, cautious stop.

His head lifted, his nostrils flaring, as the scent of her reached him, sliding across his senses like the softest caress. Like the stroke of her fingers.

His cock hardened, and damn, just that fast he was so hard it was fucking painful.

He smothered a groan, his hands running through his hair as a hard grimace tightened his lips. This wasn’t his day. It wasn’t his week, that was obvious. That today—he gave his head a hard shake before quickly running his tongue over his lower teeth.

Okay, no swollen glands.

He wasn’t snarling for sex, just on the verge of growling for it.

Not mating. Yet.

Gripping the back of his neck, he wondered what the hell was going on here, but he couldn’t seem to stop hungering for her. His ability to take another woman had even dimmed. All interest in having any female but Mica in his bed had deserted him since the night he’d kissed her at Haven more than a month before.

She was out there. She was waiting on him.

His lips quirked, almost in a grin. And she was certain she was going to surprise him. Because she believed his recessed genetics included his sense of smell.

He almost shook his head. He was going to have to tell her the truth soon, but damn if it hadn’t been nice, the moment she had relaxed, believing she could be herself with him. That she didn’t have to stress out over him sensing her little exaggerations of the truth. Over her body’s hot little reaction to him.

Like how hot and wet her pussy got whenever he was around.

How hot it was now.

He wasn’t a Breed to ignore such need either.

Continuing his journey through the bedroom, he stepped through the doorway into the comfortable sitting room of the suite, then came to a quick stop, as though surprised.

She wasn’t going to be happy when she learned the truth of that supposed recessed sense.

“Now, I’m fairly certain I locked the door.” His brow arched as he stared back at her, rather impressed at how comfortable she looked as she lounged in the high-backed chair that sat across from him.

Mica smiled demurely. “I’m really quite adept at picking locks. Did Jonas forget to mention that?”

“He did,” he admitted as he tilted his head slightly to the side and watched her with a curious sense of amusement and felt those tendrils of emotion reaching out to him once again.

“I hear you’re the big bad bodyguard here.” Her smile, though tentative, was just charming as hell. The Cupid’s bow curve of her lips and the gleam of laughter that brightened the green in her golden green eyes transformed her face from incredibly pretty to completely sensual.

“I heard I was
your
big bad bodyguard,” he amended, watching her closely as she moved stiffly to her feet, his senses catching the stiffness and pain in her ribs that she refused to give in to.

“That’s what I heard too.” She tossed him a flirty little smile that had his balls tightening. “And I was told I had to come find you before I could leave the main house. So let’s get going, bodyguard of mine.”

“And where exactly would we be going?” he asked, moving behind her as he picked up the jacket she had thrown over the chair just inside the door.

Collecting the black leather overcoat he’d retrieved from the locker he maintained in Sanctuary’s enforcer quarters, he followed her through the door, closed it and locked it securely as she stood back and watched him.

“Where are we going then?” he asked.

“Dr. Morrey has ordered me to the labs for a checkup,” she told him, not in the least pleased by that fact. “Jonas seems to think I should have X-rays, and my parents are having conniptions because I didn’t want to. To keep Mom from sobbing on the phone, I promised I’d do it immediately.” She headed for the stairs.

“We could take the elevator.” Reaching out, he caught her wrist before she could take the first step. “It would be easier on your ribs.”

“They’re sore, not broken,” she informed him, that displeasure turning on him now.

“Sore enough that you willingly took the elevator when we arrived yesterday morning,” he reminded her. “The only reason you didn’t end up with a broken rib was sheer luck, Mica.”

Her lips thinned as she tucked her hair behind her left ear and glanced at the stairs uncomfortably. “If I give in, then it’s like admitting they hurt me,” she muttered. “I hate that feeling.”

It was a feeling he and more than a thousand Breed males could fully relate to. The Council had had enough power over them that even the thought of showing their pain could fill them with fury.

“They’re not here to see it,” he assured her as he drew her back from the elegant curved staircase of the historic old Southern mansion and led her to the end of the hall where the private elevator was located. “No one is here to see it but me.”

He pressed the down button, then waited as the doors slid smoothly open with a soft hiss before he stepped inside. He almost grinned at the encouraging tug he had to give to her wrist.

Once they were closed within the small cubicle, he pushed the button for the medical labs, and restrained the tension that suddenly wanted to enfold him.

Even as it began to whip around him though, he felt those wisps of warmth that were already becoming much too familiar, as they seemed to reach out to him unconsciously, wrapping around him, and he swore, blocking the rising wariness he felt as the elevator began to slide far below the main floor of the house.

She was staring at the elevator doors with a frown, her expression still mutinous. As Navarro watched her through her reflection in the shiny steel of the doors in front of her, he knew those tendrils of emotion, of warmth, radiating from her had to be subconscious.

Was this the reason Dash rushed this young woman to his daughter’s side whenever Cassie’s life seemed to be spinning out of control? Because the empathy that seemed to be such a natural part of her reached out instinctively to those she cared for?

“I hate elevators,” she sighed. “And this one has always been so slow. When is Callan going to update it to one of those nice fast little models that doesn’t take all day to reach the labs?”

“I believe he may have mentioned something about hell freezing over the last time Jonas asked that question,” Navarro answered ruefully. “You know Callan. He hates changing the interior of the house any more than he has to. He knows all its quirks and all its faults. Says he doesn’t want to learn new tricks.”

“That is just so wrong.” She moved to cross her arms over her breasts, then dropped them to her sides once again with a careful sigh.

“How did they catch you?” It was a question he had avoided asking, uncertain if he really wanted to know the truth of who to begin the killing with.

“A weasel,” she finally answered with an edge of self-disgust. “I was working on a story with one of the reporters at the newspaper. The contact I’d been working with left me a message to meet him, said he had some information.” She looked up at him with an edge of anger. “I should have known better. They were waiting on me when I stepped into the hall that led to the back exit where I was supposed to meet him.”

“Who was your contact?” he asked carefully.

A soft little puff of exasperation met his question. “You really think I’m going to answer that question, Navarro? Don’t you think I’ve been around Breeds long enough to know exactly what happens when someone is dumb enough to cross you? You would run and tattle straight to Dash and Dad, then all hell would rain down on his weaselly little head. Forget it.”

He stared straight ahead. “I promise not to call Dash; I simply need to know who to keep tabs on if we resolve this situation.”

“I’m not stupid.” The elevator eased its descent, halting as she finished speaking, the doors sliding open smoothly. “You would just kill him yourself.”

His jaw clenched. He wanted the name of her contact. The man wasn’t a weasel, he was a fucking little mouse and Navarro was the Wolf Breed that was about to go hunting.

The sight that met his eyes as the elevator opened didn’t help his mood any. The Wolf Breed assigned to lab security was one he hadn’t expected.

“Mica, it’s about time you got down here.” Josiah Black stood just outside the elevator, his gray blue eyes narrowed on Mica as she stepped from the elevator. “Dr. Morrey has been waiting most of the morning for you. She actually expected you last night.”

“Last night I was dead to the world.” Stepping into the steel-lined hallway, she leaned into the gentle hug Josiah gave her, his arms wrapping around her as Navarro sensed, as well as scented, the stink of his arousal.

“It’s damned good to see you again, Mica.” Josiah’s tone, his whole demeanor, was one of tenderness. Something Breeds were not noted for.

Navarro didn’t growl, but it was close before she stepped back from the other Breed’s hold. He told himself he had more control than that. His fingers didn’t form fists, and he didn’t jerk her away from the other Breed.

It was all he could do to hold on to that part of his temper though.

Jealousy?

No, not jealousy, he told himself, simply a sense of possession. He hadn’t had her yet. All he’d had was that sweet taste of her, and he wanted more. And he’d have her before Josiah had the chance to even begin a seduction.

Stepping carefully between the two of them, Navarro allowed his hand to settle possessively at the small of Mica’s back before pressing her forward.

“We’ll see you later, Black,” Navarro stated dismissively as he ignored the tension that suddenly invaded Mica’s muscles.

The fact that she wasn’t pleased was impossible to miss. But he’d be damned if he cared. She had no right stepping into another Breed’s arms. Hell, no man’s arms period but his own.

That was a dangerous sign, and he knew it.

He checked his tongue again, damned confused over the fact that there were no swollen glands. He assured himself that was a good thing too. He was the last Breed that needed to find his mate.

He had too many secrets in his past to allow any woman to ever be comfortable with him, especially a woman such as Mica. She would demand the truth, and God help the lover that dared to lie to her.

“Mica. I’m off the next few days,” Josiah told her as he followed behind them. “We could have lunch or something.”

The bastard. He knew Mica was already pissed, and he was using it.

“Lunch sounds great, Josiah.” Mica stopped, ignoring Navarro’s hand on her back as she did so, and turned, and in that flashing instant Navarro felt and scented the pure terror that streaked through her, even as emergency alarms began blaring through the steel-lined, heavily secured underground medical labs.

Their senses, his and Josiah’s, had somehow failed them. Almost in slow motion his head lifted; his reflexes, sharp and precise, were still too slow.

There was only a second to throw Mica to the side as the first blast threw Josiah forward into him.

He was aware of Mica’s cry as she fell into the wall, Josiah’s shock at the feel of the blast of energy that exploded into his back.

How had Brandenmore managed to get his hands on a blaster?

That thought came as Josiah was thrown into him like a ton of bricks. He felt himself going backward as they both fought to avoid the collision, to get to Mica.

And they both failed.

They both left Mica to the savage, insane mercilessness of a man that was no longer a man.

Mica swirled around, the agony in her ribs reminiscent of the broken ankle she’d had when she was eighteen and Cassie had all but bullied her into coming into Haven.