Lawe's Justice

*CHAPTER 11*

Lawe had to turn away from Diane. Drawing in a deep breath, he pushed his fingers through his hair and contemplated the cheap picture hanging on the wall in front of him.

Terran Martinez. Morningstar’s younger brother. The brother who had been searching for his sister, or proof of her death, for more than thirty years.

So what had happened to the proof of her location, which Lawe had sent to her father, Orin, the week before she was killed? Lawe had kept up with the family after his rescue but neither he nor Rule had ever approached them.

He’d never gone to Window Rock to meet them, nor had his brother, as far as he knew. He’d never discussed his mother or her death with anyone, though he knew Rachel had most likely filled Diane in on the details. They were close like that. And he had never reached out to let his mother’s father know what had happened to his daughter or the fact that she had been cremated and her ashes thrown to the mountains around the termination facility in upstate New York.

He still heard his mother’s screams in his nightmares. He could still here the certainty in her voice that her father would have his vengeance, that her family would punish them all. And just as he had silently predicted, no one had struck out at the Council to make them pay for her death.

Or had they?

It was days later when the Breeds in that lab had been liberated. The force sent in to free them had reached the Breed labs hidden in the mountains just outside New York City, and the Breeds had been released from the harsh captivity and inhuman training they were subjected to.

Tightening his fingers at his hips for long moments, he forced himself to turn around and confront Diane once again.

“There are no Bengal Breeds in Window Rock,” he told her. “The chief of the Navajo Nation is Ray Martinez, Diane. My birth mother’s older brother. I keep up with them. I would know if there were any Bengal Breeds there.”

Diane’s gaze was somber. Lawe could feel the comforting warmth of her compassion reaching out to him. He almost wished she had maintained her anger because without that it was damned hard to maintain his.

Of course, she would know the facts of his history. The Breeds who had fought with her before Jonas had mated her sister had most likely answered any questions she asked. Her men had a hard time telling her no, it seemed. And they had seemed particularly enamored with her.

“Judd’s Breed genetics were recessing before his escape,” Diane reminded him. “It was the reason he was slated for termination. Somehow the drugs they were giving him had begun to have the appearance of reversing the Breed DNA.”

Lawe frowned at the information. “Where the hell did you hear this?”

Her lips quirked. “Argentina, Lawe. Several of the scientists and researchers working with Brandenmore escaped there when they received word the FBI and the Bureau of Breed Affairs were preparing to serve a search warrant on the facility and to enact Breed Law against anyone found there.”

Lawe nodded tightly. “Argentina revoked their agreement of extradition against Breed researchers and participating individuals with the United Nations for crimes against genetically altered beings. We suspect they receive quite a hefty yearly payment in return.”

Diane suddenly rubbed at her upper arms as though chilled as she nodded in agreement. “I was there for three weeks. Several of the research assistants I talked to were informants for the U.S. on the group of scientists living there. One of my contacts managed to set up a meeting with several of them. Once they knew I had no intention of giving the Bureau their names, they were very cooperative.”

And Lawe had no doubt he knew who several of those informants were. They may play at wanting assurance that the Breeds were unaware of them, but the truth was, they were only still living because they were giving the Bureau the same information or more than they were giving the U.S. government.

The knowledge that she had talked to them gave birth to another suspicion, though, one that had his shoulders tightening.

His gaze shifted to Thor as he remained silently at the door, his arms crossed over his broad chest, his expression brooding as he listened to the conversation.

The knowledge that Diane had gone out without him obviously didn’t set well with the other man.

“Do your men know who you talked to?” The Bureau couldn’t afford to lose any of their informants in Argentina. If the spy in her group knew who she had talked to—

The look she gave him was filled with disdain, but she slid a silent apology to Thor. “I had already received the warning from Gideon. Though at the time, he called himself the Executioner. I didn’t risk it. I slipped out at night and met with them. Give me credit for knowing how to protect my contacts.”

“I give you credit for far more than that, but whoever’s betraying you is damned effective at it. And having him out there makes this situation much too explosive, especially considering the mating heat. We’re going to be too distracted by its symptoms to be effective in either the search or the protection of whoever we find there. If we find anyone. We can’t continue this.” He sighed, knowing he was wasting his time.

She would never return to Sanctuary with him until this was finished and he knew that accepting anything less could mean her death. He knew it, and the knowledge burned in his gut like acid. That was an option he couldn’t face.

“Once the mating heat eases,” he began, forcing the words past his clenched teeth, hating the fact that he was lying to her now. “Once we can think again, we can revisit the option of returning here and finding them.”

Her lips lifted slowly, the shallow curve of a smile filled with pain as she watched him too closely.

“By then they’ll be fucking dead or locked in research cells,” Thor muttered as Lawe flashed him a quelling look.

That won’t happen, Lawe promised silently. He would send a team after them, a team he knew would ensure any of the three still living survived and arrived at Sanctuary safely.

“I won’t let that happen,” Lawe growled.

Thor’s brow arched in mock amazement.

The bastard had no intention of standing down, and he wasn’t a Breed. There was no way Lawe could enforce any order he gave.

“Do you think I’m stupid, Lawe?” Diane asked him softly. “You’ll send someone after them and then they’ll run the second your team enters the reservation and they get suspicious.”

“And they won’t run when you arrive?” he scoffed. “They’ll run just as fast, Diane, if not faster.”

“She knows what she’s doing, Breed,” Thor broke in as though she needed a protector. She has a fucking protector, Lawe thought furiously. “And she knows how to find people without making them feel like prey. If she didn’t, the team would be broke.”

“Dammit, Thorsson, you’re talking like a man who wants to see his commander dead rather than showing your loyalty and seeing to her best interests,” he snapped at the other man.

Thor smiled, his expression icy and cutting. “It’s a good thing for you that my commander would go crazy without you, Breed. Otherwise, we’d discuss those words. Violently. I’ve always had her back, and I always will.”

“It’s your place to protect her, not endanger her further by encouraging her to continue this search under the present circumstances,” Lawe snapped again.

Thor laughed as Diane frowned and crossed her arms over her breasts as she watched them.

“You mean, while she’s in mating heat?” Thor asked with an amused snort. “When she was sixteen she broke two of my fingers to win a fight she had to win in order to travel to Nicaragua with the team to oversee communications. Brick still carries a scar on his wrist where she sliced it open to participate in a hostage rescue in California, and her uncle’s former second-in-command found himself bouncing on his ass at least weekly whenever he made the mistake of suggesting she stay out of a mission. She’s won all the battles she needs to win in my eyes. She’s my commander. I follow her orders and I watch her back as she watches mine. You mating her won’t change that.”

When Thor said she had won all the battles she needed to, Lawe knew he was referring to the battles to secure his loyalty.

There was no scent of a lie coming from the other man, but then again, like Diane, Thor had probably learned from the two Breeds who had been a part of the team how to control certain scents. A lie being the most important.

Diane had proven herself in battle to her men, there was no doubt of it, or they would have killed her themselves for trying to take command. She had proven she could protect her men and herself. She had proven her ability to plot, plan and guide them through any number of situations where her ability to lead exceeded theirs. She still had a traitor in her group, though. A traitor who meant to harm her. The question was, was that traitor Thor?

“Then I’ll tie her up and gag her before I throw her on a heli-jet,” Lawe snarled rashly as he ignored Diane’s snort of mockery.

Hell, he was never rash. He never, ever made empty threats until he had come against Diane’s stubborn will. Any other woman and he would have had a team of Enforcers abduct her and transport her to a secure location until the situation was resolved.

But Diane wasn’t any other woman. She was his mate. Besides, she would probably shoot his kneecaps off at first opportunity for the insult.

“And you’ll make her hate you as well as make an enemy of her,” Thor warned as his gaze snapped with fury. “Because you’ll have to kill me, Breed, to pull that one off. And trust me, I’m her favorite.”

Her favorite? Lawe’s eyes narrowed on the mercenary as he began assessing any other threat Thor may represent. At the look, Thor flashed a confident, taunting smile.

Lowering his head, Lawe was only distantly aware of his lips curving back at one side to display the canines there as a growl sounded in his throat.

The danger, the threat that the other man might represent, had the primal animal that lurked inside him rising dangerously.

Diane stepped forward at Thor’s smile and the answering, savage sound vibrating in Lawe’s throat. She could hear the anger in Thor’s voice. That anger was something he rarely showed, and the fact that it was bleeding from him was an indication that the confrontation needed to stop now. Because he was intent on pushing the one button he knew would only piss Lawe off.

Even more dangerous, though, was that totally feline, completely enraged sound Lawe was making. She had never heard that from any Breed, and she’d fought with two of them for several years before Jonas and Lawe had made it impossible to keep them on the team.

“Leave, Thor,” she ordered him, making certain her tone brimmed with authority. She had to separate the two before she had more trouble on her hands than she could deal with.

Thor glared at Lawe accusingly for long moments before turning back to her, his shoulders tense, his expression tight with outrage as he glanced at her. “Are you sure, boss?”

“I gave the order, didn’t I?” The lash of command that hit her voice before she could stop it had Lawe’s gaze slicing back to her.

Thor grimaced tightly before turning back to Lawe. “Don’t make me your enemy,” he warned Lawe. “Take her by force, and I promise you, I’ll retaliate.”

“Thor! Now!” The last thing she needed right now was Thor playing his games with Lawe.

Thor threw Lawe a look that even Diane clearly understood. A look that assured Lawe he wouldn’t hesitate to strike out if he felt he had to. It was a side Diane had always sensed in the other man. Thor followed her, he respected her abilities and her command, but he would always see her as a female first and a soldier second. It was his one fault as far as she was concerned, and one of the main reasons she had already ruled him out as the traitor. Thor had had far too many opportunities to kill her and make it look like an accident if that was what he wanted to do. He didn’t have to play games.

“Do I really have to say it a third time?” Third time meant cash from his account to hers. And a hefty amount it would be too.

“Fuck, fine. But it’s not the damned money. It’s the ass kicking that goes with it,” Thor bit out as he turned quickly, opened the door with a furious jerk, then paused. Looking over his shoulder, he glared at Lawe. “She can’t really kick my ass, you know, but she plays fucking dirty and goes for the balls,” he said before striding out and slamming it heavily behind him.

She flinched as the metal door met the frame hard enough to rattle the windows.

“Teenagers,” Diane muttered as she glared at the door, then at Lawe.

She swore men were no more than overgrown teenagers.

Glaring at him she had to restrain a sigh. She had fought the good fight and she knew she had to ignore the heat blazing through her body while Thor was there. The tormenting waves, the lash of hunger and the overwhelming urge to rub against him were nearly impossible to deny, though.

The sensitivity of her nipples and breasts, her clitoris and even her flesh made her feel as though every nerve ending in her body had turned erogenous. She wanted to take him. She wanted to feel him. She wanted to burn the anger and pain from his eyes and for just a few moments, she ached to be a partner, if only sexually.

She didn’t have time for this. She didn’t have time to be some Lion Breed’s sex kitten. She had a mission to finish, but all she wanted to do was crawl over his tight, hard body and feel him against her. She wanted to rub on him.

Hell. She wasn’t doing this. This was not the way to prove she could handle mating heat and the mission.

And she had no choice but to prove it or she would have to back off and give Lawe exactly what he wanted. The end of her freedom.

Lifting her hand, she pushed it beneath her hair and rubbed at the sizzling sensations that seemed to pulse just beneath the skin there.

The bite Lawe had given her ached with a sizzling sensation and almost brought a moan to her lips as she touched the wound.

Jerking her hand back, she glared at him before turning to the bed and grabbing her bags.

Pulling the short hiking boots from the closet along with the clean socks she had pushed into them the night before, Diane threw them on the bed as she prepared to leave.

“You can go with me or you can haul your ass back to D.C., I don’t really give a damn which,” she told him as she prepared to leave.

Liar. Liar. The inner sex kitten was chanting the word as her body screamed for sex. For mindless, erotic, nasty sex and another one of those primal, primitive bites at the back of her neck.

She turned to inform him exactly what he could do with his protective possessive attitude and his refusal to consider anything but his own way, when he was suddenly right there behind her. He gripped her arm and hauled her against the exciting heat of his much larger body, his arms surrounding her, the heat of him seeming to penetrate through her flesh straight to the core of the arousal blazing higher at his nearness.

Her breath caught in her throat.

“You want to be fucked so bad you can’t stand it, let alone protect yourself and that arrogant behemoth you fight with,” he snarled down at her. “And still you would walk away from me?”

“In a heartbeat,” Diane flung back at him. “If you’re so damned stubborn and chauvinistic that you can’t accept the fact that I can’t be anything but what I am any more than you can, then you’re damned right I will. I won’t beg you to be my partner, Lawe. You should be intuitive enough to want to be.”

She would die of arousal before she would beg him to allow her to be anything but herself. She was who and what she was and she wouldn’t apologize for it. Just as he could be nothing other than who and what he was.

She didn’t ask him to change and knew he couldn’t even if she did ask it of him.

He had no right asking it of her either.

“You can barely walk for the need to fuck,” he charged again, lust and anger burning in his gaze, darkening the blue of his eyes and intensifying the hunger she knew he already felt.

Mating heat was nothing if not demanding. And exacting.

“So fuck me and get it over with.” Going on tiptoe she pushed her nose almost into his, her gaze locked with the wicked, sexual fire in his as she felt his cock pressing into her stomach. “Come on, Lawe, if you’re not going to go with me, then at least give me a quickie for the road.”

She had never been so furious with anyone in her entire life. Even Padric, her uncle’s second-in-command, and for such a brief time, her lover, hadn’t made her this angry during the years he had helped train her.

No one or nothing had ever made her as furious as Lawe could. Just as nothing or no one had ever made her want him as he made her want his touch.

“A quickie for the road?” Incredulity filled his voice and his rich blue eyes. “Have you lost your fucking mind? As if a quickie would ever be enough for either of us.”

Tilting his head, Lawe forced her head back by simply burrowing his fingers in her hair and pulling.

The prickle of the pleasure-pain attacking her scalp seemed to echo straight to her pussy. Her lips parted on a gasp of rising excitement as his lips suddenly covered her own. His tongue pressed forward demandingly, possessing her mouth and controlling the kiss as Diane rose to him and sank beneath the pleasure.

The addictive taste of spiced pears filled her senses as the mating hormone began to spill from him. Immediately nothing else mattered but that kiss and the man giving it. Nothing mattered but holding him to her, sharing the kiss, and stroking Lawe to that point of no return, just as he was pushing her.

Even without that hormone Diane had a feeling she would never be able to say no to him. There was something about Lawe that made it impossible for her to ignore. Whether it was the pure dominance that challenged every inch of her independent streak or the primal, sexual knowledge that gleamed in his blue eyes and filled his demanding nature, she wasn’t sure.

Whatever it was, he had been a fascination for her since the night he had rescued her from that hellhole. And ever since that night she hadn’t been able to decide if she should kill him or fuck him.

She didn’t want to kill him.

She wanted to tie him to her bed and have her way with him. She wanted to stroke every inch of his broad, muscular body before riding him into exhaustion. She just wanted him to need her as she needed him, and accept her as she accepted him. For once in her life she wanted to be a part of something rather than someone attempting to manipulate her into accepting only a lesser portion of what she deserved.

“God, Diane.” Lawe groaned as he pulled back from the kiss, his blue eyes blazing with need and an inner torment that sent a shaft of aching regret to clench her chest.

She could see the conflict raging inside him.

She could feel it, and she knew it would likely destroy both of them before it was over.

Because he only knew how to be protective of her.

And she only knew how to be the woman her uncle had created when he allowed her to see what had been done to her parents’ bodies.

In the same heartbeat she realized he was jerking her shirt from her jeans. She felt the pure, primitive hunger raging through him and knew she couldn’t do anything but meet it head-on.

Lifting her arms a moan escaped her lips as the material cleared her head and Lawe’s lips covered the tight, violently sensitive peak of her breast.

The muscles of her pussy clenched. Her womb spasmed with greedy hunger and a wave of heat raced over her flesh like a wildfire out of control.

As he bent to her, his mouth drawing on her with an intense male hunger, his fingers were jerking her belt loose and efficiently disposing of the metal buttons of her jeans.

It was a damned good thing she hadn’t put her boots on yet, she thought with dazed pleasure as he began pushing them down her hips. Otherwise, they may have had problems.

The anger had intensified the arousal already amplified by the mating heat, and the need to have him inside her clawed at the muscles of her pussy.

“Hurry,” she begged as she clawed at the T-shirt he wore as well, tugging at it, jerking it up his back until his head lifted and he was tearing it from his body.

Her hands moved to his belt, then to the button and zipper of his jeans, as she kicked her jeans away.

Lawe dealt with her panties quickly. He just tore them off her legs before his arms went around her. Gripping her ass Lawe lifted her to him as she lifted her knees, clasping his hips as he positioned his dick at the heated, slick entrance to her sex.

It was only seconds before she felt the engorged head of his cock pressing inside her. Thick and hot, the wide flesh pushed against the snug entrance as Diane’s head tilted back and shudders of pleasure raced over her body.

“There’s a bed.” She gasped, her nails biting into his shoulders as the head of his cock suddenly pressed forward.

Pinpoints of light exploded behind her lashes as the crest forged inside her. Within the next heartbeat, the next thrust, he was stretching her further. The sensations, so close to ecstasy mixed with the pain of the thick penetration to become the most pleasure she had ever known.

The gift of mating heat, her sister had once told her. It had taken hours to get the information out of Rachel. It’s like being suspended within pure bliss, heated bliss. It burns, energizes and leaves a woman too weak to protest whatever touch is given, and too hungry to ever deny it.

And Diane couldn’t protest. She had no desire to deny.

“Oh God, yes,” she moaned as he continued to forge inside her. Diane could feel the snugness of her inner flesh, as though he hadn’t spent the past night, nearly all night, buried inside her.

Tightening her legs around his hips, she arched her back and moved against him, forcing the engorged crest deeper. Each pulse and throb of the thick flesh stroked sensitive nerve endings as adrenaline raced through her body.

It was like being high on the danger of a mission, only better.

The feel of his cock moving inside her, impaling her with short, quick strokes, was driving her crazy with pleasure. Each inner caress caused it to build and tighten inside her with violent intensity.

“There, baby.” Lawe groaned as he turned and stumbled to the wall, putting his back to it to brace himself. His knees bent as he held her in place and pushed in hard. The fierce thrust caught her off guard. Pleasure lashed at her body as the sudden biting pleasure-pain of the impalement had her gasping for breath as perspiration began to sheen her flesh.

“Ah hell, yes, tighten on my dick just like that, Diane. Like you’re sucking it with that snug little pussy.”

Sensation slammed through her womb. The piercing, fiery surge of clenching reaction detonated with a flash of heat inside her. The eroticism of the moment and his words went so far beyond pleasure that she had no idea how to describe it.

Moving again, Lawe turned her to the wall, braced her back against it and with a hard push of his hips stroked to the hilt between her thighs. The rasp of his flesh inside her, the sensation of it stretching her so tight, revealing nerve endings unused to such sensation, had a cry tearing from her lips.

It was so good. Oh God, it was so good.

How could she live without him, live without this, for even a day?

Her head lowered, her teeth raking his hard bicep before gripping it desperately to hold back the words that would have given him everything he wanted.

Please don’t leave.

Please don’t lose another chance to feel not just the pleasure, but the emotions suddenly whipping through her as well. Because only when he held her, when he took her, when he gave in to his own needs did Diane feel as though he were giving her more than just the release he spilled into her body.

Her hips writhed, her pussy clutching at the thick flesh as Lawe pounded inside her.

Diane felt her juices spilling, her muscles milking his erection each time he forged his way past the snug grip of her pussy.

The feel of his cock buried so deep, the engorged head throbbing in the depths of her had her senses reeling, her pussy creaming wetter and slicker. His hands gripped the curves of her ass, his fingers flexing into the rounded flesh as Diane felt her sex rippling around at the thick invasion, attempting to tug him deeper inside her.

“Lawe,” she whispered his name a shattered moan as the need continued to claw at her senses.

“I’m here, baby,” he rasped as his head lowered, his lips moving to the slender column of her neck.

His teeth raked against her shoulder as she felt the change that slowly came over him. Tension tightened through his body as Diane shifted her hips, lifting herself then returning as he growled against her neck.

That growl vibrated through her, causing her hips to jerk as she felt Lawe thrust against her once again.

She couldn’t seem to make herself remain still. Her hips rolled and thrust against him as he began to move inside her. Pulling back then surging deep and hard, the engorged crest and hardened shaft caressing and stroking sensitive inner nerve endings and pushing her closer to ecstasy.

Her knees tightened at his hips as she lifted and lowered herself against him. Her head tilted to the side as his lips traveled to that point between her neck and shoulder. His lips settled there, his tongue licking, his teeth scraping over her flesh. There was a hungry roughness to his touch that sent fiery trails of sensation racing through her, the pleasure becoming a hungry greed she couldn’t deny.

Her pussy gripped his shuttling dick with desperation. The need for release tightened through her with a violent hunger that sent her pulse racing. The need for his kiss was overwhelming, an addiction she couldn’t fight.

One he seemed to sense.

With a last rake of his teeth against her neck, Lawe’s head lifted, his lips covering hers as he pressed her closer to the wall, holding her tighter as he began moving with a strength that had Diane crying out with a pleasure that tightened with painful force.

“Lawe.” She wanted to scream his name, but it only rasped from her throat.

The force of the need rose inside her and began to shudder through her body. Arching in his arms and straining against him, her nails scraped along his back, need beginning to tear at her, to tear through her as the overwhelming hunger surged hard and fast through her body.

Tearing his lips from hers, Lawe scattered kisses to her jaw, along the edge of it, down her neck. Tiny bites, the scrape of his canines; then, as the burning sensations rushing along her nerve endings suddenly exploded in an inferno, she felt his teeth pierce the vulnerable line between her neck and her shoulder.

Her orgasm erupted through her in a series of rushing waves that threw her into a place of pure, exacting ecstasy. She was lost in it. Surging through the tidal wave of it as Lawe buried inside her deep and hard, his cock throbbing, expanding and spurting inside her as the barb suddenly emerged. It became fiercely, thickly engorged, rippling against the tender, sensitive flesh it was locked inside. Diane felt the heat and burning rapture of the increased pleasure that amplified and heightened the sensations that overtook her senses.

There was a part of her that realized, distantly, that each time her orgasm rose and expanded from the surging pleasure Lawe gave her, she felt a part of herself weakening, opening. As though her heart, her soul or something was opening despite her determination to keep that part of her closed off. To remain safe from the emotional abyss that she knew would be awaiting her.

Collapsing against him, shuddering, her breathing gasps of both ecstasy and the agony of emotions tearing free, forcing her to acknowledge them and to acknowledge the fears she had held back for so long.

She held on to him, terrified something or someone would jerk him away from her. Certain that the disagreements they shared were going to blow up in her face.

There were too many explosions that threatened to blow out of control inside her. Too many emotions she couldn’t control nor push back enough to give her the chance to control them.

Instead they rose, pushed at the shields that held them back and almost broke free.

Diane was only distantly aware of Lawe’s lips still at her neck as he licked and lapped at her flesh.

Marking her.

Everything he had done in the past months had been to one purpose and she knew it. To force her to release what she held back from him. What she refused to give him.

Her entire heart. The part of her soul that only the man who owned her heart would ever have.

And Diane had sworn to herself that no man would ever hold her heart and would definitely never open that part of her soul.

She was terrified if he owned that part of her, then he would control her. Because if Lawe could change her, if he could force her independence to give way to his need to protect her, then he would do it in a heartbeat.

“The thought of losing you destroys me,” he suddenly whispered at her ear. “When I saw you in that filthy cell, beaten, almost broken, so delicate and so determined to live, you stole a part of my soul.”

Shock held her silent. To hear this strong, always so emotionally cool Breed say such a thing. Lawe wasn’t a man prone to give in to emotion. And most certainly, even for a Breed, he had seemed even more unwilling to experience emotion than most.

Keeping her eyes closed she could only hold tighter to him. There wasn’t a chance of hiding what she felt from him. His ability to smell emotion and recognize it was too good.

And she knew what he could sense from her.

The denial, a rejection of what he was offering her and the pain of being unable to reach out for it and hold it close to her.

“Why?” he suddenly asked, his face still buried in her neck. “Why don’t you want what I have to offer, Diane?”

She felt the tears that tightened her throat, and though she couldn’t smell scent as he could, and the pain wasn’t in his voice, still, she could sense it. It tightened her chest and sent an ache to burrow so deeply inside her that she knew she would never escape it.

“Because you refuse to accept who I am,” she whispered hoarsely. “You’re rejecting me as well, Lawe. The rejection is just deeper. I accept you for who you are. You refuse to do the same for me.”

His head lifted and drew back.

She was still pressed to the wall, his body still a part of hers and the pleasure . . . The pleasure still throbbed inside her from the presence of the barb as it kept her mate locked to her.

“Do you accept me for who I am?” he asked quietly, somberly. “If you did, Diane, then you’d help me.” His fingers touched her cheek, the backs of them caressing her flesh gently. “You’d help us both find a way to compromise. Instead, you run. And running will do nothing but destroy us both.”

As she stared back at him and battled the tears she had no experience with, Diane felt the barb slowly releasing her, retracting back into the hood of his cock and taking with it the echoes of rapture that held her in its grip. That held Lawe in her grip.

“Do you compromise, Lawe?” she whispered. “Because honestly, I haven’t seen any give in you that would indicate the ability.”

Dropping his head to her shoulder he bestowed a gentle kiss before slowly helping her to slide from him as he pulled the still semi-hard shaft from her pussy and stepped back.

“We’ll go to Window Rock,” he said softly, and Diane had to swallow past the hard surge of emotion that tightened her throat at the chill in his voice, because when he stared down at her, she could see the torment blazing in his eyes. “Be careful while we’re there,” he said as he released her fully. “Remember what happens to me, Diane, if anything happens to you, and vice versa. Because regardless of what you believe of me, from the day I realized you were my mate, I stepped back from active status. Because nothing meant more to me than your life, your health and your safety. I would have never fought again.”

He didn’t mention her happiness. Strangely, the fact that it was forgotten had the power to pierce her heart.

He didn’t give her a chance to reply. She couldn’t have replied anyway, because she was too shocked, too uncertain about the implications of what he had just told her and the emotion he hadn’t mentioned.

To a Breed, nothing was more important than the battle for safety, the battle to ensure that the Breeds, as a people, survived.

So much so that all unmated Breeds vowed an oath to protect, even at the cost of their own lives, all mates, male or female, until they too found their own unique biological, chemical and pheromonal match.

Unmated Breeds composed the majority of the Breeds’ fighting force. Once mated, they pulled back to operations rather than active status, or to the protective and security ranks of either the Feline Breed base of Sanctuary, the Wolf Breed base of Haven or the nearby, newly created Coyote stronghold of Citadel.

It was information she had to process, and Diane knew as she watched Lawe gathering her clothes together before he gathered his that now she had no choice but to face the decisions she had been running from.

The choice of accepting Lawe as her mate, and in doing so also accepting the loss of her freedom, or she could deny them both and eventually, sooner rather than later, perhaps be the cause of both their deaths.