"And you can get the hell out of my office." He swung around as Jonas closed the door behind him. "You and the shark attorney of yours. I had enough of your games last year, Jonas."
Jess Warden smiled, the curve of her lips holding rueful amusement, as though his words were more a compliment than an insult. But her eyes stayed on Lance. Soft gray eyes that held a glimmer of interest and lust. Hell, Harmony could smell the other female's lust and it just pissed her off.
"If I leave, Harmony goes with me." Jonas shrugged easily as he tucked his hands into his slacks and rocked back on his heels.
Harmony's hand clenched around the butt of her gun. She knew that voice, just as she knew how dangerous Jonas could be when he used it.
God, he was such a manipulator. Even Harmony realized that the emotions and lust flaring through Lance were a dangerous combination right now. Whatever the hell was going on, it had sent so much testosterone racing through his body that she could smell it—a dark, masculine, high-combustible scent.
"Back off, Jonas," she growled, the hair at her nape lifting as his gaze swung back to her.
She could hear the furious little growls rising in her throat. She had no idea what was causing them or where they were coming from. All she knew was that despite the threat Jonas represented to her personally, she would not allow him to strike against Lance. She was aware of Braden's careful, cautious stance as he watched her, but she kept her eyes on Jonas. The other enforcer might try to stop her, but not before she did some damage. Enough damage perhaps to take his mind from Lance.
"Do you really want to go back to Sanctuary, Harmony?" Jess asked her then, her voice cool as she stared between Jonas and Harmony.
Harmony stared at Jonas with cold aggression, ignoring the other woman's terse tone.
"He won't take me back." She shook her head firmly. "Not now. He hasn't milked this little exercise for everything it's worth yet."
Jonas chuckled, his expression partly approving, partly calculating as he turned back to Lance.
"She learned well, despite her time away from the labs killing petty criminals. Too bad she didn't stick to the just killing the Council soldiers and Coyotes sent after her. She might have managed to keep me from coming after her."
Yeah. Right. She really believed that one.
Lance didn't speak, but Harmony had a feeling he was all the more dangerous for it. She could feel it, like an ominous whisper on the air around her.
Braden spoke up then. "Jonas, you're pushing boundaries again. I'm going to assume this is Death." He nodded to Harmony. "Lance was pretty certain about the tattoo she carried on her shoulder and there's no doubt she's the little cat that bit him." Jonas glanced back at her and lifted his brow mockingly.
"I should have known she wouldn't follow orders and go directly to her hotel room until I could get here." He shrugged negligently as he turned back to Lance. Jess stepped forward at that point. "We had the papers faxed through last night. Your superiors in Santa Fe approved your representation of a Breed Enforcer within your department. As you know…"
"She stays with me. I'll sign the papers later. Now get the hell out of my office." Harmony tensed at the low, primal vibration in Lance's voice.
Jonas's smile was a dare as Jess stared back at Lance in surprise. "Perhaps I should take her with me."
"Lance, stop!" Before Lance could move, Harmony jumped between the two men. Ecstatic pleasure surged through her body as her hands gripped the hard muscles of Lance's upper arms and she pushed back at him, attempting to keep him from tearing into Jonas, as he obviously intended.
"Get out of my way." The scent of his fury seethed in the air around him, despite the gentleness of his hands as he gripped her arms.
"This is not the way," she snarled up at him, fighting to stand between him and Jonas as he fought to set her aside. "Let it go. He's amused and playing with you. He's trying to antagonize you. Let it go."
"First I'll deal with him, then I'll get to you." His blue eyes flamed as he stared down at her.
"Lance, you're going about this the wrong way," Braden drawled. "Come on, man, you remember how confrontational Megan was last year. Stop and think."
"And how should he handle it, Braden?" Jonas queried then. "Have you forgotten so quickly you're an employee of the Bureau?"
"I haven't forgotten anything, Jonas." Braden's amusement was very palpable and very real. "But I also know who your boss is. Let's not go there, okay?" Jonas's eyes narrowed a second before his lips tilted with mocking approval.
"You're learning." He nodded abruptly to Braden as Lance placed her back flush against his chest, while his hands gripped her arms firmly.
"Get the hell out of here." She could barely speak for the need whipping through her.
"Not yet," Lance said. "You're forgetting something here."
"And that is?" Jonas tilted his head curiously.
"The hormonal treatments," he snapped. "I know what's going on here, Jonas. Don't try to screw me around."
Jonas's eyes narrowed on Braden. "It's illegal to give out that information, Braden." Braden shrugged. "I didn't say a word. Maybe the wind told him." The wind?
Jonas's lips thinned in irritation before he brought his gaze back to Lance. "I didn't completely expect this," he lied smoothly. Harmony knew he was lying. "I'll have to contact Sanctuary and get Ely to make time to fly in. It could be a few days."
"You son of a bitch. You're going to let her suffer through it." Sheer, amazed fury colored Lance's voice as Harmony fought to understand exactly what they were talking about. "You know what will happen."
"I think she'll make a lovely mother," Jonas crooned as he turned the doorknob and opened the door. "Maybe it will tame her down a bit. If she's lucky. Are you ready, Jess?"
"We need the papers…" Jess protested again.
"He can fax them to my office." He held the door open for her and the attorney did as she was told, but Harmony had a feeling she wasn't nearly as submissive as she was letting on.
Before anyone could respond further, the door closed behind them and Harmony turned to Lance slowly. She hadn't missed Jonas's parting shot in any way. Though it made no sense. A female Breed could not conceive. It was proven.
Hell, they had tried for years in the labs with no success. But then again, she had never heard of the strange sexual heat attacking her either.
"What's he talking about?" She felt dazed, off balance. She wanted nothing more than to crawl up his body and beg him to take her, but the sudden fear, that Jonas may have found the perfect revenge against her, held her grounded. "Breed females can't conceive."
"Under the right circumstances, they can." Lance grimaced.
"What circumstances?" She could feel an edge of panic beginning to build within her now. As though the emotions churning wildly inside her weren't enough. This was one worry she didn't need.
He turned back to her slowly, crossing his arms over his chest and watching her with heated, barely restrained lust.
"Mating heat. We mated last night, Harmony. We didn't just fuck. If it continues without the hormonal therapy the Breeds have produced, then you'll conceive. And most likely rather quickly. Now, what makes me think Jonas knew that?"
CHAPTER 4
The blood tests and saliva swabs—that was the only way to know. Harmony stared back at Lance in shock before slowly turning to Braden.
"This can't be true." She stared back at him, desperate for his agreement. Braden sighed roughly. "It's true. I'm betting the glands beneath your tongue are swollen even now, and hot. Within twenty-four hours the arousal will be so intense it'll become physically painful. The womb begins to convulse, spasming as the hormones attack it, and your nerve endings become so sensitized that a female can literally feel the air around them. Megan describes it as PMS times a thousand. The only thing that eases it is male semen. A mate's semen. Any other male's touch is extremely painful. So much so that it's unbearable."
He wasn't lying. Harmony could smell a lie as easily as she could smell Lance's lust. She moved unsteadily to a nearby chair before sitting down heavily and pushing her fingers through her hair in frustration.
"There's a cure?" She stared up at Braden for the answer. "This hormonal therapy stuff."
He shook his head slowly. "There's no cure. The hormonal therapy merely eases the worst of the symptoms and prevents conception."
She turned back to Lance.
"I can't conceive." The thought of it was horrifying. No child of hers would ever survive those who sought to take her, to kill her. "You don't know who I am, Lance. You don't know what I am." Fear rushed through her mind, tore through her soul. She felt the emotion, so unknown until now, explode inside her being until she knew nothing but the horrifying realization of what would happen to any child of hers.
"Jonas. He has to stop this." She jumped to her feet, stumbling before she managed to right herself and rush for the door.
"Harmony, wait. You can't go after him." Lance grabbed her around the waist, pulling her to a stop as she struggled against him, rough growls falling from her lips. "Harmony, dammit. He's gone. You know he's gone."
"No!" she screamed, striking back at him as she tore loose from him. "No. He can't be gone. He has to fix this."
He stared back at her, his gaze rife with pain as his chest rose and fell with his breaths. She was breaking apart inside. She could feel it. In all her life she had never known a pain so intense, so blinding as the one whipping through her mind now. A child. She couldn't have a child, because she could never keep it safe.
"You don't know what I am, Lance." Shudders whipped through her body as she stared back at him in horror.
She would be damned. Jonas had finally found a way to destroy her. Slowly. Painfully. She should have killed him when she had the chance ten years before. He was her brother. Her blood brother. They shared the mother she had killed. And now he would see her child destroyed. A child she was never meant to have.
"I can't do this," she whispered miserably. "Let me go, Lance. I'll leave. I don't care what he does…"
"He'll have her killed, Lance."
"Shut up!" She turned on Braden, instantly noticing that he had placed himself against the door. No escape there.
"If you destroy yourself, you destroy your mate, Harmony," Braden snapped, his golden eyes narrowed on her. "I saw your need to stand between him and Jonas. You feared for him. You were determined to protect him. Run from him and you'll condemn him to the same agony you'll suffer as well. You're not in this alone."
"I am always alone," she snarled back at him. "They call me Death for a reason…"
"And if you've already conceived?" Lance asked quietly then. "Would you deny me the right to help protect my child? And trust me, Harmony, I can and will protect both my mate and my child."
He honestly believed he could. Harmony felt the hard sob that clenched her chest as hopelessness filled her.
"No force on this earth can protect a child of mine," she sneered. "You don't understand. You don't know the lives I've taken, the blood I've spilled or the monsters that would attack. There's no way to save either of us now."
Lance watched the pain-ridden features staring up at him. Fear filled the eyes of a woman whose file stated she knew no fear. No, it wasn't fear, it was complete terror, and it was destroying his soul.