“They need more heli-jets.”
And wasn’t that the truth.
The fact was, at the moment, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it though. There were no more heli-jets, and they were stuck on land, driving through the night in an attempt to get her to safety.
As they passed beneath the Hudson River, through the Lincoln Tunnel and into New Jersey, the heavens opened up again with their liquid fury pounding down in driving sheets around the SUV.
Cougar, thankfully, was in his element. The SUV never lost speed, but continued on at a smooth, hard pace as the other Breed sped them toward Sanctuary.
It was the Feline Breed home base, but it was shared with Wolves and Coyotes who were in need. All Breeds inhabited both bases, though they had originally been designated one Feline, the other Wolf.
Mica was as at home in Sanctuary as she was in Haven, though it was Haven she spent the most time in, due to its proximity to her father’s home in Colorado.
She wasn’t at home in the middle of a rainstorm, racing across an interstate at eighty miles per hour while lying in the back of an SUV, at the mercy of a Wolf Breed and a stubborn Feline with an attitude problem.
And she was staring up at the Wolf as though she had all the trust in the world in him.
That look in her eyes made him want to crawl in the back with her and show her exactly why she shouldn’t trust him. There was nothing in the world he wanted more right now than to sink his c**k as deep inside her as possible.
Fucking her had become an obsession. It wasn’t a heat, thank God, but it was a hell of a lot more than a want. It was a driving need that made his dick so f**king hard it was ready to burst straight from his jeans.
“Cassie warned me not to come home,” she sighed into the uneasy silence that had descended in the vehicle. “She said I was going to end up running through the rain.” A soft laugh feathered around his senses as he glanced down at her, watching as she stared up at the ceiling of the SUV. “I told her I didn’t melt.”
He could just imagine that conversation. Cassie rarely understood the many visions she had now that she was maturing. As though her mind no longer wanted to accept the paranormal world that existed around her and often dragged her into its sphere.
“She’s not going to be happy with me,” she sighed again when he remained quiet.
“She rarely is when you leave.” Most Breeds who knew Cassie well knew she was rarely pleased whenever Mica returned to live the life she was trying to build for herself.
It was a life Breeds were often messing with just enough to keep it from growing, or to keep her from drawing away from them.
Navarro wondered if even Mica understood her friend, or whatever needs drove her. Sometimes, Navarro was certain no one had a chance at fully understanding the Wolf/ Coyote hybrid Breed or the friend she was so close to. Definitely, there was no Breed capable of it.
But Navarro had found himself considering the second job. There was something about Mica, a mystery he needed to figure out, and it pulled at his training, at the genetics that had gone into his creation.
He was created as a man of many faces. A Breed made to fit any situation, any personality or temperament needed for any mission.
He was a liar. A traitor. A Breed that could never be trusted because he was created to be the ultimate deceiver. He wondered what Mica would think if she knew the genetics that had gone into creating him.
“You’re not talking to me,” she stated irritably. “I’m not exactly feeling safe and secure here, Navarro.
That makes me a little nervous, you know?”
He glanced down at her again, his jaw clenching as he fought against the need to growl.
It was emotion. Emotion was such an unfamiliar sensation that many Breeds could only react to it instinctively. A growl, a snarl, a sound of danger that they had little control over.
“Do you know many Breeds who do talk much?” he asked her quietly, aware of Cougar in the front, well able to sense and scent the emotions swirling behind him.
“Cassie?” There was a note of laughter in her soft voice.
Navarro allowed his lips to quirk. “She does have her moments, doesn’t she?”
“There are times you can’t shut her up,” Mica agreed. “Then times you can’t get her to talk if your life depends upon it.”
“In other words, a woman?” His brow arched as he looked down at her again, tempting the arousal that pounded between his thighs.
“That isn’t nice.” She peeked back at him through the veil of her lashes. “At least we talk. Have you tried to get a Breed to talk lately when they wanted to be silent? Talk about mule stubborn. Some of you would put the mule to shame.”
“The pot calling the kettle black?” he questioned, holding back the smile he wasn’t certain what to do with.
“I’m not in the least stubborn,” she said in denial.
She was terrified. He could smell it wrapping around his senses, and the need to alleviate it had his fingers forming fists as he fought against it.
“You are the most stubborn woman I’ve met,” he argued, fighting back the anger.
In the seat ahead of him Cougar made a rumbling Feline sound of displeasure. It was too low for Mica to hear, but Navarro had no problem hearing it. The fear reaching the Feline Breed’s senses was abhorrent to him. Women were simply his weakness, and their fear was guaranteed to piss him off.
Perhaps that was what made most Breed males so very different from their human counterparts. They responded to a female’s pain and fear, even a female that was not a Breed. Especially perhaps a female that was not a Breed, because she was even weaker, even less capable of defending herself against predators. That fear and pain seemed to dig into an unnamed animal instinct the Breed males found almost impossible to ignore. Those found to be able to ignore that instinct were rare. Even those Coyotes who still gave their loyalty to their Genetic Council masters were affected by it.