“Oh, wait, you do know Cassie Sinclair, right?” she pointed out.
The false amusement in her voice would have fooled most humans, perhaps even a Breed whose senses truly were recessed.
His weren’t recessed though, despite what he’d led her to believe.
“I know Cassie,” he answered ruefully, though he didn’t grin, he couldn’t smile back. It would take far more inner strength than he possessed at the moment to find something to even fake a smile for.
The pain and fear were too much. He wanted nothing more than to pull her to him, to hold her, to remind her that he would give his last breath before he would allow her to be harmed, just as he had promised.
Reaching out, almost without thought, Navarro let his fingertips stroke down her arm with a gentleness he hadn’t thought himself capable of.
Her head jerked back from her study of the top of the SUV, widening as she stared back at him.
“I promised to keep you safe.” He couldn’t pull her into his arms, but he could tell her again and hope that it would help.
“I remember.” She nodded slowly.
“I keep my promises.”
She licked her lips with a hint of nervousness.
“I know.” He could see her br**sts rising and falling faster, her gaze darkening with an awareness he hadn’t expected.
Then, something dimmed the fear and pain, even the pain that radiated from her very bruised ribs. An emotion he didn’t want to scent, one he didn’t want to sense swirling around him as it reached out to him, as though begging to be allowed in.
It wasn’t love, not yet. It was that tender, exploratory emotion that leads to it, that reaches out so very tentatively to a man from a woman, stroking against the wall that blocked his own emotions.
Psychic tendrils. He could sense them just as any animal could. He could identify it and make the choice to accept or to reject it.
Only humans were unaware of their own extrasensory gifts. They closed their eyes to them once they learned that their adult counterparts refused to accept the gifts.
Animals didn’t block them, they didn’t deny them. In many ways they communicated with them, letting their senses do for them what man allowed his lips to do. To speak of emotion.
“Don’t, Amaya,” he whispered, blocking the fragile threads of emotion determined to reach inside him.
“Don’t what?” The whisper of emotion paused, as though even subconsciously she knew exactly what he was warning her against.
“I didn’t promise I wouldn’t break your tender heart, Mica. Protect it from me. Don’t let me touch that part of you. Don’t let me destroy both of us that way.”
It was a warning, and the only one he would give her.
Her lips trembled, and though he expected her to pull back emotionally, expected the heated warmth of that emotion to recede, still it lingered.
“What do I do, Navarro, if it’s already too late for the warning?”
Sanctuary was one of the most beautiful prisons in the world, Mica thought the next morning as she stood at the window of her bedroom and stared out into the pristine landscape that surrounded the main house of the Feline pride leader and his prima.
Callan and Merinus Lyons were the reason the world knew about the Breeds. The reason they had been rescued, the reason they were now fighting to hide mating heat and a variety of other secrets that the world would never understand.
Secrets that even Mica didn’t know. Genetic experimentation and breakthroughs in such incredible gifts, given to the creatures that weren’t wholly human or wholly animal, but were that mysterious in-between that was nothing short of terrifying, fascinating and completely supernatural.
She remembered she’d felt that fascination the moment she’d watched her first television documentary on the rescues. In school, they were taught that the Breeds were humans too, that they were no different than another race or another nationality. But Mica had known otherwise, long before she’d heard the first teacher give the first lecture.
“Mica.” A soft knock at the door had her turning from the window to rub at the chill in her arms as the door cracked open.
“I’m awake,” Mica called out as Merinus paused outside the door.
“Excellent.” Filled with gentleness and an innate compassion that could calm even the most fierce of the Breed personalities, Merinus stepped into the bedroom, stood aside and with a smile allowed a young Breed female to step in with a small serving cart loaded with coffee, two cups and Mica’s favorite breakfast.
Her brows lifted. “This is a nice surprise.” She smiled back at Merinus gratefully. “Breakfast almost in bed. I’ve been up for a while.”
“That will be all, Janey.” Merinus smiled back at the quiet, somber girl.
She wasn’t a Lion Breed, nor was she a Wolf; Mica could normally identify them.
Janey gave a barely imperceptible nod before turning and leaving the room.
“I’ve had to find a way to drag her out of the hole she created for herself in the communal housing,”
Merinus said softly as Janey left the room. “She loves cooking though, so I’ve managed to drag her up here and convince her to cook for us.”
Merinus was good at that, convincing those around her to do what she wanted them to do. It helped that she always had their best interests at heart.
“She’s very shy,” Mica agreed.
Merinus glanced back at the door almost thoughtfully. “Yes,” she finally said softly. “Janey is very shy.”