With Mica, a woman he knew could bear, and hide, a certain amount of discomfort, the fact that he could scent the heat of the pain so clearly was telling. She was hurting, and the longer he lay there, the pressure of his body against hers, the more the pain increased.
He could sense it. The knowledge of it had his muscles tensing, had him fighting to keep his weight from her as much as possible.
“We’re almost there,” he assured her as he turned his head to catch a glimpse of the buildings they were passing. From between the front seats he could glimpse the towers, watching as each passed by and counting off the streets left to go. “There’s a nice warm room awaiting us, Mica. A hot meal, a hot shower, then I’ll check your ribs and see the damage those bastards managed to do. I’ll care for you.
Haven’t I always cared for you whenever you needed?”
“Yes.” The tightly worded response destroyed him.
He’d never wanted anyone’s trust, especially a woman’s, but he wanted hers.
She made him wish, when he’d learned years before not to wish. She made him hunger, she made him want to learn how to dream.
The contradictions were often disconcerting because he couldn’t ignore them, and emotions were something he’d learned to ignore as a child.
With Mica, he found it impossible to ignore anything she forced him to feel. Especially the arousal.
“I remember the first time I saw you,” he whispered against her ear as he felt her trembling beneath him, the scent of pain growing stronger as it wafted from her. “Do you remember, Amaya?” Night rain.
She reminded him of the dark peace, the gentle touch of a summer rain at night.
“I was fifteen.” Stress filled her voice, pain tightened it. “They were calling Cassie names.”
Some of the younger Breeds, those who had been rescued from the labs while still in their teens. They had dared to stand before Cassie and call her a freak when they detected the slightest hint of her Coyote genetics.
They had made Cassie cry before they even realized who she was. They’d known only the scent of her, Wolf and Coyote mixed. And at that time, Coyote had been a hated scent.
“You pushed in front of her and blacked Josiah’s eye.” He closed his eyes tight as he fought against a wild, impulsive need to tell the men following them to go to hell and lift his weight from her immediately.
“Josiah deserved it.” Her voice was tighter, a hint of a sob, the scent of tears ripping at him.
“Josiah deserved it,” he agreed before turning his head. “Cougar, dammit, tell me we’re in safe territory.”
“They’re still on our f**king asses and that body heat sensor is still active,” Cougar snarled back. “Five more minutes, Nav. She’s not dying, it just f**king hurts.”
The scent of her pain was affecting Cougar as well. The other Breed was hard-core, cold to the pit of his soul where males, human or Breed, were concerned. But he hadn’t quite learned that women were just as strong, and a hell of a lot more dangerous in some cases than any man could ever hope to be.
Women were Cougar’s weakness. Mica was Navarro’s. And it made no sense. She wasn’t his mate.
He’d pushed that limit, tested her response to him; he’d kissed her, and still, the mating hormone hadn’t risen inside him.
“Navarro please . . .” she whispered again, her breathing shallow, the scent of her tears destroying him.
“I can’t breathe.”
The soft heat of an ember that indicated her pain was now beginning to glow brighter, threatening to blossom to a full flame.
“Three more minutes,” Cougar assured him, his voice tighter. “Bastards are still on our asses.”
“I’m going to kill them,” Navarro promised. “Find out who it is, Cougar. They’re dead.”
Mica whimpered beneath him.
Son of a bitch, he hated hurting her.
“We’re coming up on the hotel,” Cougar stated. “Once we turn in, we should be home free.”
“Just hurry the f**k up!” It was Mica’s voice, vibrating with pain now, thick with tears but heavy with anger.
“I thought you said she was sweet and shy, Nav,” Cougar snorted then. “She sounds like a brat to me.”
“I see a black eye in his future too.” Clenched teeth, feminine ire and that damned pain.
“I know how to duck,” Cougar assured her. “I always was better at that than Josiah was.”
“But Josiah also knows how to keep his mouth shut now. A lesson you need to learn,” Navarro stated warningly, a flare of jealousy he couldn’t have expected rising inside him at the flirtatiousness in Cougar’s voice.
He shot a glare toward the other Breed and found himself biting off a growl.
“If he doesn’t hurry, I’m going to kick his ass,” Mica promised painfully.
Navarro wanted to grin at the irritation in her voice, and he would have, if he hadn’t known it was caused by pain.
She didn’t make idle threats. He’d seen her go nose to nose with Breeds before, and they didn’t always back down simply because she was protected by Dash Sinclair.
“Here we go,” Cougar murmured.
As he made the turn, Navarro was suddenly thankful Mica was on her stomach, not on her back. If she had been on her back, staring up at him, he wondered if he could have withstood the temptation of her kiss, despite her pain.
She made him hot. She made his dick damned hard, and she made him feel, whether he wanted to or not. He couldn’t help it. No matter how he fought it, she made him as hungry as a damned rabid Wolf and as off balance as a human teenager after his first love.