“The hell she definitely has.” Rachel crossed her arms over her br**sts and turned to Lawe with narrowed, angry eyes. “I just talked to her a few hours ago, Lawe. Even I was unaware she was leaving until she slipped into my room to tell me. I watched her shimmy down the metal gutter twenty stories down as the sun rose, because it was easier to slip away from the goon squad you put on her. What did you do? Pull the big brave Breed act on her again?” She didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm in her voice. “Didn’t I warn you that you were going to frighten her away?” Unshed tears rasped her voice now and glittered in her eyes. “You can’t chain her. You can’t force her to be some timid little pet. You’re going to get her killed by forcing her to focus more on her fight for freedom than on protecting herself.”
“She’s going to get herself killed because of her own damned stubbornness,” Lawe all but snarled as Jonas attempted to hide his wince.
That wasn’t the response that should have come out of his mouth.
Rachel’s brows lifted in derisive, angry surprise. “So she should just play the helpless little female for you like your other conquests do and let you go out and play all by yourself then?” A sharp laugh left her lips. “Really, Lawe, I thought you were smarter than that. Just because you gave up active military status for bureaucratic bullshit and the logistical planning you love, doesn’t give you the right to imprison her.”
Lawe glared back at her.
Jonas wondered if he should commiserate with his soon-to-be assistant director or kick his ass. He saw the way Lawe was staring at her, his eyes glittering with fury, and the look had a warning growl vibrating in Jonas’s throat.
“Keep trying to protect her, Lawe,” Rachel said painfully. “All you’ll do is keep her running. And each time she runs she’ll become harder to find and more determined to suffer the heat alone rather than attempt to make it work with you. She’s worked too hard to give up her independence or to allow any man, especially a Breed, to control her. You’ll only make her hate you.”
“So I should allow her to continue to risk herself as though her life doesn’t matter?” Lawe was furious, his icy blue eyes were snapping with anger as his expression tightened to a furious hardness, the impression of feline savagery intensifying.
“That, or learn how to fight beside her,” she suggested with an inner pain so agonizing every Breed in the room felt it. Especially Jonas. He could feel it lashing at him, burning straight to his soul and searing him with his mate’s tormented fears for her sister. “Because if you become the reason why I no longer see my sister, or my daughter grows up without her aunt, then I promise you, I will do everything in my power to make damn sure you pay for it.”
Lawe growled, a low, deep rumble of such intense male confusion that if it weren’t for Rachel’s pain, the other Breeds in the room would have been more than amused at the sound.
“Rule!” Lawe snapped out his brother’s name. “You’re with me.”
“Am I? I don’t know if I want to go with you, Lawe,” Rule stated from across the room. At the look of fury his brother directed his way, he sighed with weariness rather than his normal mockery. “Fine, but I think it would be in my best interests to stay here. This mating stuff is becoming contagious and I’d just as soon remain uninfected if it’s all the same to you. Unlike you, I’m still avoiding the issue and doing my damnedest to remain free.”
Lawe turned, and though Jonas couldn’t see his expression any longer, he watched Rule sigh in resignation as a grimace tightened his face. “Fine. Fine,” he groused. “But if I end up infected, I’m gonna kick your f**king ass and will do everything I can, every time I can, to make sure you’re c**k blocked.”
Lawe swung back to Jonas. “I’ll contact you when I’ve found her.”
Pure Breed arrogance and a touch of male superiority filled his gaze and his voice. Jonas could have warned him then and there he was headed for trouble. But hell, he knew the other Breed wouldn’t listen.
Some things, a Breed just had to learn for himself. And the lessons Diane was getting ready to teach Lawe were those he would never forget.
As painful as those lessons might be, as certain Lawe was he had no need of them and would never bow to them, Jonas knew it would be an adventure Lawe would never want to miss.
After all, Diane was his mate. A perfect match, heart and soul, to the man he was. Could he have expected his mate to have been less of a warrior than he?
“Yeah, you do that,” Jonas said with a snort as Lawe and his brother headed for the doors.
Lawe jerked one of the wide panels open, stalked through it and didn’t look back. Rule followed more slowly and as he reached the door turned back to Rachel. “I’m certain you arranged this somehow,” he stated knowingly, his gaze narrowing on her as Jonas caught a hint of some unknown emotion, a scent he didn’t recognize. “I don’t think it was very sporting of you, Rachel. I have problems of my own you know. I didn’t need to borrow his.”
As the door closed behind him, Jonas turned back to his mate and arched his brow at her in question as she leaned against the table and smiled complacently.
The anger was gone. She was still hurting, but Diane was her sister, a sister who constantly placed herself in danger for some reason, in battles that weren’t hers, for men, women, children and creatures that would never offer the first word of thanks.