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me, han ku kuulua sivamet-keeper of my heart, yet you should be called han ku meke piramet-defender."

"I am the keeper of your heart," she said, "and I will defend you to the death, Razvan. You are an extraordinary man and I am proud to be your lifemate." She ducked her head, embarrassed as always when she showed too much emotion. "We should go back to our home so we can study the soil and see if we truly have your answers."

He caught her chin and took a kiss. Just one. But he savored her, the taste and texture of her, savored the scent and feel of her. When he lifted his head he smiled. "Palafertiil-mate."

Just the way he said that single word made her weak inside. Soft. Tender. Sexy. She smiled back at him. "That I am."

CHAPTER 17

"The life-form had to have first been in the meteorite," Ivory said and slumped down, her arms cushioning her head. "I should have known. It is iron rich."

"How did it survive coming to Earth?" Razvan asked, rubbing her shoulders.

"I have no idea, and frankly, I do not even care at this point. The soil is teeming with them and, so far, every time you have brought me contaminated soil, they rush to surround the mutated microbes and destroy them while leaving everything else intact." She turned her head to one side to look up at him. "Do you know where the microbes are produced?"

"Xavier's largest factory was destroyed and he moved to his fortress deep under the mountains. I can find it. But the microbes are not in the soil there. He leaks them down a glacier to feed the water systems and spread to the soil. The last time I hunted for us near the village just below the glacier, I overheard the local midwife speaking of the high rate of miscarriages. I fear the contamination has spilled over into humans. If the microbes infected their gardens, they could begin to suffer the fate of our species." He massaged her neck with gentle fingers. "You need to rest, Ivory."

She had been working steadily for three weeks straight, never leaving the lair, not even for food. Razvan had hunted for the pack and for Ivory. He had taken the wolves running nightly and had gathered soil samples from dozens of places, bringing each back to her, but Ivory refused to go with him, preferring to stay and conduct her experiments. She looked pale and worn, with dark circles under her eyes.

"I have a bad feeling, Razvan," Ivory said. But she gave a small sigh of pleasure as his fingers worked their magic, easing the knots out of her neck. "It has been growing in me for some time now and I feel the need to get this done fast."

He was silent and she looked up at him to catch the expression on his face. Ivory sat up quickly and turned to face him. "You have felt it, too."

He nodded. "Growing stronger all the time and the pack has been strangely restless."

"Something is wrong."

He didn't want to agree with her, not when she was so worn, but his every instinct told her she was right. "We have to go to the prince with what we have," he said.

She bit her lip. "I think I am right, Razvan, but I am always so meticulous. I would repeat the experiments a thousand more times and document more evidence. I am still working on the spell to change the existing mutations for when we find his factory."

She pushed her hand through her hair in agitation. "There is still so much work. You cannot just rush this kind of thing. If we make a mistake, we could do as much harm as Xavier, no matter what our intent."

They stayed up into the morning hours when her skin hurt and blistered, despite being so far beneath the ground-an aftermath, he knew, of spending more than a century beneath the earth to heal her horrendous wounds. She sank into the sleep of their people. Ivory often woke before she should, agitated and on edge. Her body was unable to move while her mind raced with worry. Razvan made love to her often, easing the tension in her, but she couldn't stop the obsessive drive that kept her working nonstop. Even the soil couldn't seem to rejuvenate her.

He pulled a brush from the table and began to run it gently through her hair, knowing she always found that soothing. He