“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she groaned as she rubbed at her ear, wishing she could rub away the warmth that reminded her of his touch. “I still can’t believe I did that.”
“And as terrified as you are of Holden, I still can’t believe you didn’t see him come into the bar.” Chelsea was shaking head in confusion.
Her sister was no more confused than Isabelle was herself. That simply wasn’t like her. She didn’t come on to strange men, and she sure as hell never dared a Breed of any species. They were simply too unknown, and their temperaments too uncertain. Virgins should know better, she told herself in exasperation. They were so sexually experienced it should be considered illegal. Hell, it probably was illegal. They were lethal in more ways than one, but they would be hell on a woman’s heart.
She knew plenty of them, and she was friends with several Breed females, but they weren’t best buds. Just as the male Breeds she knew had never been lovers.
This Coyote, though, she would have loved to give herself to. Over and over again.
And she would have loved continuing the game tonight. They had friends in the hotel; she could have found out where his room was. Perhaps slipped something beneath his door. Dared him to find her, then gotten herself another room.
She would have had so much fun, and if that playful glitter in his eyes was any indication, her Coyote would have played with her. He would have broken all the rules. He would have laughed at her indignation. But she would have had so much fun.
If it weren’t for Holden and his unpredictable behavior.
“Look, Holden doesn’t know we’re staying here at the hotel. He’s expecting us to be heading home,” Liza pointed out. “Malachi and his friends certainly are in this hotel. I checked with my friend, Mary, at registration. Malachi Morgan, Rule Breaker and Stygian Black are here as a Breed delegation to meet with your uncle.” She frowned, her gracefully arched dark blond brows lowering in concern. “Do you know what it’s about?”
Isabelle shook her head rather than lying outright to her friends. As her uncle’s assistant, she knew she had to be careful about divulging too much confidential information. And there were things Isabelle knew that even her sister was unaware of.
She knew why her father, uncle and grandfather thought they were there, though she wasn’t aware of the details.
Her uncle, the chief of the Nation; her father, one of the Nation’s legal representatives; and grandfather, the Nation’s medicine man had been discussing a rogue Breed and the search for him that the Bureau of Breed Affairs was conducting.
Isabelle had heard her grandfather’s fears that the Breeds weren’t telling the whole truth regarding why the delegation from the Bureau of Breed Affairs was there.
They feared it had something to do with the kid the Breeds suspected the Navajo Nation Council and the Martinez family had been hiding for more than a decade.
Isabelle didn’t know if her family knew where they were or not. She knew though, that someone in the Council was behind the disappearance of Breed children who needed to cease to exist for their own safety. It only made sense they would do the same for any human child that had been a part of Breed research. All she knew was that there had been a teenage boy and young girl who had been found by her father years ago who had disappeared from the house later. Six Navajo dressed in denim, their faces decorated with war paint, their dark eyes fierce and intent, had taken the three away, and Isabelle had never seen them again. She had never told Chelsea or Liza about them. A short time later, Isabelle had heard her father and uncle talking about another girl. One her father had brought in after the other two, but she hadn’t been able to hear the details, and she hadn’t seen the girl. She wouldn’t have known about any of it if she hadn’t been such a nosy, sneaky kid, as her older brother, Lincoln, liked to accuse her of.
It wasn’t the first time the Navajo Nation and the Martinez family had interfered in the Genetics Council’s plans, or any of their counterparts’. The Breeds were a part of the Nation and its people. They were the sons and daughters of many of their missing that were taken by the Council. Too many of them carried their genetics to ever turn any of them away. And Isabelle knew that the three kids they had hid all those years ago had been taken from either the Council or one of their counterparts. They were part of the research, and the Martinez family and the Navajo Nation would kill to protect them.
“The meeting is tomorrow,” Isabelle told them both while maintaining the secrets the others were unaware of. “It begins at ten. I know Dad wants to refuse their request to search for this rogue Breed because he doesn’t trust their reasons for it, while Gramps and Uncle Ray are hesitant to deny them.”
“Maybe Ashley knows what’s going on,” Liza mused as she mentioned the Coyote female who was a regular visitor from the combined Wolf and Coyote Breed community of Haven, Colorado. “She’s in town this week. She called last week to see if I wanted to go to the spa with her while she was here.”
Blond as well, though artificially colored, enhanced and streaked, Liza was known to spend an excessive amount of time at the spa in town pampering her hair, nails and glowing, soft skin.
To a point, both Isabelle and Chelsea were regular customers at the spa, but Liza and Ashley spent far more time pampering themselves than either of them did.
“I’m not nearly as worried about this as I am my sister. What are you going to do about this, Isabelle?” Chelsea asked as both she and Liza stared back at her in concern. “If I know Holden, he won’t just leave you alone. He’s going to keep coming at you until he catches you off guard again. And when he does, he’ll make certain he hurts you. We both know he will.”
For some reason, Holden Mayhew had it in his head that she belonged to him. It had taken only a single date for Isabelle to realize he was a man that wouldn’t take no for an answer. The second date, an attempt to reason with him, had proven her right.
“I don’t know, Chelsea.” Shoving her hands into the pockets of her jeans, she was drawn back to the window.
“You could tell Uncle Ray,” she suggested.
It wasn’t the first time her sister, or God forbid, her brother, Linc, had made that suggestion.
“Or your father,” Liza pointed out with a hint of mockery.
They all knew if she told her father, then Terran Martinez would likely attempt to kill Holden himself. And that was something she didn’t want to have to face. There was always the chance Holden would harm her father or catch her brother unaware and hurt him. Or the chance that her father or brother would kill Holden and be willing to face prison to do so. Protecting her and Chelsea was all they seemed to think about at times. As though the haunting specter of Morningstar Martinez’s kidnapping and disappearance more than thirty years before somehow threatened Isabelle and Chelsea as well.
“I wish the two of you didn’t know about it.” Isabel sighed.
“That would be hard to accomplish,” Chelsea drawled. “If we hadn’t shown up, sis, that night would have had a far different ending for you.”
She would have been raped.