"Shut up!" She turned on Braden, instantly noticing that he had placed himself against the door. No escape there.
"If you destroy yourself, you destroy your mate, Harmony," Braden snapped, his golden eyes narrowed on her. "I saw your need to stand between him and Jonas. You feared for him. You were determined to protect him. Run from him and you'll condemn him to the same agony you'll suffer as well. You're not in this alone."
"I am always alone," she snarled back at him. "They call me Death for a reason…"
"And if you've already conceived?" Lance asked quietly then. "Would you deny me the right to help protect my child? And trust me, Harmony, I can and will protect both my mate and my child."
He honestly believed he could. Harmony felt the hard sob that clenched her chest as hopelessness filled her.
"No force on this earth can protect a child of mine," she sneered. "You don't understand. You don't know the lives I've taken, the blood I've spilled or the monsters that would attack. There's no way to save either of us now."
Lance watched the pain-ridden features staring up at him. Fear filled the eyes of a woman whose file stated she knew no fear. No, it wasn't fear, it was complete terror, and it was destroying his soul.
The air was heavy with her pain, wailing at his ear like a distant scream rife with torment. Harmony was tormented. He could see it in her expression, in her tears. In her confusion as she wiped at the dampness.
The need to protect her, to reassure her, rose inside him like a tidal wave. It was more than just a need; it was an impulse, an instinctive response to the pain tearing her apart. The thought of a child, and a woman that completed him, couldn't distress him. And protecting that woman and child would be his main focus.
"Braden, can you contact Ely without Jonas knowing?" Lance kept his eyes on Harmony as he spoke.
"That would be easy enough," Braden answered.
"Get her out here for the tests Harmony needs. I want that hormone therapy. Get her out here fast."
"Jonas's scientist?" Harmony's question had his gaze swinging back to her.
"She's the Breeds' scientist," Lance corrected her. "She heads the department working on the mating phenomena."
"She took the blood and saliva samples while I was at Sanctuary…"
"You haven't been at Sanctuary," Braden growled. "I pulled your file this morning, Harmony. Jonas would have had to log you in."
Lance watched as the bitter mockery twisted her lips.
"That's a nice little underground cell system you have below the main detention building," she said softly, sarcasm thickening the slight French accent that he hadn't noticed the night before. "I was there for two weeks, Braden, while your Ely poked and prodded at me. I was slipped out at night and put on a heli-jet to Carlsbad. Check with your precious Ely and see if she can tell the truth any better than Jonas can." Lance stared back at Braden, seeing the surprise as Harmony described the cells.
"Shit. He's going to get himself killed at this rate." Braden swiped his fingers through his unbound hair as he stared back at both of them in acknowledgment. "I'll contact Ely the moment I get to the house. I want a completely secured line for this one. Jonas is no doubt tapping yours, as well as your home line. So watch that. Check the house and this office for bugs while you're at it."
"That was done when I first came in," Lance snapped. "I take nothing for granted in this office, Braden."
Braden nodded firmly, his gaze touching on Harmony in compassion as she wrapped her arms across her chest and paced to the window across the room.
"You're his sister," Braden finally announced. "The same one who killed his mother. Why is he giving you a chance to redeem yourself?"
Lance watched as she turned, her body tense with the obvious results of the unnatural arousal tearing her apart.
"You'll have to ask him that one." Her teeth bared in anger. "According to Jonas, he would give any other Breed this same chance." Her lips twisted into a sneer. "The redemption offer was a trick. He knew this would happen, somehow; he knew the reaction that would result from being with Lance. He knew and he used it. He found the perfect way to destroy me."
Braden cursed as Lance felt a killing rage echo inside him. God help Jonas if he got hold of him anytime soon.
"Can we lodge a complaint with the Breed Ruling Cabinet?" He turned to Braden again.
"They could leash him."
"You do that and you reveal Death's whereabouts to whatever spy is still spilling secrets at Sanctuary." He sighed. "It poses more of a danger than a solution at this point. Until the heat dulls, she's at her weakest, Lance. If another male touches her, he'll debilitate her. Right now, Death is as vulnerable as any babe. The hormonal shifts and changes tear down the defenses, physical and mental. She wouldn't survive it."
"I won't let this happen!" The rage and fear in her voice sliced through his soul. Lance swung around, rushing to her as he watched her crumple. The mating heat was building in her, her expression distorted with pain as her hand clenched at her stomach and her face paled.
He caught her in his arms, burying his face in her hair, crooning to her, lifting her against his chest as he turned back to Braden.