She turned on her heel, her spine ramrod straight, and stalked back to the door.
"I love all my children, Ms. Broen." Leo's voice stopped her at the door. "And you are more than a worthy mate for my son."
"You're still a lousy f**king father." She jerked the door open and stalked from the lab, her entire body shaking with the anger surging through her.
Manipulating bastard. Jonas had come by it honestly, she had to say, but he was by far kinder about it. He manipulated for the good of his Enforcers. He manipulated and calculated for the good of the Breed community as a whole. Never, at any time, had she seen an edge of cruelty in him.
The Breeds had refined themselves from their beginnings. Leo was still the animal the scientists had tried to create. Jonas was the Breed who gave an air of mystery and romanticism to this savage new race of humans.
Leo still lived in a world where hiding was the only option and games were the only way to survive. Jonas was creating a world where future Breeds had a chance to walk down the street in peace, play cards with neighbors and raise their children as others would.
A world Rachel wanted to be a part of.
Ely watched silently from the shadows of her office, her door open as Leo and Elizabeth yelled at one another like combatants set to exchange blows.
She had suspected for the past weeks that there was an edge of conflict between them, but she hadn't been certain until now. Watching Leo's mate as he raged at Rachel Broen, Ely had seen the explosion coming--one it hadn't taken long to blow sky-high.
It would have been amusing if Ely hadn't lost her ability to be amused months ago. Now she was simply clinical, bordering on cold, as she listened, trying to ignore the pain and aching sorrow Elizabeth Vanderale was feeling.
Elizabeth's voice was strong, clear. There was no hint of tears, nothing but anger shading her voice.
"When will you stop?" she yelled up at him, her small fists clenched at her sides furiously. "What the hell is wrong with you, Leo? I haven't seen you like this since we mated. You're like a lion with a sore tooth, and I for one am growing sick of it."
"You're not the one I'm trying to make sick of it," Leo yelled back. "The bastard ignores us as though we're not blood. He treats us as no more than guests to Sanctuary."
"And what do you expect?" Emotion now entered Elizabeth's voice. "How long, Leo? How long did you ignore the whispers that he wasn't LaRue's son? How long did you put off rescuing Breeds from that lab?"
"Because I knew he was protecting them," Leo charged, enraged now. "You know that, Elizabeth, we discussed it. Others were not so lucky to have a Pride leader such as Jonas. Others were suffering more."
"He's our son!" Elizabeth screamed, filled with pain now. "No wonder he refuses us the courtesy of acknowledging it. Not only did you allow his lab mates to suffer, but the very moment you were face-to-face with him, you did nothing but insult him."
Elizabeth turned away, and Ely watched as she dashed tears from her face. "I can't bear it any longer. That's my son. If I had known the game you were playing with him when it began, I would have instantly put a stop to it."
"We're Breeds, not f**king sissies," Leo snarled. "He's a man, Elizabeth, not a child. Our world is different from others, and you know this. Strength is what matters."
"That's your world." Elizabeth jerked her lab coat from her shoulders and threw it to a gurney. "I'm human, and our children are part human. You can't raise them like animals."
"They are animals." Frustration fed Leo's voice now. "We all are. How many more decades will it take for you to see this?"
She turned back to him, the scent of her tears strong now within the lab. "How long will it take you, Leo, to realize that you're not? It's an excuse all of you use for your own prickishness and inability to cope with any emotion. You want freedom. You want peace. But I'll be damned if any of the male Breeds I've met are willing to be human enough to ask what they demand from other humans. You're no better than they are, simply different."
She gave her mate no chance to protest. Instead, she stalked from the labs, the door slamming behind her. Ely slipped carefully back from the door that led into the labs and used the other door at the back of the room to leave her office.
This was something she couldn't keep to herself. A division in the ranks was too important not to report.
CHAPTER 21
"Someone has a big mouth. Should I guess who?" Rachel knew the moment she stepped into Callan Lyons's office to meet Jonas that Dr. Morrey had told Jonas exactly what had happened in the labs.
She should have gotten here first, she thought. She'd run into Merinus as she came to the main floor. Merinus had been carrying Amber, cooing at her, causing the baby to giggle and laugh at the faces she was making.
They had stood and talked before Rachel took Amber and headed to the office. Stepping inside, she saw Jonas's face, and Ely Morrey's cool, composed features.
Ely was half in love with Jonas. A hero-worship that stemmed from the care Jonas had taken of her during a particularly traumatic time several months before. Rachel understood it; she wasn't jealous over it, but she was beginning to see that it could become a problem.
Moving to the small baby bed in the corner of the room, a bed normally used for Callan's own infant daughter, Rachel laid Amber on the mattress, covered her gently and caressed her head before straightening and turning to Ely.
"I'd suggest, Ely, that you find your own mate to cling to while steering clear of mine for a while," she stated. "I do understand that he's been a friend, but you're now beginning to overstep the bounds of that friendship."