She stared back at him, shock winding through her system first before pure rage took over. Before she could stop herself, her hand lifted, flew, smacking open-palmed against the hard contours of his face.
Everything in the room seemed to freeze.
Elizabeth and Ely stared at them in shock, their expressions wary as they watched Jonas.
He could have stopped her. He was fast enough, instinctive enough that he could have prevented the blow. Instead, he stood still for it. He took it, his expression never changing, his eyes boiling with currents of emotion she couldn't make sense of.
"That changes nothing," he rasped. "Where it comes to you and that child, my word is law, sweetheart. Trust me on that. There's not a man or a woman in Sanctuary who would dare defy me on this."
"Kane . . ."
"Won't risk his life for it." His smile was tight, confident.
"Merinus won't let you . . ."
"Merinus wouldn't dare interfere," he snarled.
"They won't let you hold me here." She shook her head, certain they would never betray her to that depth.
"Tell me, Rachel, the mating tests that were ran--who do you think they were run with?"
She couldn't breathe now. She could feel her chest tightening with panic at the knowledge she hadn't wanted to face.
"It doesn't matter--"
"Oh, but it does," he cut her off again. "It does matter, Rachel. Those tests were run against my samples. They wouldn't dare interfere because they know the hell they'll face. You're my mate, Rachel. And I will protect you and my child with every last ounce of blood I possess. No one, but no one will do anything to harm either of you again. If I have to lock you in these labs to assure you don't leave, then I swear to you on all I hold dear that is exactly what I'll do."
Hours later, Jonas glanced at Rachel where she sat in the small chair beside the baby's bed.
She hadn't spoken since the promise he had made to her, since he'd revealed exactly whose mate she was. She'd backed slowly away from him, her expression never changing, the scent of her fury never abating.
At least he hadn't scented her fear of him, he thought mockingly. That was the last thing the beast prowling inside him needed to sense.
The animal.
He rubbed at the back of his head, where his lab number and birth ranking had been tattooed into his skull. He hadn't been branded as many of the other Breeds had been. He'd been tattooed instead while the woman who claimed to be his mother had looked on in pride.
His mother. What a job that bitch had been. Madame LaRue had carried him to term, but it hadn't been her egg or the sperm of the male scientist that had created him, as she and the lab reports had claimed.
According to those reports his DNA had been enhanced with that of the first Leo, but that wasn't entirely true. Just as it wasn't true that Callan Lyons was more the son of Elizabeth and Leo than he was.
He let them believe it. Callan, Leo, Elizabeth. Dane. He let them exist in that comfort zone they had that the bogeyman of the Breeds wasn't really related by blood to any of them.
Not that they would believe it without proof. He didn't carry their familial scent. His DNA had been f**ked with too many times; his scent was unique, with few of the markers that other Breeds possessed.
There was just enough tint of the Leo's familial scent that they had been assured Jonas carried his DNA, but nothing more. And he was certain the Leo wanted it no other way.
And Elizabeth.
He glanced at his mother. Hell, she stared at him as though he were an aberration most of the time. A puzzle she couldn't quite figure out, and wasn't certain she wanted to know.
That was how most people, Breeds and humans alike, stared at him.
Except Rachel. The few times he'd been able to draw any emotion from her at all, it had been colored with desire and laced with amusement. She tolerated him better than most. But then, she was his genetic mate. What else could she do? It wasn't as though she could hate him. Not with any amount of true strength anyway.
Breathing out wearily, he paced the lab, his gaze going between Rachel and the child.
His child. He had claimed the babe, though he had no basis for it. He hadn't helped create that life inside her. Over the months, he'd done nothing but attempt to watch over them both, and he'd failed miserably at that.