"No!" She stepped in front of him, unafraid for herself, terrified for the ambassador and anyone who would try to save him or to get in Jonas's way.
He paused, then attempted to move around her.
She couldn't reach him for a kiss; even with high heels she went only to his shoulders. She did the next-best thing. She grabbed his wrist as he tried to pass, lifted it and sank her teeth into his flesh for a hard, quick bite.
That stopped him.
Turning, he stared down at her, the pupil enlarging just enough in his gaze that Rachel could pray there was an edge of sanity returning.
It took precious moments. The prints of her teeth were in his hard wrist; the taste of him lingered against her tongue as she fought to hold him back, to keep the animal inside him leashed.
"We will discuss this." There was more than a rumble in his voice now, there was pure intent.
But sanity was there.
Holding her arm, he turned away from the ambassador and led her quickly to the wide front doors that looked out on the circular drive.
There were six Enforcers standing at the ready, weapons held as he rushed her from the house and into the waiting limo. Something had happened, there was no doubt about that. There was a sense of imminent danger surrounding the Breeds, their hard gazes and savage expressions reflecting a heightened sense of awareness.
Dawn followed, Seth at her side, until the doors closed behind them and the vehicles were speeding away from the Hampton mansion.
Curving mountain roads were the wrong place for the constant switches the limo made in position with the other two that had pulled out behind them. The six Enforcers as well as two drivers in the other two vehicles were driving like kamikaze racers heading for destiny.
"What's going on?" Rachel could feel her throat tightening with fear. "Is Amber okay?"
"Amber's fine. She's currently in a secured room reserved for Sanctuary's children and protected by the Enforcers assigned to give their lives if necessary. The mated parents are with them and looking over them as well as Leo and his entourage of cutthroats."
If those precautions were being taken, whatever had happened was something with the potential to endanger the mated couples as well as the ruling cabinet.
She watched wide-eyed as Dawn and Seth worked on a personal slimline laptop, and Dawn spoke urgently, her tone lowered, into a sat phone.
"Sanctuary was attacked about an hour ago," Jonas stated. "Callan and Merinus's son, David, was nearly kidnapped while on a pre-training exercise with Tanner Reynolds; my sister, Harmony; and her husband, Lance Jacobs. Lance was wounded, which compounded a chest wound he received nearly a year ago."
"The battle in New Mexico." Rachel nodded, fighting to remain calm. "He was shot in the chest."
Jonas nodded sharply. "He took a severe blow to the same area tonight. We have a team tracking the attackers now. I'll be joining them as soon as we arrive."
Rachel clenched her fists in her lap as she stared back at him. First, she had to face the danger to her daughter's life, and now the danger to Jonas. Through the months she had worked with him, he'd kept the more dangerous areas of his life hidden from her. Now there was no hiding it, and it brought to her the realization of how often his life, and the lives of the Breeds in general, were in danger.
"Is David all right?" she asked, knowing what it would do to Merinus if anything had happened to her son.
"Physically, he's fine," Jonas stated. "This is the second attack on the boy in the past two years, though. Each time, a friend has been harmed trying to save him. He's inconsolable."
And Jonas was nearly inconsolable himself.
Rachel stared into the live color of his eyes and saw subtle, agonizing flame. He cared for his sister and her husband, though she knew he often pretended otherwise.
Merinus had warned her that Jonas was cold and hard, and if he didn't thaw, if he didn't relent in the constant games he played with his Enforcers, then someone would end up killing him. That or the Breed cabinet would do something themselves to put a stop to his behavior.
Rachel had never seen cold or hard in Jonas, though. She had never seen a manipulator. He was calculating, no doubt; he had to be to survive. He had to be, to maneuver the people he loved into the lives he knew would benefit them.
He was a lover, a leader. He was a man who used the training he was given--to kill, to destroy, to sabotage--to build and to nurture instead.
He just had a rather unique way of doing it in an ass backward sort of way though.
"Jackal has landed the heli-jet one mile from our location," Dawn stated, her voice calm, though her dark brown eyes raged with anger. "We also have two pickups filled with armed assailants bearing down on us. Prepare to run."
Jonas snarled.