She knew it had to be fine. Anything else was unacceptable.
The tests conducted on her and Jonas went quickly, smoothly. Within a few hours, she was back at the cabin, trying to rub away the discomfort that still lingered on her skin from the effect of Ely's and Elizabeth's touch as they examined her.
Amber was tucked in her crib, resting comfortably in the room next to Rachel's office. The sitter, Erin, rested in a chair next to the crib and read one of the stack of books she kept in the room.
The Breeds were readers. Even Jonas had hundreds of books stacked on shelves throughout the cabin. Sanctuary boasted a well-stocked library, in addition to the extensive collection in Buffalo Gap.
As Rachel paced her office, she tried to ignore the steadily burning ache in the core of her sex. She was becoming so aroused it was almost painful. And the strangest part was the need for the taste of Jonas's kiss. Her mouth watered for it.
She was torn between pacing the floor and worrying about Amber, and walking into Jonas's office, tearing him from the computer and forcing him to f**k her.
Her eyes closed at the thought as she paused beside her desk. She wanted to ride him. She wanted to straddle that hard, muscular body and work his heavy c**k inside her.
No. First she wanted to ride his lips, his tongue.
She swallowed tightly. A kiss first.
First she wanted his kiss, his tongue plunging into her mouth, spreading that taste she needed so desperately, then she wanted the rest of it. All of it.
Amber appeared fine. It was her scent, and according to Jonas, Leo and Dane, the change was so slight that it could well be the changes that came from the changes in her body as she grew. It could be an effect of Jonas's scent on her, and the fact that he was now Amber's mother's mate. It could be a variety of reasons.
She didn't have to worry right now. And though she could never put it completely out of her mind, her body was forcing her to concentrate on Jonas.
Her body was demanding her mate now. It was demanding his kiss, his touch. His possession. Mating heat had picked a hell of a time to kick in. She felt besieged on all sides. Fear and worry for her daughter, emotions for Jonas that she wasn't always certain how to handle, and facing a future that had no chance of true peace or safety. At least not for decades to come.
She was trying to decide if the fact that she may be there in those future decades was a good or bad thing. According to everything she had been able to find out, the aging retardation had been tracked at one year per decade. In a hundred years, she will have aged only ten.
Because of the mating heat. Because of the need amplified within her body, digging heated claws into her womb and filling her clit, her pu**y, with such raging hunger that it was impossible to deny.
And the urges that hunger fed into her.
She rubbed her hand along her lower stomach, feeling her womb flex, clench. It wasn't just the need for sex. It was a need for complete intimacy. The need was overwhelming, wild. It was as primal as the claws that had retracted from the tips of his fingers.
"Rachel."
She opened her eyes to see him standing in the doorway to his office.
Her breath caught audibly now. She could no longer hide her response to him. Her pu**y flooded with her juices, the memory of the pleasure he could bring her racing through her system.
She didn't feel like herself. She felt those urges she had always kept carefully restrained rising inside her, trying to break free.
Rachel had always been perfectly happy being the peace-maker, sitting back and playing it safe while she worried incessantly about her wild sister.
If she had felt a need for adventure, she had always tamped it down quickly. Diana was wild enough for both of them, and she was smart enough, confident enough, to survive those adventures.
Watching him now as he moved slowly across the room, she was once again reminded of the animal he was. So powerful. There were times he seemed invincible.
His eyes were narrowed, living mercury roiling in the darkened features of his face. Hunger and emotion filled that gaze. Emotions she hadn't yet learned to decipher, but felt she was growing closer to the answers.
"You had only to come to me," he growled as he reached her, caught her hand and began drawing her to the entrance of the main house.
Pausing, he turned back.
"Erin, Rachel and I will be unavailable for a while," he called out to the sitter.
"Yes, Mr. Wyatt," Erin called back, no hint in her tone that she knew what was going on, though Rachel knew she must.
When he turned back it was to draw her from the office wing to the residence and then through the kitchen, living room and into the bedroom.