Her fists clenched at her side; rage was burning inside her, and that was unlike Ely. Ely was cool, calm. She didn't become enraged and never had she suggested anything so vile as confining a Breed.
"You're no better than the Council then," she yelled. "At least they had the good sense to confine him and find a treatment for him. You will only allow him to destroy himself and the Breed community in the process."
They were all staring at her in shock.
Callan gave himself a second, then another. Then before he could control himself, he was in her face, his canines flashing in a furious snarl as she plopped back in her chair, paling.
Callan braced his hands on the arms of that chair, leaning close to her, his eyes holding hers, enforcing his authority over her, feeling the strength of the animal inside him rising to the fore.
He was pride leader. It was his decisions that led his community, and damn her to hell, but she would submit to those decisions. He stared down at her, waited until her gaze shifted from his to his shoulder in respect, and the smell of her fear overcame the smell of her arrogance.
"Would you care to repeat to me the insult that just left your lips?" he asked her, the hard rasp of the animal fury coursing through his voice.
Her gaze flickered, lowered, as she breathed roughly.
"I apologize," she whispered. "I had no right to say that." Her eyes lifted again, and he saw the fear and the concern in her gaze as she stared at his shoulder once again. "Callan, I'm frightened for Mercury, and for that woman. He's dangerous and you won't listen to me because he's your friend. I understand that. But you have to do something."
"Jonas." Callan kept his gaze on Ely's eyes, boring into them, enforcing his strength, enforcing his command. "Did you order her to keep this information from me?"
"I did, Pride Leader." Jonas was smarter than the scientist; he kept his voice level, calm.
Callan moved back, watching as Ely's eyes lowered, her hands folded tightly in her lap, her posture calmer now.
"Why?" He turned on the director.
In terms of power within the hierarchy of the Breed Ruling Cabinet, Jonas was but a step below him. If push came to shove, the other man could possibly enforce certain areas of strength, but Jonas understood the battle they were fighting. Sometimes.
"I disagree with her assessment," Jonas stated calmly, confidently, though he cast Ely another confused look.
"You've seen the tests?" Callan asked him.
"I've seen the test results. I compared those results to the security video of Mercury and Ms. Rodriquez, as well as the video from the lab the day Ely tricked that blood from his arm. She deliberately antagonized him, then took the blood. Results from the blood taken moments earlier showed none of the feral hormone. It was only in the blood she took while accusing him of raping his woman that it showed up."
"She's not his mate," Ely snapped. "I've run all the tests, Jonas. There's no possibility of it."
Callan turned, and before he could halt it, a hiss of male fury passed his lips. Animal to animal, Breed to Breed, that sound had the power to shock them both, because it was one Callan never used. It was a warning of strength and power, and the line she was crossing.
Callan turned back to Jonas now. "What's your opinion now, Director Wyatt?" he snarled.
"Callan, Mercury's always had the feral hormone." Jonas sighed. "His lab reports show this. The drug therapy they used merely kept him under their control. He killed when he was ordered. The drug controlled him; it silenced the need for freedom inside him and the anger he would have felt at the death of his pride members. You don't see him in battle, or during missions. I do. And I've blocked Ely's attempts to test him before and after his missions. Dr. Morrey's concern for Mercury is commendable, but unnecessary."
Callan's eyes narrowed. "Why have you blocked those tests, at those times?"
Jonas sighed roughly at the question. "Because he's what he was created to be in battle," he admitted. "I have no better enforcer than Mercury. He's cunning, merciless and frighteningly intelligent. His kill rate is lower than the other enforcers because he has enough power to take his enemies down physically, hand to hand, in large numbers, and he's intelligent enough and in control enough to know when to kill and when not to."
"And I haven't been informed of these possible problems for what reason?" Callan growled back at him.
"Because the Bureau of Breed Affairs isn't under Sanctuary's control, Callan," Jonas stated, albeit respectfully. "The enforcers are mine to watch over, and if I do say so, I do a damned good job of watching out for them. In the middle of mating heat, with Supremacists and f**king protestors crowding around our asses every time they see one of us on the streets. Those are my men, and regardless of Dr. Morrey's paranoid little suspicions, the manipulations she accuses me of are some damned brilliant strategy if I do say so myself. My enforcers succeed, and that record speaks for itself."
Kane spoke up then. "I want to know what made Dr. Morrey suspicious enough to deceive a friend and deliberately enrage him before taking that blood. You've always been someone we can trust, Ely. The one person we could count on to figure out what was going on with our mates, and in the Breeds' cases, with their bodies. Why trick him?"
She stared at her hands.
"That's something I'm interested in as well," Callan stated, staring back at Ely. "Why did you target Mercury?"
She lifted her head, though she didn't meet his eyes. She stared at his shoulder, the animal in her realizing the fine line she was walking now.
"The mating tests," she whispered.