He allowed her touch. Allowing her, for only moments, to cling to him again, staring down at her, letting her realize there was nothing here for her. Her touch was an abomination to him. And the only way her animal would realize it was to sense the feeling of it.
Then he gripped her arms, ignoring the discomfort in his palms at touching her. His tongue was thick and swollen, the hormone pumping furiously into his mouth now, and he swallowed. He swallowed and snarled in triumph.
The animal that had slept, that he had feared would return, was merging with his mind, tearing its way to that cold, empty place that had only been filled when Ria touched him.
And he realized it was because Ria had allowed the animal to awaken from whatever isolation those drugs had forced it into. That cold, empty place inside his mind had been a result of the drugs, and Ria had saved the animal now filling it.
"You're my mate." Alaiya's claws dug into his forearms, pricking him with anger rather than with desire, as she refused to acknowledge every instinct he knew she felt, that she was touching something that could kill her for the insult she was dealing to his mate.
"So where have you been then?" he asked her, his voice dark, fury pouring through him.
The need to get to Ria twisted inside him. He reined back the animal, just for the moment. Ria's turn would come, and he would make certain she never walked away from him again.
Alaiya's eyes dilated and he felt the lie before it ever passed her lips. He scented it, a dark, acrid smell that offended him.
"I was kept from you," she whispered.
"You lie." He shrugged from her touch. "You've played as you always played. You've done as you wished and given little thought to those you left behind in those labs. You were f**king your trainer, Alaiya. I knew it then. You killed him and you escaped, and you hid like the coward you've always been. And I ask you again, why come here now?"
Her lips thinned.
"You heard of Ria," he answered for her. "Which means you have ties into Sanctuary. Ties you shouldn't have."
Her gaze flickered over his shoulder, to Jonas.
"She turned herself into the Bureau six months ago, Mercury," Jonas told him. "I've had her working as an undercover agent in certain sectors since then."
That was Jonas. Always making use of a tool, no matter how flawed it was.
"And you didn't tell me she had been found?" He didn't take his eyes off her. He watched her, as he would a snake, while he watched the lies darken and lighten her eyes.
"She's not your mate." He heard the shrug in Jonas's voice. "Her scent isn't a part of you, and when I had Ely run the mating tests, they showed nothing. There was no reason to inform you."
Mercury nodded slowly. Reining in the fury, pulsing, pounding in his head, wasn't an easy thing. The animal was roaring in his head, demanding that he go to his mate. His true mate.
"That isn't true," Alaiya snapped. "The mating was there in the labs."
Mercury pushed her away. "The need to f**k was in the labs," he snarled back at her. "The lust was there, for the only female of any strength."
"Then explain the tests," she cried out, fists clenched, jealous fury pouring off her like body odor. "The tests they did. The same ones the tabloids are screaming over. Everyone else may think those rags are full of crap, but I remember the test results, Mercury. I remember them and I remember how possessive you were each time they allowed you near me. It was mating heat. The same as the matings I've read about since working with Jonas."
He shook his head. "I don't care about those tests, Alaiya. This heat is for one woman. My mate. For Ria."
"Breeds only mate once," she hissed, her face flushed in anger.
"We didn't mate," he reminded her before turning to Jonas. "I want her secured for further questioning." His gaze locked with that of his commander. He recognized the animal in Jonas as well now. And he smiled. The secrets Jonas held weren't that far beneath the skin, and animal sense met animal sense in an acknowledgment of strength.
Jonas nodded slowly. "I'd already decided that when she arrived tonight claiming to be your mate."
The timing was perfect. At the moment, the three strongest Breed males were not at that party. They were distracted, and Mercury was in full feral displacement. He could feel it. Under any other circumstances blood might have flowed.
But the animal was more experienced now, more mature, more intelligent. And the man knew freedom. A freedom the animal hungered for.
"Secured?" Alaiya growled. "I will not be secured. I came here for you, Mercury. You went insane when you thought you had lost me. How can you say I don't matter?"
He turned back to her, his eyes going over the perfect figure dressed in the perfect clothes, and she didn't hold a candle to Ria.
"How do you know what happened in those labs?" he asked her softly. "It's top-level information, Alaiya. You couldn't have gotten it unless you had a contact within those labs."