For the first time in her life she was willing to fight for something or someone, and she knew the battle was hopeless. A woman couldn't defeat mating heat.
But he had made her promises. He had called her his mate. He loved her. Love could fight biology, chemistry. It could move mountains.
She shook her head. She would destroy both of them in the process, wouldn't she?
"From all evidence I've gained, as well as the tests I've conducted on myself and Leo, I have to say mating heat always comes with emotion." Elizabeth had stood before her more than a year ago, frowning as she worked, while Ria went through Leo's transmissions and updated the security of his encryption. "What do you think, Ria? Does love conquer all?"
Ria had looked up from the computer to meet Elizabeth's gaze.
"How would I know? I've never been in love." She had smiled back at the other woman.
"But you've helped me with many of these tests," Elizabeth pointed out. "The matings are strengthening in the American Breeds, though we've had rare matings among Leo's pride."
Ria snorted. "Leo's pride rarely leaves the plains. What are they supposed to mate? The zebras?"
And Elizabeth had laughed at that one, agreeing with her.
"Look at this. Devotion, Ria." She laid out pictures that had been taken of the mated couples. "Look at their eyes, their expressions as they watch each other. These are more than biological, chemical or pheromonal. That's why the mating tests are not always conclusive. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they aren't." Ria knew Elizabeth often worked secretly with the Breed scientist Ely Morrey. "This is love. Love, the predisposition for it, or the animal sense that that woman is somehow more perfect, more worthy than others. It begins the mating heat."
Ria had stared at the pictures. The pride leader Callan Lyons and his wife at a news conference after they announced to the world what the Breeds were. Taber Williams and his mate, Roni. Tanner and Scheme. An enforcer, Tarek, and his mate, Lyra. In their expressions that extra something that had always fascinated Ria. It was love. It was always love. Mating heat had managed, in every instance, to combine the chemical, biological and pheromonal with love.
Mercury loved her.
She heard the roar outside. Closer, throbbing with rage, reminding her of Mercury.
He loved her. She knew he did. Her soul was being ripped from her body without him.
He didn't love Alaiya. Mating heat came with love. Mercury had shown signs of the mating hormone in those labs. Not mating heat.
She buried her head deeper into his pillow, drew in his scent.
He was hers. He was meant to be hers. Yet what should have been hers had come alive for another woman. The scent of mating heat that Dane had smelled. The moment Mercury saw Alaiya.
She was tensing to move, to force herself from the bed, when the slam of a door had her stiffening. A snarl filled the cabin and the bedroom door burst open, thrown into the wall with a force that shook the room.
She jerked up in the bed. The light from the bathroom speared over him.
Mercury. Savage. Enraged.
"You ran from me, mate." Buttons ripped from his jacket as he tore it from his body.
She watched in shock as he undressed. Boots thudded to the floor. His pants slid from his powerful hips. His erection was thicker, throbbing, his eyes pure blue as she stared back at the apparition prowling to her bed.
"Mercury ..."
"Mate," he snarled, his canines flashing as he moved to the bed.
She watched, entranced as he paused at the foot of the bed. He looked bigger, his muscles more powerful, the strength in his body amplified.
She swallowed tightly. "You didn't mate me, Mercury." Her breath hitched on a sob. She was going to cry again, and she couldn't bear crying in front of him. She wanted to be strong, wanted to give him the chance to choose without being burdened by promises made to her.
"There's no heat for me." The tears dripped from her eyes anyway, the pain scoured her soul.
His eyes flashed with rage. Blue eyes, pinpoints of gold flaring in them like fire. As they had been in the labs. As they had been for another woman.
She reached out to him, then drew her hand back, fighting her sobs.
"Why are you here?" she whispered. "Why? Oh God, Mercury. I can't bear this. I can't stand losing you twice. Don't do this to me."