Smothering a curse and a twinge of pain, she turned back to stare across the room at the doctor’s back.
“I’m quite certain Phillip Brandenmore is contained now,” she said with little hope that it would do her any good.
“I’m sure he is, but those are Jonas’s orders, and I tend to try to follow them now.” The doctor’s voice was carefully calm, almost too controlled.
At times like this, Mica would have loved to have all those Breed senses without actually being a Breed.
“I sent my assistant to the examination room next door to collect blood, saliva and se**n samples from Navarro when he’s finished with the vid-call from his alpha. I can have Lawe and Rule escort you up to the main house if you like. But just as a warning, unlike previous visits, you’ll be confined to the house unless a team can accompany you outside.”
Of course she would be. It didn’t matter that she had practically been raised at Sanctuary. The recent betrayals by their own kind had damaged the trust they had even in one another, let alone a human they had practically helped raise.
“Lawe and Rule will work fine,” she agreed.
Whatever it took to get the hell out of the examination room and away from Ely’s too perceptive gaze and probing questions.
Mica watched as Ely lifted her hand to her ear, her fingers obviously activating the communications earbud.
“Lawe, Ms. Toler is requesting an escort to her rooms if you’re still available,” Ely said. “I’m certain that won’t be a problem, but if it is, then he can come to me,” she stated a few moments later. She listened, then said, “I’ll let her know.” She turned her attention to Mica. “Two minutes.”
Okay, she might make it two more minutes.
“Lawe seems concerned that Navarro will be upset that you’ve left.” Ely crossed her arms over her br**sts as she leaned against the counter and stared back at her.
Maybe she wouldn’t make it two more minutes before she became completely pissed off with the lot of them.
“Then Navarro can take it up with me,” Mica fumed. “He’s not my mate and no one sure as hell made him my boss.”
Ely tried to suppress the wince that tugged at her face, Mica could tell she tried damned hard, but Mica caught it.
“What is with the lot of you?” Mica threw her hands up in exasperation before propping them on her hips and confronting Ely directly. “If he were Jonas, I could understand your reluctance to challenge him over anything. Hell, I could even understand with Callan, Wolfe or the Coyote pack leader, Del-Rey. But Navarro? He’s just an enforcer, Dr. Morrey. You’re acting as though he’s a pack leader or something.”
“He was once.”
Mica wasn’t surprised, and that was really troubling. The fact that she wasn’t surprised, that Ely hadn’t shocked her, should have worried her.
“He obviously still has the attitude, but not the title, but why are you so intimidated? He doesn’t have the power without the title.”
Ely’s lips did twitch then. “Is that what you believe, Mica? That all it takes is the title? Do you believe the Breeds follow blindly?”
She stared back at the scientists silently.
“Mica, to follow a pack leader, a Breed has to have much more than a title. It’s the strength, the ability to lead and the strength to lead properly. You may not see it, but I’m damned sure you’ve sensed it. And other Breeds feel it. As though the acknowledgment of such strength is coded into our DNA.” A rueful smile tugged at her lips. “Some things are simply inherent, perhaps?”
Breed head games, she hated them.
“And some things are simply male, but, I’m not going to stand here and argue Breed points with you. I have to do that enough with Cassie when she’s deliberating Breed Law and forming arguments for it.”
Cassie was like a super genius when forming the legal parameters and arguments for Breed Law. But she still insisted on someone to debate her arguments with, and she never failed to insist on Mica to play devil’s advocate.
“Be intimidated, Mica,” the Breed doctor warned her confidently. “He’s not a typical enforcer any more than he’s a typical Breed. Don’t make the mistake of believing you can control him as easily as you control Cassie.”
A start of surprise jerked through her and she frowned, her lips parting to question the doctor indignantly regarding her statement.
She had never even attempted to control Cassie, and she wouldn’t have succeeded if she had. No one controlled Cassie, even her parents.
“Fine, whatever.” She gave a hard shrug and saved the anger for later.
She’d been doing that for years. Saving the anger for later. For when there were no damned Breeds around to smell it, become nosy of it and begin suspecting her of betrayal.