“Meaning?” Jonas was always all about the advice.
Jonas let a rueful grin tug at his lips. “You’re used to being alone, You’ve not had to worry about anyone but yourself. You’ve not had to watch anyone’s back but your own since the rescue of the labs.
Having a mate, having that responsibility, changes things.”
“I don’t need a mating lecture.”
Jonas brows lifted. “Then how about a friendly warning. Get your head out of your ass and get your mating scent on your woman before you lose her forever. Until then, I want you in the labs with me and help me figure out what the hell is going on there and why someone is trying to make it look like you’re aiding Brandenmore in an escape.”
Jonas left the office, leaving Navarro to watch his back until he jerked the door open and disappeared along the foyer.
The mating scent still wasn’t there?
What the hell was nature doing to them now?
And who the hell thought they could frame him for Brandenmore’s release? He’d see the bastard dead before he’d ever see him free.
CHAPTER 15
She wasn’t going to put up with it.
Mica could feel the anger beginning to build inside her the more the knowledge of Navarro’s hold on her penetrated her senses.
It was her fault as much as it was nature’s that she’d become mated to him though. She’d been the one stupid enough to fall in love with a Breed when she had been too damned young to even understand the implications of it.
And had she let go of it as she grew older? As she’d realized exactly what she would be facing if the worst happened?
She hadn’t.
She’d remained distant from him. She hadn’t pushed the situation. But it hadn’t been because she hadn’t wanted to. It had been because she’d been too frightened of loving a man, a Breed, whose very genetics would demand everything she had and then more in a life that would be more dangerous than it ever had been.
Loving a Breed and enduring the lives they lived required a strength Mica was never certain she had.
Navarro wasn’t blameless in this though. Pheromones, biology, physiology, chemical matches, whatever the hell the science of it wanted to label the phenomena, it was still a bonding, a connection, not that different from any other relationship. Mating heat simply refused to allow the Breeds, who had been trained not to feel, to dream or to love, to walk away from the man or woman that would love them with the depth it took to continue their species.
Man had created them, but God had definitely adopted them, and he had made the decision that they would survive.
It was a decision, that in their case, Navarro was attempting to cancel.
Ten days after arriving at Sanctuary, after being mated by the stubborn, taciturn Wolf Breed, Mica was still looking at full-blown mating heat while Navarro was skating by with diluted symptoms and the ability to walk away from her.
Oh, this wasn’t going to work for her.
It had taken her a while to find her footing, she had to admit, to find her “mad” emotion, but Navarro had no idea just how pissed off she was over it as she stood watching him the next afternoon.
She’d heard his warning to Josiah, and though she hated the fact he’d done something so possessive with nothing to back it up, she at least appreciated the effort. He claimed her, but he didn’t want her love, nor was he inclined to give her his love.
Lips thinning, she debated the best course of action in demanding his heart. She had a feeling simply making the demand wasn’t exactly going to work.
“You look like a woman with a grudge.” Merinus slipped out on the back porch where Mica stood watching him with Callan and Jonas as they met several of the pride commanders in the backyard.
“You could call it a grudge,” she said in agreement as she turned to Merinus. “Tell me, Prima, how do you secure a mate?”
“Secure his heart.” Her answer was quick, certain.
Perhaps she was the wrong person to ask.
“It should already be mine.” She turned and looked out to where he stood with the other men once again.