“For God’s sake, the melodramatics are driving me insane.” The door slammed behind him with a crack of steel against steel that reverberated through the room. Rage glittered in his liquid mercury gaze, as did disgust and irritation.
“You’ll destroy her,” she cried.
“Get serious.” Exasperation filled his voice as well as his expression. “No matter the stories mothers tell their children about the bogeyman of the Breeds, I am not a cruel person, Ms.—” He paused, his head tilting to the side before his expression tightened and a savage determination filled his gaze. “Ms. Johnson. And I am well aware of the ritual that overlaid your memories with those of the two girls who died twelve years ago. Forcing those memories was never my goal. I merely hoped mating would instead allow the memories free. I have always known your secrets.”
“You couldn’t have known.” There was no way. No one present that night would ever have spoken of it.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared back at her confidently. “My dear, sometimes one has to learn how to maneuver those he cares for into completing their destinies rather than meeting death,” he sighed. “I knew Honor and Fawn were in Window Rock. I knew somehow your father and the president of the Nation were involved. That led me to suspect that, perhaps, the accident their daughters were in at the time of Honor’s and Fawn’s disappearance may have been fatal. That would have allowed the two young girls the ultimate escape if Liza Johnson’s and Claire Martinez’s deaths were never revealed. What was a mere suspicion when this began has, over the weeks, been confirmed. That is beside the fact, as wondrous as such a miracle is, as adept as the earth is at obeying the requests of men such as Orrin Martinez and Joseph Redwolf, still, the scent of the genetics left inside you after those experiments is still there if a Breed knew what he was looking for. And I knew what I was looking for, my dear.”
She was barely aware of the fact that her nails were now biting into Stygian’s arm.
“If you figured it out,” she whispered, “then Gideon will as well.”
Jonas snorted skeptically. “My dear, do not imagine Gideon Cross has yet to figure any of this out. And if he has”—the smile that tugged at his lips was definitely amused this time—“if he does, then trust me, the last thing he’ll do, once I’m finished with him, is want to kill.”
The tears had stopped.
Stygian could almost, almost forgive Jonas his games for the simple fact that Liza—hell, Honor—was no longer crying.
His mate. He couldn’t bear her tears or her pain.
It didn’t matter her name, it didn’t matter who she thought she was or who she had been. She was the other half of his soul.
“What do you mean?”
For a second, gentleness flashed in his gaze before it shifted to calculating amusement. “Gideon is a man driven mad by his inability to do as the animal inside him demanded. To protect. To ensure the safety of those he was bound to. The animal is tearing him apart, clawing at the man’s subconscious and creating a madness that only one thing will cure.”
Honor shook her head. “There’s a cure?”
“Of course there is,” he assured her, his lips quirking briefly as he crossed his arms over his chest, tilted his head to the side and watched her with eyes the color of living silver. “All he has to do is listen to the animal inside him. All he has to do is find his mate, and protect her.”
She blinked back at him. “Who is his mate?”
“Fawn,” Stygian said softly behind her. “Son of a bitch, that’s why he’s so enraged. She’s his mate. The bastard isn’t feral, he’s in mating heat.”
“Fawn was a young woman when she forced that transfusion on him without the knowledge or the medication the scientists had been using to control what they believed was the feral fever that came from it. But the animal inside Gideon also knew she was still too young to mate without consequences,” Jonas explained. “That’s why the animal inside him went crazy when it happened. The opposing parts of his psyche were suddenly coming together, doing whatever it would take to force back the mating heat until she was old enough, strong enough to endure mating a Breed. Now, I just have to maneuver him into the right place at the right time, to ensure he realizes it. Once he does, then the animal tearing him apart inside, now that the woman is old enough to handle the mating, will settle and the mate will emerge.”
“Do you know where he’s hiding?” she whispered, feeling Stygian’s arms tightening around her, holding her closer, sheltering her.
“Gideon never hides,” he sighed then. “He’s here, right beneath our noses, somehow. Watching, waiting, hoping to pounce when we lead him to you and Fawn. Just as the Council soldiers are. Which is why we’re not going to let anyone know that you’ve remembered anything. As far as everyone involved is concerned, you’re still Liza Johnson and Claire Martinez is exactly who she seems to be.”
“How?” she whispered. “Any Breed that comes close to me will smell the deception. Every time anyone calls me Liza. Anytime I pretend to be her, that scent will be there.”
He stared back at her for long, thoughtful seconds. Long enough that Stygian finally growled in warning.
“Where’s Judd? Who is he?” he asked with a faint glimmer of amusement in his gaze as he glanced over her shoulder at her mate.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, Jonas, and that’s the truth. I haven’t seen him since the night of the ritual, and not because I forgot who he was either. Judd never came around me again.”
But she knew he was close.
“Don’t hold information from me, Liza.” Jonas sighed as he prowled closer, his gaze intent. “Tell me, as I stare at you now I can smell the truth of what you’re saying, but I can also smell your lie.”
“Then any Breed can,” she whispered, fighting back the tears gathering again.
“Not in this lifetime,” he growled, turning to Stygian. “Do you smell her lie?”
Liza stared up at her mate, watching as confusion flashed across his face.