“We’re not debating that, Liza,” Stygian growled.
“No, we’re debating whether or not you’re going to be allowed to step in and take over my life,” she retorted combatively. “That seems to be the matter up for debate.” She flicked a look at Terran as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched her suspiciously.
He and Joe Martinez were her father’s best friends.
She also suspected that Terran had once been commander of a team of underground agents as well. He would suspect what she was doing, who she was working with, but he could never question it unless he went to her father. And if he did, then her father would never lie to him. But, knowing the truth could perhaps do more damage, considering Terran had lost his sister more than thirty years before to the Genetics Council.
No doubt, for what it was worth, Stygian and his Breed buddies were going to run right over her objections. Because if she didn’t follow their plan, her parents would return from New York. Her father’s eyes would be filled with concern. Her mother would stare at her with fear and worry.
Neither were looks that she wanted to see. Just because her father knew she was part of the Breed Underground Network didn’t mean he wouldn’t have nightmares where her safety was concerned. There was a reason she had been placed with a support team rather than rescue or relocation.
“What are you going to do, Liza?” Stygian asked, thinking fast and hard, trying to keep her from actually doing or saying something she would regret.
Trying to keep her safe.
The Breeds around them inhaled again, obviously detecting the scent that Stygian had only caught the slightest hint of moments before.
A scent he hadn’t expected, not without a kiss. A touch. Something more than the contact they’d had to this point.
She glared at them before turning to Stygian, furious. “Tell them to stop that.”
Stygian’s jaw bunched as his lashes lowered over his blue-black eyes and he stared back at her. “I can’t make them stop.”
“Why?” Deliberately, her lips tight, she asked the one question he truly didn’t want to answer.
Hell.
His scent was already on her.
Shit! How did that happen?
Mating heat. It was impossible to hide from a Breed’s senses. Every Breed who came in contact with her would scent it and be warned by it.
Even he hadn’t detected it before he entered the room, but as Alpha Wolfe Gunnar, the Wolf Breed Alpha who had silently been awaiting their arrival, glanced between the two of them, his nostrils flaring, Stygian knew exactly what they were scenting.
“I hate Breeds!” she snarled.
God, just what he needed. The fury burning inside her was like throwing coal on a fire. It made the heat hotter, made it burn brighter, longer. And added to that now, was a resentment he couldn’t really blame her for.
Wolfe turned to Stygian, a quirk tugging at his lips.
“I have a feeling she doesn’t really hate Breeds,” he murmured in amusement.
And did his mate take to that comment easily?
“I used to like you.” She crossed her arms beneath her br**sts, cocked her hip and glared at the Alpha. “Where’s your wife, anyway? And why the hell did she let you out alone?”
Wolfe chuckled at the insult and gave his head a little shake.
“Liza?” Stygian drew her attention back to him before she could actually offend his Alpha. Which was exactly what she was considering. “What are you going to do once you walk out of here? Many of the Council’s Coyotes are indistinguishable from humans except by other Breeds. You’ll never know who they are. You’ll never know when they’ll strike. When they take you, they’ll use you to drain your father dry. He’ll lie. He’ll cheat. He’ll steal. He’ll do whatever it takes—give them whatever information they ask for, whatever he might think they want—to make them stop hurting you. And they will hurt you.”
Seeing the terror that flashed in her eyes was almost more than he could bear.
Dragging in a hard, deep breath, his gaze locked with hers, forcing himself to see and to feel the pain clenching at her.
She was his mate. From this moment on, his acceptance of who and what she was to him would determine the love that would continue to grow between them.
He could damage her fragile female pride now, and watch the embers of love he had glimpsed heating between them wither to nothing; or he could slowly build those flames into the inferno that would see them through the decades to come. But now this moment, and how he handled it, would either stoke the embers or damage the fire forever.