Mercury's War (44 page)

    “She kissed Mercury.”

    Elizabeth’s gaze turned to him, almost accusatory.

    “It was no more than a press of lips,” he snapped. “Do you think I’d risk my mate by chancing another woman having that part of me?”

    Elizabeth frowned. “In every mating I’ve researched, for heat to begin, there has to be an exchange of the hormone in some way and it has to be compatible.”

    “Trust me, there was no exchange,” Mercury growled. “Except with Ria.”

    “An interesting mystery then.” Elizabeth turned back to where the vials and samples waited on the lab counter, next to the equipment that had arrived that morning and been put in place. “Go on then. I’ll get things started here before Leo brings the twins to me. We should know something soon.”

    “Don’t forget the party tonight,” Ria reminded her. “Dane has already ordered my attendance.”

    “I’ll be there.” Elizabeth nodded, though she didn’t turn away from her samples. “Go on now, and we’ll talk later.”

    The party wasn’t one Ria was looking forward to. The pre-Thanksgiving buffet and ball had Sanctuary in an uproar already. Leo was stalking the upstairs halls, as were a dozen members of his security force, as they protected the twins and other Breed children confined there for the day. No one was allowed upstairs without authorization, including Breeds, whether they were enforcers or guests.

    The room Ria and Mercury had been assigned was on the basement level, on the other side of the labs. Her dress and accessories waited there; the hairdresser assigned to Merinus and the other female mates of the ruling family would be attending her as well.

    It was a mess. This was why she didn’t do parties, she told herself as they moved up the stairs that led to the first floor of the mansion. In her alternate persona, she didn’t have to go through this. She didn’t have to worry about dressing her hair, making up her face, smiling at all the surprised looks or dealing with the false friendliness.

    Not that she felt that way about the ruling family. But this party was for the Breeds’ benefactors-corporate CEOs, senators and political figures, billionaires and groupies. And all eyes would be on her because most of them knew the plain paper pusher, not the woman they would see tonight.

    “I could help provide security for the party,” she told Mercury as they stepped into the long hallway. “We could just find a dark corner and make out.”

    “You’re not providing security. The dark corner is an option.” She heard the smile in his voice. “And I’m not working security tonight, at least not in uniform. I’ll be attending as a representative of the Breed Enforcers and one of Jonas’s assistants. He palms off on me the fat, balding little guys who want to hear war stories.”

    She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes. “And you deal with this how?”

    “I usually growl, flash the canines and watch them run for cover,” he chuckled. “Even Jonas thinks it’s funny.”

    “Jonas would.”

    She could feel her palms sweating. Engalls and Brandenmore would be at this party. It was obvious they hadn’t gained what they were after at the last one. They had procured this invitation as they had the other, by pulling immeasurable strings at the last moment.

    As they turned the hall corner, another door opened farther ahead, and Alaiya stepped from Jonas’s office. Her cheeks were flushed in anger, her expression twisted with it, as she glared back at Ria.

    “Hello again,” Ria muttered.

    If she hadn’t otherwise felt Mercury’s surprise, she would have smelled it as he glanced at her quickly.

    She almost bit her lip. There was that Breed attitude surging inside again. She hadn’t been this psyched by her Breed genetics since she was a teenager.

    Alaiya froze when she saw her, though. Her gaze flicked over Ria’s body, her nostrils flared as she inhaled, and rage glittered in her eyes.

    “Breed!” she hissed.

    “My, do you think she’s referring to me?” Ria asked in false innocence as the feline in her rose to the challenge.

    “Hell,” Mercury muttered. “Alaiya, stand down.”

    The other woman took a classic challenging stance, feet spread apart, her fingers curling at her sides as though imitating claws.

    Ria almost hissed, but it came out as a surprised squeak, as Mercury shoved her behind him, barked out into his mic an order for reinforcements and snarled back at Alaiya. “I gave you an order, Breed! Stand down.”

    “Do you actually believe I need you to protect me against her?” Ria leaned against the wall, peeking around his shoulder and flashing the other woman a triumphant smile. “I can take her.”

    She wrinkled her nose playfully back at Alaiya, though there was nothing playful rising inside her.

    Mercury’s expression tightened in disbelief as he shot her a quick look.

    “Our mating tests matched,” Alaiya hissed, pacing closer, her body tense, prepared. “You stink of her.”

    “I thought you smelled kind of nice myself,” Ria felt compelled to point out to Mercury with a hint of laughter. “Eau de Ria goes well with your Breed scent.”

    “Would you stop!” Mercury bit out as Alaiya growled again.

    “Take up for her and I’ll kick
your
arse instead of hers.” Uh-oh. There was that accent again.

    She lounged against the wall, her head turned, making certain Alaiya had a clear view of her expression as three Breeds turned the corner and Jonas stepped out of his office, behind Alaiya.

    They all seemed to freeze at the scents assailing them. Ria could smell it herself. Mercury’s anger combined with her own, the scent of their mating, their hormones adjusting, the two of them blending into each other until they were nearly combined. And Alaiya. Pure rage and heat, a singular scent mixed with fury.

    “What the hell is going on here?” Jonas asked carefully as Alaiya hissed again.

    “Remove her from him!” Alaiya shoved her finger toward Ria. “I demand it. Until the mating tests come back, I demand she be separated from him.”

    Jonas’s brows rose in surprise as Ria bared her teeth in a hiss and glared back at him. “Try it,” she snarled. “You won’t like the consequences, Jonas, and we both know it.”

    Because Dane and Leo would come down on him like a ton of bricks. Him, Alaiya and anyone else who stood between her and her mate.

    She didn’t bother snarling, growling or copying that continual asinine hiss coming from Alaiya’s lips. She merely narrowed her eyes back at the other woman in confident challenge.

    “Alaiya, report to the female barracks,” Jonas barked. “Now.”

    “You’re breaking Breed Law,” the bitch screeched. “You cannot separate mates.”

    “It hasn’t been established that you’re anything to Mercury at this point besides a nuisance,” Jonas snapped as Mercury growled for Ria. She liked how he did that.

    “I won’t leave her here, claiming what’s mine!”

    Rage was a bitter, feral scent now, acrid, singeing the senses as Ria slowly straightened. She had trained with feral Breeds, fought with them and beside them; she knew the signs of a Breed reaching critical. And Alaiya was reaching critical rage. The animal would break inside her and attack-attempt to attack, anyway.

    “You will return to the barracks now!” Jonas snarled, his expression turning savage as his enforcer Alaiya defied him, hissing in his face in challenge.

    Ria watched in interest as the director of Breed Affairs turned into the fierce, coldly efficient enforcer he had once been. Alpha steel, Elizabeth called it.

    His hand jerked out, fingers wrapping around Alaiya’s neck as he jerked open his office door and all but threw her inside before turning to Mercury.

    “Get your mate back to her office,” he ordered. “I’ll let you know when this has been dealt with.”

    “I could have dealt with it fine,” Ria announced, bored, the animal inside her retreating in disappointment as Jonas glowered back at her.

    “I gave an order,” he told her softly.

    Ria stepped from behind Mercury, ignoring Jonas’s surprise at how she was dressed.

    “But I’m not one of your enforcers, Mr. Wyatt. You are not my pride leader, and you have no control over me, unless I dare to challenge you directly,” she reminded him, strolling past Mercury as he snarled in warning. “And never doubt, I will deal with her if she challenges me again.”

    Jonas stared back at her broodingly. “What the hell happened to you?”

    She smiled. “Your enforcer, my mate. Perhaps you should discuss the problem with him. But before you attempt to give me any more orders where that feline clawing at your door is concerned, then I’d talk to the Leo if I were you. Because you’re going to lose an enforcer if she challenges me again.”

    “And how will I do that?” he bit out. “Alaiya is well trained, Ria. She’s not city raised,” he told her with a hint of censure.

    “And she’s not Leo trained,” she told him softly, confidently. “Ask him, Jonas. See what you’re facing before you allow that woman to challenge me again. Because I’ll kill her.”

    “Shall I tell him, love?” Dane joined the party. He leaned against the corner of the wall and arched his brows, his tawny hair falling rakishly over his brow as he clenched a thin cigar between his teeth.

    “This place is turning into a fucking menagerie.” Jonas grimaced before cracking the door and roaring, “Stand the fuck down before I have you confined.”

    The snarls, feminine feline roars and clawing at wood were beginning to get on all their nerves.

    Dane watched her, his lips kicking up in a grin as all the sensual female power Ria possessed was displayed in her smooth walk, her long legs, clothes that showed off her exceptional Breed conditioning and training.

    Here was the niece he had longed to see return. The one who had driven him crazy as he tried to keep her out of trouble when she was a teenager. She was mature now, and that maturity looked damned good on her.

    “Jonas, my friend,” he sighed. “Since when does the Leo employ ineffectual employees?”

    “I don’t care if they employ robot clones designed to scalp and skin,” Jonas snapped. “I expect her to obey my commands while she’s within Sanctuary. Period, Dane. Hierarchy here has been established, and your rules don’t mean jack shit to me, any more than the Leo’s do. She
will
stand down.”

    “She will not,” Ria informed him calmly. “She’s an enforcer, and a Breed. She understands the challenge she’s making. I may have been a wallflower,
Uncle
Jonas,” she snarled softly, “but I’ve never been frightened of a fight. Inform your enforcer of your rules and your hierarchy. Not me.”

    Mercury blew out a soundless breath, fierce, overwhelming pride rushing through him as he glanced at Jonas, lifted his brows and grinned. Hell yeah. This was his mate.

    “Someone should shoot you,” Jonas growled at him.

    “Give me time,” Ria said as she moved past him. “I may take care of it.”

    But the glance she shot Mercury was anything but murderous. Unless she intended to kill him with sex. Could a Breed die of happiness? In that case, he thought, hell yeah.

    Ria entered the office, held the door as her mate stalked in, then slammed it closed.

    She attacked him. She was burning, blistering with need, and he met her, kiss for kiss, giving her the wild taste of his hunger as they tore at each other’s clothes.

    Nothing was ripped this time, thankfully, but within seconds she found herself bent over the file table, her mate’s erection pushing demandingly inside her.

    “Take it,” he snarled at her ear. “Damn you to hell. You hot little cat. Challenge me, Ria. I dare you.”

    She bucked against him. He didn’t have to dare her; she could feel it rising inside her as his hips slammed against hers, burying his cock fully within her as her head turned and she nipped his chin.

    First chance, she was letting those canines regrow and sharpen. It was natural. They had to be ground down monthly. She had nice canines. She knew she did. Perfect for biting, nails perfect for scratching.

    “Take me.” He was buried in her to the hilt, grinding against her as her arm curled around his neck, her body twisting against him to take his kiss again. To burn brighter, hotter.

    It was hard and fast, the pleasure brutal, spinning them out of control, tearing through her as the first orgasm clenched her womb, exploded in her clit. The second one ripped her mind, flamed through her and had Mercury roaring out his release, locking inside her as she clamped down on him, the barb extended from his cock and rapture racing through both of them.

    She hissed his name. Feline, possessive. She felt that possession, and it terrified her. Took hold of her. And she knew she was lost to it.

    “What the hell happened?” Mercury was panting behind her, his lips at her neck as they waited for the barb to ease, to retreat back into his flesh.

    “Mating heat.” She lay against the table, bent over it, wasted.

    “I’m still in uniform,” he grunted. “Hell, I didn’t even get my pants to my ankles.”

    “Mine either.” They were tucked around her thighs, and she didn’t give a damn.

    “So tell me, mate,” he growled, nipping her neck, “do you really think you’ll end up shooting me?”

    She grinned at the male pique in his voice. “Probably with your own weapon.”

    She wasn’t ready to move yet. She was sated, relaxed for now, the mating heat a low simmer inside of her rather than a hard burn.

    He nipped her neck again, causing her lips to curl in satisfaction, her breath to pass her lips in a rush as he eased from her.

    “Stay still.” His hand pressed against her back.

    There was no need for that, she didn’t know if she could move yet anyway. A second later she felt the gentle movements of a small hand towel between her legs.

    She stared at the wall, unfamiliar emotions sweeping over her as he cleaned the proof of their mating from her.

    “Why are you doing that?” she asked him, frowning. “I can clean myself.”