Navarro's Promise

CHAPTER 11

The next morning Mica was waiting for Navarro at the elevator entrance of the floor their suite was located on.

Leaning back against the wall, her arms crossed over her breasts, she watched as he turned into the small corridor and then came to a stop in front of her.

His dark gaze went over her, remaining impossibly distant, before meeting her eyes.

Slowly, Mica arched a brow as she reached over and pressed the old-fashioned button to send the order along the lines to the elevator, telling it to rise to meet them.

She didn’t speak, but she didn’t break his gaze either. She had sworn she wouldn’t beg him, and she meant it.

“Did you sleep well last night?” he finally asked her with all discretion of a falling wall.

“Perfectly well,” she lied, and she did it effectively.

His nostrils flared as he drew in her scent to check for the lie she was certain he knew she was telling. The lie she knew was well hidden.

She may have spent an absolutely miserable night, but she was rather calm this morning if she did say so herself. The night hadn’t been one of her more pleasant, the symptoms of mating heat had driven her nearly insane. At one point she had actually found herself outside his bedroom door, shaking, so desperate to feel him inside her that she was ready to demand her rights as his mate.

Hell, he’d moved his stuff into her room. Everything but him. What the hell was going on here?

Pride had finally kicked in though, a second before her fist landed on the door. Thank God. She couldn’t have borne the shame of it otherwise.

The elevator doors slid open, and with a graceful roll of her shoulders Mica pushed herself from the wall and entered the compartment.

Sliding into the far corner, she kept a wary eye on Navarro and cursed her body at the same time. She was supposed to have a handle on this arousal stuff for the day. She’d finally taken one cold shower too many the night before, chilling her body until the heat abated.

And now it was rising once again, with a strength that had her groaning silently as she stared at the back of the man that claimed to be her mate.

“Have you eaten this morning?” he asked as the old elevator made its way to the labs nearly ten floors beneath the estate house.

“Nope. I know better,” she assured him. She hadn’t been coming to Sanctuary all these years for nothing.

He was silent then, his back tense as Mica wisely remained silent as well.

As the elevator came to a stop, Mica had to steel herself to actually step from it. The memories of Brandenmore and his attack the day she arrived were still very fresh in her mind.

As she took the first step, Navarro turned back to her, his black eyes watching her closely.

“Everything okay?” Flashing him a bright, confident smile, she stepped forward as two Breed Enforcers made their way down the long hall.

“Everything’s fine.” His smile was tighter.

“You have the look of a man who has something pricking his little mind,” she commented, mockery and anger mixing into the arousal burning inside her.

“Navarro always has something pricking his little mind.” Josiah Black sniggered teasingly as he stepped up to them.

His arm was in a sling, obviously still healing from the confrontation with Brandenmore and Navarro the day before. His eye was still bruised, but healing quickly.

Breeds tended to heal quickly, and Josiah seemed to be proving the theory.

“Be nice, Josiah, Navarro’s having a bad day.” She threw Navarro another calm, confident little smile.

If he thought she was going to kiss his ass and beg him to touch her, then he could think again. She was more likely to attempt to kick his ass today.

“You’re treading on thin ice, little girl,” he warned her, his voice low enough that the words carried no further than her own ears.

“What are you going to do, Navarro? Spank me?” She winked at him as she let her gaze slide over his body then back to his eyes. “I might enjoy it.”

Josiah snorted behind her, while Cougar shifted beside her as though uncomfortable. Only one thing could make a Breed of Cougar’s ilk uncomfortable. The threat of danger from a Breed he was unwilling to fight.

Navarro stood watching her, black eyes focused completely on her, his face more still than normal and completely devoid of expression.

The danger was coming from Navarro?

Oh, he might be feeling dangerous, but it wasn’t violence he had need of. And she wasn’t in the mood to pamper him, whatever seemed to be his problem.

“So, are the two of you escorting us to Ely’s lab?” she asked as she shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and turned to the other Breeds. “I’d like to hurry and get this over with if you don’t mind.”

She did have better things to do at the moment. Things such as washing her hair, cleaning floors, masturbating maybe? The masturbating part was rumored not to help, but she was getting desperate enough to try it.

Cougar spoke up then. “Josiah will escort you to Ely. She doesn’t need Navarro today.” He turned to Navarro. “Callan and Jonas would like to see you in the vid-comm room ASAP.”

And Navarro didn’t like the idea of that much at all. Mica could actually feel the denial emanating from him.

Poor Navarro. Wasn’t that just too damned bad?

“Well, Josiah, looks like you’re it. You get to babysit me.” Sliding her hand to the bend of his elbow, she urged him up the hallway. “You know, I think the black eye I gave you when you were eighteen looked much nicer than this one. Are you getting old, or did I just have a hell of a stroke of luck then?”

She swore she could feel Navarro’s gaze boring into her back as they moved up the hall; intent, dangerous, he didn’t like her familiarity with another Breed. He sure as hell didn’t like the fact that she had some connection to Josiah, no matter how innocent.

And she didn’t like his determination to see her suffering in her room alone all night either. And oh, he knew. He had to have known. He was in mating heat just as she was, she wasn’t suffering alone when he stayed away from her, which meant he knew very damned well exactly how the mating heat was affecting her.

He knew she was hurting, and he’d done nothing to fix it, even though he was hurting as well.

What the hell did he expect her to do? Beg? Fight?

She was a grown woman; she knew what she wanted, and she knew what she was willing to fight for. And despite her anger at Navarro’s arrogant attempt to move into her room the day before, a mate that willingly stayed away from her wasn’t something she wanted to fight for.

“Are you trying to get me killed now, sugar?” Josiah asked as they turned the corner and headed toward Ely’s examination room. “You don’t mess with a mate like that. He could have taken my head off if he were any other Breed.”

Mica rolled her eyes. “Man up, Josiah. The most he’s going to do is growl at you a little bit, if he can work up the interest to do that much. So chill already.”

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, his expression disbelieving.

“What did he do? Refuse you coffee or chocolate? I’ve watched enough of this mating shit, I know it had to be one or the other.”

Oh, it was far more important than chocolate or coffee. And if he was a Breed, why couldn’t he smell the hell her body was going through right now? She was so aroused she felt as though she were burning up from the inside out.

“Josiah, no one refuses me anything,” she informed him, more out of pride than simply because she rarely asked anyone for anything. “I’m a grown woman; I know how to go out and buy it, how to buy it online and call in orders. It’s all really simple, honey, I promise. Besides, I haven’t needed permission to do anything since I lived with my parents.”

And she wasn’t going to allow anyone to treat her like a child again, especially not the Breed who had decided she was his mate.

“Then what’s the problem?” Sincere concern filled Josiah’s gaze as she glanced up at him. “I can tell the mating heat is bad, but I can sense more than that.”

So much for whether or not he could smell her arousal.

Josiah was a friend, but she didn’t discuss her personal life with anyone outside Cassie. And last she checked, he wasn’t channeling Cassie.

“The problem is my business,” she told him lightly, as they turned up the hall that actually housed Ely’s examination room. “Your job was to get me here, and you’ve done that with flying colors. You can leave now, Josiah.”

Ely opened the secured double doors as they paused in front of them.

“Leave, Josiah,” she repeated Mica’s request as an order to the Breed. “And be certain to check in at the vid-comm room so Navarro can concentrate on his meeting rather than the fact that you’re with his mate.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Josiah just about jumped out of his skin when Ely snapped at him.

Turning sharply on his heel, he hurried back through the halls to carry out her orders.

“You should know better than to draw another Breed into your quarrel with Navarro, Mica.” Ely stepped back to allow her to enter. “I’ve been watching you on the cameras since you entered the elevator. I could have sworn you’d know better by now.”

“Ely, I’m not quarreling with Navarro.” Mica looked back at her, a small kernel of resentment beginning against the scientist.

Ely was harder now than Mica remembered her being. Harder and less compassionate and understanding than the last time Mica had spent any time with her.

Ely’s lips thinned, but she stepped back and allowed Mica into the examination room.

“So what kind of torture do you have in store for me today?” Mica questioned her, maintaining the sense of cheerfulness as Ely glanced back at her.

“Today will be fairly simple,” Ely stated. “A few questions, urine and blood samples. How long has it been since you and Navarro had sex?”

The doctor asked the question impatiently. She was probably wondering why her patient smelled like a walking sex hormone. “Almost twenty-four hours.” Mica glanced at the clock on the wall. “Twenty-two hours and forty-five minutes maybe?” She flashed the doctor another bright smile. “Just before we came in yesterday to be as precise as I can get.”

Ely seemed to freeze in place as Mica relayed the information.

Did the good scientist think she wasn’t aware of the fact that it wasn’t exactly normal Breed mating behavior?

“I see,” Ely finally said musingly. “Was Navarro in meetings or called away?” She picked up the electronic pad and began making notes.

“Are you asking why it’s been so long since we’ve had sex?” Mica questioned defiantly. “Why, I have no idea, Ely. Do you?”

She hadn’t meant to allow that fiery flash of pain to strike at her chest. It struck with precision though, tearing through her heart before she could rein it in and push it back into the darkened corner where she hid all her emotions.

Ely’s head jerked up as though she sensed it. Her nostrils flared and a frown creased her forehead.

“Are you feeling the symptoms of his refusal to relieve the pressure of mating heat?” Was that compassion in the good doctor’s gaze?

“Am I horny enough to hump the bedpost?” Mica asked. “Not quite yet. Should I consult with you first, Doctor?” Sarcasm lay thick and heavy in her voice.

“I believe a consult would be a very good idea.” Ely nodded with mocking solemnity as Mica lifted herself onto the gurney. “You never know what you may end up hurting if the act isn’t done properly.”

Okay, so maybe the good doctor wasn’t just a little bit colder and harder than Mica remembered. She was definitely more distant, but Mica could understand that. It hadn’t been a good year for Ely in terms of being able to trust those around her.

Still, Mica couldn’t stop the grin that tugged at her lips, and she wasn’t the only one. Ely seemed to be struggling with her own amusement.

How strange was that? Her clit was throbbing like a toothache, her vagina clenching to the point that it was nearly spasming, while her womb felt as though it were on fire, and still, two women could find a way and a reason to inject a little filthy humor into the situation.

“God!” She lowered her head, her eyes closing as she whispered miserably, “I can’t beg him, Ely.” Lifting her lashes, she stared back at the doctor. “And I’m not far from it.”

“I’ve tried to develop a hormonal therapy for you.” Ely sighed roughly as she pulled the small stool from the edge of the gurney to her and sat down, facing Mica compassionately. “But there are too many anomalies to the tests, and I haven’t been able to isolate enough of the mating hormone to develop a therapy that will aid it.”

Mica wondered if she could get the good doctor to speak in English.

“Maybe if you repeat that very very slowly and enunciate clearly, I might understand it,” Mica stated wearily. “That, or use layman’s terms?”

“There isn’t enough of the mating hormone in Navarro’s saliva, blood or semen to have a base to begin testing a hormone therapy that will be effective. I’m sorry, Mica. I’ve never seen anything like this in all the years we’ve been testing for mates. It’s not the first anomaly, just the first one of its kind. This seems to be a year for Mother Nature to screw around with Breed hormonal reactions and mating heat.”

Not enough mating hormone?

Mica struggled to make sense of the words.

“So, Navarro isn’t a walking hard-on this morning,” she whispered.

Ely shook her head. “Yesterday, yes. The day before, definitely. But somewhere in the past twenty-four hours the emotion-based hormones that drive the mating heat seem to have begun disappearing from his system. They’ve become amplified within yours though, driven and made stronger by whatever emotions you keep bottled inside you.” Her gaze was somber. “I am so sorry, Mica, that it had to be you who seems to be proving my theories that the mating heat reacts in large part to the emotions, both conscious and subconscious, of the mates involved.”

“So Navarro has no emotions.” She felt blank inside. As though everything she knew about herself and the world had been stripped away from her overnight.

“I’m certain he has emotions,” Ely said, her voice soft. “But I know his creation, his training. He was trained to annihilate even a suspicion of any emotions beyond hatred. And he would have succeeded perhaps, if it weren’t for the fact Navarro wasn’t raised entirely at the labs. He was there during the rescues by choice, Mica. An attempt to save his brother and his brother’s mate before the scientists there learned of the mating. Navarro was taken from the labs by his grandparents.”

“Morton and Elsie Blaine.” Mica remembered them. She’d actually seen them from a distance a few times when they had come to Haven to see Navarro.

“Yes.” Ely nodded. “After the age of ten, he was raised by his grandparents. Unfortunately, he had a Counciltrained nanny. And that nanny was a monster, as was the butler the Council managed to get into the Blaine household. Navarro didn’t have a chance to develop the emotions that were bred out of him, Mica. The fact that he’s as compassionate as he is is surprising.”

The Blaines’ daughter had been kidnapped by the Council and used as a breeder. Navarro and Randal were a result of that union, but the Council refused to allow Morton and Elsie to buy Randal as they allowed them to buy his twin, Navarro. They had never seen their other grandson before he was killed during the rescues.

Randal had been their insurance against the Blaines striking back at them.

And Mica believed they would have. Morton Blaine might not have been able to destroy them, but with his financial empire and the powerful friends and favors he had gained over the years, he could have hurt them, if nothing else.

That, or destroyed all the Breeds by making sure the world learned of them in a more threatening light than had occurred with Callan Lyons announcing their presence.

“So, simply put, he realized he might be beginning to feel something for me, and destroyed it?” Mica asked with bitter sarcasm.

Ely nodded hesitantly as Mica felt her chest clench with the hurt that suddenly exploded inside her, which even she couldn’t hide.

She swore she saw Ely flinch as well as the emotion struck through Mica’s soul, rending it in half.

“So Navarro is no longer in mating heat?”

Once again Ely nodded. “All but the smallest traces of the hormone are gone from his system.”

Mica’s fists clenched around the edge of the thick pad beneath her as she fought the need to rock in agony.

A distant part of her couldn’t believe the horrendous pain welling inside her now. It was like a wildfire, sucking the life out of everything in its path.

“And that leaves me where?”

“A mate, without a mate,” Ely stated, her voice incredibly gentle, her brown eyes filled with pity.

She pitied her. Ely was watching her and feeling sorry for her, Mica thought.

She swallowed tightly. “Let’s get this over with then.” She had to force the words past numb lips as she realized she was nearly gasping for breath. “You need samples, right?”

“Blood, saliva and vaginal.” Ely clasped her hands in her lap. “You should be prepared, Mica, it may be very painful. And there’s nothing I can do to ease the pain. Most female mates seem to have a horrible physical reaction to even a female touch during the strongest phases of mating heat.”

Once again Mica nodded shortly, as Ely reached for the supplies in the small basket at the end of the gurney. “I’ll get the blood first, then we can do the rest.”

As Ely took the blood, Mica could feel no pain. There was a heavy layer of discomfort, a feeling of disgust and loathing each time Ely was forced to touch her, even through the latex gloves she wore, but the extreme physical discomfort was absent.

She was a mate without a mate.

“There.” Several minutes and four vials later, Ely pushed back from the bed. “Change into one of the gowns and we’ll get the rest of it finished as quickly as possible.”

Mica moved from the gurney, feeling the ache of loneliness and the loss of what she hadn’t even dared to hope for, but had fantasized of. Navarro’s love.

Pulling one of the soft cotton gowns from the small rack in the bathroom linen cabinet, Mica blinked at the moisture in her eyes, uncertain why this seemed to be affecting her so strongly.

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been fully aware that Navarro had no intention of loving her. That this heat stuff was something he would escape if he could.

But she hadn’t believed he could escape it, any more than she could.

Sucked to be her. Navarro was escaping and she was burning alive with the need for his touch.

Typical.

She should have never expected less.

Hell, she should have expected just this.

Navarro sat in the vid-comm conference room, relaxed, leaning back in the comfortably padded chair, arms relaxed casually on the rests at his side, watching Wolfe Gunnar; Del-Rey Delgado; their mates, Hope Gunner and Anya Delgado; and their seconds in command, Jacob Arlington and Brim Stone on the large screen. Now joining them were Dash and Elizabeth Sinclair, to assess the information coming in as the video conference, Navarro hoped, was winding to an end.

“How much longer, Callan?” Wolfe questioned as his gaze sliced to Navarro from the mounted large-screen video communications board.

“As soon as Jonas can get the heli-jet here safely,” Callan stated with no regard to the fact that Wolfe was all but ordering him to make it happen. “I understand your concerns, Wolfe, but moving Mica at the moment simply isn’t possible. We believe the risk is too high.”

Wolfe grimaced as he turned to Dash Sinclair, the Wolf Breed who had arrived to assess the present danger and decide the next course of action where his goddaughter was concerned.

Dash was presently staring a hole through Navarro, and the angered, knowing glitter in his amber eyes would have been enough to have any other Breed sweating.

“What aren’t you telling me, Callan?” Dash turned his gaze to the pride leader.

It seemed all eyes turned to Navarro, and in each case there was a sense of confusion and perhaps a hint of a question.

“At the moment, Dash, the only thing you’re not being told is information we’re not certain of.” Callan turned back to the screen and the other Breeds’ intent look. “As soon as I have the information and can verify it though, then you’ll be the first to know, I promise you this.”

“And if Mica were to find a mate while she’s at Sanctuary?” Dash asked coolly. “Would you tell me immediately, Callan?”

“Dash, the minute I verified and Dr. Morrey reverified the tests, then you would know,” Callan assured him sincerely. “That is not information I would keep from you.”

Now there was a load of shit if Navarro had ever heard one. He slid a look in Callan’s direction, expecting to see a warning in the Feline Pride leader’s gaze to hold to the lie. Rather than the warning though, what he saw was somber confusion and, amazingly, pity.

“And you, Navarro?” Dash asked then. “Would you tell me if Mica had mated?”

Navarro’s brow lifted.

“Dash, Navarro doesn’t carry the mating scent. I give you my word on it if that’s what you’re questioning,” Callan spoke up.

Navarro was careful to show no reaction. No surprise, no confusion. He’d never known Callan to outright lie in such a way, especially in front of witnesses. It was such a gross disregard of the agreements between Sanctuary and Haven that even Navarro questioned the decision.

“There are rumors he mated her, Callan.” Dash frowned back at both of them. “I can’t disregard those whispers.”

“We’ll figure it out on our end and get back to you,” Callan promised. “Would you trust me to do that?”

Dash stared at the pride leader for long moments before turning back to Navarro to give him a probing look. Finally, the other Breed rubbed at the back of his neck in irritation before giving a tight nod. “I’ll trust you, Callan. But remember if you will, Mica is family, and she’s an only child. Her parents . . . worry.”

Yeah, they worried their little princess would end up getting fucked or worse yet, horror of all horrors, mated by a Breed. It wasn’t that they were prejudiced or even disapproving of the Breeds. It was simply that they believed their daughter deserved better.

And with that thought came a surge of possessiveness Navarro barely caught in time to tamp it down and dispose of it. The night before had been relatively comfortable. The agonizing arousal that had marked the time since he’d first mated her had eased.

The realization that he’d taken her as an animal beneath the trees had shaken him to his soul. He’d wanted nothing more than to push her to her knees, press her shoulders to the forest floor and fuck her until she was screaming for him, begging for him as he rocked into her from behind.

The image of that, even now, had the power to slip past the walls he had built around it and cause his dick to harden with need.

Hell, he was getting tired of sitting here. The more he listened to them talk about Mica, the harder it was to deny his need for her.

Thankfully, the conversation ended, the vid-comm darkened, and then, uncomfortably, all eyes turned to him as the door to the conference room opened and Josiah walked into the room.

Anger spilled from the Breed in waves.

His eyes snapped with steel gray blue flames as he raked his fingers through his shaggy dark blond hair and glared at Navarro.

“Did you know the presence of the mating hormone in you is now negligible?”

Surprising. Hell, the day was just getting more interesting by the moment, wasn’t it? Negligible? That meant Mica would no longer be his mate soon. That had happened only once before with Callan’s pack sister Dawn and her mate, Seth Lawrence, but it had taken ten years and the complete removal of Seth from Dawn’s life during that time for it to happen, not ten fucking hours.

Should he regret it?

He could feel the need to claim her once again trying to rise inside him and he fought it. Mica didn’t need this. If the heat was receding, then it would be a blessing for her. She had dreams, plans, desires that he knew did not include a Breed. It didn’t include the hell their lives could become if public sentiment turned against them.

“You’re acting as though it’s a crime,” he stated as the others continued to stare at him as though he had somehow deliberately caused this.

It felt like a crime against nature.

He hadn’t neglected her as the need burned between them. He’d taken her, satiated her, stilled the hunger raging inside her until last night, just before going to her, he’d realized he felt . . . normal.

He wasn’t iron-hard and hurting with a sexual pain he couldn’t make sense of. Oh, he wanted her, he hungered for her, but it was no longer that desperate, amplified lust that he couldn’t control. And that lack of control had been destroying him to the point he’d actually feared the animal he could feel crouched and waiting inside him.

Just waiting for Navarro to drop his guard, to relax his attention and give it a chance to jump free. And it would—straight in the direction of the petite, too stubborn, too independent woman he believed he had mated.

Even now, he could feel that snarl brewing in his chest, an unquenched fury threatening to spill from the tortured center of his soul that he only rarely acknowledged.

That didn’t mean he didn’t want an explanation.

Rising to his feet, he didn’t bother to excuse himself—rather he stalked to the door with every intention of leaving and garnering those explanations immediately from the doctor herself.

“Let her go.” Josiah was suddenly blocking his way, a snarl on his face, his gaze filled with his anger as Navarro stared back at him with a sudden, icy fury.

Behind him, Navarro could feel the others rising from their chairs, the tension in the room building to a smothering point as he faced off with the other Wolf.

“Back off, Josiah,” Navarro warned as he felt the adrenaline surging through him, a wild, burning hunger for action, to take out his enemy, to go for the throat and to taste blood.

The genetics of the Wolf. The animal was awakening again. If it awoke, if he allowed those instincts to rise inside him once again, then nothing, no one he cared for might ever be safe again.

“Back off?” Josiah sneered, his Wolf flashing in the snarl at his lips and the dilation of gaze. “Fuck you, Navarro. Stay the hell away from her. If she’s lucky, real fucking lucky, then rather than rising inside her and torturing the hell out of her as it did last night, maybe the heat will dissipate in her as well.”

“No.” Navarro gave his head a hard shake. “I would have smelled her pain, her arousal.”

It wasn’t possible. His senses rated off the charts. There was no way to even measure his ability to detect scents, to sense disturbances, and he hadn’t sensed Mica’s? That wasn’t possible. He refused to believe it.

Josiah scoffed. “As if you didn’t. Even I scented it, Navarro.” Rage clouded the Wolf’s voice, roughened and rasped it until it was more animal than human. “You’re not a worthy mate and you should be barred from approaching her.”

Navarro felt as though his brain were clouding for the briefest moment before he fought back. Instinct, hunger, rage and animal fury threatened to overwhelm him before he managed to get control of them. He forced them back, restrained them as he had all his life. Since birth. Since before birth.

Navarro turned slowly to Callan, Jonas, and Dane Vanderale.

So far, the current Vanderale heir and hybrid Breed had remained silent—watching and amused, but silent. But Navarro knew if Dane took a side, then that side would be sure to win, against all odds.

Navarro couldn’t take that chance. He wouldn’t take that chance. The very thought of any of them taking her from him had rage threatening to shake his control.

“Attempt to bar me from her and there will be a war,” Navarro promised them.

“Ely believes if he is barred from her, then there’s a chance Mica could mate with a Breed willing to take on the responsibility of loving her,” Josiah snapped. “I request he be barred from her long enough to learn if she’ll be compatible with me. I’ll claim her.” His gaze raked over Navarro with insulting emphasis. “And he can go to hell!”

Shock resounded through Navarro.

A snarl slipped past his throat as he turned on the other Breed, fury spreading through his system with the force of a tidal wave.

He’d be damned if he’d allow any other Breed a chance to do any such thing.

“She’s still my fucking mate,” Navarro informed them all with icy rage. “She carries my scent.”

Josiah’s arms crossed over his powerful chest as a smirk curved his lips. “No, Navarro, she doesn’t. She smells of heat and arousal, but her scent is still her own. She has not taken your scent. Dr. Morrey believes nature would allow Mica to choose another mate, as you’ve so obviously rejected her. She’s Breed compatible and mate hungry. And I have no problem whatsoever fixing that little problem.”

Breed compatible and mate hungry?

Navarro sneered back at him. “If she had wanted you, whelp, then she would have claimed you years ago. What makes you think you can claim what’s mine now?”

“Because you so obviously don’t know how to do the job right.” Josiah smirked.

That smirk, the confidence and male gloating in his eyes, seemed to snap something inside him, something primal and vital, and before Navarro could restrain it, that unknown something disappeared from his grasp beneath the anger surging through him.

“Get the hell out of my way.” Navarro went to move around Josiah.

He was finished with this conversation.

“If the doctor is right, then perhaps we should consider what Mica has to say first, Navarro,” Dane drawled with a hint of amused interest. Enough so that Navarro knew the other man was entirely serious about asking Mica’s opinion. And Navarro was certain it wouldn’t be in his favor.

Navarro froze for the briefest second before turning to face the Vanderale heir, a man he had considered a friend until this moment.

“Go to hell!”

Turning back, he pushed past Josiah and slammed out of the vid-comm room to stride furiously up the hall to Ely’s office.

He’d be damned if anyone would take his mate.

He didn’t have to let the animal free to claim her. No matter the mating hormone that no longer filled his system, he could still claim her.

He’d already claimed her. He’d left his mark on her, and he’d be damned if he’d allow another Breed to replace it.

But to keep her, could he release the animal struggling to awaken inside him?

It was a question he wasn’t willing to answer.

But, he feared, it was one he would have to face. He could feel some unnamed emotion, a burning sense of awareness flaring inside him that he was unable to fight, unable to define. And for both his and Mica’s sake, he prayed it wasn’t the animal finally breaking free.