For a moment, Jonas's expression seemed to gentle.
"Breed females can rarely scent their own conception. But it's there, Harmony. I can smell it, and the winds have whispered it to Lance. You can't run from it. You're here. And you're pregnant. The man protecting you won't let you stay. Help me capture him before he takes you from Lance anyway."
"Stop it, Jonas," Lance warned, his voice hard.
"He won't take me, because I won't let him." She was pregnant. Lance's child rested inside her. She could feel herself weakening, options she'd thought she had dissolving beneath the knowledge.
"You're weak now, Harmony. And you know he will take you. You're important to him because of the information you stole from those labs. He won't allow anyone else to possess that information. There was no chance of you sharing what you had. Mated, pregnant, you're weak and therefore a threat. He won't allow that. He won't allow you to turn that evidence over to anyone else."
"How do you know?"
"Because he's the first Leo. The first created, Harmony. His genetic typing is the blueprint for every Breed that came after him. And Madame LaRue possessed the last evidence of his existence in the papers and files you stole. You are his weakness." __________
Shock raced through her. Shock that he knew the information the files contained—but that first Leo couldn't be Dane.
She shook her head slowly. "He's too young. There's no scent of a Breed…"
"There's no scent at all. You forget, he mated one of the Genetic Council's foremost experts on Breed genetics at the time. If he found a way to cover his scent, then the Breed community can use that knowledge as well."
"He's too young."
"Aging halts between a Breed and his mate once mating heat occurs," he answered.
"We have no idea how long mates can live. We need that knowledge."
"Then why hasn't he taken the information?" she snarled. "If this were true, then he would have told me. He would have demanded what I had and I would have easily turned it over to him. This makes no sense, Jonas. You're lying."
"I don't know why he hasn't tried to secure the information himself," he said. "And this was why I brought you here, knowing you would mate with Lance, knowing you would conceive and that the need to protect your mate and your child would supersede your friendship with this man. Harmony, listen to me." His voice roughened as he stared back at her, his quicksilver eyes softer than before. "You are my sister. I know what LaRue was. But I knew you would never believe me, never trust me so easily. We have to have the answers on the mating that the first Leo and his mate hold."
"I'll give him a message…" she argued
"Do you think I didn't try that?" Jonas asked. "Do you think I haven't tried everything before involving you in this way?"
She stepped closer to the door, aware of Lance shielding her despite the sudden readiness of Jonas's enforcers.
"Don't try to run, Harmony. I have men outside the department. Don't make me do this to you."
"You son of a bitch!" Lance's voice echoed with violence. "Do you think I'm going to let you get away with this, Jonas? Do you really think I'll let you use her like this?"
"You can't stop him," she whispered. "Look at him; he knows you can't stop him."
"Like hell I can't." He gripped her wrist before she could run, before she could move the precious inches to the door.
"Harmony." Jonas's voice had gentled further, reminding her of the brother who had once brushed her hair, of the young man who fought to find an escape for those he led.
"We've made every attempt to convince the first Leo to contact us. To help us. We're within months, perhaps a year, of the world learning the truth about the mating heat. You're smart, sweetheart. You know what will happen when that news breaks. Compulsive sexual heat, forced bonding. We'll be exterminated." Sweetheart. That voice. The edge of aching warmth in his tone. Tears filled her eyes as she blinked furiously and swallowed at the tight ball of emotion lodging in her throat. She shook her head, feeling the darkness that edged at her mind, the sense of betrayal that tore through her.
"You used me," she whispered painfully, staring back at him as daggers of knowledge ripped through her. "You weren't trying to help me. You were using me."
"I was trying to do both, dammit." He grimaced. "You were going to get caught or killed. You couldn't go on the way you were."
"How did you know I was her mate?" Lance asked, his voice sharp.
"It doesn't matter how I knew," Jonas snapped. "Nothing else matters except what we face right now. She's pregnant. That's your child she's carrying, Lance. A child of the earth. Will you let that be taken from you? Either by me or by the man who protects her?"
"If he could help you, he would have," Harmony cried out.
She knew Dane. He was ruthless, yes. He could be stubborn and often too hard. But he would never turn away his own people in such a way if he were a Breed.
"The very fact that he's alive would answer many of our questions, Harmony," Jonas growled. "He's not your savior. He's protected you for a reason."
"He was there when you weren't," she snarled, trying to push past Lance as he held her in place. "You sent your f**king Coyotes after me while you were still in the labs. You told them how to catch me. You wanted me dead!"
"I never wanted you dead. I wanted you safe."
"You f**king liar!" The scream that left her throat tore through her chest.
"Enough!" Lance snapped between them. "Stick with the program here, Harmony."
"What program?" she sneered as she turned to stare at Jonas once again. "He has your program all mapped out for you, Lance. Yours, mine and our child's. What an interesting tale I'll have for him when I reveal his safety was purchased with the blood of the only f**king person willing to risk his life to save me, besides you."
"If he cared so much for you, he would help your people, as well as his," Jonas growled.
"I wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire," she hissed. "No wonder he refuses to answer what is undoubtedly one of your infamous commands."