"I can't verify that." Ely's voice chilled, assuring Harmony that Jonas had indeed known exactly what he was doing.
"This is a dangerous game you're letting him draw you into, Doctor." She turned her head, staring back at the other woman bitterly. "I won't be the only one to die if this turns out the wrong way, I promise you that."
"Who will avenge you, Harmony?" Ely asked her. "The same people who have pulled your ass out of the fire before. I read Jonas's file on you, and it's vastly different from the one in the Breed database."
"As I said, you don't want to get caught up in this." Harmony smiled tightly. "If he hadn't played his little game, if he had left it with merely attempting to reincorporate me into the Breed society, we would have all been safe. But this…" She waved her hand down her body. "This just changed the stakes. If I'm taken out, trust me, Jonas won't escape unscathed. And neither will you."
______
"How is she doing?" Lance asked Ely as he stood over the pot he had poured the chicken soup into, letting it come to a slow simmer as his aunt had instructed. She walked slowly into the room, her hands tucked into the pockets of her lab jacket, her shoulders hunched.
"She's frightened, but hiding it well." She shrugged, her expression concerned. "She has a few symptoms no others have mentioned. A cold burn where I touched her while examining her, but other than that and being a bit weak, she seems fine." Lance nodded before turning back to the soup, watching as the slow curl of steam began to build at the top of it.
"Jonas called again," he said. "He says he needs you back at the labs."
"I'm surprised he waited this long." Her expression was wry as she stared back at him.
"At this point, I've done all I can for your mate. She won't conceive, and I was expressly forbidden to add that particular hormone to her treatments. For some reason, he believes conception will ensure she stays with you."
"You disagree?" He watched her narrowly.
"My only purpose is her survival—period. Your first priority is her protection and the bonding building between the two of you," she informed him harshly. "Listen to me, Lance, if she runs, for whatever reason, then she's lost to you forever. She'll go on the Breed registry as a rogue. Kill on sight. We can't allow that."
"And why do you care?" Lance watched the young doctor, saw the compassion in her eyes, but he sensed something else. She wasn't completely selfless in her desire to help Harmony.
"Because Jonas is so determined to have his own way." She smiled mockingly. "At this point, that's enough for me."
"And when it's no longer enough?" he asked sharply.
"Then I'll take it up with Jonas." She shrugged again. "But I do have to leave now. I don't want to give him reason to order more tests on her, with another scientist. It's best that he never learn of my deception here."
"Braden will take you back to his place." He nodded rather than questioning her further.
"Jonas is having the heli-jet dispatched there."
"Lance, I couldn't strengthen the hormone as I could have if she were at the labs. She needs a more precise adjustment that can't be accomplished as long as Jonas is playing his game. What I gave her will help; she won't be completely helpless against the arousal, but it will still be severe. I'm sorry about that."
"You took care of the most pressing problem." He sighed. "She won't conceive. I won't have that choice taken away from her."
"And I agree with you, obviously." She shook her head wearily. "I'll be leaving now. Make certain she gets plenty of fluids, but no caffeine. And rest. Right now, she needs that more than anything."
God, could he handle another of those deep sleeps? She had cried as she dreamed. Streams of tears as she begged Alpha One, Jonas, to help her. To save her. Pleaded with him for forgiveness.
Twenty-four hours she had slept. Torn between silent tears and nightmare battles, Harmony had faced demons that Lance had been unable to fight for her. He had only been able to hold her, to croon to her. At times, it had seemed to ease her a bit; at others it had seemed to only frighten her further.
As Ely left the house, Lance moved to his bedroom and strode quickly to the small safe hidden in the back of his closet. There, he removed the small electronic bug detector Braden had brought in that morning.
Twenty minutes later he found two of the listening devices in his bedroom and three more throughout the house. As he stared at the small devices, he shook his head in resignation. For all her help, Ely had obviously been there for her own reasons as well, perhaps even Jonas's. He stored them in the safe along with the detector, snapped it closed and moved for the bathroom.
"Harmony?" He knocked on the door before easing it open.
She was sprawled back in the large tub, hair wrapped in a towel, a blissful expression on her face as the water frothed around her.
"Comfortable?" He smiled as her eyes peeked open.
"Go away and I might let you live," she retorted drowsily.
"I have some homemade soup on the stove. It will be ready when you're done." He paused. "When will you be done?"
She rolled her eyes. "When you see me coming into the kitchen. Now go away. I need to recuperate." She closed her eyes again and settled back into the tub.
"And here I thought cats didn't like water," he commented, failing to hold back his amusement.
"This cat does. Now go away." She didn't bother even to glance at him. Lance chuckled before moving from the bathroom and heading back to the kitchen. When she managed to recuperate, he was certain he'd have the wildcat back. For now though, while she was weak, he'd press his own advantage.
He had very little time left in which to make Harmony Lancaster, aka Death, fall in love. _______
What had she done?
Harmony sat up in the water after Lance left, lifting her knees until she could rest her forehead against them, and fought for control.
She had slept for twenty-four hours, so deep that she hadn't even known she had been examined. There was no doubt in her mind that she had dreamed. But what had she dreamed?
She closed her eyes and swallowed back the bile threatening to rise in her throat. She knew what she did when she slept so deeply, when the exhaustion finally overtook her and her body overrode her control. She cried and she begged. Fear filled her voice and horror whispered past her lips. She knew, because before she had always awakened to the sound of it, to the memory of the nightmares that haunted her.