"I'm going to have to use the needle." She sighed as worry filled her expression. "I've never had to use a needle on a Breed before, Jonas."
Moving to a cabinet, she pulled a sterile needle and vial from the supplies stored there and moved back to him.
Minutes later, two vials filled, she returned with a swab.
Jonas opened his mouth, grimacing at the swollen condition of the glands beneath his tongue as she swiped the swab over them, producing a heated ache as the hormone pulsed from overly filled glands.
"Kane didn't have these symptoms, but he's not a Breed," she stated as she began to make notes on the electronic pad she pulled from another counter. "Your genetic and biological makeup is so different from other Breeds that I don't know how to help you."
He was in agony. He was so close to losing control of the animal pushing at his mind that he could barely function now.
"I have to leave," he growled. "I'm going to end up raping her, Ely."
Ely turned back to him, sympathy and aching affection reflecting in her gaze now.
"I need samples from her," she told him. "The only chance I have at developing anything to help you will have to come from her."
"No." He had been refusing that idea since bringing her to Sanctuary. "I don't want this for her. I don't want her to see this part of the mating, Ely. The constant tests, the embarrassment of them. Hell, she's wary enough as it is."
He ran his hand over the back of his neck and fought to hold on to the furious lust raging through him. It was worse than feral fever, and he should know--he'd been there, done that.
"She's destroying you." There was an edge of anger brewing in Ely now.
Jonas shook his head, forcing himself to stand. "Do you need se**n samples?"
She breathed out roughly. "Can you produce any?"
It hadn't happened yesterday. He hadn't been able to masturbate, to find release. Nothing worked, and he'd been trying for days.
"Is there any other way to get them?" Hell, he'd try for the needle if he had to. Anything to help Ely find a way to ease the agony washing through him in fiery waves.
"There's no other way, Jonas." She shook her head. "I need the se**n samples. The blood and saliva isn't enough."
He grimaced, feeling the tightness of his expression as he tried to think of a solution.
"What about Amburg?" he asked. "Does he have any ideas?"
"Amburg always has ideas," she snorted rudely. "Unfortunately, he hasn't come up with anything to help with this."
Jeffrey Amburg was strange as hell, but if he said he had no solution to this problem, then he had none. He was a master geneticist, a third-generation Genetics Council scientist, and once considered the scourge of the Breed labs. He lived for his research and for his granddaughter. Nothing else mattered to the man. When Jonas had extended the option of living and serving the Breeds versus dying, Jeffrey had actually smiled.
Seeing the evolution of the Breeds, even if he couldn't share it outside of Ely and Elizabeth, was worth more than gold to the man. It was almost worth more than his granddaughter's life at times.
"Looks like I'm screwed then," he grunted as he headed to the door. "Let me know if you figure anything out."
"Jonas." She stopped him as he gripped the doorknob.
"Yeah, Ely?" He was certain he didn't want to hear whatever she was getting ready to say to him. There were times when she was a little too honest.
"Kiss her."
Jonas clenched his teeth at the overwhelming urge to do just that. He'd nearly taken the choice out of her hands earlier. The only thing that had saved her was the fact that he had managed to keep her back to him.
And still, he'd nearly kissed her. When her head had lifted back, when she had watched him taste the sweetness of her pu**y, he'd almost taken her lips and spilled the hormone into a kiss that he knew would have burned them both alive.
"Let me know what you find out after you've finished with the tests." He opened the door.
"You're going to let her destroy you," she stated, her voice painfully low. "If she does that, Jonas, then she will destroy all of us."
Jonas shook his head. "No one is indispensible, Ely, even me. I've ensured that."
"You think you have," she said, her voice trembling. "But you haven't, Jonas. What you do, no one else can."
He almost laughed at the statement. "Ely, every Breed alive can manipulate and calculate until hell freezes over. Brim, Del Rey, Callan, Wolfe, any of them could do what I do and not cause nearly as much trouble doing it. You're just prejudiced because I don't let you sit around and feel sorry for yourself when others do."
He teased her. He refused to let her sink into despair of the lapse she'd had when the drugs spreading through her system had eroded her judgment.
Ely was a fragile little thing, despite her facade of strength. She had seen too much in the labs at too young an age, had been forced to harm too many Breeds while there. She lived with the nightmares of those years, and now she lived with the nightmare of nearly being forced to do it again.
"No, you don't allow me to feel sorry for myself," she agreed quietly. "But I should stand aside and watch you allow this woman to destroy you. Would you do the same, I wonder, if the tables were turned?"
He pursed his lips and stared back at her for long moments before saying, "I've been allowing it, little cat. Do you think I haven't figured out who your mate is, and that you know it as well?"
She blanched, her brown eyes skittering away from him as fear flashed across her face.
"Do something about it soon," he warned her.
"As you are?" she shot back, anger filling her voice now.
"I think I'd try a different venue there if I were you," he retorted as he left the office. "A far different one. Kiss him. I really don't think he'd object."
Closing the door behind him, he moved through the hall, back to the flight of stairs that led to the main level of the house.
He was trying to force himself to leave Sanctuary. Leaving was the best thing he could do for Rachel. If he didn't get the hell away from her, then he was going to end up taking this decision out of her hands.
"Jonas." Mordecai met him in the hall as he reached the main level, his expression hard. Several Enforcers followed him.