"Because certain tests have proven that you, as well as your daughter, are viable Breed mates." It was Callan Lyons who answered her, despite the rumble of fury that came from Jonas. "Brandenmore managed to steal certain information from Sanctuary last month, Ms. Broen. That information contained the results of several tests done for Breed mating. Your tests."
Rachel shook her head. Breed mating was supposed to be nothing more than a rumor, though she had wondered at the truth of it often enough.
She stared at Callan. Neither he nor Merinus appeared to have aged in the twelve years they had been together. And Kane. She had once worked for Kane. He was in his mid-forties, but appeared to be a decade younger.
Good genetics; she had heard that given as an excuse.
There had been a multitude of reasons thrown at the press, as well as scientists who had questioned the phenomenon. No Breed had ever admitted to mating heat though.
"Tests," she whispered as she tried to control the nausea welling inside her. "I was tested?"
"The blood, saliva and vaginal samples you were asked to give were to test for your viability as a mate with any Breed that you would come in contact with." Callan nodded shortly as Jonas snarled silently before turning his back on them all. "You tested positive in that viability, which led us to suspect that Amber would be viable as well as she grew older. It was a precaution we had to take, Rachel."
She shook her head slowly, denying the truth. Merinus hadn't warned her of this. Surely she would have warned her if anything like this were possible.
"I need all of you out of here," Elizabeth snapped, as she was forced to move around Jonas.
Blue eyes flashing with ire, she glared up at Jonas. "You and the mother can stay, but get the hell out of my way. The rest of you, clear out. That means you too, Leo." Her tone brooked no refusal.
Rachel turned her head, stared at Jonas and suddenly the implication of those tests hit her.
"They think we're somehow mated?" she asked as he kept his back to her.
"If you have questions, then get out with the rest of them," Elizabeth ordered as she attached electrodes to Amber. "I can't save this child if I have to listen to you berate Jonas at the moment."
Rachel clamped her lips shut, but the look she directed at her boss was a promise. The questions would come, and once she had answers, then she would decide exactly where she and her daughter would relocate to.
She wouldn't trust another Breed, not as long as she lived. She had trusted Jonas; she had trusted Merinus and Kane.
As the heart monitor began to beep, Rachel latched desperately onto the noise. Blood pressure and heart rate monitors, as well as several machines she'd never seen before in any hospital, began a life-saving symphony of sound as they surrounded the incubator.
Elizabeth Vanderale nodded slowly at the readings as she attached a nearby comm set to her ear and began to talk quietly into it.
"Rachel, we'll be outside if you need to talk," Kane promised as they passed her. "Merinus is on her way back from Colorado now. She flew out immediately when Callan called her with the report. We'll answer what questions we can."
The large lab emptied as Rachel crossed her arms over her br**sts and fought back more tears as she stared at her daughter.
"She's innocent," she whispered. "You should have warned me she would be in danger."
She would never forgive Jonas or Merinus for neglecting that warning.
"We had no reason to believe she would be in any danger." Jonas's voice was still an animalistic rasp. "We had no reason to believe you would be. It wasn't the tests of viable mates that Brandenmore needed. It was the tests of current mates and certain hormonal shifts that occur with mating that he was interested in. There was no reason for him to go after potentials, because it's been proven that those tests aren't always reliable."
Rachel rubbed at the chill that invaded her arms as she focused on the machines once again.
Elizabeth Vanderale was still talking softly. Jonas glanced her way several times, his more acute Breed hearing picking up the conversation when Rachel most likely couldn't.
"Amburg has initial results back," he told her softly as her lips parted to question him. "The syringe held certain Breed hormones, but in his estimation, nothing that should be harmful to her."
"She's not moving," she whispered painfully.
Jonas jerked as though in pain before rubbing his hand along the back of his head. She'd seen him do that often over the past months she'd worked for him. The gesture normally indicated a sense of frustration.
"He believes it reacted as a sedative," he related. "If so, then in a few hours, she should awaken her normal self."
"If so, then we're leaving . . ."
"Dream on." The look he turned on her was almost terrifying. Or would have been, if she hadn't already faced such an influx of fear in the past hours. Her system now seemed immune to his fierceness.
"I won't stay here." She shook her head fiercely.
"You won't be leaving until I know for a fact that you and that child are safe." He paced closer, his head lowering until her vision centered on the roiling mercury of his eyes. "Understand that, Rachel. If I have to place you under twenty-four-hour guard, you will go no place, make no move, not take so much as a breath that I don't know about first."
She stared back at him, shock winding through her system first before pure rage took over. Before she could stop herself, her hand lifted, flew, smacking open-palmed against the hard contours of his face.
Everything in the room seemed to freeze.
Elizabeth and Ely stared at them in shock, their expressions wary as they watched Jonas.
He could have stopped her. He was fast enough, instinctive enough that he could have prevented the blow. Instead, he stood still for it. He took it, his expression never changing, his eyes boiling with currents of emotion she couldn't make sense of.
"That changes nothing," he rasped. "Where it comes to you and that child, my word is law, sweetheart. Trust me on that. There's not a man or a woman in Sanctuary who would dare defy me on this."
"Kane . . ."
"Won't risk his life for it." His smile was tight, confident.
"Merinus won't let you . . ."
"Merinus wouldn't dare interfere," he snarled.