PROLOGUE

Somewhere in the near future

Experimental Breed Labs, Mexico

Jacob exited the small shower attached to his cell, a towel wrapped around his waist as he dried the long strands of his hair with another. The hot shower had eased the strained muscles that came with daily training, but did little to ease the tense premonition that had filled him for the last days.

It throbbed in his gut, and tightened his chest. The chill of warning seemed to infuse his being. He couldn’t shake it. It was unusual for his sixth sense to kick in so hard and heavy when not involved with one of the Council’s bloody missions. While incarcerated at the Labs, the highly developed ability to sense danger was normally quiet. Now though, it tightened his chest and sent a prickle of warning escalating up his spine.

The advanced sixth sense was something he kept carefully hidden. The premonitions became stronger each month, the development of once latent talents peeking from the edges of his mind in a way that kept him off balance. It wouldn’t do to let his creators know. The advancement of any of their extra senses could well be the final nail in the coffins of the Wolf Breeds. Life was hard enough as a genetic experiment; he would prefer it didn’t get any harder.

At the rate they were going they would be disposed of before the year was out anyway. Despite the years of bloody training and cruel conditions, the Breeds still hadn’t developed the sense of hatred and bloodthirsty savagery their creators were looking for. Except for their creators. Given a chance, every Breed within the cells would take out the throats of the Council members and scientists and soldiers who wielded their perverted powers.

A silent, hidden snarl echoed in his mind at the thought of his captors as he entered the main area of his small cell. He stopped the moment he crossed the threshold from the bathroom. His head lifted, nostrils flaring as his gaze went immediately to the furious young woman who sat on the thick mattress in the corner of his cell. A woman that should not be there.

For a moment, desire sharp and sudden flared within him. An instinct to possess that he was hard pressed to keep hidden beneath a shield of unconcern. The animal instincts that fought for supremacy each time he was in her presence were becoming harder to hide as each day went by.

His chest immediately tightened in fury as knowledge seared his brain. The day he had feared would come, had hoped to avoid, was now here. He glanced through the glass partition that separated his cell from his Pack Leader. Wolfe stared back at him, and in his furious eyes, Jacob saw concern and anger as the other man watched him.

Wolfe, the Pack Leader of the small group of Wolf Breeds sent him a silent warning, his look shuttered and brooding. Jacob glanced to his left then, seeing Aiden propped against the far wall of his own cell, his expression stoic, his gray eyes furious. The woman in Jacob’s cell was born of the same female that Aiden had been. They were more than just Packmates, they were blood siblings. It was a relationship Aiden took seriously. He carried more than one scar on his back from protecting his sister from the cruelties of the soldiers in the Labs.

Jacob’s gaze went back to the woman. Her fists were clenched, and her eyes swam with tears. He inhaled carefully and almost staggered at the scent of her lust. It was hot and sweet, tempting. In his life he had never known such a potent, though faint scent of need. As though her flesh was rioting with it, despite the anger that poured off her body in waves. It swirled about his senses, stroking them, heating his body. The animal within roared out in demand as he fought to still its ravenous call.

He was shocked, confused. The scent had lust surging through his body. Only with extreme control did he keep his cock from coming to instant attention, the effect was so instantaneous. The blood thundered through his veins, pumping a heady message to sensitive nerve endings and primitive desires. His woman. The thought seared his brain. She was his, and despite his fears for her, for the Pack should he openly acknowledge that claim, he could not stem the rising need to do just that.

She was dressed in the regulation cotton shirt and white pants and beneath the shirt her breasts rose and fell harshly, the full mounds swollen and tipped with hard little nipples. His cock twitched beneath the towel, intrigued with the scent of rising need that infused his nostrils. His mouth watered at the sudden thought of tasting her, burying his head between those smooth thighs that his hidden money paid to keep lotioned and silky. He wanted to thrust his tongue down the cleft of her cunt and lap at the moisture, thick and sweet, that he knew he would find there. His tongue literally throbbed with the need.

He shook his head. He knew her too well, knew she was not ready for his desires. Faith was a Packmate, and trained with him regularly. She was a bit immature for her eighteen years of age and filled with anger, but she was pretty enough with her big black eyes, and thick, shoulder length auburn hair. Her body was delicate, small and graceful, with slender bones and a fragile appearance. She was sleek and conditioned, and stronger than she appeared he knew, but he could not stem his fears that she would be easily broken with the hungers that swept through him.

Jacob turned carefully from her, his gaze going to the outside of the steel bars that made up the door and the front portion of the cell. There stood Bainesmith, the scientist in charge of the Labs, her beady little black eyes glittering with satisfaction, her arms crossed over her miniscule breasts as she watched him. Her harsh, Asian features were pulled into an expression of avid pleasure.

He had fucked her often enough that he could see the rising excitement in her fiendish expression. If Faith’s lusts weren’t so overwhelming, Jacob knew he would smell the stench of the other woman’s perversions.

Delia Bainesmith was the most hated of all the scientists who worked the Breed Labs. Her hunger for power would destroy them all, Jacob often thought. She considered the Breeds her own personal death squad, and her fury in their refusal to kill with bloodthirsty abandon would soon see them all dead. And Jacob knew if he wasn’t extremely careful, then he and Faith could become the first casualties to fall to her demonic punishments.

He lifted a brow. “Is she here for a reason, Bainesmith?”

The scientist’s thin lips quirked in amusement. The Bitch, they called her. Her sadistic pleasures had been known to make their lives hell. They all carried the scars of the whip she applied herself when they displeased her. They had all known the sickening smell of her lust for them. The stench of her depravity.

“She’s a gift, Jacob,” she told him mockingly. “All prepared for you. I expect you to breed her tonight.”

Jacob glanced back at Faith. She didn’t seem so willing for breeding, despite the scent from her body. She looked furious, violent. He scratched at his chest absently, noting the greedy hunger in Bainesmith’s eyes when he turned back to her.

“Thought I was your personal toy.” He gave her the hooded half angry look that he knew turned her on.

He couldn’t afford to reveal his needs yet, and he sure as hell didn’t want to give the scientist reason to turn on Faith. Manipulating the calculating woman who ruled their lives was hell enough. He knew if he showed any attachment, any preference for Faith, then her life wouldn’t be worth living. The thought of the many ways Bainesmith could hurt her terrified him. He couldn’t risk her, she was becoming too important to his own survival.

“I’ve decided to share you a bit.” Bainesmith shrugged, but he could see the anger in her eyes. Damn, what the hell had he done to displease her now? “And don’t pretend, my savage wolf; I’ve seen how you watch our little Faith. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time with her.”

He fought to keep his expression clear, only mild amusement reflecting in his eyes. He hadn’t been careful enough; it appeared he had somehow revealed his attraction for the younger woman.

“I’m pretty tired, Delia,” he sighed, grasping frantically at a means of preventing what he knew would come. “How ‘bout tomorrow? She’s pretty enough, but your training maneuvers are getting harder every day.”

Bainesmith shrugged her thin shoulders, but her eyes gleamed in malicious amusement. “Whenever, Jacob.” He worried about that smug little smile that shaped her lips. “I’ll just leave her there with you, though. Do as you will.”

He narrowed his eyes when she turned away as though unconcerned. The soldiers flanking her smirked but followed in her wake like the trained mongrels they were. The lights were extinguished, leaving only the dim lighting that each cell had for its personal use.

“Someone want to tell me what’s going on?” He glanced at Faith, then to the two men on each side of his cell.

Wolfe snorted in disgust, but the look he gave Faith was filled with compassionate fury. “They drugged her.”

Jacob’s heart thumped hard in his chest.

“Drugged her?” He glanced at her again, watching as she bit her lip, pulled her knees closer to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs defensively.

Jacob bit off a rough, violent curse. They gave the women they brought to him and the others an aphrodisiac to ensure their arousal and their ability to accommodate the width of a Breed’s cock, which was thicker than normal. But never had they dared to bring one so young.

Their sexual training had begun at an early age, as part of their education in defeating whatever enemy they came up against. Faith was the oldest female, but they hadn’t begun such lessons with her yet. He had dreaded the day they began. And he feared he was to be the first in a line of lovers for Faith. Fury rose inside him. He would die now before allowing another to touch her. He knew his rage would be like the bloodthirsty beast Bainesmith lusted for if another dared to touch her after he took her as his own.

“What is the point behind this?” he questioned Wolfe furiously. “Why would they begin her training in such a way?”

The Pack leader growled in irritation. His lips lifted, displaying sharp canines as his anger rose as well.

“It’s not training, Jacob,” he bit out. “Bainesmith is convinced she can force Faith to conceive. That all it will take is the aphrodisiac to force her ovaries to produce, and in turn she believes the minute amount of normal sperm we possess will fertilize it.”

Jacob watched Faith’s expression as Wolfe spoke. Pure terror glittered in her black eyes as her body shuddered.

“They want me to rape a child and impregnate her?” He laughed mockingly. “What do they think will force me into this?”

The scent of Faith’s arousal was thick in his head, and his body responded to it, but he controlled who he fucked, not the malicious doctor whose schemes for grandeur drove her. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to give her a child of his to torture.

Wolfe snarled. “The aphrodisiac was potent, Jacob. Would you see her suffer? And it’s not as though we both don’t know that Faith would have been willing had you approached her.”

Faith’s face flamed. Jacob shot his Leader a disgruntled look but received only a resigned shrug in return. They were all aware of Faith’s fondness for him, she had made no secret over it in the past months as her body matured. She had flirted and teased him openly several times, as she tested his attraction to her. An attraction he would not have acted upon until she was older, and the danger of Bainesmith’s fury did not exist.

Fury arced through him. She was a virgin, and despite her flirtatiousness lately, she was shy and timid in her interactions with others. There would be no way to hide his taking of her. No way to protect her modesty. He knew the soldiers, knew Bainesmith, and he knew this night would be used to torment the girl in every way possible.

“I do not want this,” she bit out, finally speaking as Jacob watched her in compassion. “I did not want you out of pity, Jacob.”

Violence throbbed in her voice, along with the unwanted heat of arousal. Tears sparkled in her eyes, on her lashes. He could see the tormented desires, the ache of emotion in her eyes. He grimaced, fighting the need to howl out in fury. What demon could have spawned something as evil as Bainesmith? God help them all, but he was being forced to destroy Faith’s innocence, and her last measure of kindness. She would know nothing but shame and fury from this night after the scientist was finished tormenting her with it.