The air was heavy with her pain, wailing at his ear like a distant scream rife with torment. Harmony was tormented. He could see it in her expression, in her tears. In her confusion as she wiped at the dampness.

The need to protect her, to reassure her, rose inside him like a tidal wave. It was more than just a need; it was an impulse, an instinctive response to the pain tearing her apart. The thought of a child, and a woman that completed him, couldn't distress him. And protecting that woman and child would be his main focus.

"Braden, can you contact Ely without Jonas knowing?" Lance kept his eyes on Harmony as he spoke.

"That would be easy enough," Braden answered.

"Get her out here for the tests Harmony needs. I want that hormone therapy. Get her out here fast."

"Jonas's scientist?" Harmony's question had his gaze swinging back to her.

"She's the Breeds' scientist," Lance corrected her. "She heads the department working on the mating phenomena."

"She took the blood and saliva samples while I was at Sanctuary…"

"You haven't been at Sanctuary," Braden growled. "I pulled your file this morning, Harmony. Jonas would have had to log you in."

Lance watched as the bitter mockery twisted her lips.

"That's a nice little underground cell system you have below the main detention building," she said softly, sarcasm thickening the slight French accent that he hadn't noticed the night before. "I was there for two weeks, Braden, while your Ely poked and prodded at me. I was slipped out at night and put on a heli-jet to Carlsbad. Check with your precious Ely and see if she can tell the truth any better than Jonas can." Lance stared back at Braden, seeing the surprise as Harmony described the cells.

"Shit. He's going to get himself killed at this rate." Braden swiped his fingers through his unbound hair as he stared back at both of them in acknowledgment. "I'll contact Ely the moment I get to the house. I want a completely secured line for this one. Jonas is no doubt tapping yours, as well as your home line. So watch that. Check the house and this office for bugs while you're at it."

"That was done when I first came in," Lance snapped. "I take nothing for granted in this office, Braden."

Braden nodded firmly, his gaze touching on Harmony in compassion as she wrapped her arms across her chest and paced to the window across the room.

"You're his sister," Braden finally announced. "The same one who killed his mother. Why is he giving you a chance to redeem yourself?"

Lance watched as she turned, her body tense with the obvious results of the unnatural arousal tearing her apart.

"You'll have to ask him that one." Her teeth bared in anger. "According to Jonas, he would give any other Breed this same chance." Her lips twisted into a sneer. "The redemption offer was a trick. He knew this would happen, somehow; he knew the reaction that would result from being with Lance. He knew and he used it. He found the perfect way to destroy me."

Braden cursed as Lance felt a killing rage echo inside him. God help Jonas if he got hold of him anytime soon.

"Can we lodge a complaint with the Breed Ruling Cabinet?" He turned to Braden again.

"They could leash him."

"You do that and you reveal Death's whereabouts to whatever spy is still spilling secrets at Sanctuary." He sighed. "It poses more of a danger than a solution at this point. Until the heat dulls, she's at her weakest, Lance. If another male touches her, he'll debilitate her. Right now, Death is as vulnerable as any babe. The hormonal shifts and changes tear down the defenses, physical and mental. She wouldn't survive it."

"I won't let this happen!" The rage and fear in her voice sliced through his soul. Lance swung around, rushing to her as he watched her crumple. The mating heat was building in her, her expression distorted with pain as her hand clenched at her stomach and her face paled.

He caught her in his arms, burying his face in her hair, crooning to her, lifting her against his chest as he turned back to Braden.

"Contact Ely," he snapped hoarsely. "Now."

Braden nodded and left the office. The door slammed behind him, clicked and locked, sealing them safely within the office.

"Sit." Lance deposited her in the chair as he strode to his desk and hit the intercom link.

"Lenny, I'm not available until I inform you otherwise," he snapped into the desk sergeant's link. "Do you understand?"

"I figured," he grunted. "I saw that damned Jonas striding out of here grinning like a polecat. I got your back, Sheriff. No one will bother you."

It was no secret that after one of Jonas's surprise visits, Lance normally disappeared for hours to fortify his patience.

Disengaging the link, he turned back to Harmony. She was pacing now, her head lowered, auburn hair covering her face as she fought the obvious effects of the mating heat.

It was killing him too. His balls were drawn up so damned tight he swore they were going to implode. His cock was like living steel behind the fly of his jeans and pressing painfully into the zipper.

Dealing with this was going to be impossible until the more pressing physical needs were taken care of. Namely, bending her over and fucking her past her tears and her hunger, until they could both stand to breathe without the agony of need torturing them. God help them both if she let out one of those animalistic little roars when she came, though. If she did, the entire department would know he was spending on-duty hours screwing the hell out of the little cat.

"Harmony, we'll find a way to fix this." He breathed out roughly as he moved toward her.

"Until then, baby, before we can leave this office, we have to take care of this arousal. It's killing both of us."

Her head whipped up, her expression blank with shock.

"No." She shook her head emphatically. "We can't take that risk, Lance. You know we can't."

Her hand pressed against her lower stomach as she breathed in roughly.

"We don't have a choice," he bit out. "I can't think for the remembered taste of your kiss. It's killing me. You might have the control to withstand it, but I don't." She shook her head again as he moved to the utility cabinet at the side of the room. Opening the doors, he pulled a clean ball gag from its cellophane wrapper and turned back to her.

Her eyes widened as they dropped to the device, and he grinned wickedly.

"A little present from one of my depraved cousins. She thought I should keep them here in case I wanted to play on the job."

He liked the little frown that creased her brow, the glimmer of jealousy in her eyes. Yeah, he liked that a lot. He stepped into the bathroom beside the cabinet and quickly cleaned the rubber device before drying it and moving back into the room.

"You are crazy if you think I'm going to let you gag me," she snapped.

"Would you rather my men hear you screaming?" He arched his brow curiously. "I don't care, but you will have to work here once we have a handle on this, baby."

"No."

"I could cuff you too." He pulled the old-fashioned metal cuffs from the cabinet and jangled them at her.

Her breath caught, her hand pressing tighter to her stomach.

"Oh, you like the idea of that, don't you, baby?" he crooned, as her gaze became hotter, hungrier…

Oh yeah, he could grow to like this mating shit. He had a feeling Harmony would have never let herself go enough to allow him this much control over her otherwise. He had read her file; he had seen the weapon she had built herself into. The weapon that was quickly eroding beneath the needs of the woman.

"There, little cat." He moved behind her, slowly pulling one wrist to the small of her back before capturing the other and snapping the cuffs on them.

She flinched at the sound, jerking in his embrace as a little whimper left her throat.

"You know what this gag is going to do?" He bent close to her ear as he moved her toward the dark bathroom. "It's going to trap all that sweet aphrodisiac spilling from your tongue inside your mouth. It's going to flow into your system like lava and make you hotter than hell."

He pulled her to a stop at the small sink.

"This is not a good idea," she whispered roughly as she stared up at him. "Don't do this, Lance. I can't fight you. It's not fair when I can't fight back."

"But, baby, it's not a battle." He lowered his head until his lips could touch hers. "Come on now, give me that sweet taste. Make me as crazy as you are." Harmony tried to fight, to resist. But how do you resist what you can't understand? A weakness for one man that made no sense. She tried to assure herself it was this mating heat stuff he and Braden had explained earlier. But a part of her knew better. She knew that even without the heat, fighting against him would have been a battle she might not have won.

So when his lips touched hers, her senses flamed and her will crumbled. Her lips parted to the incredible gentleness of his touch, the stroke of his tongue, the sips he took of her kiss. The small, shorter kisses had her reaching for him, needing more as her fists clenched behind her back.

Why had she been so insane to let him cuff her? She needed to touch him.

"Easy," he whispered against her lips as she strained to get closer. "It's okay, baby. I'm going to have all your sweet kiss in just a minute."

Another sip of her lips, his settling against hers, his tongue licking over her lips until hers followed. Then he had her. Before she guessed his intent, he drew her tongue to his mouth, his lips closing on it as he kissed her deeper, harder, suckling the sweet taste of the hormone from its tiny glands.

The pleasure was indescribable. Harmony rubbed against him, fighting to ease the ache in her nipples, in the saturated folds of her pussy. She was on fire and burning hotter by the second.

"God, the taste of you," he whispered. "Come here, let's gag those sweet cries of yours. I'm a damned possessive man. Those little screams are for my ears only." He slipped the small rubber ball into place before securing the ends. She was cuffed and gagged, helpless before him. Death had never been helpless. But it wasn't Death standing before him, she realized. It was Harmony. The woman who had never been a woman.

"Oh, that's pretty." His smile was tight, hard as his hands lifted the snug shirt from her pants and over her breasts. "But, baby, this is a work of art." The front clasp of her lacy bra was loosened, the cups peeled back to reveal the tight tips of her breasts. The cry that tore from her throat as his lips covered a sensitive peak would have alerted the building to what was going on. The gag effectively silenced her, but nothing could halt the incredible pleasure that ripped through her. Lips and teeth tugged at a tender peak before his tongue curled over it and he drew it into the hot depths of his mouth. Firm, heated draws sent her racing toward an edge that would have been terrifying if she'd had enough of her senses left to consider it. Her eyes closed as she struggled to keep her legs beneath her, to bear the agonizing pleasure tearing through her. It was so good. It was past good.

She tried to cry out his name, to beg for more as he took his time, moving from nipple to nipple as his hands cupped her breasts, plumped them, massaging the swollen curves. The rasp of his tongue over the violently sensitive tips sent searing arcs of sensation tearing into her already tortured womb as she arched closer, searching for relief. Lance's leg slipped between her thighs, the hard denim-covered muscle pressing tight against her pussy as he began to move her on him.

Her strangled cries were animalistic, desperate.

"Such pretty, tight little nipples." He kissed each in turn before tugging at the soft material of her pants. The comfortable band at her waist lowered, sliding beneath the wide black belt strapped on her hips.