“I’m fine.” She fought to keep her voice even, to keep her breathing calm. “I’m on my way in.”

“We’ll be waiting on you then,” he responded quietly, though she knew she hadn’t fooled him. Damn, Doc probably told him about the test results, which would only make things worse. The increase in the hormone in her system was dramatic. Pretty soon, she would no longer to be able to fight, she’d be on her knees begging Kane to fuck her again.

The hormones in Kane’s system, though increased, didn’t seem to be affecting him as drastically as they were her. Even more worrisome was the strange tenderness around her womb, a slight swelling in the area of the fallopian tubes that had become more sensitive.

The heat was changing as well. The need was so much fiercer than it had ever been at this phase. She should have had two more weeks before entering the full phase of it, and even then, it hadn’t been like this. This went beyond pain. Beyond hunger. It was a fire inside her that only Kane’s release had quenched, and then, only for a while.

She drew in a hard breath and continued to the communications shed and the meeting Callan had called. The missile attack, followed so closely by Seth Lawrence’s arrival, was worrying him as well as Kane. The information gained from the missile-wielding attacker had been anything but comforting. Learning that some unknown person or group was hiring assassins to get into the compound and kill Merinus, Roni and the child was frankly terrifying. It upped the stakes in an already dangerous game.

* * * * *

Kane flipped the lights back on and watched the expressions of the four people gathered in the makeshift office after the briefing on both the assassin who had struck days before and Aaron and Seth Lawrence.

The assassin was an irritation. An inept nobody who had found the caves that opened from the other side of the mountain and led into Breed territory. That would have to be taken care of. Aaron and Seth were a larger issue. The son, Kane was inclined to trust. The father was another matter entirely. His public stand on the Breeds was well-known, his opinion that they should be penned back up and kept closely guarded had been vocalized publicly several times.

“Double the guards in the forests,” Callan said, his voice vibrating with an angry growl. “Have a unit start scouring the property for other caves, other entrances we’re unaware of. Whoever strikes, they have to get past our perimeter security before they can strike the house. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen again. Put extra guards on the guesthouse too. Make sure the Lawrence party stays put.”

“Seth wouldn’t hurt his sister.” Dawn surprised them all when she spoke up then. Her voice was firm, carrying an edge of steel that had slowly developed after Dayan’s death. Her amber eyes regarded them all, the shadows of the past still swirling in the depths, though she no longer avoided their eyes.

“What makes you say that?” Kane asked her. His voice, though questioning, didn’t outright reject her opinion either.

She pushed back the fringe of soft, light brown hair that fell over her forehead.

“I can’t explain it.” Dawn shook her head. “You can smell the truth just as easily as you can a lie,” she told him, her voice low. “He’s not lying, Kane.”

“He’s not the only one here, either,” Kane reminded her. “What about the others?”

She seemed surprised that he asked her opinion.

“I don’t know about the others,” she finally said nervously. “Some people are easier to read.”

He nodded quickly. “Okay, you shadow the son then, I’ll put others on the father and chauffeur. Let me know what you sense, Dawn. We’re all in this together. We combine our strengths and weaknesses. That’s how we’ll survive.”

He was aware of Dawn’s start of surprise, the slow confidence that built in her gaze as she watched him closely. But Sherra’s look was like a physical caress. She was thrown off balance by the way he handled Dawn, but he didn’t agree with the others and their intention to shelter her through any and all of life’s hardships. She had been kicked too hard and too often in the past. Protecting her now would only harm the woman slowly emerging from her shell.

“That’s it,” Kane said decisively as they all rose to their feet. His gaze narrowed on his mate. “Except for you.” He gave Sherra a mocking, sardonic smile despite the growing arousal tightening his body. “I still need to talk to you.”

She lifted a brow. He hadn’t spoken to her since the night before but he had noticed her nervousness and irritability as the meeting progressed. She was so damned hot she was nearly blazing. He watched her now, his gaze touching on her swollen breasts, her nipples poking against the dark cloth of her uniform tank top, the way her gaze, when it touched upon him, turned hungry. No hungrier than his, though, he was certain. He was starving for the taste of her. His own lust had only increased since taking her the night before, the need for the unique, dark taste of her kiss was making him crazy.

“Don’t fight with her, Kane,” Callan grumped as he moved to the door with the others. “We’re having a hard enough time getting along with her.”

Sherra clenched her teeth as she stared back at her Pride leader.

“That is not true,” she snapped.

Callan snorted. “Tell it to someone who doesn’t have the scars from sparring with you, little sister. They might believe it.”

A small warning growl was her only response as Callan chuckled and left the room, leaving Kane alone with her. He had watched the byplay between brother and sister, seeing the affection, the familial bond between them. Just as he shared one with Merinus.

“What do you want?” Sherra was damned irritable, he thought, just as Callan had warned. He also knew that irritability was one of the signs that accompanied her growing heat.

“Now there’s a loaded question.” Kane smiled slowly as he considered her. “Do you want a written list or do you have time for a verbal one? I could get rather descriptive verbally.”

She flushed. A wash of gentle pink flushed her face as she crossed her arms over her obviously sensitive breasts and watched him warily. She was equal parts innocence and seductress. It drove him crazy, seeing the fluid sensuality in each movement, yet the complete innocence of just how damned sexy she was as she watched with such wary surprise.

He had fucked her the night before until she came, screaming into the cushions of the couch as her tight pussy clamped on his raging cock. He hadn’t kissed her. He hadn’t tasted the liquid heat that ran from between her thighs and now he was starving for it. He wouldn’t wait much longer.

“Don’t need a descriptive list, huh?” Kane asked regretfully as she continued to watch him with a flare of anger. “Fine. My main complaint is your nocturnal habits, which so far haven’t been a problem. But I need you to start sticking closer to the house at night instead of venturing into the mountain.”

“Why?” Sherra shifted restlessly.

Kane could see the refusal growing in her wary green eyes, the need for escape that was building in her body. He couldn’t allow it. He had nearly had a stroke knowing she was facing that bastard with the missile launcher. According to Merinus, Callan was more than worried about the progress of the heat, concerned it would lessen her wariness, her ability to track and fight efficiently.

“That should be pretty obvious,” he grunted as he moved closer to her. “If there are problems, I need you here to evacuate Merinus, Roni and Cassie. Besides that, we need to make certain the main Pride stays intact no matter what. That means you too, sweet pea.”

Sherra winced at the nickname. “Kane, can the bullshit,” she snapped, causing him to watch her with amused surprise. “You want me here for your convenience, nothing more. You keep hoping if I’m close enough that your round-the-clock fuck session will be harder for me to deny.”

He was praying she would. He wondered if he should explain the difference between a hope and a prayer to her. Then decided perhaps it best, considering the slow rise of anger in her expression, that he hold off there.

He tilted his head, watching her curiously. “Well, there is that consideration, mate,” he drawled instead. She glared at him, her eyes glittering with suppressed anger and heated arousal.

“God, would you just let up,” she muttered, surprising him with the quick about-face in her anger. “You act as though there hasn’t been another woman for you in all these years while I should just bend over and give it up as though it were your due.”

Kane sensed the underlying anger there. She was torn between what she knew was the truth and what she wanted to be the truth. His Sherra needed to hate, because loving hurt, but by God she wasn’t the only one who had hurt through the years.

“There have been others,” he finally acknowledged, hating it, hating the pain that flashed in her eyes. “It

never happened easily, and never comfortably, but it happened.”

He shook his head, remembering the few women he had touched, those he had fucked while he dreamed of Sherra, while he forced himself to ignore the distaste for the few moments of ease.

“There was no one else for me,” she finally whispered, breaking his heart with the rough sound of her voice.

“And there is where you’re wrong!” he snapped, refusing to allow the guilt he carried to weigh heavier upon his shoulders. “I thought you were dead. Gone, Sherra. Forever. You knew I was alive, you knew where to find me and you didn’t. I won’t regret the fact that there were nights I couldn’t face alone. That there were memories that ate into my soul like a disease. I won’t feel guilty for believing what you allowed me to believe, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you hide from it. You were my fucking woman, and because of some quirk of nature, my mate. You hid. I didn’t.”

She swallowed tightly, her eyes dark, ravaged by the battles he could see waging within her soul. “It was one fucking kiss. There were no swollen glands, nothing…”

Kane smiled tightly. “One was all it took. Don’t deny you’re hotter than ever. I bet your pussy is so damned wet I could drown in it when I get my mouth down there. Just as it was then. The taste of spice and a spring rain. Your taste has haunted me, Sherra. All these years, endless nights that the craving for you nearly drove me insane.”

Her face flamed, her eyes sparking with the fires raging inside her.

“Stop.” She drew in a hard, deep breath as she backed away from him.

“Stop running from me, Sherra,” he whispered softly as his arm hooked around her waist, pulling her to him. “I won’t let you do that anymore. There’s no reason to run.”

“Look.” She pressed her hands against his chest as though to push him away. “I told you last night, I can’t risk this. Neither of us can. We don’t know what will happen, Kane.”

“I don’t care what will happen, Sherra.” And that was the end of the line as far as he was concerned.

“Aren’t you tired of hurting? Of aching? We could still the heat, baby.”

He lowered his head, nuzzling at her ear, letting his lips whisper over the small shell as she shivered in response. Her fingers curled against his chest, her nails kneading it through the thin material of his shirt almost unconsciously.

“We could both regret it far too much later.” Her voice was a hot little feminine sigh of need. “I can’t just jump into this, Kane.”

“Honey, I sucked every sweet drop of that drug out of your tongue yesterday and fucked you last night until you exploded around me,” he told her harshly, his hands running down her back, over the flare of her buttocks as he allowed his fingers to clench into the smooth curves there. “If that wasn’t jumping into it, then what is? Kiss me, Sherra. Don’t keep punishing us both like this.”