“The images aren’t showing the caves we’re finding, but if you look damned close, you’ll see a shadowing instead.” He pointed out two of the areas where the almost imperceptible blurring occurred on the thick pages. “These images were very carefully ‘fixed’. So far, I’ve found six areas that need to be checked. Get three more units together in the morning and get started finding the others. I’ll brief Callan and Taber first thing in the morning.”

“What about new images?” Jackal asked him softly, his smooth voice breaking in on Kane’s thoughts.

“The Army satellite that took these should have been able to give us an idea of where the caves exited on both sides, as well as an idea of their tunnel systems. What if we commission more images?”

Jackal was as calm and cold as the deepest winter night. He had been one of the first soldiers Kane had chosen for his team of rescue experts. He never became upset or irritated. Never raised his voice. If you pissed him off bad enough, you were dead. It was that simple and that quick.

“Same problem.” Kane breathed out roughly as he fought to keep his thoughts straight. He should have been comfortable right now, he thought furiously. Instead of chilling out with a beer and dressing in the soft gray sweatpants he preferred for evening, he was suffering in heavy jeans and the hard-on from hell.

“Not really,” his technical expert, Ice, spoke up then. “Lawrence Industries has their own satellite orbiting Earth. Why not put the bastard to work after all the trouble he’s caused breaking our gate like he did? If he’s really serious about wanting to be a part of his sister’s life, he’d get you what you need.”

“How can we be sure it’s reliable, though?” Jackal tapped the images they had impatiently. “Look how the government screwed these over.”

“Because one of us would be there when the images download.” Ice smiled coldly. “I know how to operate and program the satellites. If Lawrence would clear me for it, I could get everything we need.”

Kane narrowed his eyes on the tall soldier. Ice had trained on some pretty advanced government systems before joining his team.

“Have Dawn approach him on it.” Kane nodded, his eyes narrowing at the thought. Dawn was running from Lawrence, it was as plain as the fear on her face. “That could solve a lot of our problems right there. If he agrees, he’ll move up on the personal scale of trust. If he tries to get out of it, he moves higher on the list of suspects. Personally, I think he’ll be eager to help.”

Seth Lawrence seemed sincere in his offers to help where he could and to make protecting his sister and future niece or nephew easier. So far, he had accepted his restrictions on the compound as well as the heavily guarded meetings he was being allowed with his sister. It grated on him, Kane could tell. Having his motives questioned so intently wasn’t something he liked, but he understood the motives behind it. Kane felt like he was sending Dawn to a ravening wolf though. Seth Lawrence’s interest in her wasn’t hidden, nor was Dawn’s intention of avoiding it. The damned women of this Pride were going to drive him to an early grave. Him and every other man in the compound if they weren’t careful. Kane rubbed the back of his neck, wishing he could relieve the tension in his body as easily.

“Okay, one problem down, how many more to go?” he asked impatiently.

“We have everything else covered,” Jackal assured him. “One of us will work with a Breed unit for a while, but I’ll tell you, those Breeds are hardheaded and slick as hell. I don’t know if we have much to offer them in information or experience. Some of those boys are your worst nightmare. And I won’t even mention those women. It’s enough to make a man want to start executing Council members. And that Lion, Wyatt, would scare the bejeebies outta me if I were anyone else. If there’s a weapon he doesn’t know how to use or a situation he can’t twist his way, then I don’t know of it.”

Kane knew exactly how he felt. The female Breeds were often the most dangerous. Their eyes were shadowed with nightmares, their dreams haunted by them. Some would go days without sleep rather than face the demons awaiting them. And Wyatt was a pain in the ass.

“We need a psychologist in here,” he growled. “Callan’s refusing so far, but I’m working on it.”

He understood Callan’s objections. If by some chance the psychologist was a Council sympathizer, they could do more harm than good. But some of the Breeds were walking a fine line with their sanity and their morals.

“You city boys and your psychologists,” Jackal snorted. “Just what we need, some fancy-pants lollygaggin’ around telling us all how we need to get in touch with our inner child,” he sneered. “I find that little inner bastard and I’ll choke the shit out of him for the hell of it.”

“Are you having fun yet, Jackal?” Ice snickered as the broad ex-Kansas farm boy flashed him a killing look.

Jackal snorted. “Not yet. Want to volunteer as a punching bag there, Icy?”

“Enough.” Kane didn’t have time for their friendly bickering. “Move out,” he told them as he rolled the images up and handed them back to Jackal. “Stay in regular touch and keep me up to date with your progress tomorrow. I’ll talk to Lawrence first thing in the morning.”

The other men filed out of the room, finally leaving Kane in blessed peace. The first thing he did was strip. If he didn’t get his bound cock out of those damned jeans he knew he’d go crazy. Naked, his cock engorged and heavy, he collapsed back in the chair on one side of the room and stared around in frustration.

He could be drilling his tortured erection inside the heated clasp of Sherra’s cunt right now if he weren’t so damned stubborn. He rested his head on the back of the chair, his fingers stroking over his cock as he imagined her tight, liquid heat flowing over his shaft to his balls and making his entire body tighten in the need to ejaculate inside her.

Unfortunately, it was never enough. Not physically. Physically, he understood the gnawing hunger. The hormone was building in his bloodstream in a manner that had the old doctor looking at him oddly again, and it was the cause of the unceasing sexual arousal. The insatiable longing that filled his soul was another matter, though. He frowned, scratching absently at his scarred chest at the thought. There was something missing, something that no matter how often he took Sherra, couldn’t fill that steadily widening void. Her heart. He blew his breath out heavily as he once again acknowledged the truth. He didn’t have her heart. He had her body, the commitment of her fidelity, but it wasn’t voluntary. And that was the killer. She was his only because of the chemistry between them.

There was none of the gentle touches or intimate rubbing of bodies as he had seen with the other Breeds and their mates. Sherra avoided that as much as possible. When they were together it was the sex she wanted and nothing more. And Kane needed more.

He moved his hands to the arms of the chair, his fingers clenching on them as he gritted his teeth in fury. How often had he tried to touch her, yearned to feel just the softness of her flesh against his fingertips, or the warmth of her body against him? More times than he cared to count, and in every instance she had flinched or moved carefully away from him. Each time he had been denied.

“Kane?” Sherra’s voice outside his bedroom door had him frowning darkly. You know where to find me if you need me.He had made the offer, so why did it grate now that she had come?

“It’s unlocked.” He didn’t move from his nude, sprawled position in the chair. He lowered his head, watching as the panel swung open and she stepped carefully inside.

Chapter Fourteen

Damn, she looked like an angel. All that blonde hair, thick and lustrous, framed her face and fell down her back in a skein of pure white silk. The emerald-green caftan flowed over her body, whispering over her breasts, hips and thighs and falling to her graceful feet. Her eyes widened at his aroused, nude state. Swallowing tightly, she closed the door and slid the lock home.

Kane narrowed his eyes on her then. She looked…uncomfortable. Her hands still gripped the doorknob, her eyes were dark with both arousal and trepidation. And something more, some emotion he couldn’t put his finger on, couldn’t define. Hell, she was probably going to tell him to take a flying leap and fuck himself. She had done it often enough in the past few months. God knew there were days he wished he could. When he wished he could effect the distance she had forced between them and ignore the needs that ate at his gut like acid.

“It’s a boner not a monster,” he growled, waving a hand to the erection her gaze continued to flicker back and forth from. “You’re watching it like you expect it to bite.”

“It looks angry enough.” A nervous little smile touched her lips before it fell and she watched him somberly. “You look angry enough.”

He breathed out roughly in frustration. “I’m dead tired, Sherra, and horny to boot. If that’s why you’re here then come on.”

He rose to his feet, eager to fill her, to still at least that part of his pain. She bit her lip, her gaze flickering to the bed.

“That wasn’t all I wanted,” she whispered, her gaze meeting his, breaking his heart with the vulnerability he glimpsed there.

He rubbed at the back of his neck wearily. “What else could there be?” he finally asked. “I’ll be honest, baby, my control and my patience are worn thin tonight, so this isn’t a good time for a fight.”

“But it’s okay to fuck?” There was no heat in her voice, only that shattered soberness that made him ache clear to his soul.

God, he wanted to touch her. He wanted to just brush his fingertips over her cheek, nuzzle her jaw. He was worse than the frigging cat boys running around the damned place.

“Yeah.” He swiped his hand over his hair. “It’s okay to fuck.”

It was better to fuck, his dick was screaming.

She lowered her head, nodding hesitantly though she made no move to either undress or head to the bed.

“Sherra, why the hell are you here?” he finally growled. “You’re obviously not in any hurry to do the nasty here with me, so why not tell me what you do want?”

She bit her lip and he wanted to groan.

“I want to know why you’re so angry,” she finally said, lifting her eyes to him as she twisted her fingers together in front of her. “Why you walked out of my room and why you’re acting more like an asshole than normal. I want you to talk to me, Kane.”

He snorted, grimacing at the plea. “I’ve been talking to you for months now, Sherra, and you haven’t bothered to listen. Why now?”

She glanced away before tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“You haven’t walked away from me before, Kane.” She sounded confused, as though the very act of him doing so had thrown her little world out of kilter.

Kane snorted a half laugh as his lips curved mockingly. He had chased after her like a lovesick dog after a bitch in heat, and the reason she was taking notice was that he had suddenly walked away. It was pissing him off.

“I told you I was here if you needed me.” He finally shrugged as he moved to the bed, stretching out on it suggestively, his hand gripping the base of his cock as he watched her. “This is all you need from me, isn’t it, baby? Come on and get it. It’s all yours, anytime.” He hated the fury throbbing in his chest, the need to shake her, to make her see once and for all everything she was throwing away. She stared back at him in indecision, her expression filled with grief, with a pain that broke his heart.

“I don’t know what to do, Kane,” she whispered, the desperation in her voice echoing around them. “I don’t know how to fix this, how to fix myself.”

His clenched his teeth together at the helpless pain in her voice.