“You should.” He breathed roughly, dragging his fingers through his hair. “You should have run from me screaming when you first realized you desired me, Merinus.”

She laughed softly, remembering the day she had watched him masturbate on his back deck.

“I don’t think that was possible,” she said with a smile. “I was too busy admiring your gorgeous body.”

He flashed her a quick, embarrassed look, then frowned at her sternly.

“I’m being serious,” he chided her.

“So am I, Callan.” She smiled. “I’m not weak, nor am I so timid I can’t face whatever life throws at me. We’re together for a reason. We’ll face whatever life brings us as best we can.”

She sat up, curling her legs beneath her as she leaned against his shoulder, staring up at him as he stared back at her. She let her lips caress his muscular shoulder, her hand smoothing over his back. Callan took a deep breath. “I never expected you.” He shook his head with an edge of amusement.

“You are a dangerous woman, Merinus Tyler.”

“Naw, just a determined woman.” She grinned against his shoulder. “I know a good thing when I see it jacking off.”

He flushed. Shooting her a look of mingled confusion and exasperation, he shook his head as he turned and pulled her into his arms. He held her tight against his body, relishing her warmth, the way she relaxed against him, looked up at him so trustingly.

“We should shower and begin to prepare for what’s ahead of us,” he told her softly, thinking of the news conference to come, the days ahead that would be filled with endless tests, questions and danger. He prayed Merinus’ brother knew what the hell he was doing, because if anything happened to her, then Callan knew his rage would be satisfied with nothing less than blood.

“You never did return the favor as you promised,” he reminded her, his brow arching suggestively.

“When we come together again, you will have to make this up to me.”

Merinus flushed then. She felt the heat along her cheeks, but a flame of desire between her thighs. That tingle of lust reminded her, though of the possible conception this night may have wrought. She couldn’t say she was comfortable with the idea of it happening so soon. She would have preferred to wait, to know they were reasonably safe before bringing a child into the lives they would share for the first few years.

“I’ll see what I can do you for ya, sugar,” she drawled, imitating the slow southern drawl she had finally grown accustomed to hearing.

“Well, you just do that, fine thing,” he mocked her, and Merinus had to admit he sounded a hell of a lot more authentic than she did.

They were silent then. Holding each other, watching the light slowly filter into the room as the day eased ahead.

“I don’t want to let go of tonight,” she finally whispered regretfully. “I wish we could just stay like this, forever.”

Callan sighed slowly, his hands smoothing over her shoulders, her back. He kissed her forehead, a soft caress of regret and longing.

“Come on, we’ll shower and get breakfast. Then I need to contact the others. It will be over soon, Merinus. Then perhaps we can make a life for ourselves.”

Merinus swallowed tightly, battling her fears and her regrets. She hadn’t had enough time with him. The time she needed to store her memories in case the worst should happen. She wasn’t a fool; she knew the danger that lay ahead of them. She had known the dangers that faced Callan from the beginning. He rose from the bed, pulling her up beside him as he kissed the top of her head once again.

“Go ahead and shower, I’ll use the other one or I won’t be able to keep my hands off you.” He pushed her towards the bathroom. “Go. I’ll start breakfast when you come down.”

“What if I beat you?” she asked him archly.

He gave her a look that clearly doubted that was possible. Merinus narrowed her eyes at him. She would show him. She shrugged rather than saying anything and went on into the bathroom, followed by his indulgent male chuckle.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

She beat him. Merinus snickered as she scampered past the spare bathroom, hearing Callan still involved in his shower. He must have been delayed getting in, which meant he had been up to something before he started. She frowned. He was going to have to learn to be a little more forthcoming than she had a feeling he was.

Dressed in a pair of sweat pants and one of his big shirts she headed for the kitchen. She could at least get breakfast on. She was starved, and morning was starting to shine brightly outside the heavy curtains that covered all the windows.

A second of panic filled her at the thought of the coming day. It wouldn’t be easy, letting Callan stand before the world to announce who and what he was. She knew how he treasured the solitude of his life, the peace he found when he wasn’t being hunted. He would never know that again. She flipped the light on as she entered the kitchen to dispel the deep shadows of the room, then came to an abrupt halt. Her heart jumped in fear at the man standing before her. But what terrified her most was the gun aimed at her stomach, and burning rage that seemed to flicker with dark flames in his brown eyes.

“I knew he would bring you here,” Dayan smirked, his handsome face twisted with horrific fury as he approached her. “He thinks no one knows about this place, but I did. I know he comes here to hide, and I knew he would bring you here.”

Merinus watched him approach, backing away from him until they entered the connecting living room, praying she could get him into a position where Callan could jump him when he came downstairs.

“Do you want to die, cunt?” he sneered.

She shook her head desperately, watching the gun nervously.

“Are you breeding yet? Gut wounds hurt real bad whore, and they would kill the abomination you’re likely carrying by now.”

Merinus covered her stomach with her hands, an instinctive reaction she wasn’t able to halt as his eyes followed the action knowingly.

“Please—” she whispered. “Don’t do this, Dayan. Callan will kill you for it.”

Dayan sneered. “My dear, Callan is going to die as well. I won’t let him destroy everything I’ve worked for since we escaped those labs.”

Merinus swallowed tightly. She could feel fear drumming through her veins in time to the harsh beat of her heart. Her chest tightened as she fought to breathe past her panic, to find a way to think clearly and help Callan. God, this would kill him. Dayan was his family.

“Callan risked his life to save you, to keep you and the others hidden,” she gasped. “How could you betray him like this?”

Merinus couldn’t understand the depth of evil that it took for Dayan to do this.

“Because he betrayed us.” Dayan’s voice rose in fury, and he wasn’t even aware of it. Merinus prayed Callan heard it. “He’s going public, and the others will follow him like the mindless children they still are.

Like he’s King. Like he is the last word. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. I told that stupid bitch Maria and she wouldn’t listen. So she had to die for it. She almost convinced him last year. I won’t let him do it. I won’t let him destroy everything like this.”

“What do you suggest he do then, Dayan? The Council won’t stop.” She edged around the room, moving carefully beside the dubious protection of a chair. If only she could protect her stomach, protect the child that may or not be forming even now.

“He should have gone back for us,” Dayan raged. “I could have led the Pride. It was my right. I suffered the most for them. I should have led and he should have let them capture him.”

The furious words made Merinus sick. She remembered the reports she had read of the labs. The barbaric tests, the training to condition Callan to kill, to be no more than a disposable weapon. The women that were brought to him to breed, then killed when he refused. The horrendous pain he suffered in their punishments when he refused their orders. Only a twisted, evil mind could even consider that he should have gone back. Only a monster could have killed the woman who helped raise him for trying to secure their safety, such as Dayan had done to Maria.

“You weren’t strong enough to lead, evidently,” Merinus bit out. “Only an animal would have suggested he do such a thing. How did they create you, Dayan? How did they manage to finally succeed in the creature they were after? Perhaps Callan should have sent you back.”

Pain and fury vibrated through her body. Callan had nearly given his life countless times for this bastard, only to have him turn on him, betray and deceive him.

“Oh, they succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations,” Dayan laughed. “Only, they have no idea how well they did succeed. I’m their dream child, Merinus, and once the Pride is under my control, Sherra and Dawn breeding my cubs, then I’ll let them know. They will agree to my every demand in exchange for the services I can provide for them.”

Merinus stared at him in disbelief.

“Dayan, what makes you think you can do this? The breeding isn’t voluntary; you know that from Callan and me. It’s hormonal. If Dawn or Sherra were your mates, you would know it by now.”

“No.” He shook his head, a maniacal smile crossing his face. “See, I know something you don’t. The women don’t go into heat like you did, Merinus. They don’t mate like Callan mated you. When they ovulate any bastard can breed them, your brother and Sherra proved that.”

Merinus blinked. “What the hell does my brother have to do with this? Which brother? Dammit, I have seven of them and every one of them will skin your ass alive and tack your hide on their wall for a trophy if you don’t stop this shit. That is if Callan leaves anything left of you.”

He smirked at her, the gun never wavering.

“Brother Kane was a soldier at the labs, Merinus. He was chosen to rape her when she went into heat the first time, and he did an admirable job. Even planted a cub inside her. I, of course, had to rid her of it. I can’t tolerate another man’s offspring within my Pride.”

Merinus wavered in shock. She felt her knees go weak.

“You’re lying,” she gasped. “Kane wouldn’t do that. He would never hurt an innocent woman.”

Dayan shook his head in pity.

“But he did Merinus. Didn’t you ever wonder how Kane knew about a supposedly Top Secret experiment before your father received Maria’s box of evidence? How he knew when everyone associated with that lab was dead? He survived my attack somehow. Survived my rage. But he’ll pay for it soon enough, for good.”

“I don’t believe you.” She believed Kane might have been there, but not for the reasons Dayan said, and sure as hell wouldn’t believe he had raped anyone. She knew her brother too well for that. He frowned at her darkly. “I have no reason to lie.”

“You have every reason to lie,” she told him angrily. “You’re a traitor to your own people, Dayan, there’s no honor in you. You couldn’t be trusted to give the weather accurately.”

“You have a smart mouth, bitch,” he snarled. “If I weren’t already determined to kill you, I’d kill you for that alone.”

“And you’re a fucking prick with some real faulty illusions of grandeur.” She glimpsed Callan’s shadow moving slowly along the steps from the corner of her eye. “The others will take you apart themselves. You won’t be able to hide the scent of Callan’s blood on your hands. Their senses will pick it up, Dayan. They’ll know.”

She saw the glimmer of uncertainty enter his eyes.

“They won’t know,” he bit out, but his protest wasn’t as strong as it should have been.

“They can smell blood. They know the scent of their own, their DNA ensures it. Do you think you can wash away the scent of their deaths from your body? Do you really think they won’t know?”