Tanner's Scheme

She could have made it to Jonas and had her freedom by now. If her father hadn’t somehow learned that she had betrayed him.



“She knows how to be quiet, Tanner,” Cabal observed mockingly long minutes after she had sat down. “She surprises me.”



Tanner murmured something she didn’t catch. Something she wasn’t certain she wanted to hear. All she could feel was her own rioting pain. Suddenly, she felt lost, alone. More alone than she had ever been in her life.



Cabal was pushing and he knew it. He wanted Tanner pissed. He wanted that superhuman control his brother possessed to break. He wanted the animal inside the man to claim his mate. Because it had obviously not happened yet.



It would have been laughable if it weren’t so serious.



And if the cold steel blade of a butcher knife weren’t lying at his throat. Not exactly a comfortable position for the sharp weapon in his estimation.



Tanner was enraged. His eyes were brilliant with it, his expression savage.



“Back off, bro,” Cabal warned him. “We’re not going to fight here.”



“Leave her the hell alone,” Tanner growled, his voice too low for the girl to hear where she sat across the room, on the couch that was turned away from them, but the dangerous demand was clear to Cabal.



He sighed. The poor bastard. The scent of the woman’s pain was making him crazy. God only knew what it was doing to Tanner. It was their curse. They could smell emotion like other men could smell bacon frying or coffee brewing. Emotions other Breeds missed, the soul-destroying emotions that scarred and crippled the mind, they could pinpoint with amazing accuracy.



Some scents were subtle, he thought, as Tanner slowly removed the knife. Like Scheme’s. A part of her was so dark with pain, with a hunger to be free, that it swamped his senses. He was certain it shredded Tanner’s. Cabal was hoping that by pushing it, he could shred his brother’s control as well and force the animal he could sense lurking beneath the surface free.



It was one of the reasons Cabal had used every means at his disposal to keep Tanner away from her over the years. The first time Cabal had gotten close enough to draw her scent in, he had known several things.



First and foremost, she was Tanner’s mate. And that should have spurred him then and there to contact his brother and tell him. Tanner searched constantly for the woman who would bind his soul, while Cabal prayed to never meet such a creature. His soul was bound enough.



But Tanner. Tanner would have killed to take her. Or died. And at the time, she had been carrying another man’s child. And later. Hell, later it had become more dangerous than ever. The time had to be right. And when it was, luckily, the opportunity had presented itself for Tanner to take her.



“We need to talk,” Cabal nearly whispered as his gaze met Tanner’s again. “Jonas is going nuts searching for her, Tanner. Every team available has been pulled in to help on this.”



Tanner glanced back at Scheme, his jaw flexing spasmodically.



“Bring her in, man,” Cabal growled. “Call Jonas. He’ll send the helo in. Get her to Sanctuary.”



“And have her jerked into Breed Law?” Tanner snarled. “Why the fuck do you think I have her here? The only way to save her is if she’s my mate. She’s not.”



Bitterness filled the air, as did the scent of mating heat.



Cabal shook his head. “I smell the scent of it.”



“And I thought I did.” Tanner swallowed tightly. “Our DNA is so close…” He paused, his jaw working spasmodically. “I smell the scent of heat, but maybe not because she’s my mate.”



Tortured—it was the only way to describe Tanner’s expression and the pain that blended in with the scent of hunger and desire.



“Meaning?” Cabal was almost wary now. Oh hell, Tanner couldn’t mean what he thought he did. Could he?



“Maybe she’s your mate.” Tanner glanced back, keeping his voice so low that only Cabal could hear. “The heat could rise with my DNA. But perhaps that’s the reason for only the scent of heat. The barb shows itself with full mating. If she’s your mate, then that could explain it.”



Cabal glanced at the back of Scheme’s head, knowing Tanner’s explanation did not explain why the barb hadn’t shown itself for Tanner. Tanner would know his mate. He would never share his mate. It was something Cabal had known, but Tanner had always doubted.



It was almost amusing. Tanner, always so supremely confident, so sure of himself and his place in the world, now doubted his very nature. His own mate. But fixing this for his brother was going to be a bitch.



Cabal understood now why he had been born first. And it had been proven Cabal was the firstborn. He took that position seriously. It was his job to protect Tanner, no matter the cost to himself. No matter how much it sucked. No matter how much it hurt Scheme Tallant.



“And we should resolve this how?” He buried his amusement, knowing his brother would sense it if he weren’t very careful.



Sometimes, it wasn’t a good idea to let Tanner know that his big brother was better at deception games.



Tanner swallowed tightly. “I’ll walk away, give you some time alone with her. When you mate her, I’ll let her go.”



Let her go?



Cabal watched as Tanner’s eyes flared with an inner rage. Oh yes, this was funny as hell. Tanner share that pretty little thing? He looked back at Scheme. There wasn’t a chance in hell he would be given the chance to slide his dick into that hot little pussy.



But some things were worth fighting Tanner for. Once Cabal touched her, he had no doubt the animal Tanner kept so deeply hidden inside him would break free. It could get messy. Tanner would lose all control and try to destroy the man touching his woman. But it would be better than laughing in Tanner’s face at the very idea that Scheme wasn’t his mate.



“She seems unwilling to be shared, Tanner,” he pointed out. “How do you suggest we do it?”



“She’s your mate,” Tanner whispered bitterly. “She’ll want you. We won’t have to deceive her.”



Poor Tanner.



Cabal lowered his head to hide his knowledge. If the barb was taking its own time to show itself, then Cabal could understand the mistaken conclusions his brother had drawn. It didn’t change the facts though, facts that even Sanctuary would have to take into account. Tanner and Cabal might be brothers, but there were still distinctions to their scent and their DNA. Slight ones, he admitted, but there all the same.



Things such as the fact that for ten years Tanner had been consumed with fantasies and thoughts of Scheme Tallant. Cabal had been amused, but not in the least fascinated. She was pretty enough, but nothing exceptional.



Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back and met Tanner’s gaze directly.



“Okay.” He nodded easily. “I’ll accept her as my mate.”



He nearly flinched from the wave of savagery that swept from Tanner. His brother was perfectly calm. Neither his expression nor his gaze altered, but Cabal felt the animal inside. And to say it wasn’t pleased was an understatement.



Poor Tanner.



CHAPTER 19



Tanner meant to leave. He really did. He pulled himself through the opening at the top of the farthest tunnel and crouched in the back of another series of caverns that led to the small cliff-sheltered valley beyond, before forcing himself to move to the exit.



He couldn’t stay here. His hearing and sense of smell were too strong. He would hear Cabal taking her, smell the mating heat, and he feared for his own sanity if he did. The animal within was clawing for freedom, enraged, desperate to force him to return, to jerk her from Cabal’s touch.



How many women had he shared with his brother? Dozens. Neither of them had been monogamous in the least, and the sex games they played with their women had always been bold. Hot.



Yet he couldn’t stay in that damned cavern with Cabal and Scheme. He had forced himself to leave, ignoring her confused tone when she called out his name, forcing himself to leave as fast as he could go.



His and Cabal’s DNA was too closely linked. It was nearly identical. They were just short of clones of each other. It made sense that he would hunger so desperately for Cabal’s mate. That he would burn for her. Lose his mind for her.



He was losing his mind now.



He paused at the exit of the caves, drew in a deep, hard breath and stared up at the cliffs that sheltered the narrow valley.



The mountains in Sandy Hook were littered with cliffs and caves and hidden pockets of tunnels. Callan’s scientist mother had played in the cliffs and caverns as a child, and had used them several times to hide Callan. But it was Callan who’d found the small, narrow tunnel beneath the main caverns, and the caverns connected to it.



They were completely hidden, even from the satellites in orbit equipped to see beyond the surface.



Tanner stared up at the jagged overhangs, through the pine, oak and locust trees that filled the area. Inhaling deeply, he fought a battle within himself, one he wasn’t certain he would win. The animal he fought to keep hidden roared in outrage, clawing at his mind, his flesh, demanding his return.



That he take what was his. His.



His jaw clenched as he shook his head with a quick jerk, fighting back an impulse so primal, so bestial, it shocked him.



A growl rumbled in his chest as his lips pulled back from his teeth and he fought an enraged roar. It was a battle he almost lost.



His woman.



The primitive declaration raced through his head.



His woman.



His to touch, to hold, to take.



He had watched over her for ten years. Had been forced to watch other men take her, control her sexuality. He had watched another man take her, hating himself, hating her, forcing himself to steer clear of her despite the hunger that beat at him.



And because of it she had been tortured. Nearly killed more than once. The man who should have protected her, her father, had fucked with her sanity and her life. It was a wonder she had survived intact.



And Tanner had never known the hell she was going through. He had ignored every demand that he kidnap her, that he take her out of the games being played between the Council and the Breeds. He had let himself believe she was a monster, the same as her father was. And he had known better. Just as he knew better now. And yet still he was walking away.



He had paid his dues, for what? To give her to Cabal? To let go of the only woman he had ever—He stopped, clenched his eyes closed and snarled with primal anger.



He loved her.



Cabal didn’t know her. He hadn’t watched her all those years. He hadn’t seen the loneliness on her face as she lay down to sleep each night, or the dissatisfaction and desperation each time another man had touched her.



Cabal hadn’t watched her cry into her pillow. Not often, only a handful of times, but Tanner had watched her cry, and he had ached with her, for her.



He rose to his feet, determined to stalk from the caverns, to find a bar and get just as damned drunk as he could get before returning.



But he couldn’t move. He willed his feet to walk, but the animal screamed out inside him, outraged.



His woman.



He breathed in roughly. He could still smell the scent of her on his flesh, the taste of her kiss on his tongue. His skin itched with the need to feel her again, to hold her beneath him, to take her, to fucking mark her.



He hadn’t mated her. She wasn’t his mate. She had to be Cabal’s. But he loved her. God, he loved her.



Before he could regain the control the animal inside him had stolen, he turned and moved through the caves once again, fighting the growl emanating from his chest, the rage building inside him.



He had never let the animal free, not since his escape from the labs. He had fought it, caged it, imprisoned it at all costs. Until now.



He could feel it breaking free of the bonds he had placed on it.



My mate, the animal screamed.



She couldn’t be his woman, his mate. His steps increased. It didn’t fucking matter. She belonged to him. Fuck the mating heat, she was his woman, and he would defy any attempt to take her from him. He would kill the man or the Breed that attempted to take her, to harm her.