“Breeds were on the mountain, but they seemed to be searching for something as well,” he answered.

Cyrus restrained his grimace. He should have had Chaz dispose of her while he had her at the estate, but she was his child. He had raised her here, listened to her laughter and played with her when she was a toddler. Killing her in the home she had been birthed in had seemed distasteful at the time. A lesson learned, he thought with a sigh.

She was flawed. Weak. Only the strong could survive in this battle, and he refused to allow the weakness of his love for his daughter to stay his hand. She had betrayed him. There was no love in her for him, to have betrayed him this way. He had taught her better. Trained her better. But she was weak. Too weak to be allowed to destroy him.

“Do you believe the Breeds have her?” It was his fear, his greatest fear, that the animals would offer her asylum in exchange for what information she might have. If this happened, he would have no choice but to risk his spy within Sanctuary before they could complete the kidnapping of the boy. Scheme knew too much of his organization; she would be a liability to his plans and the Council’s needs.

“We believe so, sir,” Dog answered. “We believe she’s been with Tanner Reynolds. Our Sanctuary contact reports that an emergency call came in before the Breeds’ heli-jet flew out to Sandy Hook. She should be there within hours if she is.”

Cyrus tightened his lips in fury and turned back to the window. “You can leave now,” he barked. “I’ll take care of this from here on out.”

“Yes, sir.” Dog turned and beat a hasty retreat from the office as Cyrus turned and sneered at the animal’s back and the door closed behind him.

Chaz had been one of his greatest assets, and now he was gone. Had he lived, Scheme would have already been dead. Instead, the bitch had disappeared and Chaz was dead, with no sign of who had killed him.

She had to have been conspiring with those Breeds long before now. He knew it. He could feel it. How else could they have secreted her away so quickly?

She was a woman, weak, too easily led astray. Just like her mother. A whore, just as her mother had been, Scheme had proved that when she not only allowed herself to become pregnant, but allowed Chaz to bring another man to her bed.

He shook his head. Just like her mother. The bitch that had whelped Scheme had been intelligent, well placed in society, but her bloodline had been tainted by her dockworker grandfather. She had dared, actually dared, to aid in the escape of several Breeds from the lab where she worked.

He had killed her himself, just as he should have killed Scheme. Teaching her to fear him, to obey him hadn’t worked. Somehow, she had overcome her fear.

He stared at the picture of her on his desk. The long sable hair, the serious brown eyes, the restrained line of her lips. He’d thought he had succeeded in raising her properly, but he’d been wrong. So wrong.

Moving to his desk, he picked up the secured cell phone he used to contact his spy at Sanctuary. A Breed. His lips tipped into a smile. For once he had succeeded in the training he believed in so implicitly. If Scheme showed up at Sanctuary, then her stay would be very, very short-lived.

He punched in the text message.

Delay mission. Betrayer of prime importance. Report soon.

The moment the message left the device, the encryption would send it in coded form. A short little note saying hello from a friend. Nothing more. The Breeds would never know it for what it was intended.

He sighed regretfully. He had looked forward to beginning the training on Lyons’s son himself. The Council had approved the plan to kidnap the child. He was a first-generation Breed child conceived naturally. They were all curious to see how his genetics differed from his father’s. Should the boy prove to be the specimen they were hoping for, then he would be given into Cyrus’s care and his training program.

The boy was nine, a little old to be inducted into training, but Cyrus was confident of his chances of success if they could manage to steal him from the secured compound the Breeds used as home base. Sanctuary had the best security, the most merciless guards, but Cyrus had his spy and his spy knew their weaknesses. Knew, because she was one of them.

The Council couldn’t stop the breeding of the animals with their human counterparts, but they could use them in their attempts to find a way to destroy the Breeds.

They must be destroyed. At the very least, confined to prevent their attempts to mix with society. They were animals. Animals had no rights, no souls. And he would prove it.

Tanner didn’t take any chances with Scheme’s safety. He might be furious with her, betrayed by her, but her life meant more to him than his own. Enough so that when the heli-jet landed, Callan’s personal guards were waiting at the landing pad to escort her to the main estate in the secured Hummer normally used for Callan and the main Breed Cabinet when outside Sanctuary.

He could tell by the look on Jonas’s face when he spotted the Hummer that Jonas considered the move a waste of time. Tanner didn’t. His gut was on fire with the warning flares of danger slamming into it. His survival instincts were amplified, stronger than they had ever been before, and they were assuring him that no protection was too great right now. No precaution too extreme.

“I’ve called the Breed Cabinet together.” Jonas looked back from the copilot’s seat, his silver eyes flashing with steely determination. “They need to be apprised of the situation immediately so we can get additional security in place.”

“How do you know the spy isn’t on the cabinet?” Scheme asked then. “I’ve seen the profile associated with this Breed, but no personal information. They were trained just for this. To infiltrate the inner circle of their target and wait. They weren’t trained for direct or covert warfare as many of you were. Their tactics are more subtle.”

“The cabinet isn’t a threat.” Jonas shook his head. “I trust every one of them with my life and there are very few that I trust that far. I’ve been tracking this spy myself, Scheme, I have it narrowed to several parameters, but not the main estate. You’ll be safe there.”

“Have you pulled Alpha Team back to Sanctuary?” Tanner asked then, referring to the group that had surrounded his cabin in Kentucky and the Breeds Cabal had reported were skulking around Sanctuary.

“Alpha Team is in full force on Sanctuary,” Jonas said and sighed. “But I would prefer if that information doesn’t leave here. They are our last defense in this endeavor, Tanner. If all else fails, they’ll succeed.”

“They’re watching David?” Tanner asked.

“They’re tracking. Callan refuses to change David’s bodyguards at present. We’ll see how he feels once Scheme makes her report.”

Tanner doubted that would change Callan’s mind. David’s bodyguards were men the pride leader trusted above anyone else. He wouldn’t trade them for Jonas’s Alpha Team, period.

Beside him, Scheme remained silent. She hadn’t said a dozen words since they left the caverns, and her eyes were haunted. He could smell her pain, her fear, her need. Despite the time he had spent trying to slake the mating heat before leaving the caverns, it was only growing again. With each mile the scent of her arousal infused the cockpit of the heli-jet, putting every Breed in it on edge and making Tanner’s mood worse.

As the heli-jet settled on the landing pad and the Breed guards rushed to the lowered door as the steps folded out, Tanner placed himself in the doorway, ignoring Cabal’s attempt to stand in his place. His eyes scanned the perimeter of the landing pad, noticing the absence of Breeds milling about as they normally were.

His orders to clear the way to the estate had been carried through.

“Let’s rock and roll,” the commander of the team growled, his dark eyes scanning the area as well, while holding the powerful semiautomatic rifle he carried with relaxed readiness. “The Breed Cabinet is in residence and awaiting your arrival.”

“Scheme.” Tanner turned to her, holding his hand out, watching as her gaze touched on it with a second’s hesitation. Then she placed her slender fingers within his hand, breathing in deeply, doing nothing to still the scent of her fear as he led her from the heli-jet.

Behind him, Cabal, Jonas, Jackal and three of Jonas’s main enforcers followed close on their heels, ranging around them as they left the heli-jet and rushed to the Hummer.

“We’ll be right behind you,” Cabal stated as Tanner pushed Scheme into the backseat of the Hummer.

Tanner nodded quickly before jumping in beside Scheme, his arm going around her to pull her close into the shelter of his larger body as Jonas jumped in beside her.

“Don’t touch her,” he growled.

Jonas snorted. “I’m well acquainted with mating heat, Tanner.”

“Meaning?” Scheme finally spoke.

“Meaning that until the heat lessens, normally within a two-to four-week period, then the touch of any other male is agonizing. The hormones that create the heat sensitize the flesh to the point that only the mate can touch you. No other. Even another woman’s touch is painful,” Jonas explained.

“Great,” she stated mockingly. “And you were of course going to explain all this to me before you decided to mate me, right?”

Tanner shifted in his seat, knowing she wouldn’t like the answer. “I had no intention of explaining it to you, unless the mating heat arose.”

Anger was overriding the scent of fear now. He could feel her gaze on his profile, searing him with the accusation he knew would be in her eyes.

“In Tanner’s defense, there’s a ban on revealing that information to anyone as yet unmated,” Jonas revealed as Tanner clenched his teeth at the explanation. “Many of the Breeds are aware of it, but no one talks about it.”

“And you intend to hide this for how long?” Her voice was strained, a product of her anger and the arousal.

“As long as possible,” Tanner informed her. “We’ve managed to keep a lid on it for ten years. We just need a little longer.”

“A little longer for what?” Incredulity filled her voice. “Do you have any idea the outcry knowledge of this is going to produce? What I’m feeling right now is hell, Tanner. And it would effectively shut down a woman’s life for the time it lasts. Not to mention the fact that it takes away free will.”

His gaze sliced to her. “Have I taken your free will?”

She was breathing hard, her eyes gleaming back at him fiercely. “I’m aware of how furious you are right now and all I want to do is find the nearest bed. So yes, it has. Because otherwise, I’d stay as far away from you as possible until you calmed down.”

“You know, Scheme, this idea you have that I’m going to hurt you is starting to piss me off.”

“This has nothing to do with thinking you’ll hurt me. It has to do with the fact that you have no right to be angry, and I have every right to be offended that you are.”

Female logic? It had to be. Tanner stared down at her in disbelief as the Hummer came to a stop in the rear of the estate house.

“I’ll figure that comment out later,” he growled as the other vehicles pulled in ahead of them and behind them and the Breed guards surrounded the Hummer.

Pushing the door open, he lifted Scheme from the vehicle, careful to keep her in the center of the Breeds surrounding her.

“Son of a bitch, Tanner,” Jonas growled at the precautions. “Why don’t you just send out a notice that we know for a damned fact we suspect Tallant’s mole of trying to gun for her. It would be a hell of a lot simpler.”

“Simple never was my way,” Tanner snapped as he moved Scheme quickly to the back door that led into the home of the pride leader. “I don’t know what made you think it was.”

Scheme was fuming as she was led into a large, well-appointed meeting room. Soft lighting lit the shadowed interior, courtesy of the windows that were heavily curtained and shaded. If she wasn’t mistaken the small black boxes above them were infrared and thermo heat jammers. Beside them was another device with several digital displays, insurance against any listening devices that were slipped into the room, or any outside attempts to listen in.