Author: Lora Leigh
Category: Paranormal
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/23990_12
“I didn’t think you would be interested, just to start with.” She shrugged before brushing the thick strands of her dark brunette hair back from her face and adjusting her glasses on her face. “And it’s an anomaly I’m still studying.”
“How long have you known?” Something inside her was breaking apart, shattering.
Ely took a deep breath. “Almost a year for certain. The hormonal levels began leveling off in him nearly four years ago. There are only minute quantities showing up in his system now. Within a few months, I expect his system will be completely free of the heat.”
Dawn sat down slowly in the upholstered chair closest to her and stared back at Ely. “Why not in me?” she whispered, feeling strangely hollow now, alone, in a way she hadn’t felt in ten years.
“I don’t know, Dawn,” Ely said softly. “I suspect it’s because it began in you. Your Breed physiology may not allow for the hormone levels to recede.”
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She stared back at Ely, her breathing rough, while inside—inside she felt the Cougar that so often lay dormant rising furiously. It snarled. Rage tore through the instinctive Breed synapses and shot through the woman’s mind.
She wasn’t just a woman. A woman who had lain alone, ached and fought the nightmares of a past that she couldn’t escape. She was also a mate, and the man she had claimed so long ago was breaking the bonds that held them together.
“Dawn, you should be happy for this,” Ely told her gently. “I know it’s bothered you that Seth suffers…”
“He’s mine!” She came out of the chair in a burst of furious energy.
Ely stared back at her in surprise for long seconds. “Not any longer, Dawn. Seth is no longer your mate. And hopefully, in time, the mating heat will recede from your system as well.”
CHAPTER 3
Dawn remembered, ten years before, when Seth and his father had arrived at Sanctuary to claim Taber’s mate, Roni, as their family. She was Aaron Lawrence’s daughter and Seth’s half sister. They had been searching for her for years, and had found her during a newscast that reported that Roni Andrews, a known associate of the Breeds, carried a mark on her neck similar to that which was rumored to be a mating mark.
They had crashed through the gates of Sanctuary, and Cassie Sinclair had run through the Breeds surrounding their limo, careless of her own safety, and jumped inside to ensure that these unknown people were protected.
Dawn and her team had been assigned to guard them in one of the guest houses during that week, and she had gotten to know Seth in a way she had never known another man.
His dominance and power lay beneath the surface of the man. He was steel hard on the inside, but he knew how to smile and how to laugh. He knew how to tease her gently, how to brush against her or touch her without making her stomach contract with terror.
He had been the perfect gentleman, to a point. What he didn’t say or act on was always in his eyes though. A simmering heat, a promise of wicked lusts, of a man that knew all the ways of pleasure.
Dawn didn’t know pleasure. She had never known a lover’s touch, never felt a lover’s kiss, until Seth. Until his lips had brushed against hers and for the first time in her life she had been close to a man without being sick with fear.
And then everything had gone to hell. The chauffeur/bodyguard Seth had with him had been a Council spy, and he’d caught her and Seth by surprise. He had managed to knock Seth out and secure Dawn to a chair under the threat of killing him.
And then he had touched her. While Seth had watched, enraged, he had fondled her breasts, slapped her, taunted Seth and threatened to rape Dawn in front of his eyes.
But it wouldn’t be the first time she had been raped, the man had sneered at her. Wasn’t she no more than a plaything for the guards at the lab she had been created in?
And she had seen Seth’s eyes when he said it. Seen the flash of horror and of pity, and she had hated them both. Before he left, the chauffeur had decided to make certain she was defenseless by hitting her in the head with something. The butt of his weapon she was told. She was unconscious for days. When she awoke, the nightmares began again, and she learned that the simple brushing of Seth’s lips against hers, the touch of his hand against her neck, had begun the mating heat.
And she had cursed it.
Until now.
As she packed her travel bag the next day, a heavy duffel nearly half her size, rage was beating a harsh tattoo in her views. Jonas had sent Mercury, Lawe and Rule, along with the rest of the team he had chosen for her to command, with Seth to his little island estate.
And horrifyingly enough, Dash Sinclair, his wife, Elizabeth, and daughter, Cassie, were going to be in attendance as well. The two-week-long biannual meeting was no more than an excuse for a huge house party. It was going to be a nightmare. Why in the hell Dash would take Elizabeth and Cassie there, she didn’t have a clue.
And tonight, Sanctuary’s heli-jet would fly her in. She would be taking command of the team under the watchful eye of the enigmatic Dash Sinclair, and pulling that one off had taken a lot of fancy talking.
Dash was one of the few Breeds who hadn’t been raised completely within the Council labs they were created in. He had escaped at the tender age of ten, been placed in the foster system and joined the army at eighteen. When he found his mate and her daughter, he had taken the skills he had learned and used them to benefit the Breeds, and Sanctuary. He had been a major force in aligning the Feline, Wolf and rebel Coyotes together into a power that was slowly being accepted within the world.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Dawn?” Callan stood in her open doorway, his expression creased into lines of worry as she swung around to face him.
She shoved an extra weapon inside the bag, and stored the clips of ammo in the side before answering him.
“Ely said