Author: Lora Leigh
Category: Paranormal
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/23990_14
Everything about Dawn was delicate, except the rage and pain that he saw flashing in her eyes, in her expression. Tears gathered and fell down her cheeks, and he stared at the sight in awe. Dawn had never cried. From the night he had carried her from the labs, to this second, Dawn had never shed a tear.
But two eased slowly down her cheeks now and he doubted she even realized it.
He could see the sense of betrayal she felt, and the agony. He knew himself as Merinus’s mate—if he ever realized the mating had reversed and she longed for another, he would have shed blood. His and the man who held his mate’s heart. It would be too much to be borne. And it was because of this that he and Jonas had decided to wait until Seth left to tell her what they had learned. What Seth hadn’t told them until he learned Dawn would be on Lawrence Island.
As he watched, her expression stilled, froze, and he expected her to do as she had always done. Go hunting. Go chasing explosives in caves or council soldiers somewhere else. He didn’t expect what came.
“My mate,” she said coldly. “He might have a lover now, but he won’t have one for long.”
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She jerked her duffel bag from the bed.
“And if he loves her, Dawn? What then? Do you love Seth enough to let him go? Or just enough to make both of you miserable?”
She paused, her back to him, the muscles jumping beneath the skin.
“Would you walk away?” she asked. “Could you?”
He debated lying to her. She sounded lost, lonely, more so than he believed he had ever heard in her voice. She deserved nothing less than the truth.
Callan sighed wearily. “If Merinus had suffered the hell you’ve suffered, I wouldn’t have a choice.
Her happiness would mean more to me than the knowledge that I could claim her without giving her the benefits of that claiming.”
“He’s mine,” she whispered again and he heard the tears he knew she was now hiding from him.
Her voice was ripping his heart in half though. God, she was the baby of their family, the one most abused, the one he had wanted to shelter the most. She was more to him than a sister, nearly as dear to him as his own son. And the broken, agonized sound of her voice made him plead to God to ease her path, because he knew she wouldn’t.
“Dawn. He deserves more than a claiming,” he said gently, hating Seth Lawrence now more than he had ever hated him, for the pain Dawn suffered over him. But the man deserved more, just as Dawn did. Unfortunately, Callan feared Dawn would break rather than accept the memories she hid from.
“He started it,” she cried out, and the sound of her voice was painful to hear. “He touched when he was warned not to. He touched when I whispered the risks to him. He touched me…” Her voice broke. “Now he can suffer as well, by God. Because I’ll be damned if another woman will steal what’s mine.”
She jerked the strap of the duffel over her shoulder and strode from the room. The little warrior, that was how he always thought of her. Dressed in her uniform, too delicate to do the things he knew she did. She fought full-grown Breed males and she could put a hurting on them. She faced explosives and Council soldiers and drew blood with a sneer. But she couldn’t face her own past.
He lowered his head and shook it before moving from the room and entering the hall. There he saw Jonas, standing silent and solemn as he watched the stairs Dawn had disappeared down.
The other man sighed heavily, ran his hands over his short black hair and shook his head as though weariness had settled over him.
“Call Dash,” Callan ordered the other man. “I don’t want this getting out of control.”
“I should have killed Lawrence ten years ago,” Jonas bit out. “I nearly did. I had him in my sights and had my finger on the trigger. I could have saved her from this. I wanted to save her from this.”
Callan felt a chill race up his back. He knew Jonas could be cold, efficient, and took the preservation of the Breed society as a whole with exacting seriousness. Seeing it though, hearing him speak so easily of killing an innocent man, grated on Callan’s sense of honor.
Jonas looked at him and smiled mockingly. “You would have never known, and neither would she. But she wouldn’t be suffering now. And neither would you.”
With that, Jonas followed behind Dawn as he jerked his sat-phone from the clip at his hip and contacted Dash.
Callan stood where he was, feeling Merinus near him, then feeling her arms sliding around his waist, her head settling comfortingly against his back.
“I can’t save her this time.” His voice was rough, husky with the knowledge that Dawn had to save herself now.
“She’s grown, Callan.” Her hands tightened against his stomach, holding him close to her. “Let her do what she has to. She’ll never forgive you otherwise.”
He turned to her slowly. “How do I forgive myself if she fails?”
Merinus’s lips trembled as she reached up and cupped his jaw. “You won’t,” she admitted. “But you’ll know you did all you could to protect her. Everything you could, Callan. A man can’t ask any more of himself than that.”
A man couldn’t ask more of himself than his own honesty, honor and pride.