Chapter 1

It was the dreams that brought her awake, sweating, snarling, terror and rage snaking through her system with icy chills and harsh, violent shudders.

Dawn cringed, flinched, her flesh crawling at the feel of icy hands ghosting over it, pinching, probing. She tightened her thighs as she fought to scream, feeling the touch there, hating it, snarling in rage at the pain she knew she was coming.

She prayed. God wasn’t for her. He didn’t care. He didn’t listen to Breeds, but still she prayed. Oh God, make it stop.

She could hear the laughter at her ear, the hands prying at her legs, forcing them apart, securing them with the metal restraints as the cold steel bit into her thighs and warm flesh moved between them…

Her eyes snapped open; savage, inhuman growls were still tearing from her throat, rasping it as it clogged with the tears she couldn’t shed. Her hands bunched in the blankets around her, her arms straight at her side, her legs stiff, the muscles cramped.

She felt restrained. She stared into the darkness, feeling the metal restraints cutting into her flesh, her blood seeping from her, agony resonating through her thighs, her stomach, as a stark red haze met her vision and a feline scream tried to tear from her throat.

She jerked upright, sightless, fighting to breathe, fighting to see what she couldn’t see, to remember what she refused to remember. To breathe. Hands clenched on her flesh, fingers dug into the muscle, and laughter, always the laughter echoed in her head.

“Dawn’s rising soon. It won’t be dark any longer.”

The soft, sweetly pitched voice whispered through the room as Dawn came from beneath the blankets in a surge of violent fury, crouched and snarling, feeling her lips peel back from her canines as she prepared to attack.

The enemy sat curled in the chair across the room, a long linen gown shrouding her figure, her waist long, pitch black curls framing her heart-shaped face, and her eyes eerie, brilliant blue glowing points in the darkness of the room.

It took Dawn a moment to realize that her weapon, never far from her side, was trained between the child’s eyes. Her finger was trembling on the trigger, sweat pouring from her body, dampening the thin tank top and gray boxer panties she wore as she shivered in reaction.

The chill of the air conditioner washed over her flesh, sending a harsh shudder racing through her body as Cassie Sinclair stared at the weapon.

“You shouldn’t have to wake in the dark alone,” Cassie said gently, reaching out to turn on the light by the chair. Dawn flinched at the movement.

Growls vibrated in her throat, and a distant part of her screamed out in horror at the animal that had pushed ahead of her and stared at the kid with ruthless savagery.

She had to fight back the rage, the memories that weren’t memories, that screamed in her head and refused to show themselves. The ones that the animal, determined to survive, refused to let the woman confront.

“Dash.” The word was savage, guttural. “Where’s Dash?”

The girl’s father should never have allowed her there alone. He should watch after his daughter better, rather than allowing her to slip into a room with a beast that could already taste blood.

A single tear slipped down Cassie’s cheek as her lips trembled. But there was no fear. No scent of terror, just of pain, compassion. And Dawn hated it.

She forced the weapon down. She forced herself to ease out of the crouch, but she couldn’t force back the screams echoing in her head. A child’s screams, an animal’s screams, horrific in their terror and pain.

“Dad is still asleep,” the girl said gently, her hand moving to indicate a tray that sat on a nearby table. There was a steaming pot there, two cups. “I thought we’d have some hot chocolate before you had to get ready and begin your day, Dawn. I didn’t want you to have to wake alone this morning.”

“Are you fucking crazy!” Dawn stared at the girl, well, young woman, really. Cassie wasn’t a precocious child any longer. She was eighteen and still eerie as hell. “Don’t you know better than this, Cassie?” She slapped her weapon to the bedside table as she collapsed on the side of the bed and stared back at her in horror. “I could have fucking killed you.”

Cassie shrugged. “Death isn’t that scary, Dawn. And better your bullet than a Coyote’s rage, yes?”

Eighteen. Cassie was fucking eighteen. A baby. Innocent, sheltered and protected since the moment the Wolf Breed Dash Sinclair had found her and her mother in the middle of a freak blizzard and rescued them from the monsters chasing them ten years ago.

She was still a virgin. She had never been wounded, slapped, beaten or raped. And she spoke more casually of death than any mature, lab-raised Breed ever had.

Dawn jerked her shirt from the floor and wiped the sweat from her face before running the jersey material over her damp hair and shoulders. She needed a moment, just a moment, to get herself under control.

“I brought hot chocolate.” Cassie uncurled herself slowly from the chair and moved like a wraith, like the ghosts it was said she spoke to, to the small table by a window.

She poured two mugs of the sweet, rich brew, turned back slowly and set one on the table beside Dawn. Dawn’s hands were shaking so badly, the effects of the nightmare still so much a part of her, that she couldn’t have held the mug if she’d had to.

Cassie retreated back to her chair, sat down and curled her legs under her once more. She was so tiny, Dawn thought. Barely five-three, delicate. She had so much damned hair flowing around her that sometimes Dawn wondered how she held her head up.

Dawn ran her fingers through her own short locks. She kept them hacked off. If her hair wasn’t long then there was nothing for the enemy to grip. To hold her down with. A woman with long hair might as well extend an invitation to every bastard out there that would hurt her. Hold her down. Force her.

Bile rose in her throat.

“A new day is beginning,” Cassie said, looking toward the still-dark window. “Today will begin a new adventure.” A small, sad smile shaped her lips as she turned back to Dawn. “Every day is an adventure though, isn’t it?”

“Is that what you call it?” Dawn snorted as she glanced at her, slowly finding the control she had fought for so desperately over the years.

“Mom and Dad always give me the same look when I tell them that.” Cassie’s lips tilted in a strange, knowing smile. “Kenton rolls his eyes at me.” Kenton was her brother, barely nine, but already showing the advanced intelligence and strength of a Breed child.

“Cassie, now isn’t a good time.” Dawn sighed roughly. “I need to shower and get some things done.”

Cassie stared down at her own drink, steam rising from the cup as her lips tilted in saddened resignation. “I hear that a lot too.”

Dawn knew she did. Cassie was an anomaly among the Breeds. Her DNA was Wolf and Coyote as well as human. She’d been distrusted and often avoided as she grew older and her eyes deepened to that hypnotic blue. Centuries before she would have been burned at the stake as a witch.

Dawn cared for the girl though. She had been a regular visitor at Sanctuary over the years, first as a precocious child and now often as a prankster and teasing teenager.

“This is a bad time for me,” Dawn gritted out, knowing that sometimes Cassie needed explanations, despite the spooky air of knowledge she carried with her.

“That’s why I came.” Cassie suddenly smiled, as though Dawn had given her the invitation to stay, and that smile lit up her eyes, making their glow brighter. “I knew it would be bad. And the dreams always make you grouchy. Today, you have to look forward to the adventure, Dawn. So I came to cheer you up before you could begin stressing over what you don’t remember.”

Dawn swallowed tightly and couldn’t control the flinch at the reminder of things she didn’t remember.

“Cassie…”

“Dawn. You helped save me when I was little. You and Sherra put your lives on the line for me. You were hurt then just as you’ve been hurt over the years defending Sanctuary. Let me do this.”

“Do what?” Dawn shook her head in confusion. “What can you do for me, Cassie? Can you wipe the dreams away? Can you take away the past or change it? How in the hell do you think you can make this better? Sweetheart, if you want to make it better, go away and let me get control of myself.”

“Like everyone else does?” Cassie sighed. “Everyone goes away so you can think, so you can work, so you can sleep and so you can dream alone. Even Seth went away, didn’t he?”

Dawn stilled. She felt something inside her, something that had been relaxing, freeze. She didn’t want to hear about Seth, she didn’t want to think about Seth. He was better off away from Sanctuary and away from her.

“What does Seth have to do with anything?”

Seth Lawrence of Lawrence Industries, one of the Breeds’ greatest proponents and supporters, and he was one man she couldn’t afford to think about.

“He was here the other day, arguing with Jonas. Did you hear?” Cassie tilted her head to the side. “He doesn’t like Jonas much, you know.”

“No one likes Jonas much.” Dawn inhaled slowly, the irrational terror slowly easing inside her.

“Everyone likes Seth though.” Cassie waggled her brows as she uncurled from the chair and moved to the bed.

Dawn watched as Cassie Sinclair plopped at the bottom of the bed, crossed her legs and leaned forward intently.

“Seth is hawt,” she drawled.

Dawn winced. “Seth is too old for you, Cassie.” She forced herself to keep her voice calm, unemotional. What the hell did she care who found Seth sexy? It was nothing to her. She wouldn’t let it become something to her.

“He’s still hot.” Cassie wrinkled her nose. “For an old man.”

“He’s not an old man.” And Dawn assured herself she hadn’t just gritted the words out.

“Give it up.” Cassie laughed. “Though I have to give him credit: He doesn’t look like he’s aged a day in the last ten years. You know, he was voted one of the world’s most eligible bachelors last month on one of those society shows I saw on television.”

Dawn clenched her teeth. She didn’t need to know that. At the very mention of Seth’s name her entire body seemed to respond. Her flesh felt more sensitive, her tongue itched and the tiny hairs along her body lifted almost sensually.

And fear knotted her stomach.

She knew what Seth Lawrence was to her, and to her body. She also knew what he was to her mind. He could break her like nothing that had ever happened in the past.

“I don’t want to talk about Seth, Cassie.” She rose from the bed and moved to the closet, where she pulled out her uniform for the day. Snug black mission pants and a matching tank top.

“You never want to talk about Seth,” Cassie said then. “He asks about you though. Every time he sees me he asks how you’re doing.”

Dawn froze. Cassie always knew more than others. She saw or sensed things no one else could.

“And what do you tell him?” she asked almost fearfully.

“I usually tell him the same thing. You haven’t awoken yet.”

“You tell him I’m asleep?” She turned back to the child incredulously.

“I tell him you haven’t awoken yet,” she repeated, a mysterious smile playing about her lips. “It’s enough for him.”

“And what did you tell him this time?” Dawn tilted her head, not certain why she asked.

Cassie watched her for long seconds before answering.

“This time, I told him I was certain you would be awake soon.” She frowned and looked down at her hot chocolate. “Sometimes though, it doesn’t matter if you wake up, does it?”

She shrugged her thin shoulders before giving her head a shake and sipping at the chocolate.

“Cassie, are you trying to tell me something?” Sometimes, Cassie talked in riddles. A person had to know when she was doing it or they would walk around with more confusion than they needed.

“It’s time to wake up,” Cassie said softly, looking toward the window, and the faint hint of dawn that peeked through the curtains, before turning back to Dawn. “The nightmares are getting worse, and so is the mating heat.”

Dawn turned away and stalked to her dresser, where she jerked serviceable black panties from one drawer and a bra from another. There was nothing fancy, nothing seductive. Black socks followed, and after she showered and dressed, she would lace black hiking boots on her feet. She was a Breed Enforcer. Inside and out. She was strong, powerful; she commanded and she led. She no longer whimpered and cowered from the horror of whatever she fought to keep hidden within her own mind. Or the man that haunted her like one of Cassie’s ghosts.

“I’m not talking about Seth.” And she sure as hell wasn’t talking about mating heat.

“Fine.” Cassie shrugged. “We’ll talk about Styx. Or we could talk about Stygian. They’re totally hot too. Though I have to be careful if Dad is around. He gets pretty pissed when Styx flirts with me.”

Dawn wanted to shake her head at the abrupt change of the conversation.

“He wouldn’t flirt if you didn’t force him into begging for that chocolate you carry around.”

Cassie’s smile was all woman now. A hint of mystery, of feminine knowledge. “He could get chocolate elsewhere if he wanted to.”

The red-haired, bolder-than-brass Scottish Wolf Breed was a shameless flirt. He had been inducted into the Bureau of Breed Affairs months before and had been assigned to Dawn’s team just weeks ago.

“Styx isn’t the serious type, Cassie.”

“I’m eighteen. I’m not a child any longer, Dawn,” Cassie pointed out.

“Tell that to your dad, not to me.” Dash Sinclair was serious about protecting his daughter. Both her physical safety and her heart.

“As if Dad would listen.” Cassie shrugged then rose from the bed and glanced at the window again before turning back to Dawn. “Dawn is awakening,” she said again, and a chill swept over Dawn. “Are you ready for it?”

Dawn licked her lips, glanced at the window, then back at Cassie.

“What’s going to happen, Cassie?” she finally asked, knowing, sensing that the girl knew so much more than she was saying.

“An adventure.” Cassie suddenly smiled. “Come on, Dawn. It’s a new day. And we’re going to have lots of fun.”

Fun. Dawn stared at the girl as though she had lost her mind. “Cassie, I’m going to work.”

“For now.” She tossed her head, throwing the long, loose curls behind her shoulder as she moved for the door, ethereal in her long gown, like a precocious fairy. “You’re working for now, Dawn. But…” Cassie glanced to the window once again before turning back to her. “It’s time to wake up.”

With those last words eerie Cassandra Sinclair slipped out of her bedroom and closed the door behind her, leaving Dawn alone.

Just as Seth had left her alone.

Time to wake up, her ass. Well, she was sure as hell awake now and madder than hell. Men. She hated men. Men were a plague on the female species and their arrogant, know-it-all attitudes were hampering her job on every side. And now. Now, to add insult to injury, her own brother, Callan, was joining their detestable ranks.

Dawn slammed into the communications bunker set into the mountain that rose above Sanctuary and slammed the heavy metal door behind her. Inside, radar, infrared, electronic maps and locator pinpoints beeped and flashed along the walls. There was a map of the mountain, the town, the surrounding lands and even a display of the cave system that ran within the mountains surrounding them. One of those systems was incomplete and getting more incomplete by the day.

“Micah, move into position.”

Dawn’s head swung around at the sound of Callan’s voice, a spurt of surprise filling her that he seemed to be overseeing a mission. Callan rarely had time to involve himself in the actual missions that Breeds now hired themselves out for. Yet it seemed he had made time for one.

She moved closer, remaining quiet as she stared at the image displayed on the viewing screen in front of him.

The girl that had been kidnapped in the Middle East, she remembered now. She was the daughter of one of the Tyler Clan’s friends, family of Callan’s mate and wife, Merinus. A Breed unit had been sent in to rescue her.

“Flint, you have a go,” Callan murmured into the communication link, a slender mic that curved around his cheek and attached to the ear-bud receiver at his ear.

“I have a visual.” The Breed’s voice echoed hollowly from the communications speaker at the side of the viewing screen.

Onscreen another image popped in alongside the main image. The image was hazy, but they could see the inside of a cell and the small, huddled form of the young woman.

“Guards are out.” Another voice came through. “I’m on the locks.”

Dawn watched as the small team moved with coordinated control. The cell door opened slowly and the young woman’s frightened whimpers into the filthy mattress where she was huddled echoed through the intercom.

Dawn flinched at the sound, echoes of it drifting through her head. She could feel her chest clenching at the remembered feel of her dreams, and that very sound tearing from her own lips.

“You’re safe.” Flint McCain moved into position beside her and quickly tested the area and the woman for explosives. “We’re clear.”

He turned the girl over, putting his fingers to her lips before she could cry out. “Your father sent us. Can you walk?”

Her clothing was torn. The T-shirt was ripped down one shoulder, and her jeans were crusted with dirt and what appeared to be blood along one side.

She nodded quickly. Her face was heavily bruised, one eye nearly swollen shut as she tried to scramble to her feet.

Her leg gave out from under her. Before she could cry out in pain, a black-clad hand covered her lips and the Breed pulled her against him.

“They’ll tie you to my back,” he whispered into her ear, the words drifting through the intercom. “Then we’re good to go, okay? Your dad is waiting back at base. Just a quick little run around the block then we’ll jump into a jazzy little jet we have waiting. We’re out of here.”

He kept talking as two other Breeds quickly strapped her to his back; then they were easing out of the block cell and fading into the night.

Callan pulled the earpiece from his ear, tossed it to the table and turned to his brother-in-law and the head of Sanctuary’s security, Kane Tyler.

“Keep me up to date,” he told Kane quietly. “I want to know the second they reach base. Have them cancel layover there and head straight back here. We’re going to need them.”

Kane moved into Callan’s position with a nod of his dark head, his expression intent as he watched the images that flipped in and out in their own small boxes within the screen.

“You’re with me,” he told Dawn as he turned away.

He was angry with her. She always knew when Callan was angry. Before, the thought of that anger would have had her heart knocking in terror. Now it had her lips tightening in frustration. She didn’t have time to deal with his irked mood.

“What the hell is going on?” she hissed as they made their way through the long steel-and-cement bunker beneath the ground. “I was halfway through those caves when you pulled me out. Do you have any idea how long it’s taken us to clear out those explosives and lay the sensors through there?”

“I’m aware of the order I gave you a week ago to find another project,” he growled as they turned from the main bunker and headed down a short corridor to another large map and imaging room. “Do you think we need to lose six of our women, our sisters, to those fucking explosives, Dawn? Son of a bitch, what the hell has gotten into you?”

“You pulled me out because we’re women?” Outrage raced through her. “That is so damned bogus, Callan.”

“You’re damned right I pulled you out because you’re women. The fact that you’re not the only one that would suffer if you died didn’t occur to you, did it, Dawn?” he snarled. “You hide your head in the shadows and try to pretend it’s just you. What happens to your mate if you die?”

“I haven’t mated.”

“And I don’t want to hear your lies to yourself,” he snapped as they turned again.

This was Mission Central. It was larger than the other room; the murmur of voices—electronic, Breed and human—filtered through it as they strode along the central walkway.

She bit back the enraged words trembling on her lips and fought to use logic instead. He liked logic. It had swayed him before.

“My team is specifically trained for just what they’re doing,” she hissed. “Those are still my people, my team, Callan.”

“I need those women elsewhere. They were to be trained for new missions and you knew it,” he growled as they stood aside for the black-clad operators working to get one of the viewing screens operational.

“That’s my team, you agreed. And those caves were my project.”

They moved into another corridor, heading she knew for the top secret mission control room. Here, the operations going out weren’t mercenary in nature, but those of national security.

“Those women need to learn to work with the male members of this community and I’m tired of asking you nicely to obey those commands,” Callan snapped, his head swinging around to glare at her. “You don’t make the decisions around here, little sister. I do. I needed you to train a new team—”

“Of men,” she sneered. “Come on, Callan, you know that’s not going to work.”

“I know you have no choice now.” He stopped at a metal door, slid the secured card along the sensor and stepped inside when the door unlocked. “I’m short on teams and we have an emergency. That means you’re up. And, by God, you better hope you’re ready for it, because failure on this one is not an option.”

The door clanged shut as one particular scent threatened to overwhelm Dawn’s senses. She stared across the room, unable to move, to speak, to do anything but soak in the heat, the nectar of his scent and the regret that filled her.

“Hello, Dawn.” Seth Lawrence rose from the long table in the center of the room. “It’s been a while.”