Chapter 1

Five Months Later

“Afternoon, kitty.” Kane’s deliberate drawl as Sherra entered the kitchen, prepared for the weekly meeting Callan insisted on, had the hair on the back of her neck rising in instant defense. That drawl never indicated a pleasant conversation where Kane was involved.

It wasn’t as if any conversation she had with him was ever pleasant, though, she reminded herself sarcastically. He insisted on provoking her at every opportunity and generally did his level best to see just how angry he could make her. His blue eyes were cool, calculating, watching her with an amused mockery that made her want to scratch them out. That need was in direct conflict with the overpowering urge to fuck him silly. She was in heat. She hated it but had no choice except to admit to it. After eight long years of pain and fear, she now knew why her body turned traitor on her, beginning with an overwhelming arousal and ending with a bleak, almost agonizing pain before slowly diminishing. For one month of each year, she had been going into heat. And she had suffered because her mate had already taken her, had already programmed her body to accept no other touch but his. If he had been a Breed, she could have understood it. Merinus and Roni had been marked by their mates, their bodies conditioned by the hormonal fluids that eased from the swollen glands just under the men’s tongues. But Sherra knew that on the single night she had spent with Kane her own hormonal glands hadn’t been active. And she sure as hell hadn’t made the mistake of kissing him since he had barged back into her life. Not since learning the signs of the mating heat and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kane was her mate.

He was leaning negligently against the kitchen counter, cup in hand, his tall, leanly muscled body relaxed and tempting. His jeans bulged at the top of his thighs. She swallowed tightly as she dragged her gaze away from him. He was hard and ready to fuck. And only God knew just how badly she wanted him to come into her. Strong and thick, his cock surging up her wet pussy until she screamed. She almost shivered at the thought as she felt a rush of heat flowing over her.

“Ohh, now there’s something interesting.” His amused voice was pitched low as he obviously caught the betraying color. “What’s the blush for, kitten? Getting overheated?”

Turning from him quickly, she pretended nonchalance as she laid the files on the table in preparation for the rest of the Pride’s arrival.

“Kane, you’re starting to irritate me,” she told him coolly without turning back.

“The cute little remarks are getting on my nerves. Keep it up, and I’ll show you how a Feline really fights.”

He grunted, the sound filled with sarcasm. “Be nice, Sherra, or I’ll sic our little angel on you. She’ll bite you, remember?”

Cassie had actually growled at her the day before when Sherra had snapped at Kane over something he said. The little girl was amazingly protective of him. Sherra glanced back at Kane as she shook her head pityingly. Poor Cassie. She was learning such bad habits from him.

“We promised to keep her away from you,” she said. Kane was not a good influence on the child, it seemed. “You’re going to turn her into a little monster if you keep spoiling her the way you are.”

He smiled with smug amusement.

“Beats the little doll you and Merinus would turn her into,” he retorted. “Let the kid be a kid, dammit. It’s not like she’s had much chance in the past two years.”

That was no more than the truth. From Dash Sinclair’s reports, the little girl had lived through a nightmare of constant attacks and desperate flights as her mother fought to keep her safe. She was the first known Wolf Breed child to be conceived outside a test tube, and the price on her head because of that was astronomical. But that didn’t mean Kane had to turn a perfectly sweet child into such a little tomboy.

“She’s a little girl, not a ruffian.” Sherra turned on him with a frown. “Kane, you had her in a mud fight yesterday. There is no excuse for that this late in the year.”

He smiled. A slow deliberate curve of his lips as his blue eyes filled with glee. “I know. Damn, that girl has good aim, doesn’t she? And it wasn’t that cold, it was warm as hell and she was having a good time. That’s all that was required.”

Kane and Cassie had both been covered in mud from head to toe. The minute Sherra had stepped out the door, berating Kane for the mess, a blob of the gooey earth had spattered against the side of her head. The little angel, once known as Cassie Colder, had informed her quite ferociously that she was a wolf and Sherra was a cat and if she wasn’t very nice to Kane then she was going to get bitten.

“At the rate she’s going I’m going to have to put you both on a leash,” she told him heatedly. “Stop encouraging her. She’s just a child.”

In a second his expression went from smug laughter to intense, dark sexuality.

“A leash, huh?” His voice turned velvet rough, his gaze dropping to her breasts as they rose beneath the cotton T-shirt she wore. She could feel her nipples hardening.

“Can we include handcuffs? I have some, you know.”

Heat erupted between her thighs. Damn him and his teasing. He was only stoking the progression of her heat, making it harder for her to fight. And he was going to insist on making it worse. Could the day get any better? She asked herself sarcastically.

“Only if you’re the one in them,” she snapped back, trying to ignore the image of him chained to her bed, straining beneath her as she lowered herself on the rigid length of his erection. The vision was too tempting to allow for long. Unfortunately, her caustic words had little effect on him. Her insults rarely gained her so much as a glimmer of irritation within those dark eyes. But it did gain her the scent of hot, aroused male.

She could smell his lust now, like the rush of a sudden thunderstorm slamming into her senses. His eyes glittered, his expression darkening with arousal. If she looked lower, she knew that bulge in his jeans would more closely resemble a thick steel rod eager for release.

“That could be arranged,” he murmured agreeably as he stepped closer, his heavy body moving with fluid grace and male power. “My room or yours?”

She was going to orgasm from the sheer intensity in his voice alone. Sherra felt her pussy flood with her juices, felt the hard ache of her nipples beneath the cloth of her shirt and wanted to hiss in fury. Why couldn’t life, for just one year, be kind to her? She wondered in dejection. What had she done to deserve this?

“Only in your dreams.” She managed to drag the derisive words past her lips. He chuckled then. The sound was low, stroking over her already inflamed nerves as he moved closer to her. She wasn’t about to retreat. If she did, he would only follow her. If he followed her he would learn just how desperate she was to keep as much distance as possible between them.

“You have no idea, baby. Want me to tell you a few of them?”

He paused before her, his broad chest no more than inches from her breasts. She fought to keep her breathing slow and even, but she was aware of the fact she was failing. As she knew he was. His head lowered as he watched her breasts rise harder before he lifted his lashes, staring back at her suggestively.

“No.” She shook her head, trying to turn from him. She didn’t need to hear about his dreams. The temptation of his touch was too great.

“My favorite one…” he ignored her denial as his hand moved, his knuckles running lightly up her arm, “is the one where I have you stretched over my lap, turning your ass a bright pretty red for teasing me for so long. You squirming and begging for my cock each time I spank one of those rounded little cheeks. I would be more than happy to reenact it for you,” he offered with all appearances of polite consideration. She should be outraged. Instead, Sherra stared back at him with shock and fought the clench of her buttocks at the thought of his hands descending on them in such a manner. Oh yeah, she could envision that one as well. Too well.

“That’s quite alright, Kane,” she sniffed with as much dignity as she could muster amid the overwhelming hunger rippling inside her. “You can just enjoy your little perversions alone. God gave men a hand and five fingers for a reason, you know.”

“Hmm. I know. And I know for a fact just how well I can make those fingers fit my favorite little kitty, too. Come here purr-baby, let me show you.” Dangerous. Warning. His voice was like an addictive narcotic flooding her system despite the edge of fury she could see lingering in his gaze.

Cream flooded her cunt. She could feel it seeping from her vagina and slickening her labial folds with its thick essence. Keeping control wasn’t easy to accomplish. Not when her tongue literally throbbed to share her pain with him and her vagina clenched in agreement. Damn him. She didn’t need this right now. It would serve him right if she gave him what he kept tempting her to. The rich potency of the hormone would be a fitting punishment for the months of arousal he had put her through.

“Kane. Sherra. No fighting today.” Callan saved her from having to drag a scathing retort from her suddenly vacant mind when he walked into the kitchen, followed by his wife and the rest of the main Pride. “Let’s get down to business and see if we can get anything accomplished this time.”

The last several meetings had been so unproductive as to make a mockery of his determination to ensure the Breeds a place in society. Not as a separate species, but as human beings deserving of life. That seemed to be the current debate waging among the inner circles of more than one government body.

“Okay, what do we have?” Callan asked as they all sat down. “Sherra, did you get those estimates?”

“Everything.” She pushed one of the files to her Pride brother. “Farside does excellent construction work, Callan. I’ve researched every angle and they look like our best bet.”

“I disagree.” Kane did no more than she expected as he took his seat as well. He disagreed with everything she said anymore. “It would require too many unknowns on the property at once and create a risk we don’t need. That makes them more than untrustworthy; it makes them a hazard.”

Sherra gritted her teeth for long seconds before she turned to him with a snarl.

“Farside Construction is one of the most respected construction firms in the nation. Their buildings have very high ratings for workmanship, they don’t hire subcontractors and they make certain the work is of excellent quality from start to finish. Saying they are untrustworthy could be considered libelous, Kane,” Sherra snapped furiously. He was once again being difficult. For some reason he thought it his job in life to make living an even greater hell for her than it already was. At this rate, she was going to lose all semblance of control and end up scratching his eyes out minutes before trying to fuck him silly.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins, making her insides tremble, her womb flex in need. Anger always made it worse. Made the heat spread through her body like a conflagration she had no hope of controlling.

“Settle down, Sherra. He said he didn’t trust them,” Callan reminded her as her gaze locked with Kane’s. “We have to be certain who we’re dealing with before we let them in on the property. Especially with Cassie here.”

As though she didn’t know that. She felt like hissing in sheer frustration.

“It’s a meeting,” she argued, turning to Callan. “I’ve busted my ass to get these files together and come up with the best choices for the work that needs to be completed. If he keeps shooting them down, we’ll be building the damned houses ourselves.”

“Which makes more sense, purr-baby,” Kane sniped, his ever-present knowing smirk tilting his lips. “We have enough hands here and it’s not like they weren’t trained at damned near everything. What’s the point in wasting money as well as manpower when we would be out no more than materials to do it ourselves?”

Irritation was beginning to thicken Kane’s voice, as though he was growing tired of the ever-present battle between them. Which was too bad. He started it, his sniping and mocking comments continually battered away at her and she was growing sick of it.

“Because it takes away from the defense of the compound itself,” she snapped back.

“Bullshit.” He was frowning now, his dark blue eyes blazing. “You forget who head of security is here, kitten. Me. I know exactly what it takes to defend this compound and it doesn’t nearly take two hundred Breeds at any given time to do so. Let your people do the work. It will build a sense of responsibility as well as pride in the home they’ve taken.”

“You seem to forget the fact that most of those men and women you’re talking about need a chance to rest and recuperate, not work their asses off all day.” She planted her hands on the table, snarling back at him as she thought of the dull-eyed men and women that had been rescued from various labs over the past months.

“You can’t coddle them like this, Sherra.” He was nearly in her face now as the others watched in interest. “You’re not going to help them by babying them as though everything was going to be just hunky-dory from now on. It’s not. What they face isn’t going to be a hell of a lot safer than those damned labs they were in if they’re not careful. You can’t let them think it will be.”

Sherra could feel the blood suddenly pumping through her veins, her loins heating, her breasts tingling in response to the confrontation between them now. A sharp kick of arousal tightened her womb, nearly taking her breath as adrenaline surged through her bloodstream.

There was nothing so arousing as a fight with this man. She normally avoided it at all costs, but today… Frustration was like a rabid animal eating at her self-control. She was sick of his sniping. Sick of biting her tongue and keeping her mouth shut rather than pushing them both into something she feared she would regret.

“I’ll be damned if I’ll use them like slave labor, as you suggest,” Sherra sneered back at him. “This isn’t the Middle Ages and you aren’t some petty dictator being allowed to take over.”

Kane sat back in his chair, his eyes narrowing in anger as he watched her. She could feel his intent gaze, almost like a caress over her face, assessing her response. Seeing too much. He did that a lot lately, watching her like a damned bug under a microscope whenever they were in the same room together.

“So pay them a wage,” he finally drawled mockingly. “No one suggested they do it for free. You’re still going to come out ahead without the added danger that allowing others into the compound will bring.”

“Enough, Sherra.” Callan overrode the furious words getting ready to spew from her lips. She wanted to tear into Kane with a desperation that had her fingers curling into claws against the table. “You both have a good argument, but we have to come to a decision tonight.”

“Good luck,” Kane grunted sarcastically as he watched her. “Kitten here seems more determined to see us all dead at the moment then to have houses built.”

Sherra felt a bead of sweat forming on her brow as he smirked at her. His eyes were dark, intent, watching her closely. She could feel him pushing her, knew he was and was helpless against the urge to fight back. She had to fight back. Had to show him she wasn’t weak, she wasn’t timid.

On the heels of that thought came the knowledge that her heat was what was actually pushing her. Instinct. To prove to him she was strong enough to take him, strong enough to fight by his side and challenge his strength, and the need to do so was becoming stronger. Daily, she could feel her own aggression surging in her body and it terrified her.

“He’s irrational, Callan.” She fought to sit back and relax as she glanced at the head of the table where Callan watched them both with a frown. “The man is so damned paranoid you’ll be out there pounding nails instead of making decisions for the Pride soon.”

“Give it a break, Sherra.” Kane’s voice was filled with impatience. “I need Callan to look after Merinus. You can’t seem to keep her out of trouble.”

Sherra turned back to him, incredulous at the accusation. Suddenly she had gone from coddling the exhausted Breeds to being unable to protect Merinus?

“Me?” she snarled, gripping the table in fury. “I wasn’t the one that took her out on the motorcycle the other day. That was you. All I did was help her clean the stupid closet out.”

“She almost fell on her head, dammit. I told you to keep that woman out of closed spaces. She’s a hazard in them, didn’t you pay attention?”

“I am not your sister’s keeper!” she yelled. “How am I supposed to make sense of the crazy things she wants to do? She’s your damned sister.”

She was on her feet now, her finger pointing across the table in accusation as she faced him. She was sick of playing babysitter to an eight-year-old that knew more than she should, as well as a woman who didn’t seem to know how to move her feet in a closet.

“Well hell, excuse me, I thought you two should have enough in common to at least be able to walk and talk at the same damned time together,” he drawled mockingly.

“You should take lessons from her, Sherra. Being in heat the way you are, you should have the sense to at least pay attention when she messes up. You might want to learn from it.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. Reality became limited to the dark, knowing depths of his eyes and the challenge sparkling there.

“You’re insane.” She tried to find the fury of moments before, but could barely manage to breathe past the shock instead.

He chuckled lightly, though the sound was mocking, filled with anger as he came to his feet and faced her with a tight smile.

“Am I?” he said. “Or do you think you can hide something else from me? Sorry, baby, I’m not nearly as stupid as you seem to think I am. And you want to know what else I’m aware of?” He leaned closer, his hands flattening on the table as he came almost nose-to-nose with her.

Her senses were filled with the scent of him. The smell of hot, furious male wrapped around her, nearly strangling her with hunger.

“What do you think you know?” she tried to snarl back, but her voice was weak, wary.

Now she understood the warning glimmer of anger that had burned in his eyes when she first entered the kitchen. Kane was flat pissed. And that was not a good thing.

“What I know,” he said with brutal clarity, “is that you’re in heat, Sherra. And I know who your mate is. I know, because it’s me.” He straightened then, staring back at her, seeming angrier at the knowledge than anything else. “Just like I know about the baby, the sterilization and your fucking stubbornness for the last few months. I know it all, and I’ll be damned if you’ll get away with any of it for even one day longer.”