FOUR

Katie hadn’t expected to get so lucky as to be reunited with her dearest friend, and within hours had realized why. She and Khileen had never failed to find adventure and excitement in Ireland together. It was one of the reasons Katie’s father had worried about their friendship so often.

When Khileen’s mother, Jessica, had met and married Lobo Reever, it had seemed Breeds in general had drawn an easier breath though. Lobo was considered a lone Wolf, one that too many independent Wolves had longed to follow.

Lobo had no alliance pacts, had sworn no loyalties nor had he professed any. Yet, he had banded with more than two dozen of the strongest, darkest, most exactingly created Wolf Breeds that the Genetics Council had kept files on.

It was rumored there were another half dozen the Council hadn’t even recorded that followed the Lobo.

With his marriage, or “mating” as she’d heard it called several times, and Reever’s move to the American deserts, the Breeds’ fears that Lobo would somehow upset the balance of Packs and Prides had eased.

They were a strange and often difficult lot on the best of days, but never more so than when they felt threatened.

“Cassandra Sinclair flew in last night,” Khileen Langer said, her voice low as they walked through the stables several days after Devil Black had brought her to the Reever Ranch.

“What do you think she wants?” Katie frowned as they stopped at one of the stalls to pet one of Lobo Reever’s prized mares.

Having Cassie Sinclair in residence couldn’t be comfortable. Katie had heard quite a bit about the young woman, and couldn’t imagine being comfortable around her.

“I’m not certain.” Khileen shook her head, her expression concerned. “I know Lobo’s been in negotiations with the Packs and Prides, but I’m not certain why.”

“I thought Tiberian was his negotiator? How are any negotiations being discussed without him?”

Tiberian was Lobo’s younger brother and, Katie knew, one of the Breeds the Council had destroyed records of.

Khileen looked away. “Tiberian left the night of Mother’s death. I’ve not seen him since.”

Jessica Reever’s death six months before in a fall from her horse had devastated the family. She knew it had devastated Khileen.

Tiberian’s disappearance was interesting though.

The fact that Cassandra Sinclair, a young mixed-Breed female becoming known as the Breeds’ highest legal advisor, was at the ranch at the same time that their negotiator was missing was bad enough. Adding that to the rumors that a rogue Bengal Breed was in the area searching for a young female the Genetics Council had experimented on. The situation was causing havoc with the Navajo nation, and must have Lobo pulling his hair out by the roots.

“And with all this, he offered his protection to me?” Leaning against the side of the stall, she stared back at Khileen in surprise.

Khileen shrugged, disrupting the long black, spiral curls that had fallen over her shoulder as her bright blue eyes dimmed for a moment.

“I saw the news report when your grandfather’s estate was seized,” she revealed. “I know you, Katie. You would have needed to run. You would have felt it was the only way to protect your family. I asked Lobo to check with the Network to see if you had sent out a request and if you did, if he would help.”

“They’re threatening to investigate Da as well,” Katie revealed. “He and Mam are destroyed by the revelations. They didn’t know Grandfather had overseen those labs or had even been involved with them.”

Her parents had gone to a fertility clinic to attempt to conceive the child they wanted so desperately, only to be told that their initial tests revealed a rare genetic incompatibility between them. The clinic had decided there was no way to help them and had claimed to have disposed of the samples they’d taken.

Those samples had then been sent to the Genetics Council, which funded the clinic, and Katie had been “created.” A Wolf Breed, created to seduce and kill. The genetics her parents possessed had been exceptional, her files had stated. The potential ability to excel in numerous areas they considered fundamentally essential in the army they were building had marked her as a prized specimen.

They’d never known how her grandfather had maneuvered to ensure Barrett’s best friend, Jorn Langer, Khileen’s father, had learned of the labs. Once Jorn had found the lab, he’d learned that the overseer had acquired samples from the fertility clinic the O’Sullivan’s had gone to in order to create a Breed. Then it had been as simple as ensuring Jorn was contacted by a group of Breeds he’d aided in escaping from several labs he’d overseen.

From there, her rescue by her father and his best friend had been planned to the last detail. Her parents had then adopted her after procuring birth records “proving” she was adopted from a recently widowed cousin of Kella O’Sullivan’s.

Katie hadn’t known how she was found by her father and Jorn. She hadn’t known how she had been rescued or the calculated risks her family had taken to attempt to hide her, until she’d become ill, just before her grandfather’s arrest. Later, when Walter O’Sullivan had escaped the Breeds and shown up at the O’Sullivan estate where she and her family had initially gone to attempt to figure out what to do, they had learned how her grandfather had used that position to ensure his son had the child he and his wife had longed for.

The genetic incompatibility had been eradicated, but only with the introduction of the Breed DNA.

All of his maneuvering had been in vain, but because of his position, he’d ensured his son had his child and that she was rescued before her Breed training had begun in earnest.

“Lobo highly respects your father, though I know he never cared for your grandfather.” Khileen stepped from the stall before looking around silently for a long moment.

When her gaze returned to Katie’s, the amusement in it should have warned her what was coming.

“So,” Khileen drawled. “What did you think of Devil?”

There was the blush.

Katie felt it surfacing beneath her flesh, filling her face and revealing, she feared, far more interest than she wanted Khileen to realize.

“Oh, you definitely like him.” Khileen laughed. “I knew there was something there when I heard him raging to Lobo over you.”

“Raging?” Oh, that was just wrong. “What could he have to rage over? I didn’t do anything.”

Irritation flared through her at the thought of him doing such a thing. It wasn’t as though she had thrown him in a vehicle, plastered him to the floorboards and held him there, teasing him with the press of her body against his.

“Devil can rage over everything, never mention your name, yet make it excessively clear that you’re the object of his displeasure.” Khileen rolled her expressive eyes as she propped her hands on her hips, then faced Katie curiously. “I have to say though, I’ve never heard Devil rage over a woman simply to be raging. They usually have to actually do something to him personally. What did you do to him?”

“Not a damned thing.” The nerve of him!

Unclenching her fists slowly as she realized what she was doing, Katie shoved her hands into the pockets of the gauzy skirt she’d worn with a thin, sleeveless silk top and sandals.

Her body heated immediately at the thought though. All she’d actually done was let him know exactly how turned on she had been. Was she supposed to hide it?

Hiding it would have been impossible. Her senses had flared too bright, too receptive to his touch. Even now, her nipples were already tightly beaded, her clit throbbing in anticipation.

She’d been on the Reever ranch three days now. The two nights she’d spent in the guest room tossing and turning, her body aching for him, had been miserable. It had taken hours to fall asleep.

“Come on, Katie.” Dropping her arms from her hips, Khileen chided her with friendly disbelief. “Something happened. I know Devil. He’s followed Lobo as long as I’ve known him. He doesn’t get upset over nothing.”

“He had no reason whatsoever to be upset with me,” Katie repeated as a flare of anger lit her senses. “I didn’t even attempt to bother him, Khi.”

Damn him. It wasn’t her fault she’d wanted him. He was the one that had been rubbing his hard cock between her thighs and making her ache for him.

She didn’t know what the hell his problem was, but she intended to find out. She refused to allow him to spoil the haven she’d found on the Reever ranch. If he wanted to bitch about her to others, then he could begin with telling her what his bitch was, exactly.

“Wow, you’re as defensive over him as he was over you when Lobo questioned him at his irritation. What’s up with you two?” Khileen moved quickly to draw beside her as Katie headed for the house.

“There’s absolutely nothing up with us,” Katie bit out furiously before giving a muttered little “yet.”

Why was Devil Black so determined to get rid of her? He was one of Lobo Reever’s most trusted men, second only to the missing Tiberian, which now made him the most influential of those surrounding Lobo. If he told Lobo she was a danger to have here, then he may well have her removed.

She couldn’t afford to be sent away. If she were, then the Irish authorities could well send a team to have her collected and forced into testing.

There was a reason why Breeds hid in Europe now. A reason why they were loath to allow their government to know who they were, or where they were.

Because there were those who had come out of the facilities so changed, so traumatized that they simply were not the same. And none of them could remember what had caused the trauma to their minds, or why they may have forgotten certain passages of time during their stay.

That was what awaited her if Devil had her removed from Lobo’s protection. She would be without resources, and unable to reach her family. A sitting duck, so to speak, for those determined to destroy her.

“No, Katie, I’m certain Devil doesn’t mean any harm,” Khileen argued behind her as they reached the house. “Maybe he just likes you. I bet as a little Breed he pulled the pretty little Breed girls’ ponytails just to get their attention.”

“Stop defending him,” Katie demanded. “I’ll deal with him myself rather than following his example by going to others.”

“He’s in his study. I saw him go there earlier,” Khileen informed her with all apparent helpfulness as she headed into the house. “He might have mentioned paperwork at breakfast this morning.”

She had missed breakfast, Katie thought furiously, because she’d been up half the night aching for a man who didn’t even care that she had no place else to run to.

“Well, be careful,” Khileen advised as Katie strode angrily toward the hall leading to Devil and Reever’s offices. “He has a mean bite, I hear.”

“Well so do I.” Especially since she’d begun allowing her fangs to grow and shape correctly after the news of her genetics had been revealed.

She was only barely aware of Khileen stepping back as she neared Devil’s office. She’d finished focusing on her friend. Nothing mattered now but the man who was becoming a threat to her existence and the need burning inside her that was threatening her control.

This couldn’t continue. She could easily stay the hell away from him if her arousal offended him. It would hurt, but her family’s safety was more important. If she were taken and forced into the testing facilities, then her parents would do anything to have her released. No matter what it did to their lives or their safety.

And that she simply couldn’t allow.

Her own safety aside, she refused to see her family threatened because some damned Breed male was offended by her lust for him.

A lust he caused.

She wouldn’t have it.

* * *

How did it go?” Cassandra Sinclair opened the door to her guest suite to allow Khileen Langer into the room.

She was one of the few women Cassie had met that she actually identified with. Perhaps it was the black hair, blue eyes and similar features.

They could have passed for family members.

Khileen was also generous natured and loving, though, attributes Cassie found she herself didn’t possess in quite the same quantity.

“Just as you said it would.” Smiling, Khileen propped her delicate hands on her hips as she braced her legs apart.

Dressed in jodhpurs, a cool white sleeveless top and riding boots, the other girl looked ready to enjoy a day riding across the desert. In no way did she look the part she played so often, that of Cassie’s confidante, and one of a few rare friends. But, Cassie had found, Khileen tended to give in to the same lovingly placed manipulations and gentle nudges that Cassie herself often found hard to resist.

“Excellent.” Cassie moved to her desk where she shifted through several papers until she found the small wireless mic and receiver she’d hidden there earlier.

Flipping the antenna down to connect with her father, she waited until he answered the call.

“Cassie?” There was concern in his voice. It was rare that he didn’t worry whenever Cassie convinced him to accompany her on one of her little “adventures.”

“When is your meeting with Mr. Reever?” she asked him.

“I’m waiting outside on the patio attached to his office,” he answered her, the growl in his tone attesting to his irritation.

“Keep him out of the office. Ms. O’Sullivan is at the Devil’s doorstep at the moment.”

“You have to be related to Jonas Wyatt,” he all but snarled.

“Well, he did help a bit in raising me,” she reminded him with a fond smile. “And you know, I’m prone to adapt to certain instruction quite well.”

There were many instances when she’d been forced to stay at the Lion Breed compound in Virginia while her parents fought to ensure her and her brother’s safety over the years.

“Don’t remind me,” he retorted, though she could both hear and feel the love he held for her. “Lobo isn’t so happy at the moment, either, that we’re questioning his protection of this girl.”

“As long as we get the desired results, then he’ll be okay with it later,” she promised.

If they didn’t accomplish what she had come here to do, then there would be problems. It was those problems that had convinced her father to do as she asked.

“Let’s hope,” he grunted. “I have to go, he’s stepping into the office.”

They disconnected.

Turning back to Khileen, she saw the other girl watching her, a frown tugging at her brow.

“Do you ever get tired, Cassie?” she asked softly, with far more compassion than Cassie thought she had the right to.

“Tired?”

“Of trying so hard to hide from what you’re trying to hide from?”

“And what do you think I’m trying to hide from?” She had to force the amusement and unconcern into her tone. What had this woman seen that no other ever had?

“Yourself,” Khileen answered softly, surprising her. “You’re hiding from yourself, Cassie. I was just wondering if you were tired of it yet.”

Khileen turned and left the room then, not bothering to wait for an answer. It was a good thing, Cassie thought, because she didn’t have one.