He turned around slowly, casually, until he was facing her. She saw hard purpose in his face, and surprise.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“A full team of soldiers swept over Callan’s house. A dozen men. All I know for sure is that they didn’t get him or Merinus. But I know they want her. They know about her.”
“Know what, for God’s sake?” He raked his fingers through his hair, his voice quiet but rough with fury.
“Why the hell would they attack now?”
“They know your sister has mated with Callan,” she told him carefully. “Just as you knew.” Or had he? She watched his face pale alarmingly, his blue eyes widening.
“That bastard touched her?” he bit out.
“No,” she drawled mockingly. “He mated with her. Surely you remember the concept? And now the Council no longer cares if they take him alive or dead. They want the woman and any child she carries.
But you already knew that, didn’t you, Mr. Tyler? Why else would they attack mere hours after talking to you?”
He shook his head slowly.
“I never betrayed my sister. I wouldn’t.” His voice sent a chill over her spine.
Sherra frowned.
“I came to kill you, Kane Tyler,” she said carefully.
He didn’t seem surprised now. His mouth edged with mockery.
“Perhaps you could delay that little attempt long enough for me to save my sister’s ass,” he bit out.
“What the hell is this mating shit?”
“Later,” she bit out. “Now is not the time for explanations. Now is the time for you to tell me how the Council learned of the mating, if Merinus didn’t tell you of it.” And Sherra was nearly certain he hadn’t known. He was a liar, but in this one instance, he was telling the truth. Her gifts had grown through the years, with maturity and desperation. She could now smell a lie as others could diseased trash.
“Who are you?” His voice sizzled. “And you’re going to have to be a little more forthcoming than you are, woman. I can’t help Merinus or Callan with so little information.” Taking a deep breath, Sherra stepped from the shadows. She watched his eyes widen, saw the suspicion turn to knowledge.
“You weren’t killed,” he whispered, blinking, trying to assure himself she was there.
Bitterness filled her with a wave of pain so intense, she threatened to drown beneath it.
“No, lover, I wasn’t killed. But that doesn’t mean you have much longer to live.” And Sherra faced her past as she never had before. Nightmares and broken hopes fragmented around her, drawing her soul into a bleak, dark void she feared she could never escape. She felt the surging lust, the need, just as Callan and Merinus knew it, thundering through her blood, through her very being.
Before her stood the man who had betrayed her years before. In a bleak, cold lab, his body laboring over her, throwing her into pleasure despite every barrier she put up against it. Her mate. The father of the child she had lost. The one man she had sworn to kill.
* * * * *
It was dark before Callan made it to the hidden jeep. The precautions he insisted on taking and the rough terrain they were going through had turned a half-day’s hike into a full day’s. He pushed Merinus into it, cranked the engine with a prayer, then a sigh of relief when it turned over easily. Pulling out of the small, deserted shed at the edge of a logging camp he started down the road at an easy pace. Merinus was lying in the back seat, tired, drained from the run and the drugged lust raging through her body. Callan had quickly replaced his camouflaged T-shirt with a plain white cotton shirt. His hair was pushed beneath a baseball cap, and his gun lay in easy reach. The drive to the next town wasn’t far and if he stayed on the main road, well away from the paths he was known to take, then he might get out of this relatively unscathed.
His safe house was tucked away several hours from his home. On the edge of a large town, unassuming, with only a few neighbors and it was fully stocked. He could hide there long enough to figure out what the hell had happened.
He pulled into the garage hours later, sighing wearily as the garage door closed automatically behind them. Merinus had slipped into a restless sleep earlier. She whimpered occasionally, shifted around, but the weariness dragging at her body had been too much.
“Are we there?” She rose slowly from the seat, her voice drowsy, aroused. God, he wanted her.
She was ready for him, her body wet for him. He took a steadying breath. He had to get her in the house first.
“Come on.” He jumped from the jeep then helped her out, lifting her carefully into his arms and stalking to the door.
“I can walk,” she protested, but she pressed herself closer, her mouth finding the warm skin of his neck as he fit the key into the lock.