Her hair was tangled around her face, drowsiness still flushed her skin. He had left her sleeping in the bed hours before after another bout of sex that damned near left him drained.
She was dressed in one of his T-shirts. The hem of the blue cotton covered her thighs and hung on her slender shoulders. The intimacy of her wearing his clothing left a gut punch of desire that he couldn’t deny. Possession, raw and hot flared in him. His woman.
“Everything’s fine,” he assured her quietly, unwilling to worry her further.
He saw the concern in her eyes though, and knew he hadn’t fooled her. Their lives were hanging by a thread now, the dangers inherent in the situation terrified him. Merinus had no scope of the evil that inhabited the Council and he prayed she never learned.
“We need to contact Kane, Callan,” she broached the one subject he wasn’t willing to discuss yet.
“He’s going to be worried out of his mind. That’s not a good thing, either.” He could see her absolute belief in her brother reflected in her expression. She thought of her family before she thought of herself. She trusted them when she could trust no one else, especially that damned soldier brother of hers.
“I have to be certain he didn’t betray us first, Merinus.” He shook his head, staring back at Sherra’s email.
He could assume the betrayal came from Kane, or from one of his own. Which was more likely to want to see him and Merinus captured or dead?
“Kane wouldn’t betray me, Callan,” she told him quietly.
There was no anger in her tone, no doubt. She trusted her brother implicitly.
“How can you be so certain, Merinus?” He sighed roughly. “The attack came hours after your call to him.”
“I know because I know Kane.” She shook her head, moving further into the room.
She went to the couch near him, sat down and regarded him solemnly.
“Kane went ape shit when Dad showed him the box your mother had sent to him on her death,” she revealed. “I don’t know why, but I know he was hurt. Hurt and angry, but not at you. He spent months gathering evidence, working to reveal the Council members. He has a list from your shoulder to your elbow and a stack of proof against them that would terrify you.” Callan narrowed his eyes on her.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” he asked her.
“I tried to tell you, but you never wanted to hear it.” She rolled her eyes at his abrupt question. “I told you we had everything taken care of. Did you think I would lie to you?”
“The hell if I knew what to think then, or now,” he grunted, shutting down the email program and pacing the floor. “I know we’ve been betrayed by someone close to us, and accusing your brother is a hell of a lot easier than the alternative.” Better than believing that one of his own would do it.
He couldn’t get the thought out of his head that one of his own had betrayed him, or the memory of that scent in the caves, lingering on the flesh of the soldier.
“Who is the alternative?” Merinus asked him carefully. “Callan, Kane didn’t know we had mated, or whatever this is. He wasn’t even certain we were having sex. He suspected it, but he didn’t know it was anything deeper.”
“He would have known.” Callan frowned. He knew Kane had at least suspected that his sister was too emotionally involved with her lover to leave. The Council would have suspected the rest based on that.
Merinus sighed. “Maybe he would have, but he wouldn’t have betrayed me or you. He’s put too much into this, taken too many risks himself.”
“Why?” Callan snapped. “Why would he do this, just for a story? He didn’t need anything more than the proof Maria had to run it.”
Merinus bit her lip thoughtfully.
“I don’t know why,” she finally admitted. “All I know is that he did. And I know he’s been very upset since this came about, almost obsessed with it. He wouldn’t betray you, not just because of the risk to myself, but because of whatever is driving him as well.”
Callan growled low in his throat.
“That is such a sexy sound.” He turned in surprise at the aroused amusement in her voice.
She was watching him, her body relaxed for a change, her head tilted thoughtfully.
“What is?” he asked her carefully.
“That growl in your voice,” she said, watching him with heavy lidded desire. “It makes me shiver, makes my body want to rub over all yours.”
Her heat wasn’t upon her yet. He smelled the air carefully. The scent of warm, willing woman was there, but not the desperate lust he was used to smelling when she wanted him. Callan watched her carefully, seeing nothing in her expression that would indicate that the chemically induced needs were riding her.