She shook her head.
"A sign of a trail or presence?"
Once again, a shake of the head.
"Then you sense nothing," he accused her.
Her lips quirked. "They are there. Are they yours?"
She wasn't assuming they were his, she was asking.
"Intuition can make or break you," he told her. "Find whatever you sense."
She shook her head. "Telling you what I sense is my responsibility, Director. Protecting Amber is my job. Or are you changing the parameters you gave me?"
Jonas paused as though considering her question. "I'll place extra guards outside. As you say, your job is protecting the child. You'll be accompanying Rachel and me to the labs later this morning for more tests. The baby will be seeing the doctors once more as well. Have everything prepared to go."
"I'll make certain you haven't messed with my go-bag again."
Jonas almost grinned. He was prone to mess with the go-bag she had put together when first attaining the position. She was cautious, preparatory. She had placed in a bag a change of clothes, weapons, as well as diapers, formula, bottles, a pediatric first aid kit and warm clothes for the baby. Everything she would need in case of an emergency.
It was very similar to the go-bag Jonas kept prepared as well.
"Once Rachel awakens we'll be leaving." He nodded shortly as he headed for the bedroom. "Inform Lawe and Rule we'll be heading to the main house."
He went to awaken his mate. She slept peacefully, dreamlessly. She slept as a woman in love should sleep, safe in her lover's care.
He only prayed he could ensure that safety for their lifetime, as Leo had managed to ensure his own mate's safety.
As Jonas closed the door to the room, he stopped and closed his eyes. As Leo had protected his mate, his family. He had hidden them deep in the Congo, using an old ancient ruin as a base as well as a home.
He had gathered his "children," those Breeds who had been created using his and Elizabeth's genetics. If there had been other Breeds with them, then they had been rescued as well. But Leo had rarely gone out of his way to rescue those Breeds who had not been created with his and his mate's genetics.
His fists clenched at the thought of that. Harmony had suffered for untold years because Leo hadn't moved on the French labs. His sister had been tortured, punished, beaten and forced to kill because Jonas had been unable to find a way to protect her, when she should have been rescued.
Harmony hadn't been a child of the Leo or of Elizabeth. It was Harmony who had been the true child of LaRue, rather than Jonas. Jonas had been carried by the doctor, he had been claimed as LaRue's "get," but the truth was, he was the hybrid created using the sperm and ovum of a mated Breed pair.
And this was why Jonas hated him. This was why he struck at the Leo with every verbal arrow he could find, and it was why he ignored the mother who watched him with questioning, suspicious eyes.
Elizabeth sensed her child, despite Jonas's denials and icy refusal to relent.
Perhaps, though, Leo hadn't been as wrong as Jonas had believed he was, because as he opened his eyes and stared at his own mate, Jonas wondered if he wouldn't have done the same.
There had been no Breed community a century ago. There had been no nations willing to pay penance for the creation and torture of the Breeds. There had been one man, one woman, fighting to survive.
He would have done the same. He would have hidden his mate, he would have fought to rescue those Breeds he was certain would be loyal to him, as well as those created by himself and his mate.
"Jonas?"
He looked across the room to Rachel, who stared back at him drowsily. Once again, the scent of mating was clear, unmistakable, but the heat had cooled, and there was no biological, hormonal or any other reason to be found for it.
This particular anomaly, as well as the unfamiliar hormone found in Jonas's system, was making the scientists crazy as they fought to figure it out.
"Good morning, baby." He strode across the room, leaned to her and kissed her slow and easy.
The glands beneath his tongue weren't swollen. Their kiss was natural, filled with a different kind of heat, an emotional undertone that at once humbled and strengthened him.
"Morning." Her smile lit up his heart. It curled her lips, warmed her green eyes and flushed her cheeks as the sheet fell away from the gentle curves of her breasts.