It had been done in such a way as to remind the nation and the world that they were paying for the hell the Breeds had endured. For two centuries, they were given rights and allowed a leeway that was inconceivable at any other time or with any other race.
"You should have asked me." Pushing her fingers through her hair, Rachel fought to get a handle on her emotions and her fears.
Stepping into a mating was a hell of a lot different from deciding to sleep with a man, or agreeing on marriage.
"Why?" He motioned Cassie and Crank from the shelter as he closed the automatic shades on the windows once again. "What would telling you have accomplished?"
"I would have known."
"You could have protested and therefore delayed paperwork that would have protected Amber," he informed her matter-of-factly. "My main objective was protecting you and your child, Rachel."
"My God, you act as though she belongs to you," she burst out, wondering at his motives.
"You belong to me, therefore Amber is my responsibility," he stated. "I knew you were my mate. In accepting you, I accepted your child as my own."
"That doesn't make sense." There was no way a man could simply accept a child as his own without knowing the mother or loving her.
She didn't understand.
Jonas could feel the confusion that swirled in her, part anger, part fear.
"It's part of Breed genetics." He sighed, wishing he could make her understand, wishing she could accept this as easily as Elizabeth Sinclair had accepted it.
But then, her mate, Dash, had come for her because of their correspondence. It hadn't come like this. A bond had developed with the child before birth, because her mother was his mate.
Animal genetics were a bitch.
He watched as she breathed out roughly, raked her fingers through her hair once more and stared at him as though she weren't quite certain she knew who he was.
"Male lions kill the young when they take another male's pride," she muttered in exasperation.
"Human males love the children of the women they love," he completed for her. "We're not just animals, Rachel. We're men with a few added genetics. Nothing more, nothing less." Which wasn't a lie, but wasn't really the truth either.
"Devon isn't going to let this go this easily." She moved away from him, staring at the darkened windows. He felt her fighting to make sense of what her life had become.
"Devon has no choice." It was that simple. "All the money in the world, all the lawyers he could buy can't change Breed Law, Rachel. We ensured that."
A mocking smile twisted her lips. "You act as though the Marshals will play fair after this."
"You act as though Breeds will." He chuckled, though the sound was tinged with a warning of danger. "Come on, let's get the hell away from here and those damned reporters out there."
He touched her again. His hand pressed against her lower back, steering her back to the doorway, where Enforcers waited to escort them away from the entrance and the reporters who could just as easily shoot with bullets as with flashbulbs.
The ride back to the cabin was made quickly, silently. Rachel kept her arms wrapped across her chest as she fought to hold in not just the questions that raged through her mind but also the emotions that tore at her control.
She was falling in love with him, and she couldn't help it. There were just so many ways Jonas had proved his complete dedication to her. His hunger for her. His need. His determination to protect her.
He didn't call it love. To him, she was his mate, pure and simple. The one gift God had given him that could never belong to another man.
But he didn't call it love. He didn't recognize it as love. Moving into the house, she walked into Amber's room, informed the young Breed female watching the baby that she could leave, then lifted her daughter from the crib.
"Cassie's on the sat phone. She needs to talk to you." Jonas stood at the doorway, his gaze dark. "Would you like me to hold Amber while you talk to her?"
Silently, she handed Amber over to him, watching as he cuddled her close to his chest, his eyes still watching her carefully.
That look. There was complete arrogance in it, yet a vulnerability that tugged at emotions she didn't want to admit to.
She lifted the phone to her ear. "Cassie?"