Breeds: Stygian's Honour Part 2

"That true, Malcolm?"

Malcolm's lips thinned angrily. "Two birds with one stone, right? She got her uncle and his second-in-command killed so she and 43/862.

that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Thor could take over the team. I told you I wanted blood."

"That wasn't the mission," he was re- minded as the Coyote briefly gripped his ci- gar between two fingers and lowered it from his lips. He didn't look happy.

Diane chuckled. It was a forced sound of amus.e.m.e.nt, but it was amused nonetheless.

"Four Coyotes." She sighed. "For little ole me? That scared of me, Malcolm?"

His jaw tightened, his hands clenched on the weapon.

"If you want me, come fight me," she sug- gested with a laugh. "I dare you."

Every Coyote there seemed to perk up.

Liza stared at the back of Diane's head in disbelief. Everyone knew you didn't make a dare in front of Coyotes. Good or bad, there wasn't a Coyote living, it was said, who wouldn't take a reasonable dare.

Or was that the point? This woman would know more about Coyote Breeds than most.

44/862.

She was more than just an agent for the Bur- eau; she was the director's sister-in-law. No doubt, she knew all their strengths, their weaknesses, and exactly how to get to them.

"A thousand on the girl," the leader mur- mured, proving the supposition.

"Shut the f.u.c.k up, Dog," Malcolm raged, his body shaking with fury as he wiped his hands through his short dark hair.

"I got your thousand on the p.r.i.c.k there.

He has muscle where she doesn't." Loki took the bet before turning to the other two.

"Mutt, Mongrel? You two in?"

"Thousand on the girl," another Coyote drawled.

"Thousand on the p.r.i.c.k." Black-haired and intense, the last nodded his a.s.sent.

Malcolm was about to explode with the an- ger surging through him. A wave of brick red swept over his face as his brown eyes glared back at Diane in pure disdain.

Diane smiled in antic.i.p.ation.

45/862.

"Knives or fists?" she asked, evidently knowing his strengths as well as his weak- nesses, just as she did the Coyote Breeds.

"You f.u.c.king wh.o.r.e," he snarled, his teeth clenched, as a muscle throbbed in rapid reac- tion to the tightening of his teeth.

"I win, we walk away," she demanded as she kept her eyes on Malcolm.

"I'll kill you first," Malcolm charged, his face reddening further as the flames of fury burned beneath his flesh.

"Take the challenge or walk away," Dog snapped. "We won't take her without the fight."

Liza couldn't believe this. "They're betting my safety on a f.u.c.king fight?" she muttered incredulously, knowing Cullen was there, and praying he would have an explanation that would make sense.

"We got this," Cullen promised as Liza fought to breathe. "Bureau Breeds have all of you covered. Just be ready to roll when they 46/862.

pull you out. We'll capture one of the Coyotes coming in behind this mess when this is over and interrogate him."

The mess being the less-than-bloodthirsty Coyotes ranged around her. They looked mean enough, heartless enough, yet Liza de- tected the flash of laughter in Dog's gaze once again as she met his eyes.

Liza stared at the tableau around her, wondering just how often Breeds turned danger into a joke.

She didn't particularly like it.

Dog's smiled was clearly antic.i.p.atory, but he nodded easily. "Whip his a.s.s and you walk. He whips yours-you run. How's that?"

Diane gave a sharp, firm nod as she smiled at Malcolm. "It's a bet."

As Diane accepted the terms, the enforcers for the Bureau of Breed Affairs stepped from the cover of the trees and surrounded them.

Liza was still trying to get a head count when one of the few couples she knew, 47/862.

Megan Fields Arness and her husband, Braden Arness, stepped up to her and gripped her arm.

Megan muttered, "Let's go," at her ear.

She didn't want to leave.

Liza had to force herself to hold back the involuntary protest. She wanted to stay. She needed to stay. The fight that was about to commence would no doubt display a variety of skillful moves she had yet to learn by at- tempting to watch the agents from the Bur- eau spar from a distance.

Grimacing, she followed Megan, knowing that convincing the other woman and her mate to allow her to stay wasn't going to happen.

The link in her ear was silent, which was standard operating procedure whenever Control knew another Breed was within hearing distance.

The acute hearing and exceptional sense of smell were only two of the extraordinary 48/862.

senses they possessed. So much as a sizzle of static and any Breed within feet of her would sense it.

"Well, look who's joining the party, boys,"

Dog drawled as Megan and Braden hurried her away. "Looks like the bet's off."

"The h.e.l.l it is." The last thing she heard was Diane's lover stepping into the fray, his voice a hard, animalistic growl.

That growl, its raw fury, brought on a flash of another memory threatening to intrude, to overcome reality as Liza was hustled quickly to safety.

They were occurring more frequently since the Breeds had arrived in Window Rock, bringing with them a disconcerting fear that Liza hurriedly pushed back.

Show no weakness.

Show no fear.

Show no mercy.

Show no remorse.

49/862.

Those were the first things they were taught when they were accepted into the Navajo's Breed Underground Network.

A Breed's ability to sense those specific emotions was too well honed to allow any of those working with the network to go out without first being trained-rigorously-to hide them.

And now, that training was coming in d.a.m.ned handy.

h.e.l.l, it had been coming in handy for nearly two months now.

And now, Liza was nearly accosted by Breeds on a morning run designed to learn exactly why the Genetics Council had arrived on the tail of the Bureau of Breed Affairs.

The Bureau wasn't telling the truth about what they were after; the deception had been detected and confirmed by its own sources.

Unfortunately, those sources had no idea ex- actly what the Breeds were after either.

CHAPTER 1.

Watching Diane Broen entering into a fight while the Breeds around her were taking bets on who would win, who would lose and how many blows it would take to do them in seemed fascinating. Still, Megan and Braden were forcing her away from the fray.

Actually, it was insanity.

The very Breeds who at first appeared in- tent on abducting her and the human enfor- cer, Diane Broen, now seemed to be working on the Bureau Breeds' side. They had even encouraged the betting with the promise that if Diane won, they would walk away without the prize they had been paid to collect.

51/862.

Namely, Liza herself.

She watched until she was pushed into a Dragoon and couldn't see anything more.

d.a.m.n them, she wasn't a child anymore, yet that was exactly how she was being treated.

As the scene vanished from view, she turned and faced forward, her arms crossed beneath her b.r.e.a.s.t.s as she remained silent.

The earbud, all but hidden in her ear ca.n.a.l, was silent, deactivated at Cullen's end.

It wouldn't be activated again until they ar- rived wherever she was being taken, or until the network's agents following her lost sight of her.

Until then, she was on her own.

Swallowing tightly, she tried to put anoth- er inch of distance between herself and the big Breed sitting next to her.

Stygian Black. He was a bit of a lone Wolf according to the information Cullen had managed to acquire. A Wolf Breed who worked exclusively on missing cases that 52/862.

involved hidden Breed labs and/or missing Breeds or their mates.

He wasn't a Breed who worked well with others, the report said. And he was one that would just as soon kill a man, or a Breed, who got in his way as he was to look at him.

Yet, he'd been working with the Bureau of Breed Affairs for years, and he did so without killing anyone.

Was it a testament to Jonas Wyatt's skill as a commander or simply his control over the animal genetics that were so much a part of the Breeds he commanded? Whichever it was, she could do nothing but admire his ability to work with a man whose animal was as close to the surface as this one's was.

His gaze turned on her every few seconds as though to be certain she was still sitting there. Black eyes gleamed with amus.e.m.e.nt each time she caught him watching her. Each time she caught him, he would deliberately allow his eyes to flick to the upper mounds of 53/862 her b.r.e.a.s.t.s where they rose above the exer- cise bra.

As she felt his gaze pin her once again, she turned her head and glared up at him through the veil of her lashes. The fact that she could tell when he was staring down at her, and all that had moved were his eyes, was distinctly disconcerting. Bothering her even more was the fact that her nipples were hardening further with each look. Having such a response to a man, any man, wasn't a situation she wanted to deal with, especially with a Breed.

"Are you comfortable?" his voice rumbled with a primal, erotic rasp that sent a shiver of sensation racing up her spine.

"Not really," she muttered.

She was distinctly uncomfortable with the warmth traveling across her nerve endings as the sensitive flesh of her c.l.i.t tingled in interest.

54/862.

As far as she was concerned, this was the wrong man, or Breed, and the wrong time for such an attraction.

"You could sit on my lap," he suggested with a slow smile as he patted a hard, well- muscled thigh. "There's plenty of room."

Oh, h.e.l.l- The real problem where that question was concerned was that she was way, way too tempted.

"No, thank you." Jerking her head for- ward, she stared between the front seats to the road beyond.

"I'd be more than happy to accommodate you." Leaning closer, he all but whispered the words in her ear.

Oh, she just bet he would.

"No." She didn't have the breath to put that "thank you" in there a second time.

Chills were racing over her skin, tearing up her spine and, she swore, sizzling in her lower stomach. Her flesh was warming, her 55/862.

nipples sensitive and the need for touch was like an ache just under her flesh. An ache she had no idea how to a.s.suage because she was d.a.m.ned if she thought it was completely ad- visable to sleep with him.

But, yes, she did want to sleep with him.