Lora Leigh - Harmony's Way

“I am always alone,” she snarled back at him. “They call me Death for a reason…”

“And if you’ve already conceived?” Lance asked quietly then. “Would you deny me the right to help protect my child? And trust me, Harmony, I can and will protect both my mate and my child.”

He honestly believed he could. Harmony felt the hard sob that clenched her chest as hopelessness filled her.

“No force on this earth can protect a child of mine,” she sneered. “You don’t understand. You don’t know the lives I’ve taken, the blood I’ve spilled or the monsters that would attack. There’s no way to save either of us now.”

Lance watched the pain-ridden features staring up at him. Fear filled the eyes of a woman whose file stated she knew no fear. No, it wasn’t fear, it was complete terror, and it was destroying his soul.

The air was heavy with her pain, wailing at his ear like a distant scream rife with torment. Harmony was tormented. He could see it in her expression, in her tears. In her confusion as she wiped at the dampness.

The need to protect her, to reassure her, rose inside him like a tidal wave. It was more than just a need; it was an impulse, an instinctive response to the pain tearing her apart.

The thought of a child, and a woman that completed him, couldn’t distress him. And protecting that woman and child would be his main focus.

“Braden, can you contact Ely without Jonas knowing?” Lance kept his eyes on Harmony as he spoke.

“That would be easy enough,” Braden answered.

“Get her out here for the tests Harmony needs. I want that hormone therapy. Get her out here fast.”

“Jonas’s scientist?” Harmony’s question had his gaze swinging back to her.

“She’s the Breeds’ scientist,” Lance corrected her. “She heads the department working on the mating phenomena.”

“She took the blood and saliva samples while I was at Sanctuary…”

“You haven’t been at Sanctuary,” Braden growled. “I pulled your file this morning, Harmony. Jonas would have had to log you in.”

Lance watched as the bitter mockery twisted her lips.

“That’s a nice little underground cell system you have below the main detention building,” she said softly, sarcasm thickening the slight French accent that he hadn’t noticed the night before. “I was there for two weeks, Braden, while your Ely poked and prodded at me. I was slipped out at night and put on a heli-jet to Carlsbad. Check with your precious Ely and see if she can tell the truth any better than Jonas can.”

Lance stared back at Braden, seeing the surprise as Harmony described the cells.

“Shit. He’s going to get himself killed at this rate.” Braden swiped his fingers through his unbound hair as he stared back at both of them in acknowledgment. “I’ll contact Ely the moment I get to the house. I want a completely secured line for this one. Jonas is no doubt tapping yours, as well as your home line. So watch that. Check the house and this office for bugs while you’re at it.”

“That was done when I first came in,” Lance snapped. “I take nothing for granted in this office, Braden.”

Braden nodded firmly, his gaze touching on Harmony in compassion as she wrapped her arms across her chest and paced to the window across the room.

“You’re his sister,” Braden finally announced. “The same one who killed his mother. Why is he giving you a chance to redeem yourself?”

Lance watched as she turned, her body tense with the obvious results of the unnatural arousal tearing her apart.

“You’ll have to ask him that one.” Her teeth bared in anger. “According to Jonas, he would give any other Breed this same chance.” Her lips twisted into a sneer. “The redemption offer was a trick. He knew this would happen, somehow; he knew the reaction that would result from being with Lance. He knew and he used it. He found the perfect way to destroy me.”

Braden cursed as Lance felt a killing rage echo inside him. God help Jonas if he got hold of him anytime soon.

“Can we lodge a complaint with the Breed Ruling Cabinet?” He turned to Braden again. “They could leash him.”

“You do that and you reveal Death’s whereabouts to whatever spy is still spilling secrets at Sanctuary.” He sighed. “It poses more of a danger than a solution at this point. Until the heat dulls, she’s at her weakest, Lance. If another male touches her, he’ll debilitate her. Right now, Death is as vulnerable as any babe. The hormonal shifts and changes tear down the defenses, physical and mental. She wouldn’t survive it.”

“I won’t let this happen!” The rage and fear in her voice sliced through his soul.

Lance swung around, rushing to her as he watched her crumple. The mating heat was building in her, her expression distorted with pain as her hand clenched at her stomach and her face paled.

He caught her in his arms, burying his face in her hair, crooning to her, lifting her against his chest as he turned back to Braden.

“Contact Ely,” he snapped hoarsely. “Now.”

Braden nodded and left the office. The door slammed behind him, clicked and locked, sealing them safely within the office.

“Sit.” Lance deposited her in the chair as he strode to his desk and hit the intercom link.

“Lenny, I’m not available until I inform you otherwise,” he snapped into the desk sergeant’s link. “Do you understand?”

“I figured,” he grunted. “I saw that damned Jonas striding out of here grinning like a polecat. I got your back, Sheriff. No one will bother you.”

It was no secret that after one of Jonas’s surprise visits, Lance normally disappeared for hours to fortify his patience.

Disengaging the link, he turned back to Harmony. She was pacing now, her head lowered, auburn hair covering her face as she fought the obvious effects of the mating heat.

It was killing him too. His balls were drawn up so damned tight he swore they were going to implode. His cock was like living steel behind the fly of his jeans and pressing painfully into the zipper.

Dealing with this was going to be impossible until the more pressing physical needs were taken care of. Namely, bending her over and fucking her past her tears and her hunger, until they could both stand to breathe without the agony of need torturing them.

God help them both if she let out one of those animalistic little roars when she came, though. If she did, the entire department would know he was spending on-duty hours screwing the hell out of the little cat.

“Harmony, we’ll find a way to fix this.” He breathed out roughly as he moved toward her. “Until then, baby, before we can leave this office, we have to take care of this arousal. It’s killing both of us.”

Her head whipped up, her expression blank with shock.

“No.” She shook her head emphatically. “We can’t take that risk, Lance. You know we can’t.”

Her hand pressed against her lower stomach as she breathed in roughly.

“We don’t have a choice,” he bit out. “I can’t think for the remembered taste of your kiss. It’s killing me. You might have the control to withstand it, but I don’t.”

She shook her head again as he moved to the utility cabinet at the side of the room. Opening the doors, he pulled a clean ball gag from its cellophane wrapper and turned back to her.

Her eyes widened as they dropped to the device, and he grinned wickedly.

“A little present from one of my depraved cousins. She thought I should keep them here in case I wanted to play on the job.”

He liked the little frown that creased her brow, the glimmer of jealousy in her eyes. Yeah, he liked that a lot. He stepped into the bathroom beside the cabinet and quickly cleaned the rubber device before drying it and moving back into the room.