[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Growls left his throat.One hand clenched on her hip as two fingersof the other stretched her rear, and Scheme knew she was lost.Tanner s Scheme  Breeds 09 Page 262 of 403Destroyed.The woman she had been buckled, and the wall between innocence andpain collapsed beneath the orgasm that swept not just her body, but her soul, as sherealized in one blinding second that not only had the man s body taken her, but theanimal he was had just marked her forever.CHAPTER 21Tanner sat on the couch, his head lowered, his hands clasped between his knees as heturned his head and stared at the bed.Scheme had cried.She hadn t sobbed.But as he laid her carefully in the bed, her slightbody had shuddered as tears ran from beneath her closed lashes.And he couldn tcomfort her.She wouldn t let him. Just leave, she had whispered. Please.Just leave.He couldn t leave.He had covered her with the quilt and retreated to the other side ofthe room instead, trying to make sense of what he sensed inside her.There was no pain.Weariness.Resignation.But no true pain.And love.The scent ofthat emotion was unmistakable.He had smelled it between other mates, sometimes,even before the mating.It was a scent unlike anything else.Summer and heat,chocolate and liquor.It was pure emotion, addictive and soothing, yet Scheme wasn tsoothed.And neither was he.The mating hadn t been easy.Son of a bitch.He grimaced at the knowledge of what hehad allowed to happen.The animal inside had gained its freedom in a way he had neverexpected.It had taken over, claimed him and his mate in a way Tanner couldn t haveanticipated.In a way he would have stopped if he had the control to do so.Tanner s Scheme  Breeds 09 Page 263 of 403He ran his fingers wearily through his hair, his head lifting before he pulled himselfpainfully to his feet.The torn edges of his shirt draped over his chest as he turned to face Cabal, seeing theheavy knowledge in his brother s face as he entered the room.Tanner moved slowly, wearily, to the cabinet, where he pulled out the whiskey and twoglasses and gestured to the tunnel.He moved ahead of Cabal, leading the way toanother smaller cavern farther into the system of caves.Lights flickered on as they entered the cave, revealing a secure communications roomequipped with computers, camera monitors and surveillance equipment that linked tothe hidden remote cameras scattered around the properties Callan owned.Scheme had found this room days before.Tanner s lips quirked at the knowledge of thetime she had spent in there trying to get the equipment to work until she realized it wasfingerprint, DNA, and pupil-scan protected.But she had tried.He had to give her give her credit for her persistence; she wasn t aquitter.She was strong and courageous, passionate and sassy.And he loved her.God,he loved her until it broke his heart in half.A couch, table and several comfortable chairs sat in a rounded corner of the room.Tanner threw himself in the couch, leaned forward and poured himself a healthy drink. Liquor affects the mating heat, Tanner, Cabal reminded him softly as he took a seat inone of the chairs opposite the couch. You know it makes it worse. It can t get worse. Tanner wiped his hand over his face before tossing back theburning liquor, grimacing as it burnt its way to his gut.Tanner s Scheme  Breeds 09 Page 264 of 403Rubbing at his beard-stubbled chin, it suddenly struck him that for all the Breed maleslack of body hair, none of them had a problem growing a beard.Sometimes hewondered about the genetic mix they were learning they were.Was the world trulybetter off without them?Lifting his gaze to Cabal, he breathed out roughly. You knew.His brother had known Scheme was Tanner s mate; there was no other explanation.Cabal would have never walked away from the woman his soul screamed out for.Cabal leaned back in the chair and sipped at the whiskey, his gaze somber as he staredback. I ve suspected it for years, he said. I caught a scent of her just after I d healed fromthe pits.My first assignment under the new Bureau was to shadow her for a few weeks.Each time I caught a scent of her, I could sense a connection.It just took a while tofigure it out. How long since you ve figured it out? Tanner growled.Cabal s gaze flickered. Six, seven years maybe. And you didn t tell me? His jaw clenched in anger [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]