He grunted at that. It was clear he disagreed yet found the matter small enough not to argue over.

“I need coffee,” she yawned. “Or I will never wake up.”

“No.” His voice was firm, almost alarmed. “No coffee. No more sex until I rest. You will kill me at this rate. Sleep for pity’s sake, Faith. We will rise when Wolfe and Hope arrive and begin our plans. I have a feeling I will need the coffee myself to deal with your stubbornness.”

“I’m not going back, Jacob.” She hoped he had realized that by now.

“No, Faith,” he agreed quietly. “You will not go back, baby. You are mine. And I pray it is truly what you want, because I do not think I can let you go now.”

“Did anyone ask you to?” She settled herself more comfortably against him, yawning once again. “If I can’t have my coffee, then let me sleep. Then you can love me some more before we go back downstairs.”

But would it be possible to love her more? Jacob stared down at her as she relaxed against him. Her weight was light, her breathing deepening in sleep. He would keep her well satisfied physically, he thought in amusement. Her arousal seemed to trigger his whether he liked it or not. But her woman’s heart more than confused him. How could she love so deeply, so strong, a man who had turned her away for so long?

There were no answers to his questions. A smile lit his heart. She loved him though, he knew this. And though he wasn’t comfortable with the power she held over him, he knew now that it stemmed from his love for her. He, who had not believed, and yet always had loved this tiny spitfire of a woman.

Jacob pulled the sheet over their cooling bodies, wondering how they had managed to make such a mess of the blankets. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes as his arms tightened around her.

“My Faith,” he whispered as he relaxed then, more at peace than he had ever been. “I love you, my Faith.”

EPILOGUE

“This is Charity Dunmore.” Cian laid the picture in front of Aiden then stood back respectfully. “She has been held for months at the Labs. We aren’t certain of the experiments they’ve been doing on her, but Keegan, our leader, could sense her weakness even before she aided in our escape. She could be dead by now.”

Aiden picked up the small picture. He remembered Charity. She had been quiet, always watching, doing her job within the Labs and speaking very little. He had felt at one time, that she could have been sympathetic to the breeds. He had revised his opinion in that last month before their escape.

“How did she aid your escape?” he asked quietly.

“It was she who triggered the release mechanism on a dome that led into our training facility, at a time that we were not chained. She had warned Keegan she would do so. Had it not been for the younger ones being caught within the automatic nets, then we would have all escaped.”

She was a slender woman, not frail or tiny, well-built with full breasts and big blue eyes. Her ash blonde hair was caught in a thick bun at the nape of her neck, so there was no telling how long it was. Aiden would guess though, that it came close to falling to her hips.

“What shape was she in last you saw her?” he asked Cian, trying to ignore the demon pulse of attraction that filled him.

Whether she had helped them or not, she was still the enemy. She had participated in the Lab experiments he had been in, and if her masters had turned on her, then that was too bad for her, but still no more than she deserved. He refused to feel any sympathy for her.

“She was very weak. Keegan is quite concerned for her. Whatever they have done to her is taxing her, not just physically, but mentally. He insists we rescue her first.”

Aiden looked up at the proud Breed slowly.

“Have your Leader wait until he’s present to issue orders,” he growled. “This link you have with him is all well and good. But I do as I see fit, not what one who is still imprisoned would order me to do.”

“She has aided us, Aiden,” Cian argued. “For years she has done so, trying all she knows to help us escape.”

“And yet she did her job, did she not?” Aiden bit out. “She ran their tests, took your blood and your semen, and pumped you full of drugs to replace it. Just as they ordered.”

“She fouled readers, misread blood diagnoses, and risked her own life for us as our psychic powers began to emerge.” Cian leaned closer, his hand clapping on the table in anger as he faced Aiden. “I do not know her reasons for it, and I do not care. It is my Leader’s orders to me, that the girl be rescued and cared for. Do as you will, but my men and I will go for the girl.”

“What is it about this girl that inspires such loyalty?” he asked them mildly, ignoring the vulnerability he glimpsed in the picture-caught blue eyes.

Soft cheekbones, pouty lips, thickly lashed, shadowed eyes.

“She has been loyal to us.” Cian straightened up once again. “We will be no less to her.”

“Have you fucked her?” He ignored the primitive flare of fury at the thought.

Disgust and fury warred on Cian’s aristocratic features.

“None of my clan have touched her, Wolf Breed. She is not ours to mate, but another’s.” Fury welled in his voice, then in his expression.

Aiden saw immediately that the Winged Breed had said more than he intended to. It intrigued him, this psychic link this new Breed had established between one another. But even more importantly, it seemed their Leader’s powers were even more advanced.

Aiden leaned back in his chair, ignoring the interest they were generating from the other Wolf Breeds gathered within the hacienda kitchen.

“Whose mate is she then, Cian?” he asked with mocking amusement. “What could be so important about this one female, that you would risk the rescue of your people for her?”

Cian crossed his arms over his chest, staring down at Aiden coldly.

“I had heard the Wolf Breeds had more honor and justice than the Council did. What is so unimportant about this woman, that you deem her not worthy of rescue?”

Aiden looked at the picture again. He remembered a time when he would have felt sympathy for her. When he would have found warmth in his heart for the innocence he had glimpsed in her eyes six years before.

She had been young then. New to the Labs. So quiet she was nearly a shadow within the compound. Always watching, always waiting it seemed. He had felt a measure of sympathy for her, for a while. Until she had proved her cold heart. Proved she was no more than a mindless follower of the Council who paid her.

“What I believe doesn’t matter,” he finally said, his voice hard as he pushed the anger back down. Down, where it no longer mattered, no longer had the power to enrage him. “You are asking me to risk damned near every Enforcer our race possesses, and several of our Packs, for a full human who is no more than a Council whore. I will know why, or I will kill her myself to save anyone else the trouble.”

Cian tensed, his golden eyes icing over, fury reflected in the hard shudder of his wings.

“You wish to know why this one woman is so important, wolf.” He bit out. “You wish to know why she must live, even at the sacrifice of my own Leader, and the young of our Flock. Shall I tell you why, you mongrel pup? Because this woman is a mate to one who knows only darkness, only fury. A mate to one who sees only what the Council shows him, and only his own cold soul. A monster. One who would hurt and maim and become no more than a rabid creature without her. That woman.” His finger pointed harshly to the soft image displayed in the picture. “That woman is Charity. She is all that is soft, all that is giving. She is your mate, you scrappy excuse for less than a hound. A woman too soft, too kind for the likes of a bastard such as yourself.”

Shock rushed over Aiden’s body, though he held it carefully in check, knew no hint of his feelings shown in his expression. At once, a fist punch of sensation plowed into his loins. He remembered her hands, so silken and warm on his cock. Ignoring his harsh orders, silent in the face of his curses as she milked his seed from his body. Giving to the bastard scientists the seed they needed for yet another experiment.

Only Aiden had possessed the power to fight their drugs, their aphrodisiacs, and their threats. For years, they had believed him impotent. Until the touch of her hands. Until her soft tongue licking the flared head of his cock, sucking it into her mouth with a soft, whispered apology.

It was then he hated her. Hated her affect over him. Hated her innocent look, her blue-eyed charm, and her tempting body. And he had never forgotten that hatred. She had obeyed their orders when she could have walked away. Had volunteered, volunteered to bring him to arousal rather than allowing one of the whores they hired from nearby towns to try. She had revealed his weakness, even to himself, and he hated her for it.

“That’s too bad.” He finally shrugged, keeping his voice hard, unrelenting. “If she’s my mate, then it’s my decision…”

Cian laughed. Amusement flashed in his golden eyes, dispelling his fury in the blink of an eye.

“Fight, wolf,” he said softly. “You may fight her and your own nature all you wish. But know this. The first child born of your pack will come from that woman’s body. Without her, without the secret she carries, your race will slowly die out, your women will expire from their own arousals, and your men will find no hope, no recourse within their lives. Save her, or be responsible for the death and destruction of all you hold dear.”