Frustration was like a rabid animal eating at her self-control. She was sick of his sniping. Sick of biting her tongue and keeping her mouth shut rather than pushing them both into something she feared she would regret.

“I’ll be damned if I’ll use them like slave labor, as you suggest,” Sherra sneered back at him. “This isn’t the Middle Ages and you aren’t some petty dictator being allowed to take over.”

Kane sat back in his chair, his eyes narrowing in anger as he watched her. She could feel his intent gaze, like a caress over her face, assessing her response. Seeing too much. He did that a lot, watching her like a damned bug under a microscope whenever they were in the same room together.

“So pay them a wage,” he finally drawled mockingly. “No one suggested they do it for free. You’re still going to come out ahead without the added danger that allowing others into the compound will bring.”

“Enough, Sherra.” Callan overrode the furious words getting ready to spew from her lips. She wanted to tear into Kane with a desperation that had her fingers curling into claws against the table. “You both have a good argument, but we have to come to a decision tonight.”

“Good luck,” Kane grunted sarcastically as he watched her. “Kitten here seems more determined to see us all dead at the moment then to have houses built.”

Sherra felt a bead of sweat forming on her brow as he smirked at her. His eyes were dark, intent, watching her closely. She could feel him pushing her, knew he was and was helpless against the urge to fight back. She had to fight back. Had to show him she wasn’t weak, she wasn’t timid. On the heels of that thought came the knowledge that her heat was what was actually pushing her. Instinct. To prove to him she was strong enough to take him, strong enough to fight by his side and challenge his strength, and the need to do so was becoming stronger. Daily, she could feel her own aggression surging in her body and it terrified her.

“He’s irrational, Callan.” She fought to sit back and relax as she glanced at the head of the table where Callan watched them both with a frown. “The man is so damned paranoid you’ll be out there pounding nails instead of making decisions for the Pride soon.”

“Give it a break, Sherra.” Kane’s voice was filled with impatience. “I need Callan to look after Merinus. You can’t seem to keep her out of trouble.”

Sherra turned back to him, incredulous at the accusation. Suddenly she had gone from coddling the exhausted Breeds to being unable to protect Merinus?

“Me?” she snarled, gripping the table in fury. “I wasn’t the one who took her out on the motorcycle the other day. That was you. All I did was help her clean the stupid closet out.”

“She almost fell on her head, dammit. I told you to keep that woman out of closed spaces. She’s a hazard in them, didn’t you pay attention?”

“I am not your sister’s keeper!” she yelled. “How am I supposed to make sense of the crazy things she wants to do? She’s your damned sister.”

She was on her feet now, her finger pointing across the table in accusation as she faced him. She was sick of playing babysitter to an eight-year-old who knew more than she should, as well as a woman who didn’t seem to know how to move her feet in a closet.

“Well, hell, excuse me, I thought you two should have enough in common to at least be able to walk and talk at the same damned time together,” he drawled mockingly. “You should take lessons from her, Sherra. Being in heat the way you are, you should have the sense to at least pay attention when she messes up. You might want to learn from it.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. Reality became limited to the dark, knowing depths of his eyes and the challenge sparkling there.

“You’re insane.” She tried to find the fury of moments before, but could barely manage to breathe past the shock instead.

He laughed, though the sound was mocking, filled with anger as he came to his feet and faced her with a tight smile.

“Am I?” he said. “Or do you think you can hide something else from me? Sorry, baby, I’m not nearly as stupid as you seem to think I am. And you want to know what else I’m aware of?” He leaned closer, his hands flattening on the table as he came almost nose-to-nose with her. Her senses were filled with the scent of him. The smell of hot, furious male wrapped around her, nearly strangling her with hunger.

“What do you think you know?” she tried to snarl back, but her voice was weak, wary. Now she understood the warning glimmer of anger that had burned in his eyes when she first entered the kitchen. Kane was flat pissed. And that was not a good thing.

“What I know,” he said with brutal clarity, “is that you’re in heat, Sherra. And I know who your mate is. I know, because it’s me.” He straightened then, staring back at her, seeming angrier at the knowledge than anything else. “Just like I know about the baby, the sterilization and your fucking stubbornness for the last few months. I know it all, and I’ll be damned if you’ll get away with any of it for even one day longer.”

Chapter Two

You could have heard a pin drop was so clichéd, but it was the first thing that hit Sherra’s mind seconds after Kane’s furious announcement. She stood face to face with him, watching the muscle tic in his jaw, the flames that blazed in his eyes, and listened to the complete silence of the room. There were six others there besides them. Shocked, silent, watching her complete humiliation in stunned surprise. Breathing harshly, she faced the man who had ripped her heart from her chest so many years ago, the man she had sworn to kill, only to learn her brother had nearly done the deed for her. She pulled her strength around her quickly, pride and pain and the determination that had helped her survive the years. Her head rose until she could stare back at him regally, making certain her expression was one of arrogant unconcern.

“Evidently, I didn’t feel it was any of your business, Kane,” she said shortly, pushing the words past her lips as she watched his anger grow. “Had I felt you needed to know any part of it, I would have informed you myself.” She glanced meaningfully at Merinus before her gaze returned to Kane. “It would appear I didn’t think you were on a need-to-know basis.”

She was very well aware of who had most likely spilled the secrets she had fought to keep. Merinus loved her family more than anyone, with the exception of Callan and their unborn child. Kane’s lips curled back from his teeth in a silent snarl that would have done a Feline breed proud.

“Guess again, kitten,” he snapped. “I don’t give a damn what you think I should or should not know. I gave you a chance to come to me, a month’s worth of chances, and you hid instead. Now you can face the consequences.”

Her laughter was mocking and brief. “Face the consequences? Sorry, Kane, I’ve made that trip already. It was a lousy one. I won’t pay again. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do. Callan can let me know what you decide about Farside Construction. I really don’t give a damn how you handle it.”

“Walk away from me and you’ll regret it.” His low warning had her halting the turn that would have allowed her to do just that.

She glanced over at him, seeing the determined cast of his hard expression, the raging fury in his dark blue eyes. She allowed her lips to lift in a bitter smile, let her gaze rake him coldly. “Regret it, Kane? I only wish I had done so the first time. I would have been so much better off.”

She let her gaze encompass her family then. Those she had been raised with, the two who had come into it through their matings with her brothers. She saw their disbelief, their sympathy and shock.

“Goodnight, guys. My portion of the entertainment for the night is over. Maybe I can do better tomorrow.”

Anger burned in her, warming her cheeks, trembling through her body as she let them look their fill.

“Do you think it will be that easy, Sherra?” Kane’s voice was rough, the fight for control throbbing in his voice. “Do you think for one damned minute I’ll let you get away with this?”

“I really don’t think you have a choice.” She stalked from the room, head held high. She really didn’t give a damn what he thought she could or couldn’t do. She had endured eleven years of physical hell, of emotional pain, of fighting to make sense of why her body was betraying her, why she needed so desperately yet her flesh rebelled at any other man’s touch. Learning the reason why hadn’t helped her emotional strength. To know it was a mating rather than a hunger, a bond that, so far, remained unbroken hadn’t helped. Callan was already furious that she hadn’t told him about the physical problems she had experienced earlier, that she had dared to attempt sterilization to ease the pain. His disappointment in her had shamed her more than she expected. As she left the kitchen, she heard her brother’s voice arguing with Kane, Merinus pleading. The others, of course, were commenting. She didn’t care. They hadn’t lived the past eleven years in her skin. Hadn’t hungered with no idea of why, needed and ached for a touch that was never there. She grabbed the banister of the stairs and began to race up the steps. The need for escape throbbed in her veins, pounded in her heart.

“Sherra.” His voice stopped her at the landing.

She stopped, nostrils flaring as she breathed in roughly, her teeth clenching as she fought to keep from screaming. Turning slowly, she looked down at Kane.

Her body trembled in hunger. Her mouth watered with it as her tongue throbbed, the glands at the side aching to release the hated hormone. It was bad enough it was making her crazy, but she knew damned good and well what would happen if Kane ingested it.

The chemical reaction hadn’t been as strong in Callan and Taber as it had been with their mates. If it held to pattern, it would be worse than super Viagra when it hit Kane’s system. The thought of that had her pussy weeping in sobbing need. Like an entity with a mind all its own, it seemed to howl silently in protest of her refusal to allow it ease.

Kane was too damned handsome, tall and strong, the perfect male with tight, well-conditioned muscles. He was lean and humming with sexuality. His dark hair was cut short, his lashes shadowing his cheeks as he watched her.

She didn’t answer him, merely stared back at him coldly as his lips quirked with knowing hunger.

“I’ll be up later. Don’t make me come looking for you.”

Her jaw nearly hit the floor as he turned his back on her and re-entered the kitchen. Don’t make him come looking for her? she thought incredulously. The son of a bitch, she was going to kill him. Narrowing her eyes she moved quickly to her room. She changed swiftly into formfitting black pants and a snug sports shirt. She clipped her utility belt and holster around her hips, strapped the dagger to her thigh before tucking her hair under the black baseball cap, and snuck from the house. Let him come looking for her. He might get a hell of a lot more than he bargained for.

* * * * *

“Aren’t you afraid of pushing her too far?” Taber asked politely several minutes after the rest of the

family had left the kitchen and returned to their respective rooms. For once, he wasn’t with his new mate and wife, Roni. Rather, he watched Kane with those eerie green eyes of his, just a hint of censure showing in their depths.

“Aren’t you afraid Roni’s going to find out about your decision to keep her family away from her?”

Kane came back at him, his voice equally polite. “I don’t tell you how to handle your mate, Taber. Don’t try to tell me how to handle mine.”

Taber’s lips lifted in a snarl, showing the dangerous canines at the side of his mouth. Kane smirked mockingly.

“It looks sexier when Sherra does it. Don’t bother trying to intimidate me, cat boy. I only go easy on you because you’re prick enough to take offense and I don’t really want to take the time to scuffle with you.”