"And you"re just now telling us this?"
Chelsea hissed in disbelief. "Claire, how could you keep this from us? It"s been nearly a month. We could have kissed dozens of Breeds by now."
Liza swung her head to the other girl, star- ing at her in surprise. "Dozens?" She blinked back at Chelsea uncertainly. "Sorry, girl- friend, I"m not exactly a teenager any longer.
I don"t think I kissed that many boys even when I was a teenager. h.e.l.l, I haven"t kissed that many in my entire life."
"I was being facetious." Chelsea sighed.
"You know what I meant."
Claire bit her lip indecisively before draw- ing in a deep breath. "I thought I had to have misunderstood something, and I knew Malachi would never hurt her." She lifted her hands in indecision. "But tonight, I knew I had to tell both of you when I saw how Liza 157/862.
was reacting to Mr. Black." Her eyes widened a bit, the hazel depths filled with concern.
"I"m still not certain I didn"t misunderstand something. I mean really, we were all in shock. And terrified. I could have misunder- stood the entire conversation."
Liza blew out a hard breath. "Wow," she said in disbelief. "Those tabloid stories are true then."
It was inconceivable. Yet no matter how much she wished she could brush away Claire"s information, she knew she couldn"t.
Isabelle"s reaction to Malachi Morgan had been much too intense to be considered nor- mal, and Liza as well as Chelsea and Claire had known it.
But that was Claire. She kept to herself, and she kept others" secrets very well. Her friends had always worried about that deep well of reserve she possessed and the quiet nature that often allowed others to run 158/862.
roughshod over her unless her friends put a stop to it.
"d.a.m.n, if those tabloid stories are true,"
Chelsea hissed, "then it makes them like, f.u.c.k machines hyped on natural steroids."
She swallowed tightly, her expression almost glazed with wonder. "It would be like-"
"That"s enough, Chel." Liza held her hand up quickly. "Enough with the adjectives, okay?"
The "f.u.c.k machine on steroids" was enough to make Liza"s body hum with ampli- fied interest. She didn"t even need to hear anything more to a.s.sure her that allowing Stygian Black in her bed would definitely ru- in her for any other man or Breed. For life.
Period.
"But it"s only when they do that mating thing," Claire reminded them. "That"s what the tabloids said, and from what those two doctors were saying, that"s true. Wolves only have one mate for life in the wild, right? It 159/862.
makes sense that Wolf Breeds would follow that course. Lions as well-"
"But Tigers, Coyotes and all those other wonderful species do not," Chelsea a.s.sured her.
"Then it"s a quirk of nature or their cre- ation." Chelsea shrugged. "Whatever it is, it"s something they"re obviously desperate to hide, otherwise the Breed scientists would have leaked it to the world themselves long ago."
"Maybe." Liza sighed.
She was going to overheat for sure. Liza could feel her body burning like an inferno at the thought of having a man, h.e.l.l, a Breed, who belonged to her and her alone.
"Talk about having a license to be an as- shole." Chelsea gave a low whistle as she stared back at Liza. "h.e.l.l, normal men are a pain in the a.s.s. But one who knew you couldn"t ever allow another man to touch you? A relationship where there"s no threat 160/862.
of divorce? An addiction to their kiss that you can"t get rid of, no matter how p.i.s.sed you are, how bloated you feel or how bad your head really doesn"t hurt?"
Whoa, talk about a splash of cold water.
"I don"t think so," Liza informed them both. "Not in this lifetime."
"How much is true and how much is made up?" Chelsea questioned in disbelief. "How much can you believe? Surely it can"t be so bad or Isabelle would have shot Malachi by now. She"s no wimpy little miss when it comes to defending herself."
"Fifty-fifty maybe?" Claire suggested.
"No way," Chelsea retorted, shaking her head as she unclipped the rich black strands of her hair from tortoisesh.e.l.l clips. "I"m go- ing to say at least seventy-five percent has to be pure fiction. That leaves twenty-five percent in their favor. The f.u.c.k machines with a kiss that"s like an aphrodisiac. I draw a line at addictive. Sorry, girls." She shrugged 161/862.
carelessly. "It"s not going to happen for any man in this lifetime. It would be far too easy for them to simply rule us. G.o.d wouldn"t allow it. He does have a sense of humor, you know."
Liza nodded slowly.
Chelsea had to be right.
There were always checks and balances.
No way would nature give Breed males such a one-up on either the Breed or human females they encountered.
"So do we mention any of this to Ashley and the others when they get here tomor- row?" Chelsea asked.
"G.o.d, no! They"re Breeds!" Liza stared back at her friend, wondering if she had somehow lost her mind. "I love them like crazy, Chelsea, but we don"t mention this to anyone. We keep it to ourselves."
The four Breed females Ashley Truing, Emma Truing, Chimera Broussard and Shiloh Gage had been training the girls to be 162/862.
a part of the Navajo-based Breed Under- ground Network for the past six months.
The underground network was a group of Navajos that aided the Breeds who required complete anonymity and a secure refuge from the Genetics Council. The network aided them in hiding once they managed to escape their labs, sheltered them, provided medical aid and ensured they found a place to bury who and what they had once been.
"We could find a way to question them, perhaps," Claire suggested. "See if they"ll just give us a little hint. All based on the tabloid stories, of course."
Liza shook her head fiercely. "We can"t chance they would lie to us, or worse yet, have more loyalty to their own than they do to friendship. We keep this to ourselves and see what happens."
"Does that mean you get to be the first guinea pig?" Chelsea wagged her brows sug- gestively. "You"ll give deets, right? Surely you 163/862 wouldn"t torture us like Isabelle does? She doesn"t tell us anything."
"Yeah, I look all furry and stupid." Liza snorted. "It means we watch our a.s.ses and forget about kissing one of them. At least for the time being," she amended. She couldn"t deny herself at least the possibility of being able to kiss Stygian.
At least at a later date.
The other two nodded.
"Malachi is supposed to be in meetings with Wyatt and the other Alphas in the next few days. We"ll be able to talk to Isabelle without Malachi around then," Chelsea decided.
"Maybe." Liza nibbled on her fingernail nervously. "We"ll have to see."
To which Chelsea straightened her shoulders and stared back at them with a look that was totally her: pure determined stubbornness. "Oh, trust me, he will. I prom- ise you." She smiled wickedly. "I"ll simply 164/862.
shed a few tears for my big sister. Bet me she won"t run him off to find out what baby sister"s problem is."
"Wicked."
Liza breathed out in antic.i.p.ation.
"Dangerous," Claire warned, despite her awe at Chelsea"s daring.
But they were in agreement.
For the moment, it was wait and see.
And definitely, keep each other in the loop.
What one learned, they had to tell the other two.
It would be the only way to be certain.
Stepping beneath the water, she closed her eyes and, just as during that meeting with Jonas Wyatt, she was a.s.saulted with the im- ages from the pictures the director had shown her.
165/862.
She saw their eyes, felt their pain, their fear. It would be hard not to. Those photos had been graphic in their detailed imagery of the children"s suffering.
Stepping back from the spray, she opened her eyes quickly, unwilling to see more.
Her parents had always told her she felt things too deeply, that she let things bother her too much. That vulnerability had caused her to get hurt more than once.
She"d never fallen in love though.
She was a virgin, and she had no idea what it felt like to want a man so totally and so completely that she was willing to give up her independence as well as her sense of self for him.
She wasn"t certain she could do it either.
She"d spent far too many years holding her- self aloof. She wasn"t certain if she could let go now and give herself to any man. And unfortunately, she wasn"t certain if she could 166/862.
give him her body without giving him her heart.
Even for a Breed who stared at her with black-blue eyes and an expression that as- sured her he held all the secrets of pleasure, and he was more than willing to share.
He was more than willing to show her all the sensual, dominant secrets she dreamed of, and all the fiery pleasure she ached for.
For a price.
Always for a price.
Nothing came for free, her mother had warned her.
There was always a price.
A price for laughing, for loving.
A price for living.
Now she wondered, exactly what was Sty- gian Black"s price?
CHAPTER 5.
Liza hadn"t imagined the situation with Sty- gian could worsen. Surely she would have had a few days to settle her nerves.
Instead, the next morning he was on her doorstep, dressed in snug jeans and a dark T-shirt, that wicked black Harley parked in her driveway.
She guessed he hadn"t been lying the night before about having one. Not that she had really believed he was.
"Why are you here?" Gripping the door with desperate fingers, she stared back at him with a frown.
168/862.
A grin curved his lips. "I hoped I could convince you to come out with me this morn- ing." He glanced at the white shorts that barely covered her thighs before his gaze drifted to the light peach cotton camisole top she wore. "Come on, Liza. Slide some jeans on and live dangerously for a few minutes.
You know you want to."
Oh, she wanted to, more than he could know.
"Not today." Shaking her head, she backed up and prepared to close the door.
The slight smile on his lips shot a surge of sensation straight to her womb. It clenched with a heavy punch of need and sent that weakening spill of moisture between her thighs once again.
"I"m not dealing with you this morning."
Releasing the door, she stalked back into the kitchen, searching desperately for a way to fight her reaction to him.
169/862.
Turning to face him as she reached the sink, Liza"s lips parted breathlessly to find him so close her nose was nearly buried in the cotton of his shirt.
Lifting her eyes, she watched as his arms extended around her, his hands bracing on the cabinet behind her as he blocked her in.
Yeah, there was that dominance that both turned her on and warned her she was walk- ing into the path of more danger than she could have ever imagined.