Lora Leigh - A Christmas Kiss

And it had paid off well for him.

“You don’t want to do this, Todd,” she rasped, rising to her feet, swaying as though she were dizzy, as though the blows and the shock to her system were too much. “You can’t destroy the Breeds like this. It won’t work.”

“I’ll get away with it,” he assured her. “They will never know it was me.”

“You won’t listen any more than my father would,” she snapped back then, as though angry. “The way to destroy them isn’t through this sort of deception. It’s through the mating heat.”

He paused. “The heat is a rumor.” There was an edge of suspicion in his voice though.

Jessica gave a light laugh as she held her hand to her ribs. “I’m going to forgive the bruises for just a moment,” she told him. “I’m even going to try to forget that you’re a moron acting outside of orders.” He frowned at the insult. “Imagine, if you will, that the mating heat does exist. How do you destroy the Breeds?”

His eyes narrowed on her. Oh yes, let that suspicion work through your teeny tiny little brain, she thought. She was the daughter of the man who had led the pure blood society he was obviously a part of. The daughter who had been imprisoned and betrayed her people. But he couldn’t be certain; not really. No one had heard from her in a year before her release.

“You prove mating heat,” he ventured softly.

“Father wouldn’t listen.” She shook her head furiously. “Killing the mates would only enrage them, but they’re too heavily backed by too many powerful political figures now. That’s not the way to take them down.”

Todd nodded slowly. “You have to make people fear them.”

She smiled in approval. “I didn’t betray my people or my country, Todd. You know I couldn’t do that. I loved my father. I love my country.”

“You pulled Gunnar and Arlington’s mates out of harm’s way,” he accused her furiously, but the gun leveled off and his attention was no longer on Jessica.

“I did what I had to do,” she snarled back at him. “Mating heat, Todd. Prove mating heat. How do you prove it?”

He licked his lips, staring at her like he was beginning to see her point of view.

“Let the heat run it’s course,” she suggested. “Then escape. Once I do that, and the heat is fully conditioned inside me, then we have what we need to destroy them. Proof.”

There wasn’t a chance in hell.

“You’re fully mated?”

“Close.” She pushed her fingers through her hair as though frustrated. “Close, until you decided to play the moron. God, couldn’t you have given me just a few more days? That was all I needed.”

Was it working? He was suspicious. He was still watching her as though he knew she was lying, knew she was playing him.

“How can I believe you?” He wanted to though, because the thought of finally proving the Breeds were a threat was irresistible.

“Don’t you ever pay attention to anything beyond your own inglorious little fantasies?” she scoffed. “Tell me, Todd. Have you ever shaken hands with one of the Breeds’ wives? Didn’t you ever pay attention to how you are never allowed to touch one of them? How only certain members of any department are allowed around them? They told me about mating heat within my first year there, because the alpha’s wife, as well as the second-in-command’s, was becoming friends with me. I had to sign waivers to hell and back and swear on everything under the sun that I would never reveal it. To prove it, I had to ensure one of them mated me.” She glanced at Hawke as though in disgust and caught the barest flicker of his eyelashes.

Oh God, let him be waking up. Let him be okay. She had no idea how to get out of this other than running her mouth. Todd was too far away for her to jump him, and was too suspicious for her to get him out of the room.

“Hawke still has to die,” Todd told her as she turned her gaze back to him.

“Oh sure, kill the goose with the golden egg.” She rolled her eyes. “Where do you think the mating heat comes from? Don’t you read the papers? It’s a hormone, Todd. He has to do all these little ‘alive’ things, like kissing me, screwing me, trying to make little Breed babies with me. Do you understand yet?”

She was going to throw up. She couldn’t believe she was saying these things, that Hawke was listening, that he could hear her. She had fought for so long to make amends for what she had done unwillingly. Now it would only appear as though she had willingly betrayed them.

She could see her future draining away before her eyes. She could see her happiness dying, her life becoming forfeit. But, if Hawke lived, if he managed to save himself, then it would be worth it.

Her Hawke was well worth dying for.

Hawke could smell the lies coming off Jessica in waves. The desperation to make Todd Bennett believe her went clear to her soul. She sounded convincing, and when he snuck a brief look at her face, she looked convincing. His Jess was playing the role of her life and fighting to give him a chance to get his bearings.

The animal inside him was slowly coming awake. He could feel his senses sharpening, his strength returning. His unique Breed genetics were slowly pushing past the barrier that had clouded his mind.

What the fuck had happened? He felt like he had been hit by a two-by-four, but he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell anyone could have slipped up on him that easily.

“I can’t believe whoever gave you the order to try anything this insane,” Jessica continued with a disgusted sigh. “Really, Todd. Didn’t your little attempted assassin inform your group how many times I’ve been out in that forest trying to escape this place?”

There was a moment of silence.

“The group doesn’t know about that,” Todd finally admitted. “I was the one shooting at you.”

“Father would have had you killed if he were still alive,” she spat back at him. “Even he knew not to attempt to kill me. He knew what I was trying to do, he just didn’t agree with it. Do you think he would have risked drugging me if I had been truly totally against it? The drug was only there to give me a plausible escape, not because the damned thing actually worked. Use your brain for a change.”

Hawke felt her move away from the tree as he opened his eyes just enough to focus, to see if his vision had fully returned yet.

The first thing he saw was the porcelain figure on the floor, one tiny crystal wing lying in fragments against the hardwood.

He had to grit his teeth to keep from growling in fury. That had been his first gift to her, a reflection of what he saw in her. His angel. The beauty that could tame the beast inside him.

Todd Bennett was a dead man walking.

“I wish I could believe you, Jessica.” Todd’s voice was filled with regret, with hope. “The story is good, I’ll give that to you. It’s enough to make me want to believe.”

“Then kill me,” she laughed. “Go ahead, Todd. Make the worst mistake of your life. Because when you do, Uncle Craig will reach out from prison and snap your skinny little neck.”

Craig Raines. His arrest had been made so quietly that it hadn’t even hit the papers. Only a few people could have known of his arrest. Jess knew, because she had given the Breeds the information that her uncle and her father both had ties to the pure blood groups.

Hawke felt Todd pause then.

“Craig wasn’t caught,” he said, but Hawke could hear the fear in his voice then.

“Don’t be a fool,” Jessica snapped, and though the tone of her voice was confident, he could feel her fear increase. “Craig was the mastermind behind the plot to kill the Breeds at the Christmas party in Advert just before my release. He was also my contact.”

Hawke was almost ready to move. He could feel his muscles unlocking, adrenaline coursing through his body as he tensed to attack. Just another few seconds. If Jess could just hold on a little longer, distract Todd just a bit more . . .

“I can’t take the chance,” Todd said softly, his voice now filled with regret. “I’m sorry, Jess. I just can’t take a chance on you.”

He was going to kill her.

Jess watched as Todd lifted the weapon, aiming it to her stomach. Damn, that was going to hurt. He was going to make sure that he punished her, whether he believed it or not.

“Uncle Craig will have you skinned alive for this,” she snapped.

“Like the Breeds, Craig will have to figure out who did it first,” he informed her, his smile tight and hard. “Unlike some who are in the society, Jess, I believe that sometimes we have to take every opportunity we’re given to destroy the Breeds. You’re his mate. Alive, you still serve a purpose to the Breeds. Dead, you destroy him.”

His arm stiffened.

Jess threw herself across the room, diving for the floor, thankful that at least he was shooting at her, not at Hawke. At the same time, a vicious, enraged howl filled the house.

The whine of the silenced weapon could be heard a second before his screams. A second before the sound of chaos tore through the room.

Stumbling to her feet, she rushed for her purse, her head lifting as she stumbled on the mattress, her eyes widening at the sight that met her eyes.

Animalistic, primal. Hawke had Todd’s neck in the powerful grip of his hand as he shook him. The weapon had fallen to the floor and Todd stared back in horror at the vision of Breed rage.

Hawke’s lips were drawn back from his teeth, his canine’s flashing in the low glow of the tree lights. A howl tore from his lips again as Breed enforcers rushed into the room. Leading them was none other than Wolfe, his expression a mask of fury. Hawke shook Todd again before throwing him against the wall and burying his fist in the other man’s gut.

The air expelled from Todd’s lungs with a gasp. As Hawke stepped back, he crumpled to the floor, gasping, short cries tearing from his throat as he tried to crawl away.

“Hawke.” She moved to him, her hand lifting, shaking, as tears began to fall from her eyes.

He turned on her then. Golden eyes flamed with his rage and a sob shook her entire body. He had heard everything. He had heard her speak of betraying him, of betraying him further. He had heard the lies she told to distract Todd, lies that would be her death sentence now.

“My mate,” he snarled, suddenly jerking her to him, shocking her with the force of his hold and the snarled demand in his voice.

“Hawke.” She whispered his name through her tears as one hand wrapped around the back of her neck, the other gripping her hip as he jerked her closer.

“My mate,” he growled again. “Always mine.”

Before she could affirm or deny, his head lowered, his lips covered hers and his tongue pushed forcefully between her lips.

Immediately the taste of the mating hormone exploded through her senses. It was richer, spicier than ever before. She could feel the burn almost immediately, the explosion of sensation, hunger and need that lashed through her body and drove her to claw at his chest to get closer.

As though the threat of death had pushed him past reason, he kissed her with a desperation she had never known before, a desperation she returned. Their tongues twined, mated, fought and surrendered in a dance as old as time.

When he managed to jerk back she could only sway against him, dazed and uncertain, as she heard the men behind her, heard Todd’s frightened cries, his breathless accusations against her. The details of the plan she had given him, the plan that had never existed.

“Get that bastard out of my mate’s home.” Hawke turned to Wolfe as Jess struggled to turn in his arms. “I want him dead.”

“Quietly,” Wolfe stated, his dark eyes going between Hawke and Jessica. “He’s bringing some serious charges against Jess already, Hawke,” he warned.

“Lies.” His arm tightened around Jess. “The bastard thought I was senseless from the drug he slipped me at the party. He didn’t give me near enough. I was weak, not unconscious. He lies. He bragged of his part in betraying the Breeds and his connections to the pure blood society that attacked in Advert before Jess’s release. I want him taken care of, Wolfe. Permanently. He knows Jess is my mate. He’s been deceitful enough that he’s put together the information on mating. He’s a risk we can’t afford.”

Wolfe stared back at him for long seconds as Jess watched and fought to catch her breath. She felt as though she were falling, as though the strength had seeped from her limbs the moment she realized Todd was pulling the trigger.