"GPS, pull up Area Six-fifteen, Section C, Casper's Pass." The windshield immediately became a crosssection of lines and map points as he backed the Raider into the turning area and pulled out.

"There's the canyon. Lance and I always called it Casper's Pass, though officially it has no name. We named it that for the sound the winds make at certain times of the day, like ghostly laughter weaving through the canyon.

"Here." She pointed to a section of marked range, hilly, appearing impassable if one used the GPS

appearance.

"There's a rarely used road that weaves through this range. It's pretty much hidden, even from the air, so satellite would have a hard time finding it. If we disconnect GPS and the locator beacon on the Raider, we could slip through here. It would bring us above the canyon and allow us to survey it from a point where damned near all the canyon is in full view, It could give us an advantage that the other routes won't."

Braden glanced at the screen, his brow furrowing as he stared at the direction she laid out by touching the points on the screen. As she had said, it was hidden, so well that even the Breed satellites had been

unable to detect it.

"The Raider can traverse it?" The range looked remarkably rough.

"Lance and I went fishing up there last summer with Grandfather." She minted to the blue area indicated more than a mile from the observation point she suggested. "We took the range road with his Raider. It was rough, but definitely passable, and the area is also greener than the valley below, which cuts down on the dust trail. Without beacon, locators or dust points, the satellite imagery—if the Council is using it—can't pick us up here. They won't be expecting us if they're there."

Excitement. He could feel it building in her, along with fear. And arousal. He inhaled slowly, restraining the lust building within him.

"Stop sniffing." He almost grinned at the disgruntled tone of her voice.

"Leaving the house was your idea, not mine. I was perfectly happy bouncing in bed."

"You have a way of describing things that astounds me, Megan," he drawled. "Next time, we'll try the kitchen table and see what you come up with for that one."

"Ewww, I eat there," she retorted in mock distaste.

He glanced at her, allowing a smile to tilt his lips.

"I'll just make a meal out of you,'' he told her, not bothering to hide the hunger in his voice.

She flushed. He loved watching the color move beneath her skin, the way her eyes darkened and her breathing roughened.

"Pervert," she accused him, though her voice lacked heat. "I'll wait until we get closer to the area before I disable the GPS and locator beacon. Otherwise, anyone at the office can track us. I'll never believe Lance would betray me, but there are several people there I wouldn't trust as far as I can throw them."

There were several people he knew would sell her out in a second. Jonas had pulled profiles on each and every deputy on the force, as well as the sheriff. Their records weren't nearly as clean as the state investigators had listed them.

"I anticipated that." He nodded, pointing to a small area several miles from their present location. "I'll pull over here and disable. While I'm at it, I'll contact the team watching the house and see if they were able to take out the Coyotes there. We hadn't pinpointed their exact location yesterday, but I'm hoping that when we drive off, they'll begin moving. My team will be able to locate them if they do."

Silence filled the vehicle then. Braden was aware of Megan breathing in roughly before disengaging the GPS map and settling back in her seat.

She watched the road in front of them, her body tense, her emotions chaotic. He knew the step she had taken hadn't been an easy one.

"I could fail," she finally reminded him, fighting to steady her breathing, her fears, as though frightened of giving the words strength by voicing them.

"And you could find freedom." He kept his hands tight around the steering wheel, refusing to reach out to her, to comfort her as every instinct inside him was demanding he do.

He was supposed to protect his mate. To fight her battles, to cherish her. And God knew he had grown to cherish her. Hell, he was so in love with her he was acting more like a callow youth than a fully grown Breed. She was his other half; the Mating would not let him deny it.

Taking her into danger wasn't sitting well with him. He knew the problems she would face as she learned to build the shields she needed. The pain she would endure in opening herself up to emotions that filled that damned canyon.

She wasn't a Breed; she had none of the natural, instinctive blocks to

protect her mind from the horror she would face.

By letting it in, she would experience it, the same as Mark and Aimee had experienced it. She would know their pain, their horror, and their deaths. And with any luck, the secret of why they had made the fateful trip to Broken Butte in search of her would be revealed.

"Freedom would be nice." Her voice was reflective, thoughtful as she responded to his earlier comment.

"It would be very nice."

What she wasn't saying, he could feel. Freedom was adventure. It was the warrior's soul given the chance to fight, to make the difference it had longed to make. She would have no choice but to fight. Further training, if they survived this mission, would be a necessity. He was an assassin. He didn't capture the scientists and Trainers who had worked within the Council. As far as he was concerned, there was no redemption for the corruption that filled them. They were diseased animals. And like such creatures of the wild, the only peace the world would know was in their deaths.

He flexed his shoulders, feeling the scars crisscrossing his back that he had never allowed Megan to see. The whips used in the training centers and Labs were created to maim, to kill in the most painful ways. He had learned early on to avoid that punishment at all costs. But he had learned it at a painful price.

"We'll go slow." He made the promise against his better judgment. "We can observe the canyon from above, see what you can pick up from there."

"It's too far away," she said regretfully. "I drive through the canyon when on patrol, looking for tire tracks, or sensations of previous movement. I can't do that from a distance; I'll have to get into the canyon. Normally, GPS will pick up life signs, but something jammed it in the gully, so I'm hesitant to trust it now."

"Yeah, I noticed that. My Raider wasn't picking them up either. The jammers were gone when the team went through the canyon though."

"Unless it was being used from another point. Did we miss one of the Coyotes? She turned to stare at him, a frown creasing her brow.

"We missed one." He nodded, certain himself that there had been a third Coyote. "That's why we won't rely on GPS this trip. We'll use what God gave us to survive, Megan." He couldn't let her do otherwise.

"We don't have a choice. We find out now why they want you, and what my people were doing here. And then we take them out."

Chapter Fifteen

The route they took to the canyon was longer than the others, but as Megan promised, the grassier terrain yielded no dust clouds and the sheltering hills and passes muted the sound of the motor as it made its way to the location.

It wasn't an easy drive, and one he was certain only the Raider or a terrain-eating motorbike could have traversed.

The Raider sliced through several streams before squeezing through passes he was certain there was no way it could scrape through.

Before noon, they were pulling into a hidden copse of trees. Braden cut the motor before leaving the vehicle. The edge of the canyon was just ahead.

Braden pulled the binoculars from the backseat and began surveying the area while Megan looked around nervously.

He could feel her fighting to lower the shields that were so much a part of her and search for any hidden enemies.

"What do you feel? He kept scanning with the binoculars; the heat seeking capabilities of the equipment couldn't be blocked. There was plenty of wildlife, but so far none of the two-legged variety.

"Fear." Her voice was flat, tight.

"How strong is it?" God, he hated this. He could feel her hesitancy. her instinctive rejection of the emotions trying to bombard her.

"Probably mine," she answered with resignation. "I'd rather face the Coyotes and bullets than try this."

"Let's move in closer. I can't detect any hidden life signs. If they're here, they're below."

The Coyotes wouldn't anticipate their arrival from above. They would expect them to take the same course into the canyon that Megan would have taken on patrol.

"There're several ways into the canyon from here." She kept her voice lowered as little by little she forced the mental blocks to recede.

It wasn't easy for her. He could feel the struggle she was waging to drop them, to allow her sensitive brain to pick up whatever emotions leaked

from the canyon below. They were there; he could feel them, just as he could feel the presence of the Coyotes.

"We'll stay high for now." Bending low, they moved from the shelter of the thick trees, staying parallel to a mass of boulders that appeared to have been dropped like a child's marbles along the top of the canyon.

Megan moved along the edge of the thick pine growth, thankful for the cover of brush as she moved closer to the area where she would have been most vulnerable during patrol.

She couldn't feel the presence of the Coyotes. The dark malevolence that was so much a part of them, the thirst for a blood, was absent. She knew them now, knew the feel of them, the smell of them.

She was aware of Braden moving behind her. The sense of calm, the shield that normally reached out to her wasn't there now. The absence of it sent her pulse racing; the knowledge that she was mentally on her own was almost frightening.

She couldn't feel the Coyotes but the tendrils of violence that reached out from the canyon floor had her chest tightening. Rage. Fear.

She breathed in roughly, fighting to allow it in, to sift past the rage and anger for the core of the emotion. There was always a core. A driving reason behind the pain. But at this distance it would be next to

impossible to detect.

"Mark and Aimee had been here. They knew the Coyotes were following them," she said, her voice rough as she felt him behind her.

He was tense as he covered her. The shields he had allowed her to use before weren't available, but there was something else, a connection, a sense of energy pouring from him into her.

"Let's move back, work our way to the canyon floor and see if there's anything there. Maybe the distance between here and the entrance they used is still too much."

God, she could feel them already, distant though they were. The shadowy impressions of emotion clenched her chest as the overwhelming grief, the bottomless pit of rage and pain, sought her out. Why had those Breeds been here? What had they wanted from her?

They backtracked quietly. As they neared the upper edge of the cliffs, Megan pointed out the steep trail that led to the canyon floor. The weaving path led between boulders, scrub pine and a multitude of brush.

It wasn't the safest route, but it was relatively secure.

"I'll go ahead of you." Braden paused at the top of the path, glancing

back at her, his gaze darker, filled with concern.

"Are you doing okay?"

She nodded stiffly. Dropping her barriers, ineffective though they were, was still hard. It wasn't something she was used to doing and her mind was rioting at the vulnerable position she was placing herself in.

"How did you learn to use your shields?’ she asked.

"Most of it is natural instinct. Animals have the ability to sense emotion, to sense danger, while remaining unaffected by it. They know it's there. My abilities are stronger than many of the other Felines. I can drop my shields and sense emotion without feeling it, but I can't pick up specifics. I can pick up the fact that there was death, pain, rage or danger. But I can't sift through the emotions to reach the secrets."