He needed to breathe. To think.

“No.” She followed, her head lifting, one hand snagging the long strands of his hair, tangling in it and jerking his mouth back to her. Eating at his lips, her tongue licking at him, searching for more of him as her hips writhed beneath him.

He was lost. Lost.

His tongue plunged into her mouth as his body became controlled by one thing only: the animal marking his mate, taking her, slamming his cock inside her with primal, primitive force.

He wasn’t going to last. Not long enough. He wanted to fuck her forever. Linger in the brilliant heat of her pussy and memorize every sensation whipping through his body.

Next time, he promised, growling as his lips left hers and moved to her neck. The hormone had eased from his tongue, but the need hadn’t eased from his body. Moving his arms beneath her, he cupped her ass in his hands, came over her and gave her everything he had never given another.

All of him. Desperate, growling, surging hunger. His hips churned into her; sweat dripped from his body and his senses focused on one thing. Only one thing. Scheme.

Her release was building, whipping through her. He could sense its peak nearing. Just a little further. A little harder. He could only give her what he needed and rush into the flames along with her.

His lips opened, his teeth sinking into her shoulder as she ruptured around him. Her pussy clenched, spasmed, grabbed hold of his dick and milked it until he had no choice, no will.

He felt the barb extending, a thickened, stiff extension pressing out from beneath the hood of his dick, locking into the back of those tight, gripping muscles, and spurting inside her as his release swept over him.

Deep spurts of his semen filled her snug pussy as the barb spilled the soothing, heat-easing hormone that would give her a small respite from the hungers gnawing at both of them.

Tanner kept his head buried in her neck, his tongue lapping at the bite he had left on her, smelling his scent inside her, moving through her veins, filling her body.

His scent.

Tanner growled in satisfaction at the presence of the mark, both on her shoulder and now a part of her very essence. She was his. She belonged to him and him alone.

As the last pulsing, desperate shudders eased from his body, his head turned, eyes opening to see Cabal where he stood by the bathroom door.

His brother was aroused, desperately aroused, but a glimmer of satisfaction raged in his eyes. Cabal could sense it, Tanner knew, the primitive marking, the satisfaction that glowed through himself and Scheme.

As Tanner sighed wearily, the heat temporarily stilled, his senses replete, he realized he was leaving his brother behind. Again.

Drawing from Scheme, he wrapped his arms around her as she cuddled against his chest and drifted into sleep. She would rest for a while. Then, he would have to make certain she ate before taking her to Ely. The tests had to be done; he knew that, though he hated it.

Cabal caught his gaze again as he moved in the doorway, indicating the connecting room on the other side of Tanner’s. Cabal’s room.

Tanner tucked the blankets around Scheme, keeping her warm as she slept, before rising from the bed and pulling his jeans on.

Barefoot, he followed Cabal into the other room, moving instantly to the small refrigerator his brother kept in his suite and the sandwich meat there. A loaf of bread sat on the tray on the small side table beside the bar, as well as small packages of condiments.

Pulling a paper plate from beneath the table, he piled the bread with sliced meat, squeezed several packs of mustard onto it and then bit in with relish before pulling a beer free.

“I don’t think so.” The beer was snatched out of his hand and replaced with water.

Tanner frowned.

“The alcohol only increases the mating heat,” Cabal explained. “Listen to me for once or you’ll exhaust her more than necessary.”

Tanner shook his head, but he didn’t argue. He took the sandwich and the water and moved back to the doorway to check on Scheme.

“You’ll know if she wakes up,” Cabal commented behind him. “We have to talk.”

Tanner finished the sandwich in silence before polishing off the water and turning back to Cabal.

Ten years. He had spent the past ten years making certain his brother knew he was part of something. Not just a family, but an integral part of something. For years Tanner had assumed they would mate the same woman, continue on as they had started when Tanner had brought Cabal his first woman. Cabal had been twenty-five, and he had never known a woman’s caress or her soft kiss. Had never spilled his pleasure or given himself up to the erotic, exotic scents of a woman’s desire.

“Stop regretting, Tanner.” Cabal sighed. “I don’t. This is right, and I’m not feeling left out.”

Tanner’s lips quirked.

“I would have felt very left out,” he admitted. “I would have been pissed, Cabal.”

Cabal grunted on a soft laugh. “You’re too spoiled, Tanner. First Callan and the girls spoiled you; now the world spoils you. You haven’t heard the word ‘no’ since you left the labs.”

“Sure I have.” Tanner grimaced. “Scheme tells me no every chance she gets.”

“Oh yeah, she counts.” Cabal chuckled as he moved to his dresser and pulled free a clean shirt.

“What happened to your shirt?” Tanner knew he had been wearing one when they entered the bedroom.

“It’s in shreds.” Cabal shrugged. “Restraint isn’t my strong suit.”

Tanner shook his head. “Why did you stay and watch then?”

“You need someone to watch your back.” Cabal flicked a look over his shoulder. “Because both our scents needed to be in that room to make this work.”

“Ely’s tests will prove the mating,” Tanner pointed out. “There’s no way to keep it a secret from her.”

“Ely doesn’t have to do our damned tests,” Cabal retorted. “Not on us. Just on Scheme, and just enough to create the hormonal supplement she’ll need to function through this. If we’re going to keep her alive, Tanner, then we’re going to be careful.” Savage fury flashed in Cabal’s eyes. “I won’t lose you, Tanner, and I won’t allow you to lose her. We’re going to catch the bastard this time. I can feel it.”

“I don’t want to lose you any more than I want to lose my mate, Cabal,” Tanner warned him.

“No danger.” The confidence in his brother’s voice never failed to amaze him. “I didn’t survive that damned pit that long, Tanner, just to eat an assassin’s bullet. My senses are sharper than yours, especially now that you’re in mating heat. With the spy believing both our senses are dulled, my job will be made that much easier. While the two of you are in the cabinet meeting later, I’ll begin checking a few things out, and watching to see who comes upstairs. They won’t expect that.”

Tanner pushed his fingers through his hair as he stared back at Cabal. It made sense. There were rumors about the brothers, suspicions that their animalistic abilities went much deeper than anyone suspected. And they were right. Tanner’s were sharper, a hell of a lot sharper than most Breeds, but Cabal’s were even stronger. So strong that sometimes he worried about what his brother actually sensed from those around him.

Tanner breathed out tiredly. “That doesn’t fix the problem that you aren’t in mating heat.”

Cabal’s lips quirked. “Doesn’t matter, the scent is all over me. Only a Bengal would know the difference, and since there are no other Bengals here, we won’t have a problem.”

Tanner inhaled sharply, separating the scents in the room and narrowing his eyes. The scent wasn’t just on Cabal; it was a part of him.

“What’s going on?” he asked the other man. “And don’t lie to me, Cabal. You’ll just piss me off.”

“Hell if I know.” Cabal shook his head in irritation. “The hunger isn’t there, Tanner. I’m not in mating heat for your woman. But the scent is there, like it’s weeping from my pores. Let’s just see what the hell happens.”

“We need Ely on this,” Tanner argued. “It could be important.”

“Do you trust her with Scheme’s life?” Cabal asked. “That’s a question you better answer before you bring anyone into this.”

“We have to get Callan up here,” Tanner decided. Damn, this was beginning to get complicated. “We can’t do any of this without his cooperation. And we have to make it work.”

“We’ll make this work.” Cabal’s voice was hard. Savage. “No matter what, Tanner, we will make this work.”

CHAPTER 26

There were few times in her life that Scheme could say she had been warned about the hell she was getting ready to step into. Until she arrived at Sanctuary.

Tanner, Cabal and Callan had warned her about the examination she needed to allow. It was an examination. How freaking painful could a simple examination be? Some blood samples, some swabs, a poke and a prod here and there. No big deal.

Yet, something had warned her. She had declined eating until afterward. The sight of blood being drawn from her arm always had the power to make her slightly ill. It was much more comfortable without food lying heavy in her stomach.

But had she eaten, there would have been no way to keep it in her stomach. The pain didn’t make sense, even after the explanation. That the Breed mating hormone made her flesh so hypersensitive that no one other than her mate could touch her. Nature’s insurance, the Breed doctor theorized, to make certain that the mates were given time to bond emotionally while the hormone worked to make certain the small amount of human-compatible Breed sperm had a chance to fertilize the female eggs the hormone forced from the ovaries. Eggs whose DNA was altered by the hormone, which acted as a virus at the genetic level. The process was similar to the one used to change the human sperm during the genetic alterations to create the Breeds.

She had become one of nature’s experiments; unfortunately, her body was a defective testing ground.

Dry heaves still wracked her, long minutes after the doctor, formerly a Council-trained scientist, Elyiana Morrey, finished her exam.

Tanner stood to one side of the cot Scheme still sat on; Cabal lounged against the wall on the other side of the room. Both men were tense, dangerously so. It would have been hard to tell which was the supposed mate from the way the two men were acting.

“You need to go outside,” Scheme told Tanner, growing more nervous by the minute with the subtle rumbles of a growl in his chest. “Both of you.” Cabal wasn’t much better.

“Get used to it.” Ely’s smile was warm, if slightly uncomfortable, as she glanced at the two Breeds. “Breeds become slightly intense when they mate.”

Scheme was so getting tired of that word. Mate. She might love that insane Breed, but she was on the cusp of killing him. The word mate just irked her that much worse. Because he hadn’t warned her. Because he had taken her, driven her insane with need and then decided to change all the rules on her and play her game without being willing to allow her to participate. She had gone through hell more than once in her efforts to find the identity of Cyrus’s spy. Now, Tanner and Cabal both wanted to wrap her in cotton and keep her from the final inning of the dangerous confrontation they all knew was coming.

“I don’t want to get used to it,” she grated as she forced back the dry heaves and gripped tighter the sheet that covered her breasts. “Is this finished yet? Can I get dressed?”

“You need a hormonal injection first,” Ely argued. “Tanner and Cabal are trained medics though, so I can allow one of them to give the injection. It won’t cause any pain that way.”

She glanced up at Tanner, watching as his jaw flexed. When Ely turned back to him with the syringe, Cabal had paced to the door of the examination room, appearing to listen to something in the corridor.