Megans Mark (Breeds 6)

"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 w

ith 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.