Megans Mark (Breeds 6)

Not that Megan would ever submit. She was as much an alpha personality as he was himself, which explained the fist she had used against him. She knew what that bite meant, every bit as much as he did. A claiming. An attempt to force some measure of control over her, if nothing else, in the certainty that she was still his. That the hormone that bound them together would continue to fill her system, and make her hunger for him just as much as she hungered for justice and for adventure.

Now midnight was rolling around and all he wanted to do was sleep away the pressure in his head. Right after he got rid of the pressure in his dick.

"Braden, we couldn't find the Dragoon. " Jonas stepped out on the porch where Braden was nursing a cold beer and a pounding headache.

He pushed his fingers through his hair wearily as he sat perched on top of the hard rubber doghouse Megan's mutt had occupied when he first arrived at the house. The top of the roof was flat enough to sit on, the side of it slanted enough to brace his feet on. He bet the inside would hold him and Megan both, let alone that wolf-sized mutt she called her

dog.

"Where the hell do you hide a Desert Dragoon?" Braden shook his head. He knew the technology the Breed community now possessed. They could find the proverbial needle in a haystack, but they couldn't find a heavily armed Dragoon in the middle of a fucking desert?

"It could be hidden in any one of hundreds of caves and caverns. " Jonas stepped closer, his silver eyes looking damned odd in the dark. What the hell was he, anyway? He smelled like a lion, but Braden was damned if he acted like one.

"I don't like this, Jonas. Those weren't Coyotes, they were Special Forces trained and some of the best I've gone up against. They had the weapons and the vehicles in place for an ambush with no idea when we'd be heading out there. They knew the route we'd take and Megan swears only her family could have known of it. And I can't believe Lance would try to hurt her. In any way. "

"Jacobs isn't under suspicion. " Jonas affirmed his own thoughts. "I agree with your earlier assessment though. There's something else going on here, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. "

Neither could he. Braden had gone over the information backward and forward and still hadn't found the answer. It would have been easier to

take Megan out in a hundred different ways. Why wait? Why attack at the canyon when it would have been much more efficient to do so on the way there? It was almost as though they were being tested. As though Megan was being tested. But for what?

"She needs to go to sanctuary, Braden. " Jonas's voice was quiet, firm.

"She might not survive the next attack. "

Braden propped his elbows on his knees and stared into the dark glass of the bottle he held. The heli-jet sat a short distance from the house. while several teams of Felines kept silent watch. He could sense them in the darkness, watching the house and those within it.

It was like that at Sanctuary. Callan and his people did their best to keep the mountain more of a haven than a compound, but the ready watchfulness of the Breeds on alert could be felt at any time of the day or night. No one slacked off, no one forgot the fact that the Genetics Council and the Purist societies working against them were just waiting for the slightest break in their defenses.

It wasn't a prison, but damn if he didn't feel just as hemmed in there. It would be worse for Megan. He saw her today. For the first time since she had run headlong into his life, he had really seen her. Her eyes shining, the fierce fire of battle blazing in them. She lived for adventure. Loved the fight, the racing adrenaline, the triumph.

Just as he did.

And he had seen something else, something he had only realized in the past hours. Megan did have the proper barriers, those that kept out the harmful effects and allowed the information through. She had used them instinctively today, racing across that mountain like a daredevil from hell, instinctively turning the wheel, steering clear of the worst of the gunfire as well as the natural obstacles. With training she could learn to use those barriers as well as her talents with lethal effectiveness. She could be the perfect partner; she would be the perfect mate. But she would never survive Sanctuary.

He lifted the beer, finishing it off lazily before twirling the bottle between his fingers.

"She won't go," he finally said softly.

"Or you won't let her?" Jonas asked, his voice dark. "She'll die in this desert, Braden, and you'll go with her. Let her make the choice. "

"Do you think I don't know her, Jonas?" He kept his voice low, pushed back the anger that the other man would question, and tried to remind himself that Jonas's job was to protect the Breed community as a whole. Megan was Braden's mate. Capable of birthing the future. That would definitely fall under the heading of protection.

"I think maybe you're not thinking this through," Jonas said carefully.

Braden felt a small spurt of amusement at the other man's comment. This wasn't the first time he had been accused of such a thing.

"I'll ask her. " He owed her that.

He fingered the bruise at his eye. Damn, he was almost too scared not to give her the choice. Even when shaking on her feet that woman packed a wallop.

"Don't ask her, Braden. " Jonas's voice hardened. "Pack her up and stick her ass and yours in the heli-jet. We'll figure this out another way. Keep her safe. "

Braden rolled the bottle between his hands before turning his head and staring up at the other man. Was he being selfish? Was his own need to be free overriding the need to protect his mate? His woman?

"Braden, they will kill her. " Jonas's voice was harder now, more determined.

"I said I'll ask her. " He leaned back against the house, staring out into the night. "You don't just tell a woman like that to do much of anything, Jonas. " He grunted. "She'd cut your balls off and throw them in your