Tied With a Bow

had paused too close to the door for the animal’s comfort. And that had only happened a few times.
    Now, awake, he watched the sun rise outside the narrow slit of the windows and hesitated to leave the warm weight of his mate.
    But, he had a meeting. Getting out of it wasn’t an option.
    He wanted to know who had called Isabelle’s father and who had attempted to force her family to convince her to leave his embrace. To use something as traumatic as the loss of her aunt and the tragic event of her death against Isabelle’s father.
    The only way to learn the answer to that question was the meeting Rule had arranged with her family. Terran, Ray and Orin Martinez had come to his room, intent on saving Isabelle from the monster who had supposedly allowed her aunt to suffer a horrendous death.
    Did Morningstar’s family even know how she had died? That, like many of the mates of the captive Breeds, she had been mercilessly dissected while still living? No anesthesia, nothing to dull the inhuman cruelty of the lethally sharp scalpel, she had been laid open and each of the internal changes mating forced on her carefully notated.
    There were few who had survived that particular research practice. And never had a female mate survived it, human or otherwise.
    Placing a gentle kiss to the top of Isabelle’s head, Malachi pushed himself from the warmth of her body and left the bed, his lips quirking at the discontent in her drowsy little moan.
    She didn’t like losing his warmth any more than he liked being forced to attend this meeting rather than remaining with her. But, the means the unknown messenger had used to hurt his mate was unacceptable. He needed to know who to punish for the pain that had resulted in his Isabelle fighting back tears.
    “Where are you sneaking off to?” Drowsy amusement filled her voice as he glanced back at her.
    Rolling to her back, Isabelle watched him with cobalt blue eyes and a decidedly appreciative gleam in her eyes.
    “I have a meeting,” he told her, finding it excessively hard to turn away from her and continue to the shower. “It shouldn’t take long though.”
    “Oh yeah? How long?” She stretched invitingly beneath the sheet as he turned to her from the bathroom doorway.
    The sight of lush feminine curves barely shrouded by the expensive sheets and pouty, kiss-swollen lips were a temptation no mortal man should be forced to ignore.
    His cock was steel-hard and throbbing, his balls tight and desperate for release.
    He may just have to choke the answers he needed out of her father to ensure he returned to her quickly.
    If only it were that easy.
    Tightening his jaw against the sensual demand that he return to her, Malachi forced himself through the bathroom doorway instead.
    But, he caught that smile that tugged at her lips. The adorable, sensual little curve that assured him she had very fond memories of the night they had just spent in each other’s arms.
    And, not all of it had been sexual.
    She had told him of her aunt’s disappearance, before her birth, and the guilt her father had always felt that he hadn’t been with her.
    He’d not gone to school that day because he had wanted to go tracking. He and several of his friends had slipped off to track a lone wolf that had been plaguing several of the ranches. His sister had known he wasn’t at school, she had thought he didn’t feel well. But, he had always felt that if he had been with her, perhaps she wouldn’t have been taken.
    Terran could have assured him that nothing could have kept her from being taken. Once the Council chose a breeder, they were known to go to impossibly insane lengths to acquire her.
    The genetic research that had gone into each Breed had been exacting. The research that went into both the DNA required from the female, as well as the genetic information from the animal breed, was exhaustive.
    The Council’s requirements for each were high, but for the breeder, they preferred those women born with what they called the earth based gifts.
    Native American, Romanian, Irish and Scots, and any bloodline suspected to carry psychic gifts. For some reason, those genetics, when combined with the predators chosen, had created the strongest, most powerful Breeds.
    Rule Breaker and Lawe Justice were two such examples. Though no one was entirely certain what the brothers’ greatest strengths were. One thing was for sure though—there was no doubt that the genetics that went into each Breed hadn’t