Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3)(58)

He released his breath with a loud hiss. “Don’t use logic on me.”

Tossing aside the telephone book, she moved to stand directly in front of him.

“I deserve this, Sinclair,” she said in soft, but determined tones. “I was the one to discover the emails that led to Dr. Lowman. And the one to find his possible location.”

He reached to grasp her upper arms, breathing deeply of her floral scent.

“If something happened to you…”

She reached up to lightly touch his face as his words trailed away. He couldn’t bear to think about a world without this woman in it.

“You can’t protect me every second of every day,” she said.

His muscles clenched, a dark fear settling in the pit of his gut.

“Yeah, but I don’t have to deliberately take you into the line of fire.”

Her fingers trailed down the rough curve of his jaw. He still needed to shave. Not that Mira had seemed to mind the rasp of his whiskers when they were in bed.

“There’s not going to be a line of fire.” She intruded into his much more pleasant thoughts. “No one knows where we’re going.”

Sinclair was momentarily caught between his fierce need to tuck this female away in a safe location, and the knowledge that she would never fully give herself to him if he tried steal her free will.

She’d made her point. She’d earned this. And if she decided she wanted see her efforts through to the end, then what right did he have to tell her no?

Even if his wolf was going nuts.

“I’m going to regret this,” he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out his cellphone.

Punching in Rios’s number, he waited for the jaguar to answer.

“Hey, Rios, there’s been a change of plans,” he grudgingly told his friend, turning to pace across the carpet. “No. We’re fine. But we’re heading straight to Nebraska. Mira’s coming with me.” He grimaced at Rios’s predictable response. “It doesn’t seem to matter if its smart or not.” He could feel Mira’s gaze burning a hole in his back. Time to change the subject. “Tell Bree that I want her to start getting the press conference arranged, but don’t actually start it until you hear from me. I hope to have some proof that will ensure no one can doubt we’re telling the truth.”

Rios agreed, clearly struggling to contain his very cat-like curiosity. He was smart enough to sense that Sinclair wasn’t in the mood to explain why he was allowing his soon-to-be mate to put herself in danger.

Replacing the phone in his pocket, he turned to meet Mira’s watchful gaze.

“Did you say something about a press conference?” she demanded.

“Yes.” He moved back toward the door. Now that she was firmly stuck in the middle of his plans, there was no reason to keep them a secret. “While you were at the air base, our people started to assert our independence. We’ve announced that we will no longer be prisoners.”

Her lips parted, a strange expression rippling over her lovely face.

“I thought Donaldson and Markham were becoming more and more on edge,” she said. “I assumed that it was frustration because I wasn’t finding the doctor.”

He felt a sharp surge of satisfaction at the thought of Markham sweating.

The bastard had treated his people like animals, not only caging them but also forcing them to fight in pits. And worse, he’d been trying to discover how to create his own shifters by doing unspeakable medical testing on them.

“They’re losing their hold over my people,” he explained. “Which means that this is the most dangerous time for all of us. Soon, they will decide the only way to control us is through death.”

She gasped in horror. “No.”

His expression hardened. “Before they can arrange a genocide, we intend to expose the truth.”

A shiver shook her body. “It’s no wonder they were so anxious to find the doctor. If he knows what happened in the Verona Clinic…”

Her words trailed away as they silently considered the stakes of what they were doing.

If they could find Dr. Lowman and have him stand before the cameras to admit that the humans were responsible for the virus, then the SAU would lose all credibility. They would, essentially, be destroyed.

“We have to get to him first,” he rasped.

With a firm nod of her head, Mira was moving to pull open the door.

“Let’s go.”

Sinclair rolled his eyes as he followed behind her. This morning hadn’t gone at all like he’d been expecting. And he sensed that this was only the start.

After all, he was a dominant wolf, and she was a sexy, sassy, stubborn human.

What was it the Chinese said…may you live in interesting times?

He had a feeling that life with Mira was always going to be interesting.

“This is why men lose their hair,” he said.

****

Mira didn’t try to break the heavy silence as they drove down the back roads at a break-neck speed.

She understood that Sinclair was fighting against his natural instincts. Not only was he a shifter, but he was also an Alpha. Which meant he had an overwhelming need to protect the people he considered a part of his Pack.

But she knew that she had to stand her ground. If she allowed Sinclair to believe he knew what was best for her and start making unilateral decisions for her own good, she would eventually snap.