Regret, sincerity and perhaps even a hint of uncertainty. He couldn’t predict whether she would accept his apology or not.
“Apology accepted.” She shrugged, still watching him closely, aware of the emotions he tried to stem, or make sense of. He was a Breed that rarely allowed others close to, and trusted even less.
“Amber is as much my child as any Rachel will conceive from our union,” he told her softly then. “She is flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, and I want to know how Gideon made that happen.”
Cat couldn’t hide the flinch of shock at his words.
“What? What do you mean?” She shook her head, confusion filling her.
Jonas turned his gaze to her, the brooding intensity in it focusing on her completely.
“For six months, at the very least, he was slipping past every security protocol I used to alert me that he was there, and he was injecting my little girl, the child that came to me as a stepdaughter, with that evil that Brandenmore created. The files he left explained everything, but how Amber is slowly becoming a Lion Breed isn’t explained. One with my genetic markers. And I want to know how he did it.”
With Jonas’s genetic markers? Graeme knew how to adjust the serum to mark the Breed genetics with familial coding and he hadn’t marked hers in such a way? Was it something he’d learned only after leaving the labs? Or something he’d learned with his recapture?
“I don’t know how he did it.” She shook her head, staring back at him and allowing him to sense that inner part of her where truth or deception lay.
“I never imagined you knew how he did it,” he acknowledged. “It’s something I have to know, though. He’ll return, Cat. He’ll come back to you, he won’t be able to help himself. You’re his mate. You belong to him and we both know he’ll never be far from you. That endangers you and it endangers him. The only protection either of you will have is me.”
Oh, she could see where this was going now and the futility of what he wanted was almost amusing. Did he really think she would hand Graeme over to him so easily? Did he really believe he could control Graeme so easily?
“Jonas, you don’t want to ever capture him.” She sighed. “You don’t want to ever attempt to force anything from him.” The painful regret that filled her, she didn’t even attempt to hide. “Don’t you know by now, he’ll give you whatever he can give. But you capture him and he will kill you. You and everyone who stands in the way of his escape.”
Graeme would never allow himself to be imprisoned again. That creature that rose from all the inner rage amassed inside him would create a trail of blood unlike anything Jonas had ever seen before.
“He’s not Superman, Cat,” he informed her gently. “He can’t leap tall buildings or deflect bullets. He’s just a Breed, albeit a very intelligent Breed.”
Cat shook her head and leaned forward slowly. “You are wrong, Jonas,” she whispered painfully. “You are so very wrong. No, he’s not Superman. He can’t leap tall buildings. He can’t deflect bullets. But he can sense what lies in wait in that building. He can sense the bullet being fired and avoid it. He can see past every mental shield you put up against him into the very spirit of who and what you are. And if you stand in his way, then he’ll use every iota of information he has against you. Whatever Dr. Foster created when he created Gideon, the serum he was given in that research center amplified every human and Breed strength he possessed while wiping out any weakness you could possibly detect. And all that saves the world is that somehow, someway, he managed to retain enough compassion to keep the evil of humanity from overtaking him.”
“Cat, do you really believe that bullshit?” Curious disbelief filled his expression. “Gideon is not a super-Breed.”
“Leave him alone, Jonas.” She would beg him for this if she had to, though it would do no good. “He left two Jackals living for you to interrogate and somehow convinced one to actually cooperate with you . . .”
“According to Kiel, it was you that did that,” Jonas retorted. “You control the monster, he claims.”
“Breed perception amazes me sometimes,” she pointed out bitterly. “I don’t control him. No one, nothing in this world, can control the creature he’s become. But you can exist without capturing him. You can benefit from his freedom.” She leaned forward imploringly, holding her hands out to him in supplication. “Jonas, the incredible, frightening intelligence he possesses can only aid the Breeds. Stop hunting him. For God’s sake, give him some peace, if only for a short time.”
If they pushed him, if they continued to come after her, be it Council or Jonas, then Graeme would never completely control whatever it was inside him that obliterated every vestige of mercy he might still possess.