Megan's Mark (Breeds #7)

"Spread out. Jonas is less than half an hour away. He'll find us. Full sanctions, shoot to kill."

Megan jerked her pistol from its holster as they entered the rocky, brush crowded path that led back into the canyon.

Gunfire erupted behind them as she listened to the transmissions of the Breeds in her ear.

She could feel the enemy soldiers in the canyon, a full dozen or more, and one who seemed to see everything. He was doing nothing to hold

back his thoughts as the soldiers had the other day. He watched, and he thought. They were after her. Nothing else mattered. Not the Breeds with her; whether they lived or died held no importance. Her death was uppermost.

"Soldiers are moving in ahead of us," she gasped out as they moved through a thick, bramble-coated path.

"I hear them." Braden's voice was soft, predatory. "I can also feel your link. He's doing it deliberately."

"Yeah, I figured that out." She was breathing roughly as he pulled her along behind him. "It's familiar. I just can't place it."

Gunfire behind them had them ducking quickly, listening to the comm link as Tarek gave his men brief, coded ' orders. So far, none had been hit. Thank God.

"Cooley is with them." Her finger lay firmly on the trigger of her own weapon as she scanned the area where they were hidden. "As well as a Coyote. He's determined."

"So am I." Braden's voice was quiet, but the threat of black rage beneath it sent a chill up her spine.

"We have to take out his Coyote," she murmured as she searched for the

best vantage point. She had trained in these canyons with her family from the time she was a teenager.

"We stay upwind of him and we can do that." He began moving again, easing his way through the young pines, pinon and cottonwood trees that grew along the path.

"Cooley is hunting. He's good." She knew he was good. She had heard the tales her father told of training with him when they were both in service together years before.

"I'm better," Braden said. There was nothing like male confidence, Megan thought as she barely refrained from rolling her eyes.

The comm link was filled with the Breeds' low-voiced reports; the night echoed with the sound of gunfire and men's raised voices, and the feel of evil, of death. Megan felt the pressure tightening in her head as she breathed in deeply, staying low as she followed Braden through the overgrown brush that led along the slanted walls of the canyon. They should be above the soldiers.

They should be safe.

She gasped as the pain sliced at her head. She gripped a nearby branch as she fought to keep her footing. Cooley knew what he was doing. She

could feel the pleasure he felt at the loss of life, at the pain he had caused. He was deliberately thinking about the deaths of the Breeds, the women he had raped.

Bile rose in her throat as she clenched her teeth and forced herself to move to keep up with Braden.

"Block him. Search out the information and bypass the pain," Braden ordered in her ear. "Don't let him weaken you."

She breathed in deeply, nodding fiercely as she fought to drive the images out of her head.

"He's close." Her eyes searched the night, catching brief glimpses of the soldiers rushing through the canyon below. "He's using the Coyote to track me psychically."

"They aren't dependable." She felt him surrounding her, his thoughts, his warmth, flowing around her like a comforting fog.

He was good. She let a smile cross her lips as she felt the slightest touch of his lust kiss her mind. He was bad too.

But the deliberate distraction eased her mind and helped her to follow the mental threads she needed to connect to, rather than the ones Cooley was throwing out to her.

The sudden spray of dirt above them and the rat-a-tat-tat of ammunition firing from the opposite side of the canyon had her ducking and rushing to follow Braden behind an outcropping of boulders.

He motioned her to lay cover fire in the direction of the gunfire. As she lifted her weapon and began firing, he ducked and threw himself to the next covering-a thick fallen tree lying precariously on the canyon edge and began firing back.

Rocks and clumps of dirt exploded on each side of her as she sought the direction the bullets were coming from.

Heat. Cold remorselessness. She didn't need to aim. The next volley of shots rewarded her with a broken cry from the enemy as he fell to the canyon below.

"Move." Their position was compromised and she knew it.

They rushed along the canyon face, heading lower for the safety of the caves that pitted the walls below.

As they jumped the final feet, Megan bent to one knee and reached out for the information she needed. She felt Braden close by, the strength of his own focus fueling hers as she reached out.

Her breath caught in her throat the same second she felt Braden tense.

"Very impressive, Megan. You're better than I imagined you could be, hiding like this."

She came to her feet, turning slowly to meet the deadly cold gaze of Mac Cooley. The man her father called friend.

She felt Braden behind her, the silken threads of warning emanating from him, flowing into her.

"I didn't want to believe it was really you." She lifted the goggles from her eyes as she became aware of one of the soldiers moving up on them, covering them from the side.

Mac looked older than she remembered, but he was still in good shape. At five foot eight, with silvergray hair and cold, merciless blue eyes. Eyes she had always thought held compassion and warmth. He stared back at her, the pistol he carried pointed at her chest.

Her gaze flickered to his side. Deputy Jose Jansen.

The betrayal from the other deputy shouldn't have been a surprise.

"Yes, it's really me." Mac's smile was evil, a flash of teeth as his lips

curled into a sneer. He glanced at Braden.

"I should have known you'd dirty yourself with him. My Coyote here tells me he could smell the scent of sex from miles away. Such a pity."

Megan played with the trigger of the gun she had lowered to the side of her thigh, wondering if she could be fast enough to blow his heart from his chest as he stood there with that nasty smirk on his face. She looked to Jose again.

"Lance will kill you." Lance would blame himself.

Jose smirked as she watched him warily. She should have known. She had felt the emanations of violence coming from him since she had first joined the force. But she hadn't believed he could actually sell out.

"Drop the weapons, children." Mac shook his head as though disappointed in her. "You surely don't think I'll let you keep them."

Megan breathed in deeply before tossing her gun to the ground next to Braden's.

He was too quiet. She could feel his mind working with fierce intent, but he was playing the lazy, easygoing lion.

He wasn't predictable in the least when he did that.

She could feel his demand that she keep Cooley talking though, keep him distracted.

"Check them." He motioned to the soldier at his other side. "Knowing the lovely Megan, she has several other weapons hidden on her."

The gun at the small of her back was her only hope.

The soldier came forward. Tall, muscular, his facial features hidden by the black stripes of camouflage paint he wore. He stripped Braden of his weapons, but she noticed that he never checked beneath the jacket Braden wore.

That was too odd. He should have known better than that.

The soldier came to her then. The knives were stripped off her, pulled from her legs and from beneath her jacket.

Behind her back, the hand barely glanced over the knife tucked in her belt at her hip, covered by her own jacket, or the weapon strapped at the small of her back.

Caution. The warning whispered over her and it hadn't come from Braden.

She inhaled slowly. She couldn't tell who he was, but evidently he wasn't exactly on the senator's side. He was familiar though, the touch of his mind against hers. She had felt it before, a long time ago. But where?

She shook the thought away before concentrating on the senator again.

"You're not going to get away with this, Mac," she warned him, hoping to keep his attention on her as Braden came up with a miracle. That was his job and he damned well better do it right.

"Of course I am." Mac laughed gleefully, like a child enjoying a joke. The bastard had lost his ever-lovin'

mind.

"I've been doing it for years, Megan. In the bosom of the family, knowing every move you made with Jose's help. I knew you wouldn't remember seeing me at that Academy without help. It was just a matter of watching the two Breeds and knowing when they would decide to contact you. It wasn't hard to do, my dear. Though it is unfortunate that Mark and Aimee necessitated it. They weren't nearly as careful as they should have been while we were at the Academy." It was deliberate. She could feel it now. Mark and Aimee had known she would sense them, had allowed their shields to let just enough through to get her attention. It had been the pain that had been a double-edged sword. They couldn't have known how she would react to it, how quickly

her mind would reject it and that the memory would pass amid the knowledge that such events had been nearly commonplace at the time.

"You raped them." The gun burned at her back while Braden demanded caution. She had to keep him talking.

Had to give Braden time to save them both.

"Of course I did. And I'll rape you as soon as my men have taken care of your pesky little Breeds. I might even rape your little boyfriend before he dies. That's particularly pleasant, making them bend over and take it up the ass.

Showing them who's alpha and who's not. It just seems to break something inside them." Satisfaction filled the air as vicious glee attempted to rip into her mind.

She wanted to scream in pain, in rage. She could feel something shattering inside her at the thought of what the Breeds had suffered under him.

"They learn how to take it easy. Megan. I bet your big tough Breed will tell you that. If he can." His gaze shifted to Braden. "You're awful quiet, Breed. Don't you want to share that particular little pleasure you experienced at the Labs?"

Braden shifted slowly, the moonlight that filtered into the canyon, illuminating his predatory smile. "I'm Class A, Senator, Elite status. We did the fucking, remember?"

Cooley's smile froze for a fraction of a second as a thread of fear slipped free of him.

"Ah yes, I nearly forgot." He sneered. "Elite status. I'm disappointed in you. You should have been harder to catch."

"You would have thought." Braden's voice was too soft for Megan's comfort. "I learned how to break men like you, Senator. I believe you were even on the shortlist of potential targets when we were rescued."

Megan barely contained her surprise.

"And now I'm one of their best assets. How far the Genetics Council has fallen. But I'll build them back." Cooley's smile was evil, chilling in its insanity.

"Why kill the Breeds?" she asked him then. "Why wait until they sought me out? You could have killed me at any time." The destruction made no sense. Neither did the potential for discovery.

"Because it was fun." He shrugged his powerful shoulders as he tilted his

head and watched her with maniacal pleasure. "All I had to do was watch Mark and Airnee. I knew they would come for you; it was just a matter of time. And honorable cretins that they were, I knew they would attempt to do so secretly, to give you a choice in betraying me. And I wanted to watch you run, Megan. It makes me hard. It will make taking you so much more pleasurable."

The thought of it sickened her.

"I understand." She nodded solemnly. "Can't get it up the normal way, can you? You have to shed blood to do it."

His smile dropped for a second before returning with sickening force.