The Magical Christmas Cat

For a few precious moments he tested Ruby's symmetry with his hands. Face. Shoulders. Breasts.

Hips. Thighs. Lovely.

"What am I thinking?" he whispered.

For someone who had so firmly denounced "woowoo" a couple of weeks ago, Ruby accepted her own clairvoyance very easily. That talent had saved her; it had allowed her to communicate with the women who had been sacrificed to the demon in years past. She was no psychic, but she did have telling dreams, and more often than not she knew what was on his mind. They'd been "dating" for two weeks, if you could call spending every moment together

"dating," and already she was finishing his sentences for him. After the first of the year, when she reopened her shop and he went back to teaching classes, they would have less time to study her abilities, so they had been doing all they could to test and refine it. What am I thinking? had become a game of sorts. She was quite good.

It was too easy, of course, since lately his mind had been quite one-track, and still Ruby played along.

Sitting in his lap, leaning toward him possessively, she closed he* eyes.

She did best with visual images, they had discovered. It was very easy for Zane to vividly imagine what he wanted from Ruby. He didn't want to make it too easy for her this time, so he didn't picture her naked on his bed. Instead, he imagined her naked here, lying beside the Christmas tree, red and green satin ribbon wrapped around her torso, her hips, her thighs. She was the best Christmas present he had ever imagined, so it was fitting enough to see her this way.

"This is no longer much of a challenge," she said softly. "Must I always be naked?"

Practice was making her ability stronger. Day by day, she saw more, she saw more clearly. Though she could guess "naked" and be right more often than not.

"All right," he said, "Let's try something else."

He pictured another Christmas in another year, perhaps five years or so down the road. They were still in this house, and someone else, someone who had no idea what had happened there in the past, lived in the yellow house across the road. He was still teaching; Ruby still had her shop though she no longer worked there every day. She had her hands full with the kids.

Two, he thought, maybe a boy and a girl. The

Christmas tree was larger than the one they'd bought on clearance this year, and it was heavy with decorations, some purchased but many made by the kids.

And they were happy and still in love. Whatever the reasons they had fallen in love so quickly, it was going to last. They were going to enjoy the only real forever that existed in this crazy world.

Ruby's smile faded a little, and she placed her head on his shoulder and shifted closer. "Is that what you want or are you teasing me? Don't tease me," she added quickly. "Not like this."

"It's what I want," he said honestly.

She shifted, moving her body closer to his. "Me, too."

He took her face in his hand and tilted it toward his so he could kiss her. "Merry Christmas, baby," he whispered with his mouth against hers.

The kiss lingered for a while, then Ruby moved just far enough away to reach for the messy pile of wrapping supplies. She snagged the red and green spools of ribbon and proceeded to make all his Christmas wishes come true.

For my early readers, all of you.

For saying, Hey, this just doesn't work.

Or, OMG this is working so great.

For telling me when it's going wrong and when it's going right.

Each book is a combined effort, a creation of my imagination, my early readers' imaginations, and all the hard work my editors put into it.

You all make the difference.

And I couldn't do it without you.

Foreword

They were created, they weren't born. They were trained, they weren't raised. They were taught to kill, and now they'll use their training to ensure their freedom.

They are breeds. Genetically altered with the DNA of the predators of the earth. The wolf, the lion, the cougar, the Bengal tiger; the killers of the world. They were to be the weapons of a fanatical society intent on building its own personal army.

Until the world learned of their existence. Until the council lost control of their creations, and their creations began to change the world.

Now they're loose. Banding together, creating their own communities, their own society, and their own safety, and fighting to hide the one secret that could destroy them.

The secret of mating heat. The chemical, biological, emotional reaction of one breed to the man or woman meant to be his or hers forever. A reaction that binds physically. A reaction that alters more than just the physical responses or heightens the sensuality. Nature has turned mating heat into the breeds' Achilles' heel.

It's their strength, and yet their weakness. And Mother Nature isn't finished playing yet.

Man had attempted to mess with her creations.

Now, she's going to show man exactly how she can refine them.

Killers will become lovers, lawyers, statesmen, and heroes. And through it all they will each cleave to one mate, one heart, and create a dynasty.

Prologue

Haley McQuire was hiding in Sanctuary's extensive, beautiful library the night of the pre-Thanksgiving party. She didn't do parties well, and she didn't enjoy them. Jonas Wyatt, Director of Breed Affairs, had given her permission to peruse the extensive collection of first-edition classics, but he had warned her that if one of his enforcers caught her there, they would drag her back to the party.

If she was found, she hoped that it wasn't by Noble Chavin. She smiled a bit at that thought. Noble loved books too, though. He would understand.

He was always at the library, choosing books she would never have expected him to read. Carpentry books, books on world history. He devoured them, it sometimes seemed. And when he returned them, she could quiz him playfully, and he always had the answers.

And he talked to her about the books. She liked that. Perhaps too much. And though he would probably talk to her, she doubted he would let her stay.

So when the door opened, she hid quickly. She expected the breed entering the room to smell her instantly. She was a human, and fairly easy for a breed to detect. Haley didn't understand why she didn't.

Maydene Brock was a breed older, a nurse in the labs. With her graying brown hair and pinched expression, Haley had never really seen her as much of a caregiver.

And perhaps she might have sensed Haley if the men following her hadn't overpowered the room with the scent of cologne.

Haley wrinkled her nose at the smell. Even across the room, hidden behind a low shelf as she peeked between the books, she could smell the obnoxious scents.

"Do you have payment ready?" Maydene snapped.

"We need the code," Phillip Brackenmore, the head of Brackenmore Pharmaceutical Research, informed the nurse dangerously. "No code, no payment, breed."

Maydene sniffed. "We'll meet you at the hotel with the code. We'll slip it out when Dr. Morrey arrives at the party. Everyone will be busy with her," she told them smugly. "When you transfer payment, we'll hand you the code. I don't trust the two of you as much as you would like to think I should."

"As long as you're there," Horace Engalls, president and CEO of Engalls Pharmaceuticals, replied. "Don't bother trying to betray us. We have our own spies watching you, Maydene."

Maydene growled at that. "I know who your little bitch is. She can watch until hell freezes over. All we care about is the cash."

"And all we care about is the information to complete our own research. The live trials on the breeds you suggested aren't working out as well as we had hoped."

"I warned you." Maydene's voice was smug as Haley felt chills race up her spine. "Even Morrey isn't responding as well as you had hoped, is she? I told you, you need us."

"So we do," Brackenmore drawled. "We'll meet you at the hotel and transfer the money to your account, but we'll see what we're paying for first. Understood?"

"Quite well," Maydene sneered. "Return to the party now, before you're missed."

Haley peeked over the top of the books that lined the shelf she was hiding behind. She could barely see them, and as the door opened, she eased back down carefully, certain that if Maydene looked back, she would sense her.

She waited. She waited so long. She could feel her muscles cramping, feel the sweat that eased along her spine, but she could still feel the danger.

She looked up at the vent above her and inhaled slowly. Was that why Maydene hadn't smelled her?

The vent pulled the air out of the library and circulated it, while another vent fed dry air into the library to protect the expensive books. That combined with the scent of men's cologne must have hidden Haley's scent.

But Maydene must have suspected that someone was in the room. As Haley began to consider the risk of peeking over the books again, she heard movement, a doorknob turning, a muttered curse.

She took a chance and watched as the breed made her way from the library.

Just a few more minutes, she told herself. If Maydene was suspicious, she might watch the door from outside. She might be waiting for whoever she had sensed.

My God, what were they talking about? Drugging breeds? Selling information? She had to find Noble.

The breed enforcer would know what to do—he would know how to handle this. She had to find him before Maydene and whoever was helping her managed to slip from the estate.

Carefully, she moved from behind the shelf, thankful that someone had made the little hidden reading nook that Merinus had shown her a few weeks before. It had possibly saved her life.

Now, to sneak out of the library and get to Noble.

There was something about librarian Haley McQuire and her staid little outfits that just made Jaguar breed enforcer Noble Chavin insane.

He should be watching the ballroom, keeping his eyes trained on the two men they knew would make an attempt tonight to gain confidential breed information from a source within Sanctuary.

Breeds betraying breeds, for money. For greed.