The signs of mating heat were firmly established within the Breed community now. The swollen glands, the unusually vicious sexual heat that gripped the mind and body. His hunger for her was ripping through him, stronger than anything he had ever known. But none of the physical signs of the heat were making themselves apparent.

“She’s leaving the party,” he reported, knowing the team on the other end of the earpiece would receive the transmission.

“So we heard,” Cabal growled in response.

Tanner’s lips quirked. Despite his sexual abandon in private, Cabal was rarely comfortable with public flirting.

“Follow her,” he ordered, heading back toward the party. “I want to know when she arrives at the house and whether or not she’s alone.”

“Are you certain this is the best course of action, Tanner?” Cabal asked. “Following a snake into its den is never smart.”

“That’s lion,” Tanner informed him with a smile. “Just make certain the house is clear.”

“We swept it for bugs before heading here,” Cabal responded. “Evidently Daddy dearest doesn’t trust his little princess. Every room in the place is wired.”

Tanner grimaced. “Have a jammer ready for me. I don’t want this recorded.”

“Ready and waiting.” Cabal sighed. “Covering your ass on this one isn’t going to be easy. You’re damned lucky Jackal has a perverted sense of humor when it comes to these games of yours.”

Jackal snorted in the background. He was one of the few human enforcers within Sanctuary.

“He was just bored this week.” Tanner smothered his laugh as he neared the patio. “I’m out. See you at the castle.”

The castle. The princess’s town house in the middle of D.C. had been searched from end to end over the past few days. They found the bugs and little else. Strangely, the princess had no intimate family photos other than a simple four-by-six of her dead mother that sat by her bed.

Her home was sterile. Cold.

“Merc is bringing the limo around for you.” Cabal spoke in Tanner’s ear as he reentered the ballroom and made his way through the crush of political and not so political guests.

Making his excuses to the hostess, Tanner moved through the lavish foyer of the house, for once ignoring the heated feminine looks thrown his way.

It was rare for him to leave a party alone. But he didn’t intend to be alone for long. Tonight, Scheme was going to get up close and personal with a Breed in a way that didn’t involve blood or death.

First, he would fuck this fascination he had for her out of his system, then get the information he needed, then just as coldly as she had signed the death warrants on Breeds in the past, he would turn her over to Breed Law.

He finally had the proof he needed against her. Pictures, signed orders, and her ex-lover’s confession. All he needed now was one last confession by a council soldier or member to take her out. Scheme Tallant was about to become nothing more than a memory to the Breeds.

CHAPTER 2

She didn’t go home. Scheme couldn’t bear the thought of the electronic listening devices scattered in her home, or the knowledge that her father had finally begun to suspect that his daughter was his greatest enemy.

That was the only answer. He had her home swept for listening devices weekly, and had been claiming none were present. But the small handheld device Jonas had given her proved differently.

She checked into her favorite hotel instead. As she followed the bellboy to the executive suite, a wave of weariness washed over her. She shouldn’t have attended the party. Staying as far from Tanner Reynolds as possible would have been her safest bet. Unfortunately that particular Breed was her weakness. Not that she had ever been as close to him as she had been tonight. She had watched him from afar, studying his press releases and watching every interview and news program he was a part of. But until tonight, she had never pitted her own wit against him.

Bad Scheme. A smile tugged at her lips. At least she knew her libido still worked; after the years it had remained silent, uninterested, she had wondered.

“Here you go, Miss Tallant.” The bellboy inserted the key card and pushed the door open as he carried her small suitcase and laptop in.

He moved through the room, turning on the lights and setting her laptop on the desk before heading to the bedroom with her suitcase.

Seconds later he reappeared, a smile creasing his lips.

“We’re very pleased to have you with us tonight. Is there anything room service can get you before I leave?”

“Not at the moment, thank you.” She accepted the key card from him with a brief smile of thanks and a hefty tip. “I’ll be fine for now.”

Left alone in the well-lit suite, Scheme looked around the sitting room with a sense of unreality. Why the hell was she here? And where the hell was Jonas?

Pushing her fingers through her hair, she moved to the door, engaged the security locks and then moved to the bedroom.

Scheme opened her small luggage bag and pulled a pair of velvet lounging pajamas from inside. She tossed them to the bed, then reached back, pulled the zipper of the dress free and stepped from it.

She needed a shower; then she had to contact Jonas. If she didn’t contact him soon, then everything she had worked for in the past years was going to go to hell.

If it hadn’t already.

She couldn’t discount Tanner’s sudden appearance on the scene. After years of playing a subtle cat-and-mouse game, he had finally met her face-to-face, revealing a very tempting reason for suddenly confronting her.

Desire.

She grimaced at the thought as she adjusted the shower and stepped beneath the stinging spray.

Desire on her part, perhaps. He had always held a certain fascination for her. One she had never truly managed to deny herself. And he would know that. As manipulative, calculating and deceitful as he was, he would never have approached her for desire alone. He was up to something more. He knew something.

That made Tanner doubly dangerous. It meant he had inside information, information that possibly only the Breed spy for the Tallant organization could have gotten.

She closed her eyes as the water pelted over her face. It was too coincidental, and she didn’t believe in coincidence. The very night she had attempted to meet with Jonas and he wasn’t where he had agreed to be? He wouldn’t have missed that meeting if it were safe. Which meant he could have suspected the spy working within Sanctuary would be there.

Could it be Tanner?

That sucked too. It sucked because it would have been much simpler and much more enjoyable for her if he were just who he was supposed to be. Sanctuary’s playboy. The loyal public relations genius that had nations clamoring to help the Breeds.

She would contact Jonas tonight and arrange another meeting. There was no staying within her father’s organization, not once he managed to discover who had disabled the message relay machine the night before. Her life was hanging by a thread and she knew it.

“Stupid. Stupid,” she muttered as she hurriedly finished showering.

She had taken one look at the message that had come in, and she had panicked.

Plans in place. First child will be taken within fourteen days. Prepare exit.

Scheme had immediately contacted Jonas for pickup, then tried to erase her presence on the machine, but she knew she hadn’t done so effectively. She hadn’t had time. After her father had picked up the message from his spy, unaware she had seen it first, Scheme had known she had to run and do so quickly. Once Jonas had this information, Callan’s son David would have a shield around him that no one could penetrate. And then her father would know what she had done. Because the cameras in the office would have placed her as the only other person in the office that day.

If her father managed to take the first known naturally born Breed, then the Breeds would retaliate with savage force. Which she knew her father would be gleefully looking forward to. It was his chance to rebuild his reputation with the Genetics Council. In one move he could acquire a first-generation naturally conceived Breed and, at the same time, cause the Breeds to attack in a way that would definitely turn world opinion against them. She had bought herself some time by sabotaging the message relay system. There would be no way of telling when the data processor had been corrupted—at least not for a while—or who had corrupted it. The cameras in the office would show nothing but her working diligently at the computer for several hours. Until they managed to get into the relay systems log-in files, she was safe.

Breathing out in frustration, she rinsed before wrapping her hair tightly in a towel and drying off her body. Half an hour later, her hair was more or less dry, her body was lotioned, smooth and softly scented.

Checking the wristwatch she had laid on the bathroom counter, she calculated the chances of contacting Jonas before midnight. The man kept some very odd hours. He hadn’t answered his cell phone all evening, and he hadn’t returned the coded messages she had left despite the message she had sent earlier to his personal relay system within his office. Something was very wrong here, and the potential for her death was rising.

Scheme tightened the towel around her body and moved purposely toward the sitting room. Then, she came to an abrupt stop. Directly in front of Tanner, who lounged on the overstuffed couch facing her.

Jacketless, the top buttons of his dress shirt undone, his golden eyes darkening in lust, the Bengal moved with deceptive laziness, pulling himself to his feet as his gaze moved slowly over her scantily covered body.

“Well, you are persistent,” she murmured, her fingers moving to tighten on the tuck of the towel at her breasts.

His gaze licked over the swell of her breasts above the towel as her nipples tightened, rasping against the material.

It was instant, her response to him. Her nipples tightened violently, her clit instantly came to life and a damp warmth glazed the folds of her sex.

“You didn’t return to your home,” he said softly, his voice rumbling erotically. “Why a hotel instead?”

She arched her brow. “Perhaps I’m expecting company.”

“So why not in your own home?” he asked her again. “Most women prefer to have sex in their own beds. A form of intimacy, I believe.” His lips quirked with endearing male charm.

“Perhaps the intimacy isn’t what I’m after.” She shrugged, turning back to the bedroom to dress in the lounging pajamas rather than conducting this conversation in a towel.

And she really didn’t relish the thought of dying naked. If he were there to kill her, she’d just as soon be dressed, thank you very much.

As she moved to close the louvered door between the rooms, a broad hand pushed it open and Tanner’s hard male body leaned against the door frame.

“I have a feeling letting you out of my sight might be a very bad idea right now.” His gaze flicked over her again. “You don’t have to dress on my account. You’ll just be removing the clothing later.”

“Oh, certain of yourself, aren’t you?” She arched her brows mockingly but moved to the bed anyway.

Some imp of scandalous amusement filled her. Dropping the towel, she ignored him as she picked up the violet silk and lace thong and pulled it over it her legs.

She dressed casually, convincing herself that being naked in front of him didn’t affect her, though she knew better.

The soft, light, velvet sleeveless lounging top came next. Pulling it over her head, she let her gaze connect with his and nearly lost her breath.

His eyes were glittering with hungry lust now, stroking over her high breasts before the material dropped over them. Picking up the loose bottoms, she inserted one leg, then the next, before pulling them on, feeling his gaze on her flesh almost as clearly as she would have a physical touch.

“You know I can smell your arousal.” He did a growly thing with his voice that had shivers racing up her spine. “Why bother to dress?”