"I will look for a report of your current status later this evening." "Yes, sire," Roth hissed through a tightly held smile. That smile turned to a sneer as he exited the lab and headed out to attend his business for Dragos.
When his cell phone rang in his pocket, it was all he could do not to crush the thing in his fist as he stormed through the bunker. "What is it," he snapped into the receiver. He listened, blood boiling in his veins, as an Enforcement Agent from Hamburg informed him that they had his Breedmate safely in custody. "Is she alone?" "Yes, Director Roth. And by some miracle, she appears to be unharmed. We have her with us here at your office in the Speicherstadt." "Excellent." Roth turned into an unoccupied supply room and closed the door behind him. "Put her on the line. I would have a word with her."
Claire wanted to ignore the Enforcement Agent knocking on the bathroom door, but she couldn't hide in there forever. No more than she could avoid talking to Wilhelm, who was apparently on the phone right now, waiting to speak with her. "Frau Roth," called the agent. "Is everything all right in there?" She got up from the floor where she'd been sitting and went over to open the door. As she came out of the dark room, the agent thrust his cell phone toward her. She took it. Slowly brought it up to her ear. As soon as she heard Wilhelm's breath blowing hotly across the receiver, she knew that he was furious with her. Her veins jangled a warning that she had no patience to acknowledge. "You lied to me," she said by way of greeting. "But then, you've lied about many things, haven't you?" His answering scoff was as sharp as a blade. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"The men you sent to the house earlier tonight. They had no intention of taking Andreas out of there peacefully. You sent a death squad to kill him." "Andreas Reichen is a very dangerous inpidual," came the icy reply. "I was only thinking of your safety, Claire." "Really?" Her voice climbed up slightly, enough to draw anxious looks from her Enforcement Agency watchdogs. "If my safety was anything of an issue to you, then why did you insist that I stay there with him? You practically thrust me at him." A low-toned, amused chuckle grated across her nerves. "Truthfully, I don't see the point of your distress, darling.
You did manage to come out of the situation with your pretty neck unscathed, I assume." Claire dismissed the obviously weighted comment with a tight shake of her head. She wasn't going to let him shame her when he made her sick with anger and revulsion and not a little fear. "What about the girl from Aphrodite, Wilhelm? Did she walk away from you unscathed?" Silence stretched on the other end of the line and it gave Claire the courage to keep going, to lay everything out in one rush of breath. "What do you know about the attack on Andreas's Darkhaven, Wilhelm? Did you have something to do with that?" She practically choked on the awful words. "Did you send a Minion into his home with a death squad on orders to kill everyone inside? Are you the cold-blooded murderer he says you are?" "For Christ's sake, Claire. Listen to yourself. You are spewing a lot of paranoid nonsense." "Am I?" She heard the hesitancy in his voice. She could practically hear the wheels in his shrewd mind turning, calculating his errors and how to smooth them over. "What is this thing between you and Andreas? Has he threatened to expose you in some way, or is this personal ... because of the past?" "I could care less about the past," he replied, utterly devoid of emotion.
"And unless I miss my guess, Claire, this thing between Reichen and me became about as personal as it could get just a short time ago. What kind of mate would I be to you if I let him defile the sanctity of our bond and simply walk away uncontested? There's not a male alive in the entire Breed nation who would deny me the right to defend your honor." Oh, God. He was right. If the violence Andreas had orchestrated the past few weeks was not reason enough, in drinking from her, a blood-bonded Breedmate, he had just written his own death warrant. Claire swallowed the lump of dread that crawled into her throat. "You've never loved me, Wilhelm. Have you? Why did you want me for your mate? Why do you care what I do now, when I have never truly been a part of your life? Our bond has never been anything but a farce--" "If you are looking for a way to justify your actions, Claire, you are sorely mistaken. The fact is, you are my mate. If and when I get my hands on Andreas Reichen, I will demand the full rights due me.
You may count on that." She could hear the danger in his tone and knew from the sharp way he'd cut her off that she would find no mercy in him whatsoever. She had never been one to cower, but the thought of him sending more of his death dealers into the city after Andre made her heart squeeze like it was in a vise. "Wilhelm, please ..." "Don't beg me, Claire. Not for him," he snapped, full of venom. "Put the agent back on the phone now. You're going to go with the Enforcement Agents to their headquarters and help them in their pursuit of this ... animal." "Wilhelm, no--" "Put the agent on the phone, goddamn you!" She didn't have to get the armed guards' attention.
Both of them gaped at her as Wilhelm's furious outburst ricocheted across the room. One of the agents came over to her and extracted the phone from her reluctant grasp. He listened for only a moment before he motioned the other guard over to Claire and instructed him not to let her leave their custody. Claire's heart banged in her chest as the agent wrapped up the private conversation. She could see the confusion and sympathy in the Breed male's eyes as he hung up and came toward her with the steady calm of a soldier accustomed to handling difficult situations. "You need to come with us now," he told her gently but firmly "We have orders, Frau Roth. I'm sorry."