She screamed.
Panic exploding in her breast, she lunged for the exit.
She pushed the glass door open, inhaling a breath of chill night air as another scream built in her throat.
No sound left her lips.
Her feet simply stopped moving. All her fear—all conscious thought—went softly, swiftly silent as her skull filled with sudden heat and light …
Then all went dark.
“Cass made me keep his secret,” Martin Gates said, misery in his voice and in the droop of his mouth as he spoke. “He made me vow she would never know he was her father—not unless the worst should occur and his enemies caught up to him.”
Nathan had to admit, there was a part of him that wasn’t completely shocked to hear that Jordana’s true father was Cassian Gray. Aside from a passing similarity in their fair coloring, in hindsight Cass’s visit to Jordana at the museum the day of his death had been more telling. Had he gone there because he feared his enemies were closing in, and he wanted to see his child one more time?
As for the fact of Jordana being the child of an Atlantean father, that in itself was hardly a revelation. Although the truth had been unknown for many centuries, and was still kept secret from the public at large, a couple of decades ago the Order had discovered the link between the Breed and the immortal race that had fathered the rare females born Breedmates.
“If Cass wanted to keep her safe from enemies among his own kind,” Nathan said, “he would’ve done better to leave Jordana in your care and stay far away from Boston.”
Gates nodded. “He tried. And he never stayed in the city more than a few weeks at a time, just in case he might be found out. But Jordana meant everything to him. Cass loved her just as much as I do. I think that’s why he understood when I couldn’t make good on the other part of my original promise to him.”
“What promise was that?” Chase interjected, narrowing a hard look on the Darkhaven leader.
“That I take Jordana as my mate before her twenty-fifth birthday.”
Nathan recoiled at the idea, confused and suspicious. “Why the hell would he ask that of you?”
“Cass wanted her blood-bonded to someone he trusted. Someone he knew would keep her safe.” Gates gave a slow shake of his head. “I couldn’t be that man. I raised her as my own child. Jordana was my daughter every bit as much as she was Cass’s. No matter what I promised all those years ago, I couldn’t force my blood onto her. As she got older, I knew I had to safeguard her some other way. I had to find someone else I could trust with her secret.”
Something still wasn’t making sense. Nathan failed to find the logic in Cass’s plan.
And deep down, a possessive, protective brand of fury sparked to life in him when he thought of Jordana with any male other than him.
“Why not let her choose who she wants to take as her mate? The blood bond is sacred. It’s unbreakable.” Nathan nearly spat the words, recalling how easily Gates would have pushed Jordana onto his crony, Elliott Bentley-Squire. A decent man, maybe, but a man who didn’t love her.
Not like Nathan did, fiercely and with his whole heart.
“You would’ve locked her into an irrevocable union, all for the sake of a promise made without her consent?” Nathan blew out a violent curse. “Jordana is an extraordinary woman. You raised her; you ought to know that. She deserves more than you or anyone else of your choosing could give her as her mate. God knows she sure as hell deserves more than I could ever give her.”
Gates lifted his chin, understanding flickering across his features. “You really do love her.”
Nathan gave a firm nod, his chest heaving with the intensity of everything he felt for Jordana. “I do,” he answered solemnly. “But even if I didn’t—even if I’d never met her—I would tell you that no Breedmate should be forced into a bond she doesn’t want. Not for any reason.”
Gates stared at him. “I never said Jordana was a Breedmate.”
A sound of disbelief went up, though whether it came from Chase or one of Nathan’s team members in the room, he wasn’t sure.
Nathan could count on one hand the number of times he’d been struck silent for any reason. Never like this. Never with the sense that the floor had opened up beneath him and left him dangling over an abyss of uncharted terrain.
Chase spoke where Nathan was unable. “What do you mean, she’s not a Breedmate?”
“Jordana’s mother wasn’t human,” Gates said. “She was one of Cass’s kind.”
“Are you saying Jordana is fully immortal?” Chase pressed.
Gates nodded. “She is Atlantean, as were both her parents.”
Finally, Nathan found his voice. “She has the Breedmate mark.” He could see the small, scarlet-colored teardrop and crescent moon symbol in his mind. He’d stroked it more than once as they’d made love. “It’s on the inside of Jordana’s left wrist.”