He would risk everything but his mate, even his honor, to save their child, and Rule knew it.
Amber might not be Jonas’s biological child, but that didn’t matter to the director. His bond with that child was as strong as any that Rule had sensed between a Breed male and his own babe.
Rule couldn’t fight Jonas’s argument.
Gypsy had suffered, but her suffering, all but emotional, had ended that night nine years before, after the Breeds had poured into the area.
Amber’s and Rachel’s continued with little hope that it would end in anything but the horrifying death Phillip Brandenmore had suffered seven months before.
“Let the parents go.” Dane spoke up then, his voice low, the demand firm as the South African accent seemed to deepen. “Ban them from all Breed facilities and ban all Breeds from interacting with the family or their businesses.” His gaze met Rule’s. “As well as any Breed mates, or their daughter. Sever all connection to them, and that would contain the threat they represent.”
Jonas snarled at the suggestion. “You believe that cutting them off from their daughter will convince them to tell us anything?” Fury tightened his expression. “Hell, you weren’t there the night their son was killed and their daughter nearly raped. They stared at her as though they didn’t know her while trying to warm their son’s hands. She stood in the fucking cold by herself, Dane, the scent of her pain and the rejection she felt running so deep it was enough to make me want to cry for her. She’s damned sure not cried for herself since, and I highly doubt they shed a fucking tear for her.”
Jonas turned away from his half brother as Dane’s fist clenched atop the table where he sat, a grimace pulling at his features while Jonas stalked to the heavily reinforced windows at the side of the room.
“I swore to her she would always be protected by the Breeds if her parents didn’t want her,” he sighed. “That she would always be safe with me.” Running the claw-tipped fingers around the back of his neck, Jonas breathed out wearily. “Then I left and never looked back. I didn’t check up on her, I didn’t send anyone out to watch over her. And I should have.” He turned back to them, his expression heavy. “As much as I regret their actions, though, I’m not responsible for her parents’ betrayal of her, then or now.” His voice hardened. “And I won’t be responsible for releasing them and giving them the chance to destroy the Breeds.” His gaze locked on Rule once again. “Or a friend, at a later date.”
Rule had always believed that the responsibility Jonas carried for the Breed community was one the director carried, perhaps not easily, but without regret. In this moment, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the regret lay just as heavily upon him as the responsibility did. It was that he accepted both, knowing it was the only way to ensure the survival of the Breeds.
“But you want me to stand aside and let you destroy my mate now?” Rule demanded, wondering if he would ever be able to handle the portion of that responsibility that he had accepted as division director. “If you convict her parents, Jonas, you’ll destroy her.”
“I’ll crucify them,” Jonas snapped in ready agreement, his canines flashing in a promise of retribution. “If they can’t or won’t tell me who gave them that device, then I will make damned certain they’re punished for it. If I don’t, then I’m giving every son of a bitch with a grudge against the Breeds permission to use any of our mates’ families against us. And that I won’t do, Rule. Even for a friend. Even for your friendship.”
Jonas was known to make concessions for his enforcers, especially those who gave their loyalty to him, that he would never make for another living being outside his mate. He’d always said there were few lines he wouldn’t cross for them.
Evidently, Jonas had finally found a line.