LAWE'S JUSTICE - Lora Leigh
A Novel of the Breeds
Berkley
ISBN: 978-0-425-24395-4
December 2011
Paranormal Romance

Washington D.C. - Present Day

For sixteen months, Diane Broen and Lawe Justice have danced around and away from each other.  From the moment he rescued Diane from her captors in Syria , Lawe has known that she is his mate.  Yet, while she senses this also, and can't deny the regular human attraction she feels for Lawe, Diane knows that a relationship between them is hopeless.  Since her parents' murders, Diane worked with her uncle, a mercenary, to become a warrior and protector, and took over his business when he died five years earlier.  She's not a woman looking to be cosseted and protected, and there's no way that Lawe, a Breed (a human with altered genetics), will allow her to risk her safety.

Diane's latest mission has her trying to track down Honor Roberts and the two people who escaped the Council with her twelve years before.  Phillip Brandemore, a scientist with the Genetics Council, injected Diane's infant niece with a serum just before his death, and it is creating disturbing differences in the baby.  Diane has learned that the serum was also used on Honor as well as others, and if Diane can find them, she may have answers that will help save her niece.  Diane is not the only one searching for the trio, though.  A rogue Breed named Gideon was forced into a feral fever through the experimenting done on him, and Honor holds the key to saving him as well.  Gideon had been with Honor and the others when they escaped twelve years ago, but his injuries made it impossible for him to continue on with them, and he was recaptured.  The horrors he had already endured were nothing compared to what happened after the escape, and the fever he now suffers from is driving him insane.  He'll do whatever it takes to find Honor, even assist Diane in her search.

After watching his mother and her mate murdered, Lawe knew he never wanted to be that vulnerable.  That his intended mate is a warrior woman who personifies independence only makes things more difficult for him.  As the commander for Breed Affairs, he's a dominant male, used to being in charge, and is overly protective of any woman he dates—as for a mate, there's no such thing as safe enough.  As the mating heat between them gets too strong to ignore, his feelings for Diane are growing also, but will he be able to let her be the woman she is, or will his protective instincts destroy them both?

LAWE'S JUSTICE is a battle as well as a love story between two very strong-willed people.  They've fought their attraction for one another because to give in to it would trigger the mating heat and set them on a course that would be impossible to reverse.  She's worked with Breeds before as well as with Breed Affairs, so Diane was well-aware of what would be expected of a Breed's mate, even before her sister married one.  She's fought too hard to become the person she is, as well as earn the respect of her team, to give it up to become Lawe's possession.  Though she does dream of finding a mate that would be a partner to her, she knows that Lawe can never be that man.  Lawe, like most Breeds, has a compelling need to protect any mate, and Diane, with the risks she takes, needs protection more than most as far as he's concerned.  For the first time since his mother's death, Lawe can understand the appeal of having a mate—he just needs to convince Diane.

Intense suspense and steamy eroticism combine in LAWE'S JUSTICE to create an intriguing story that should not be missed.

Jennifer Bishop