by Mason Sabre
“Natalie is not some weak-willed woman you can toss around as you see fit," Cade ground out, annoyed that he hadn't realised this was all part of his father’s plan.
He sat forward, arms resting on the desk and brows raised. “Are you calling your mother weak-willed?” The challenge was clear in his eyes.
“Don’t twist my words.” Cade tried to tamp down the anger roiling inside. “Natalie needs to go back to work. I don’t need some housemaid that I can boss around and have do my bidding.”
“Is she not satisfying you?” The mockery in his tone made him want to slam a fist in his smug face.
He gripped the file in his hand, the paper crinkling. Always, he vowed that he wouldn’t let his father push his buttons, and always, he failed. “That is not up for discussion. Natalie is an intelligent woman … she needs to go back to work.”
Trevor flicked a dismissive hand at him. “Her position was filled. There is no job for her to go back to.”
Cade clenched his teeth. “You did that on purpose.”
“Well, if you are so bothered about her, she can work with you. She researches. I’ll have a position created and she can start work with you on Monday. How's that?"
Cade didn’t care if he got hurt in this, but Natalie was innocent. Just a blind pawn in his father’s stupid power game. “Do you ever think of anyone else?” he gritted out. “Anyone other than yourself?”
Trevor raised his chin in defiance. “Everything I do is for the good of the pack.”
“Really?” He rested his palms flat on his father’s desk. “How is bringing Natalie into this for the good of the pack? You bring her into this and all that will happen is that she gets hurt.”
Trevor rose from his seat, leaning on the desk much the same way as Cade, an undeniable mirror image. Cade might have got his mother’s looks, but his mannerisms were very much his father’s. “If you stop fucking Gemma Davies, then maybe Natalie wouldn’t get hurt.”
His pulse spiked, and Trevor clearly sensed it because he laughed. “You think I didn’t know? You think I am such a fool I don’t know where you are and what you’re doing?”
The arrogant bastard was getting exactly what he wanted. He was making sure to drive a secure wedge between him and Gemma by getting his chosen mate to work with him. “Fucking leave Natalie out of it. It is unfair for you to drag her into this mess just so you can score points.”
That was all it was with Trevor—pride. Nothing but selfish pride and the idea that one of his own might do something that was against the law.
“You will mate with Natalie Castle. You will produce yourself an heir to replace that half-bred filth.”
“Phoenix—”
“You will do it. Do not force my hand.” Trevor pinned him with a hard stare, his voice authoritative. His menacing stance and intimidations were lost on Cade, however. He wasn’t afraid of his father. He had given up any respect he had had for him years ago. “Anything that happens will be your doing.”
Cade’s nostrils flared at his father’s threat. “You will hurt an innocent woman for the sake of your pride.”
“I do what I need to.” He pushed himself from the desk and walked around the table toward his door. “When Malcolm asks about the warrant, be sure to tell him it was you who asked for it.”
He walked out, leaving Cade to seethe with a deep anger that burned in his stomach like acid.
Chapter 13
Gemma
If it wasn’t for the wall behind her, Gemma was sure she would have fallen to the ground and never got up again. She needed to just go back ten seconds … just long enough to take back the word she had muttered by mistake. She saw it in Henry’s eyes the moment he called her out on it; she saw the intent and his certainty of every weird and fucked up dream she’d ever had as they came flooding into her mind with a wave of agony she didn’t want to feel.
Henry brought her hand to his lips to press a warm kiss to it. Compelling eyes watched her, consuming her with a gaze she had known for so long—there was a connection between them she couldn’t explain, a link from her heart to his. She felt it. It vibrated along the entire length of her skin like damn silk. Gemma’s mind screamed at her, recognising the truth, the name she had uttered a moment before as familiar to her as her own.
Her breathing grew ragged, her heart a wild drumbeat under her ribcage. This was why he had kept hidden. He knew. He knew that when she saw him, she would see him. The moment needed to be just right. He needed to see into her when she had this realisation of who he was.
Her lids closed, suddenly unbelievably heavy. His pulse strummed against her fingertips, and she felt everything and nothing all at the same time. Tears welled, and as much as she tried to stop them, they overflowed and slid down her cheeks. “Stop it,” she begged, willing him to step back a second and stop flooding her mind the way he was.
“You remember me,” he insisted. “You know.”
She sucked in shallow gasps of air, the world closing in on her. “I don’t,” she whispered, forcing the lie from her lips even as she felt her heart tear with the words. When she opened her eyes again, his fierce gaze bore into her, swimming with what was passing between them.
“One day you shall. You knew my name. You know deep inside that it is the truth I speak. You are mine. We are meant for each other. This skin keeps me prisoner, but I can release it. When I find my soul, I shall release that and reunite us.”
Gemma’s mind kept stalling with what he was saying. She knew … she understood … maybe, but … he wanted his … soul? “When you find where your soul is?”
“I shall free it from its host.”
“Kill them?”
“Aye. I shall not be denied another lifetime with you.”
If this was someone else, she would tell him to get lost. She would turn him over to the DSA and have him dealt with….
But… she did know.
Flashes of dreams and images she couldn’t explain flashed in her mind. She had seen him—not Henry, but Cade. And not as they were now, but as they … had been. Every sleep-filled moment was rife with him … her soul seeming to breathe for his existence. If she closed her eyes, she could remember things, hear things. Every part of her remembered—every part except her mind. She didn’t remember when she died. But it wasn’t Henry’s arms she had lain in, it was Cade’s.
It was always Cade’s face in her dreams. When she would wake, her body dripping in perspiration and her mind stuck in dreamland, she remembered a small farmhouse in the countryside. When she had first seen the house Cade had bought, she had had to hold herself steady. It had been old, tattered, dilapidated, yet she had … recognised … it. From the Cade in her dreams … The house was the same, yet different. One built from nothing but love and hope of a life together. Handcrafted with his care.
They were different dreams, though. She never dreamt of Cade’s eyes—they were different, darker maybe. They seemed to hold secrets. But they weren’t Henry’s, either. In her dreams, she would scream and cry and beg Cade to kill her. Sometimes she would wake from sleep still with the feel of his arms around her, her head fuzzy, her heart pounding.
“You can’t kill someone just because you believe they have your soul. What if you are wrong?”
“You know where it is. You feel it.” He brought her hand to his chest. “You feel me. That is why you do not fear me. You know I would never harm you. When you touch me, you feel the same thing I do. Belonging.”
“But if that is you—”
“You feel it with my soul, too. If not yet, you shall. We have journeyed through many lives together. We always find each other. Mayhap it takes a while, but we do. ‘Tis as two magnets drawn together. Wherever my soul is, it shall come to you.”
The feeling Henry described … it hit home perfectly. Every time Cade was close to her, she felt like she belonged. He calmed the storms in her mind and seemed to ease every part of her body. Being with Cade was the most natural thing she could do �
� yet, as she listened to Henry, she knew where his soul was.
She knew damn well....
She had the same feeling standing there with Henry.
“Tell me where my soul is. Tell me so I can put right what I ruined so long ago.”
“I don’t know,” she half-sobbed, her mind clinging to Cade and her heart wishing for the truth she feared.
Henry’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. “You lie to me.”
“No—”
“Yes.” He cupped her face in his hands, tilting her head so she was forced to meet his piercing gaze. Wiping the tear that fell down her cheek with a gentle thumb, he murmured, “I am not a monster.”
“What if you wait? What if you wait for me and for your soul, and then when we die, you can get what you want—”
“I have waited. My entire existence has been for you.” His arm dropped back down to his side, and his expression hardened. “I will find my soul, even if you refuse to aid me.”
And then, with another curt nod, he turned and left.
Gemma watched him leave, her heart crying out the way it had done just hours before for Cade. She clutched at her chest, swallowing down a sob. How was it possible to feel this way?
Lifting a determined chin, she wiped away the remnants of her inexplicable tears. She would keep Cade safe … safe from himself. It might kill her in the process, but now she knew what she had to do.
She had to let him go.
Chapter 14
Gemma
The wound on Gemma’s shoulder throbbed as she leant, motionless, against the door, but it was nothing compared to the pain that tightened her chest. Every part of her body was stiff with agony shooting through her veins. It was like being on fire from the inside. Her desire, her pain, every ounce of love she had for Cade burned inside her until there was nothing left. Only the ashes of a woman who had once dared to love a man with her very being remained. She sobbed soundlessly at the unfairness of it all … Why was she being made to suffer when she had done nothing wrong? Was she really being punished for the decisions Henry had made in his life?
Was it that simple?
The sound of her phone ringing made her jump, and she fumbled to get it out of her pocket. “There is a meeting tonight,” her father said on the other side of the line before she even got the chance to put her phone to her ear. “7:30. It isn’t optional.”
“What do—” The dial tone buzzed in her ear, cutting her off. Master alpha had barked his orders and hung up on her. “Okay,” she breathed.… She clicked the phone closed and rolled so that her back was on the door now. It was like walking through sludge and piles of shit she couldn’t get away from. She had to clean up, go upstairs, sort herself out and move. She had to become Gemma ... heir and tiger.
“I can do this,” she said, nodding with resolve and pulling on the strength of her tiger.
She could.
She pushed away from the door, but every step was hard. It was like glue had been pasted at the bottom of her shoes, holding her down, but if she stopped, if she even dared to pause for a moment, she would fall apart, and there was no place for that right now. Curling into a ball and giving up would be to put Cade at risk. She would never do that.
After an hour and a good talking to herself, Gemma’s kitchen was cleared; the ashen remains of the Human had been bagged and thrown out along with the dishes she would need to replace. Every corner of the house had been checked for signs of where the Human had hidden and how he had got in, but she found nothing.
As she cleaned her wound, she inspected it carefully in the mirror. Although it was healing slowly, it wasn’t as bad as she had thought, and as long as she didn’t try to put too much strain on it, no one would be the wiser. There was a nasty mark across her face, however, where the man had hit her, and she made sure to conceal it with enough make-up after she had showered and dressed. All that could be seen in the end was a slight shadow across the cheekbone.
She was standing in her bedroom, staring out of the window and at the normalcy of life when Cade’s car turned onto her street. Her heart did its usual skip before landing with a suffocating crash inside her chest at the knowledge of what she had to do.
He was unaware of her watching him as he parked his car outside the house and then got out, his tall, muscled frame unfolding smoothly from the driver’s seat. She swallowed hard and quickly stepped out of sight in case he glanced at the window and caught her staring. Cade was forbidden to her, and she needed to accept that—no matter how much her tiger craved him.
As always, he knocked on the door and then tried the handle. Since it was locked, he waited for her to open it. She had to gather herself before dashing down and answering.
God, why did he have to look so good, she thought as lust spiked through her and her tiger snarled in erotic demand…. She was defenceless at the sight of him.
His blue gaze stayed focused on hers, his expression inscrutable. “Are you ready?” The casual question was so vastly at odds with the intensity of all that had transpired just a short while ago in her kitchen with the Human and Henry. “I’ve got the warrant.”
Gemma shifted her mental gears—work mode. She could do work mode. “My dad?”
A darkness filled his eyes as he shook his head. “Mine.…” So much lay hidden in that one word. “Are you ready to go? I assumed you’d need a ride.” He started to back down the doorsteps.
“No, I’ll take my car.”
“Are you sure?”
She wasn’t, but the more distance she had between her and Cade, the better she could think.
Gemma swore as she sat in the driver’s seat, foot jammed down on the clutch, one hand twisting the key. All the damn thing managed was a mechanical scraping sound and then a slow whirring until there was nothing but a click. “Fucking piece of—”
Cade was in his car, his door open. O ye of little faith. He raised his brow at her, and she shot him a glare. Don’t even say it. She got out, popped the bonnet and stared at the engine as if she actually knew what she was looking at. If Stephen had been here, he would have fixed it. He would have jammed in his big, dexterous hands, pulled a few things and voila, car started.
Slamming the bonnet shut, she yanked out her phone and got into Cade’s car.
“I take it I’m driving then?” he asked as she slammed the door behind her and tossed her car keys onto the dash.
“I’ll get it fixed tomorrow.”
“Hmm.”
Once they had pulled away from Gemma’s street and she had relaxed into her seat somewhat, he handed her Jessica’s file. “The warrant is in there if you want to go over it. Usual stuff, though. Oh, and your father has called a meeting for this evening.” He shot her another quick glance, making her squirm in her seat.
She nodded, trying to dismiss everything. It seemed the more she needed to stay away from him, the more her tiger pushed her to him, grasping at him with desperation. “I know. He called me, too. Council meeting, or just us and him?”
“Everyone, I think. They’ll be calling the open month.”
Open month … just the thought of it had Gemma’s stomach reeling. Stupid people and their stupid rules. “Nothing like letting Angela grieve.”
He gave a shrug. Open month was open season—open season on Angela and the foxes. She had a month to stand her corner—a month to stay alive. It was damn long for a woman on her own, but she had no other children. With Jessica gone, the natural order of her pack was broken. Someone could fight her—challenge her. They had to have an heir of their own, but if they killed Angela, they would take the fox pack for their own and take her seat at the same time. If she survived the month, she could name her own successor—a beta for the pack.
“She won’t stand a chance,” Gemma said. There were underhand shifters, and there were plenty of them. It didn’t really have to be a fox that challenged her. She was open season for any shifter now with the ambition to take over. She had a very big clock ticking over her h
ead. How long before she turned up dead, too?
“Maybe your father will protect her.”
The thought had crossed Gemma’s mind, too, especially after last night. But then what could he do? It was against the laws he himself adhered to and made sure everyone else followed his lead. “I don’t think he can. He's in too strong a position. If your father even got wind of it ...”
“Maybe for some people your father will do whatever is needed?” Those deep blue eyes focused on her again. “I would.”
There was so much loaded in his statement. Do whatever is needed. Yes … it was like the fates were giving her signs. Signs that this was right. Whatever is needed. Whatever will keep Cade safe. “Me, too,” she said, but she didn’t mean it the same way he did.
When they reached Angela’s, he pulled the car into the same spot they had parked in the previous night. It was almost a relief to see her mother’s car there instead of her father's. She felt terribly vulnerable and transparent just now. Too delicate for her father’s pushing and provocation—it would make her come undone.
She pulled the warrant out, ready to go to Angela with it. “Are we going to the estate after here?”
Something in Cade’s expression changed, and he shifted in his seat. She frowned. “What is it?” she asked, but already a sense of sadness had snuck its way into her head, ready to whisper its sinister nothings.
His eyes darkened as he met her gaze, and then he swallowed, hard. “I asked Natalie if she would come to look at the estate with me after.”
There was silence for a minute. Gemma’s heart constricted painfully in her chest.
“Right….” She had no entitlement to feel angry or jealous. “I—”
“She has the power for sight … past sight,” Cade added. “I wanted to bring her in in case she could see anything.”