by Lora Leigh
ntain was alive with terror, running feet and shouted orders.
She wasn’t going to make it. Oh God. She wasn’t going to escape this. There was no way to get far enough ahead of them. No way to save herself.
“Enough!” A hard bicep wrapped around her waist as agony streaked through her from behind.
This was pain. This was the most horrendous pain she had ever known. Every place that the hard male body touched burned in agony as she kicked, shrieking in fear and fury as she was tossed to the ground.
Rolling to her knees, she fought to find her feet. Sliding against the snow and mud, she rose shakily, only to face Douglas.
A second later a hard strike against her face sent her back to the ground again as she heard a furious growl echo around her.
“Touch her again, Watts, and I’ll kill you myself,” Delgado warned him. “We didn’t sanction harming another Breed’s mate.”
“My wife!” Douglas screamed. The next second Cassa barely deflected a kick aimed to her ribs as she rolled out of reach. “She’s my wife. She’s not that dirty fucking Breed’s anything.”
“Don’t touch her again.” Brim moved between them.
Another shot was fired. Cassa glimpsed Brim flinching as she made it to her feet again and started running.
Down the mountain. She just had to make it down the mountain. Then to the road. Maybe they’d all kill each other behind her.
“You fucking bitch.”
Douglas tackled her from behind. They crashed to the forest floor as Cassa fought. She kicked, screamed. Her nails tore at his face, and for one incredible second she thought she’d actually be free.
“Fucking Breed whore.” A hard fist to the side of her head froze her.
Stars erupted behind her closed eyes, and for a second Cassa swore she was going to lose consciousness. Then rage kicked in. Pure, unfettered rage. It boiled through her stomach, raced through her brain and sent adrenaline surging through her system.
Years of brief, almost amusing episodes of “training” with Breeds rose to the forefront of her mind. They had made a game out of teaching her this little trick and that little trick to get herself out of trouble. Several of her “instructors” had claimed with rueful smiles that someone had to teach her, considering the fact that Cabal was gone so often.
Cabal had arranged that training. She sensed it. She knew it. Bracing herself against the ground with one foot, she kicked out with the other. She didn’t try any sissy moves. She didn’t go for the cool little ninja maneuvers. She kicked out hard and swift, her boot slamming into Douglas’s crotch and stealing his breath as she prayed she’d crushed his nuts.
She was only dimly aware of the enraged roars that filled the night. Along with feet crashing through the forest, the sound of a heli-jet and someone screaming out orders.
Coyote howls, there might have even been a Wolf in there. Human screams. She heard several of those. The night became centered, the cold disappeared. Cassa came to her feet in a smooth jump, facing Douglas as he slowly straightened.
His face was white, his eyes were filled with inhuman rage.
“You’re a whore!” he screamed. “A dirty stinking animal-fucker.”
“And I’m loving every minute of it.” Her croon was harsh, filled with her own fury.
He had once made her go to her knees and beg for mercy. This man who had taken vows with her, who had sworn to love the young woman she had once been. He had made her beg and then he had slapped her so hard she had blacked out.
There had been no mercy.
“I’m going to kill you.” His arm lifted.
Too much happened at once. Too many impressions, too many sounds. An animal scream of pure demonic rage echoed through the night. Cassa went flying, thrown to the ground by a shadow with amber eyes, as a gun fired.
Rage was a scent. It was a feeling, like rain washing through the night. It was the smell of blood and a scream like nothing she had ever known.
Rolling to her knees, she pushed her hair from her face and stared in shock at the sight that met her eyes.
There were lights now, streaming down from the heli-jet that hovered overhead. Dressed in shadowed colors, his face streaked with black, his eyes glowing amber in the night, Cabal stood over Douglas’s writhing form.
Screams poured from Douglas’s throat, raw, brutal, agonizing screams. His upper body writhed on the ground, his hands clawed into snow stained heavy with blood.
“You fucker!” he screamed, pain burning in every word as tears spilled from his eyes now. “Do it, you son of a bitch. Motherfucker. Do it. Kill me.”
Cabal roared in his face as Douglas covered it with his hands and sobbed in pain and fear.
“Don’t take me back.” His screams were rough now, demented. “No. You can’t take me back. Please.”
Cassa stared at Cabal in shock. The marks on his face weren’t face paint. They were tiger marks bisecting his savage features. His hands were tipped with claws, bloodied now, and his eyes glowed gold in the night as he turned, his gaze raking in a slow circle before falling on Patrick.
“Azrael.” His voice was a harsh growl. An animalistic sound that had Cassa flinching.
Patrick inclined his head as he stepped back. “Another day, Bengal.”
The night swallowed him as Cabal roared his fury and started after him.
She couldn’t let him leave. She stumbled for him, her leg going out from under her as a startled cry left her throat. Pain streaked through her now, a burning hot lance of fire tearing through her body as she went down, collapsing on her side.
His mate. Cabal jerked around, his gaze locking on her pain-filled eyes, his senses registering more than pure fury now.
Blood. His mate’s blood. He rushed for her even as the others moved to where she had fallen.
Del-Rey, the Coyote Breed alpha. Wolfe was there, alpha of the Wolf packs, even Callan and Tanner were racing for her as they tore through the forest.
“Cassa.” He slid to the ground beside her, fear suddenly tearing through him.
He had raced here for her. He had used more than what he had once thought was every ounce of strength he possessed to find his mate. Had he failed her in the end?
“Baby.” He knew the sound of his voice was demented, he saw the shock that filled the Breeds around him.
He had never told even his brother Tanner of the gifts he shared with such a very few other Breeds. The claws, the markings, the heightened senses. The ability to run and track as no other could. He was a primal Breed. He had hidden it, knowing that even other Breeds feared the primals.
His claws retracted, the strong human nails sliding back into place as he touched her, his hands racing over her chilled flesh until he found the wound at her side.
“Cabal.” Tanner was there.
He stared up at his brother for a brief second before his shaking hands touched the blood at her side.
“Get her ready to fly!” Jonas was there. Breeds were pouring through the woods. Some were securing Douglas despite his screams as he fought to find sensation in his legs.
The impulse regulator in his spine had been dissolved. The temporary fix to his legs had been deactivated by Jonas. It had melted through flesh and bone, leaving him now with no hope of finding sensation there again.
“Cabal.” Her sweet voice was weak, her fingers latched onto his arm. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Sorry?”
Pain was like a burning brand in his chest now as he stared into her white face.
“Your family,” she whispered tearfully. “He used me to kill them. I trusted him. Oh God.” She lowered her head as sobs tore from her. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” Gripping her chin, he lifted her face, his eyes locking on hers. “So many lived because you fought for them,” he swore to her, revealing something he had revealed to no one else. “You saved four, Cassa. They thrive. They fight to survive. You saved us.”
She stared back at him
, confusion filling her face before it cleared. The tears still fell as she lifted a shaking hand to his face. “I love you. I loved you for so long.”
“Cassa, stop.” Fear raked hard and deep inside his soul. “Tell me later. I’ll hold you close. I’ll keep you warm, baby, and give you the words I’ve feared for so long.”
She shook her head. “I just love you, Cabal.” Her voice was weaker, more distant.
“Cassa. Stay awake.” Terror gripped him now, a terror unlike anything he had known, even in the labs. “Stay with me, Cassa.”
Her fingers, stained with her own blood, touched his face.
“Hold me now,” she whispered, her lashes drifting closed. “Just hold me now.”
◆ CHAPTER 27 ◆
Cabal had never known such a hellish experience in his life. Even watching his family die hadn’t impacted him, hadn’t destroyed him, the way watching Cassa drift away from him had.
The heli-jet ride across the mountains to Sanctuary, the nearest facility with the equipment and doctors to save her, had been a waking nightmare.
Now, standing outside the operating rooms, his gaze locked on the doors that Dr. Morrey would use to enter the room following the surgery, he felt the rage and pain burning inside his soul.
He had waited too long. He had held himself back from her for too many years. He had fought what he felt for her, what he needed, and now he was paying the price.
“Cabal.” Jonas stepped back into the waiting area, his face heavily lined and somber as his secretary moved in behind him.
Rachel wasn’t timid, but she was quiet. Her gaze was filled with compassion, her composed expression saddened.
She was Jonas’s mate. Cabal had known it the moment he met her, and he was sure Jonas knew it as well.
“Ely’s certain she’s going to be okay,” Cabal stated, though he didn’t really believe it. He’d always feared that fate would steal her from him. Now he was terrified he had been right.
“Ely knows what she’s doing,” Jonas said quietly. “Watts has been transferred back to the Middle East. We’ll be questioning him next week in regards to the remaining members of the Deadly Dozen, as well as Azrael’s child. If we can find the child, then we’ll find the father.”
Cabal growled at the thought of the Lion Breed that he blamed for Cassa’s injuries. If Azrael hadn’t kidnapped her, hadn’t decided that she could be traded for the information he wanted, then she wouldn’t be in surgery now.
“I’ll kill him for this, Jonas. He had no right to involve her this way.”
Rachel spoke up then. “She’s not a doll. You won’t put her on a shelf and dictate how she can or cannot live. If you do, Cabal, you’ll lose her.”
He glared at her, noticing absently how Jonas moved to block sight of her with his own body.
Hell, he knew better than to growl at her. She might not realize it, but Jonas was like a damn dog with a bone when it came to his little secretary.
“I don’t need any advice at this point,” he warned her instead, when he knew that what he might need was a miracle.
He hadn’t protected his mate.
He hung his head, refusing to look at either of them further. He couldn’t look at them. He had failed his mate, and that was even worse than failing his pride and his family.
“We know Azrael is alive now,” Jonas finally stated. “We need him alive.”
Sucked to be Jonas.
“You need everyone alive,” Cabal said. “You just like killing them yourself.”
“There is that,” Jonas agreed. “But we won’t have to worry about a funeral for anyone anytime soon. If Ely says Cassa will be fine, then she will be just that.”
Cabal clasped his hands between his knees, his grip tight. He prayed. As he had never prayed in his life, he prayed that Cassa survived.
He rubbed his hands over his face, still feeling the sensitivity of the marks across it. He hadn’t lost the stripes. Rage was still burning inside him; fear was still a metallic taste in his mouth.
As he lifted his head to glance back at Jonas, the door swung open and Ely stepped through. Her face was somber, but it always was now. Her eyes were dark and almost emotionless. That too was normal for her lately.
“She’s doing well.” She was wiping her hands. Cassa’s blood still stained the front of her surgical gown. “We had a few tense moments during surgery, but it appears the bullet didn’t do any lasting damage. Entered and exited through her right side. A few weeks’ recuperation and she’ll be . . .”
Cabal didn’t hear the rest of it. He pushed past her and followed the scent of his mate to the recovery room, set deep beneath the estate house that served as the main base of Feline Breed affairs.
He stepped quietly into the curtained-off room and stood by the bed that held his mate.
She was pale. Her hair was streaked with blood. A light sheet was pulled up over her bare breasts and the mating mark he had given her was clearly displayed on her shoulder.
Cabal reached out, his finger barely glancing it.
“You have stripes.” Her weak voice drew his attention as her hand tried to lift, only to falter and fall back to the bed.
He knew what she wanted. She had been fascinated with the stripes on his hips and thighs. These on his face would be no different.
He lifted her hand to them as he slowly sat down on the small stool next to the bed.
“These will be gone soon,” he said quietly. “It won’t be long now.”
She smiled as her lashes drifted closed, then opened once again.
“Ely pulled me through, huh?” There was an edge of wariness in her voice. “Everything is okay?”
“Everything is okay.” He turned her palm into his kiss. “You’re okay.”
She stared back at him, her gray eyes somber, drowsy.
“I didn’t protect you,” he said quietly. “This won’t happen again, Cassa.”
“Don’t cage me, Cabal.”
He shook his head at that. “I can’t cage you. You’d die, just as I would. But from now on, we work together. No more assignments apart.” It was the best way to ensure that she was never threatened again.
She grinned at that. “Tame little assignments, huh?”
“By my standards perhaps. I doubt others would see it that way.”
She stared back at him silently for long moments, and he knew what she was waiting on, what she needed.
He lowered his head as he dragged in a hard, desperate breath.
“I never blamed you.” He finally lifted his head and caught her gaze once again. “Never. Not even that night when he accused you of knowing, I knew you couldn’t have.”
She frowned at that statement.
“Your scent,” he explained. “It was one of innocence, of desperation and sorrow. There was no guilt in you, Cassa. There never has been. From the moment I smelled that innocence, I wanted nothing more than to taste it. To touch it. To hold it as my own. All these years, I’ve longed for that alone, and I’ve been too damned scared to reach out for it. Too scared that fate would tear you away from me and take you forever.”
Terrified she would die. A part of him had always feared that this incredible gift that God had given him would be taken from him just as quickly.
“No more running.” Her fingers caressed a stripe.
“No more running, Cassa,” he swore. There was no place he wanted to be other than right here by her side. “I’ve loved you since the moment that sweet tongue licked across my blood. Since the night I watched you fighting so desperately to save me. I’ve loved you, Cass, and I’ve been terrified of losing you.”
Her fingers paused in the slow rubbing caress of the tips against one narrow stripe.
“Terrified?”
“Shaking in my boots.” He leaned closer, his lips against hers. “So terrified I ran as far and as fast as I could.”
She stared up at him, her eyes wide, so filled with hope. His Cassa. His brave, adventurous Cassa.
“No more running?”
He licked across her lips, tasted her, loved her. His hands framed her beloved face, his thumbs stroking across her jaw. He was nearly shaking with the need to assure himself she was fine. That she lived. That she was his.
“No more running, baby.”
He eased onto the bed with her, thankful that it was so damned big. They had to make room for large men in pain when they made the beds for the Breed intensive care facility. It was just large enough for him to lie on his side beside her, to hold her, to feel her warmth, to soak in the fact that she still lived. That she was still his.
“I love you, Cassa.” He gave her the words he knew she needed, and felt that last barrier toward her collapse.
If she died, he would follow her. He would avenge every moment of pain she felt, and then he would give up his life to be with her in death.
“Always?” she whispered.
She had always loved him. She would always love him. He knew it, felt it to the ends of his soul.
“Always, baby.” He brushed the hair back from the side of her face, lowered his lips and touched hers once again. “I’ll always love you.”
She would always be his mate. She would always be the Bengal’s heart. Man and beast, they existed for her alone.
“I love you, Cabal.” She sighed against his lips, drowsiness finally taking her as she went to sleep to his kiss.
“I love you, Cass.” He lowered his head beside hers and let his own lashes drift closed.
She was safe. She was his. She was the Bengal’s heart, the man’s soul. And forever the mate he would cherish.
◆ EPILOGUE ◆
Jonas entered the interview room of the maximum security prison that held the prisoners they didn’t want the world to ever know about.
There was a scientist in a cell. One of the most brutal and yet one of the most brilliant to ever live. She had bypassed genius level in her teens and was now considered one of the most dangerous creatures alive, even by Genetics Council standards.
There were several trainers here who had once worked for the Council and even a billionaire who had disappeared years ago behind the walls of this fortress, never to be seen again.
It wasn’t truly a harsh place to be. It just wasn’t a nice place to be. It was cold at night, a little warmer in the day. There weren’t a lot of conveniences, but there were doctors to oversee the health of the prisoners and there was nutritious food. Might not necessarily be food the prisoners were used to, but they were alive and they weren’t abused.
It was better than could be said of the treatment received by the Breeds that most of the prisoners had once overseen.
But none of those was the one he had come there to talk with now.
Jonas sat silently in the interview room and stared at the defeated pose Douglas Watts now used when facing him. His face was down. Once, he’d kept his person immaculate, his hair washed, his body in shape. In less than two weeks the hair had become dank and oily and the skin sallow. He was a man who had lost the will to fight.
“Are you in pain?” Jonas asked, though he knew Douglas wasn’t.
Douglas shook his head. “I feel nothing.”
Literally. From the hips down he was once again paralyzed, this time with no hope of recovery.
“The surgeon warned you that it could happen?” Jonas asked. He’d commanded that Douglas be given the warning.
Douglas nodded. “I was warned.”
The chip implanted needed months to interact with the nerve endings. By pushing himself as he had physically, Douglas had been the cause of his own demise.
“Then we’ll proceed,” Jonas stated. “I want the names of the final four of the Deadly Dozen.”
He was surprised when Douglas gave him the names. Three of them anyway.
“The fourth died,” Douglas sighed. “I heard about his death after I escaped. Ivan never was very smart. He pissed off the wrong man in his own government and paid for it.”
Ivan Vilanov, the former Russian elite officer that had once been an attaché to the United States.
“And the child of Patrick Wallace?” Jonas asked. That was the information he needed, what he wanted more than anything else.
Douglas lifted his head. “A boy. He was sold to this couple.” He gave their names easily. “They died. The report I have is that he has an older sister that disappeared with him a few years ago. I wasn’t able to find out more.” And Jonas believed him.
Jonas nodded as he checked the voice recorder he carried to make certain it was still recording everything.
“Did you know who Patrick Wallace was?” he asked Douglas.
Once again the other man nodded. “Azrael. The angel of death. We knew. He disappeared after that hunt. I knew he was wounded. I hoped he was dead. I was wrong.”
And now he was gone.
“And Brandenmore and Engalls?” Jonas questioned him. “Tell me what you know about their part in the hunts and the Ge