by Lora Leigh
Surely to God she knew better . . .
Son of a bitch, she didn’t know better.
She moved across the concrete concourse as graceful as life itself. Head held high, her expression placid as she stepped for the curb and as Dog cursed and moved quickly for her. Behind him, the Wolf Breeds followed as her father caught sight of her as well.
As she paused, a group crossing the street blocked his view of her for precious seconds. But he still heard her cry as it drifted from within the group. When they parted, he snarled in fury, running to get to her, screaming her name as he watched her hit her knees, then slowly topple to the side.
He caught her before her head hit the cement.
“Follow them,” he heard Dash yell out to his men.
Swinging Cassie into his arms, he ignored her father, ignored the chase for the group of Breeds racing from the area and rushed for the entrance to the Bureau.
“The labs,” Dash snapped as they headed for the security scanners. “Take the stairs.”
Pushing past the Breeds and humans as they paused, watching them in shock, Dog rushed through the scanners, only to find his way blocked by six Bureau Enforcers.
“She no longer has clearance, and you damned sure don’t,” the Wolf Breed Enforcer facing him sneered as he glanced down at Cassie’s unconscious form.
Before Dog could snarl back, or her father could push in front of them, the Wolf Breed was thrown aside, along with the two enforcers flanking him.
“By God I do,” Styx Mackenzie snarled, canines flashing. “Get the fuck out of the way, morons.”
Dog rushed past, heading to the door one of the Coyote females was holding open for him, her expression filled with concern.
“We saw the attack on the monitor,” Ashley snapped as he and Dash rushed past her. “Sobolova and Armani have been notified you’re bring her down.”
“Get her mother,” Dash ordered the Breed. “Now.”
“She’s on her way; she was notified immediately along with Jonas,” Ashley assured him as Dog rushed down the stairs to the medical area of the Bureau’s offices.
Cassie lay limp in his arms, unmoving, her face pale. She barely appeared alive. His heart was in his throat, rage pounding in his head. He was only barely aware of the growls leaving his throat or the savagery that echoed in them.
That attack wasn’t meant to capture her; it wouldn’t have been Council ordered. It was meant to hurt. A spur-of-the-moment attack by Breeds. More than one. He caught their scents on her clothes, drew them in, memorized them.
He turned the corner to the medical facility to see the doctors were already there, shouting questions, directing Dog to a gurney placed just inside the room.
“She’s not moving,” he growled, laying her gently on the bed. “Do something. She’s not moving.”
His hand stroked her face and he swore it was on the verge of trembling.
“You have to move, Dog.” Sobolova ordered him firmly.
“She’s not fucking moving.” Rage filled the vicious snarl that left his lips as they pulled back from his canines and he glared down at the Coyote specialist.
“Dog, you have to let them get to her. They can’t help her if you don’t move,” Dash snapped, pushing him back, fully expecting the powerful Coyote to attempt to take his throat out. Any touch other than a mate’s could cause an extreme reaction in some male Breeds.
Styx and three of the Wolf Breed alphas who followed him from Colorado moved to restrain the Coyote, knowing the enraged scent pouring from Dog would result in an explosion of violence.
And it nearly did. Dog tensed, his arms bunching, the scent of the Coyote strengthening with unusual sharpness as the steel gray eyes that met Dash’s flashed to a near black.
As their gazes met, the animal rose inside the other Dog with such unusual strength that Dash paused. He watched the Coyote’s gaze flicker, felt the battle waging inside him, before the black receded to gray and the animal slowly retreated, leaving the Breed tense but no longer in a killing fury.
“Let me go.” That voice, though; Dash had heard a similar sound once or twice, though that Breed had been Feline, not Coyote.
And the Breed he’d heard it from was unlike any other he’d ever met.
“What are you?” Dash kept his voice low, nearly soundless. “What the fuck are you?”
But he had a feeling he knew.
“Her mate.” Dog’s head jerked in Cassie’s direction as the gray of his eyes darkened, then lightened again. “Her fucking mate.”
Dog jerked away from him, his gaze moving to Cassie again as Dash watched, and his expression tightened. Then his jaw bunched before he turned and stalked from the examination room, leaving Dash to stare after him in shock.
* * *
• • •
Control. Never had it been so difficult to maintain, to leash the animal clawing at him. As he fought the rising fury he was aware of the ever-sharpening strength of his eye sight, his sense of smell. So much so that when he slammed out of the lobby doors, leaving a crack in the reinforced glass, he knew exactly where Mutt and Mongrel awaited him as well as the scent trail of Cassie’s attackers.
Breeds and humans alike scattered out of his way, their wary looks and instinctive suspicion of danger rising at the sight of him.
His eyes would be black, the color threatening to bleed into the whites surrounding the pupil. His muscles were harder, his flesh tight, absorbing nuances of the air itself as the fine, nearly invisible hairs covering his body lifted, picking up the most subtle shifts in the air. Power infused him, filling him in ever-increasing waves, pushing at his mind, his flesh, clawing at his senses as the creature threatened to push past the human consciousness and take control.
He was aware of Mutt and Mongrel moving to his side, following silently, apprehension filling them as he followed the scent trail the two Wolf Breeds had left as they’d run.
Wolf. They were Breeds he’d often seen about the Bureau. They were known for their loyalty to the Breed cause and their strength. They were Breeds who would be sworn to Cassie’s protection. Instead, they’d become her enemy, a threat he couldn’t allow to remain living. They had struck his mate, harmed her; they could have killed her. The strength of those blows would have taken the life of a human, and they wouldn’t have cared if their attack had taken her life.
“Dog, man, pull back,” Mongrel muttered as they entered the corridor between the Bureau headquarters and the Enforcer apartments, separated by the parking areas. “You’re going to give yourself away. That’s only going to risk your mate.”
Nothing mattered but his mate. Protecting her, surrounding her with his strength. Nothing mattered but ensuring the danger didn’t touch her, that nothing, not human nor Breed, harmed her.
Without Cassie, he was nothing. His very existence was without meaning.
The creature acknowledged that as did the Breed. If his secrets were discovered then it could ensure her death.
He felt that knowledge, felt the enraged animal pull back just enough to avoid detection while still maintaining the power that hummed through his body.
“You can’t kill them, Dog,” Mutt warned him from his other side. “You’ll risk your mate if they can enact Breed Law on you.”
A growl tore from his throat, savage and enraged. Instantly, the Breeds at his side tensed further. He couldn’t kill them? They attacked his mate. All bets were off as far as he was concerned.
As they pushed into the lobby of the Enforcer apartments he came to a stop, glaring at the elevators as they opened and half a dozen Coyote and Wolf Enforcers stepped out, flanking the two he’d come for himself. Leading them was Jonas Wyatt.
The silver mercury of the Lion Breed’s eyes attested to the strength of the Primal he possessed and how close to the surface it walked. The Primal, the third force of Breed g
Dog pulled back further, pushing the creature within him to the depths of his consciousness, keeping it shadowed, hidden.
The Breeds who had attacked Cassie were in restraints, heads lowered, but he could feel the strength of their hatred for him, for Cassie. He had no choice but to allow them to live, for the moment. But he’d ensure that time came to an end soon.
Stepping aside, he watched as the Enforcers escorted the two Breeds from the building, leaving Jonas alone with them.
“I have this,” he told Dog, the command in his voice firm. “They’ll pay for what they did.”
Dog merely grunted at the claim.
“Ensure they do, Director,” he growled. “Because I’ll be waiting for them. I promise you that. I’ll be waiting for them.”
•CHAPTER 6•
“I’m fine!” It wasn’t the first time Cassie made the statement in the four hours since she’d awakened in the Bureau’s medical lab, and she was getting damned tired of having the demand ignored. “Would you stop poking at me?”
She glared at Dr. Sobolova as she came at her with yet another pressure syringe. “I need some of my blood myself, you know.”
Her head was throbbing, the result of what the doctors suggested was a fist to the back of her head. Her ribs were tender from another blow. For some reason she’d gone to her knees before collapsing and their contact with the cement hadn’t been easy.
“Cassie, they’re trying to help.” Her mother’s calm voice wasn’t helping. Nor were the worry and fear shadowing her dark blue eyes.
It was a reminder of when she was a child and her knowledge of the strength it had taken for her mother to always remain calm, no matter how hard, how fast, they had to run, that ensured Cassie didn’t give in to her own terror.
She hated what had happened to her mother during those two years. The fear, the battle to stay one step ahead of the monster determined to take her daughter and the constant attacks had nearly destroyed Elizabeth.
Cassie remembered the night Dash had found them at that truck stop in the middle of a blizzard. The car they were in couldn’t travel farther; the scent of her mother’s blood, her hopelessness and her determination to fight to her last breath had been smothering Cassie.
Then there Dash had been, the letter she’d sent him in one hand, promising safety with the other. Now, fifteen years later, Elizabeth was stronger, well trained by her husband to defend herself and her children, and still fighting to protect her daughter.
From the corner of her eye she saw Sobolova advancing on her again.
“If they touch me one more time, I’m going to lose it,” she muttered, looking up at her mother from beneath her lashes, fighting to hold back the anger building inside her.
Elizabeth was worried. Cassie could see it in her face, but even if she couldn’t, she could sense the deepening concern filling her mother. Her dark blue eyes were shadowed, her expression somber.
It seemed that no matter her attempts, she couldn’t give her mother any peace.
“I’m going to my suite.” She eased from the gurney, thankful neither doctor protested too strenuously. “Do you think you or Dad could have some food delivered?”
Collecting her shoes from the metal shelf next to the bed, she hoped—no, prayed—Dog was still close by. She might need some help getting to her suite on her own two feet.
“I’ll call,” her mother agreed. “Give me your phone. I don’t have the numbers here.”
Oh yeah, right. No way in hell was she going to tell her mother about her phones. Elizabeth would erupt with fury and Dash would probably force Cassie back to Colorado.
“On second thought, I’m not hungry.” She was starving. “Is Dog still with Jonas?”
Maybe she could get Dog to call. She really wasn’t up to explaining the fact that her phones had been wiped. Remotely wiped. Whoever had ordered it hadn’t even had the courtesy to ask for the phones or simply take the Bureau line.
As she considered whether she was actually able to walk to the elevators on her own, the door to the examination room opened and Dog strode in. Tall. Powerful. The sense of relief that swept over her was weakening.
“Going somewhere, halfling?” he growled a second before he swept her up into his arms.
She didn’t have the strength to protest. Resting her head on his shoulder, she felt the breath she’d been holding slowly release.
“My suite,” she sighed, feeling his warmth surrounding her.
She’d been unaware how cold she actually was until she felt his warmth, felt the beat of his heart, his arms surrounding her.
He was moving before she spoke, though, pushing through the opened door and carrying her along the hall to the elevator.
“There are guards at our door,” she told him as the elevator closed and they were alone.
“Really?” There was something in his voice that sounded just a little too self-satisfied. It was a warning she took to heart. Even if she hadn’t known who he was, she’d heard of the Council Coyote, Dog, for years.
He was lethal. There wasn’t a Breed she knew of who wasn’t at least wary of him.
“Please don’t fight.” She simply couldn’t deal with it. Not right now. “Not here.”
The totally male grunt that vibrated in his chest was a mix of disgust and amusement.
“You’re about to become high maintenance, darlin’. I enjoy a good fight,” he told her as the elevator doors opened. “But this one time, I’ll be a good boy.”
She doubted Dog had been a good boy a day in his life.
As they neared her door, the scents of dislike and distaste reached her nostrils. They were Breeds; they were trained to better control such emotions. The fact that the scent of them was so strong was insulting.
It wasn’t unexpected.
Whenever she moved about the Bureau’s halls, whether on the residential floor or in other areas, she caught the scents reaching out to her, normally from the Wolf Breeds rather than felines, though she could rarely identify whom the emotions were coming from.
“Interesting,” Dog muttered. “That normal?”
She knew what he meant and she could only shrug in reply. It wasn’t unusual. At least she could identify the Breeds it was coming from this time.
“Open the door, assholes, then back off.” Dog stopped several feet from the door leading to her suite.
The Breed Enforcers’ expressions were bland, but the scent of their disgust grew despite the fact that the door was pushed open and the enforcers stepped back as ordered.
Did they really believe they were safe from him? That he wouldn’t strike out at them simply because the emotions weren’t directed at him? That he wouldn’t take it as a personal challenge?
Dog strode into the room, caught the door with his heel and slammed it closed.
This would be dealt with, Dog assured himself as he carried Cassie to the bedroom and laid her on her bed. Very soon, and very painfully. At least, painfully for them. They had no fucking idea the animal they were screwing with or exactly how protective he truly was over his little mate. His halfling.
Cassie was too pale, and a sense of weariness emanated from her. But that weariness had been growing in her for more than a year now. Possibly two. No wonder if that was the bullshit she had to deal with.
“How often do they let their ignorance show like that, Cassie?” he asked her casually, careful to hold his anger at bay.
Once again, she shrugged, not looking at him as she dropped her shoes to the floor beside the bed and propped herself against the pillows.
“I think I’m hungry,” she sighed, a statement meant to distract him.
He didn’t distract easy. At least not that easy. She’d have to be naked and talking about more than food.
“Want me to go ask them?” Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back against the dresser and watched her, only allowing mild curiosity to show.
The glare she shot him assured him she wasn’t fooled. What she couldn’t smell, she was smart enough to know lay beneath the surface. She was smarter than they were; she sensed the animal he harbored, even if she didn’t realize how very powerful it was.
“It’s rarely that strong,” she surprised him with the direct, firm answer. “But going out there and knocking a few heads together won’t change it. They normally only allow me to sense it if I’m alone. They’ve learned not to show it at any other time.”
Because the few times her father had sensed it in those first years, he’d erupted in such savagery on the Breeds who dared show it that it taken some of them weeks to fully recover. But it hadn’t made those who feared her like her any better. They’d only learned to hide it better.
“So because you can’t knock their heads together, they refuse to show their respect when you’re alone?” He didn’t bother to hide the growl in his voice then. “And you haven’t dealt with this yet?” That didn’t sound like the woman, the Breed, he knew she was trained to be. Or the animal that lurked impatiently beneath the surface.
His little halfling gave an irritated roll of her eyes. “I could knock their heads together and they wouldn’t dare strike back, but what’s the point? The feeling would still be there. They don’t strike back because they know Dad and Jonas would skin them out. That’s not respect. It’s fear.”
And it wasn’t her style. She was such a damned lady he doubted she ever gave in to that need to confront such stupidity. But the need to do it was there; he could sense it. It flowed through her with a hunger she refused to face and likely didn’t even recognize.
He’d watched her over the years, studied her, paid attention to every expression, every scent, no matter how slight. His delicate little mate was a volcano kept tightly restrained.
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