Cassadee Sings the Blues [Grey River 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Maia Dylan

  She had no idea how long the storm raged or how long she was caught in its maelstrom, but by the time she could draw breath without sobbing or screaming, she felt completely empty. She was utterly wrung out with nothing left to give. She became aware that the two women had her almost cradled in their laps and were rocking her back and forward. When she looked up into their faces, she was surprised at the anger she saw there. She flinched back and got a truly feminine slap on the arm from Faith.

  “Oh, stop that! Yeah, we are pissed, but not at you, honey. Never at you.” Faith wiped her hand under Cassadee’s eyes, sweeping away the last of her tears. “No, we are angry at the two complete assholes who did this to you. God knows what the fuck the Fates were thinking when they fated you to those two complete dumbasses.”

  Cassadee gasped. “How do you know that?” Oh shit, did they know that she believed them to be her mates?

  “Sweetie, just as you left the bar, the boys experienced the Quickening.” Lucy smiled sadly at her. “But they knew we would rip their balls from their bodies if they came near you after tearing you up like they did.”

  Cassadee thought back to the morning, and remembered severing the link she had felt forming when she first scented AJ and Sam. If she had severed her end, and then theirs snapped into place, what would that mean? Cassadee tried desperately to make sense of it all. Why in the hell had it taken so long for them to recognize her as their mate? The Quickening was surefire, wasn’t it?

  Cassadee felt a little faint as she pushed up from the floor. The light-headedness that swarmed her was a sure sign that her iron levels were low. “Iron!” she shouted as she slapped her hand to her forehead.

  Faith and Lucy looked at her in confusion.

  “Okay, are we naming all of the elements on the periodic table or is that a particular favorite.” Always had a sarcastic comeback did Faith.

  “No, I think I know why the Quickening didn’t hit them when they met me yesterday.” Cassadee grabbed her iron supplements from the cupboard and poured a large glass of orange juice to chase them down with.

  “Of course!”

  Lucy caught on quick and Cassadee gave her a wry look as she nodded, swallowed the pills, and chugged the juice. Faith looked between the two with a clear, well-tell-me-for-fuck’s-sake look.

  “Cassadee suffers from acute iron deficiency brought on by a condition called sickle-cell anemia.

  “When I have taxed myself too much with certain things, my iron level becomes dangerously low, and I have to have a blood transfusion. Ten days ago, I burned myself out pretty much and came dangerously close to serious and permanent damage. I had to have four rounds of blood transfusions to get my level up and steady. My last one was two days ago and it obviously affected my scent.” Cassadee rinsed the glass out, then stood in the kitchen looking at her cactus on the windowsill. She was really going to miss this place.

  “Well, okay, that’s the reason the Quickening was late for the party, but that doesn’t excuse what they did,” Faith grumped and actually stamped her foot. Hell hath no fury like an alpha mate when her friend had been scorned apparently.

  “Wait, how do you even know what they said to me,” Cassadee asked as she turned to sit done on her couch-bed. “Were you there?” Oh God, if they said yes, her humiliation would be complete.

  “No, honey. I wish we had been because we would have come out and kicked them both in the nuts for being such dicks.” Lucy patted her on the hand as she sat down beside her. “When you ran out, AJ called us to come here and be with you. They told us everything that they had said to you and what they think they had done to you. They wanted to be sure that we understood what you had been through. Sam said that they needed for us to know everything so that you wouldn’t have to tell us yourself and live through it again. He asked us to tell you that they want you to stay.”

  Cassadee looked down at her hands and shook her head. She didn’t know if she could.

  “Cassadee, they know they’ve fucked up in proportions not even God has ever seen before. They are not asking you for your forgiveness. They want to earn that. They are simply asking you not to give up on your home and your pack because of them.”

  Cassadee looked at them both, still a little numb by everything and not really sure what she should do. She started to think about who she was and everything that she had been through. She was a shifter and born to a race of people who valued strength, dominance, and a fierce attitude that no one ever fucked with. Not only that, she was Cassadee Shaw, damn it! She was the most powerful alpha female in her pride, which was something that she seemed to have forgotten.

  When she had left the hospital after making the decision to stay in Grey River she had challenged the world to try to stop her from getting what she wanted, to try to step in and stop her from claiming Grey River as her home and as her place in this world. She sure as hell wasn’t going to let her potential mates do it. She had severed her end of the fledgling bond between the three of them that morning in the bar, a knee-jerk reaction to the pain and suffering she had felt coming from it. She wasn’t sure she would ever open herself up to it again, but she knew she could if she ever wanted to.

  “Now, that’s more like it,” Faith said smugly, huge grin on her face. “You’ve shaken off that scared look of someone who feels lost and you’re back to being you! You can handle this. You can make those men work to earn the right for you to allow them to even try to get your trust back. You are Cassadee Shaw, damn it! And, baby, we all can’t wait to hear you roar!”

  Faith grinned and Lucy joined her, but Cassadee couldn’t, Faith had hit a little too close to home with that statement. If she was to truly make her stand here, then she needed to come clean with them all.

  “Actually, about that whole roaring thing…” Cassadee winced and looked at her two best friends. They frowned at her and Cassadee decided the best way to do this was do it fast. “So, the funny thing is…I can actually roar. I’m a shifter, too.”

  Lucy and Faith looked at each other and then back at Cassadee. “Honey,” Lucy said, “that’s fine, so is most of the population of Grey River. Why would that be an issue?”

  “I’m not a wolf shifter, Lucy. My inner spirit is feline, not canine.”

  Lucy and Faith both gasped in shock.

  “When I shift, I turn into a mountain lion.”

  Wow, way to create a deathly silence there, Cassadee. Lucy and Faith both sat there, mouths agape and staring at her as if she had just sprouted two heads. Cassadee stared back, looking between the two and waiting for the fallout. And that would probably start with the screaming and then the running and then the abandoning.

  “That is so”—Faith’s words came out on a breath—“fucking awesome!” She screamed the last word. She jumped off the couch and turned to face her, practically jumping up and down on the spot. “So you can actually shift? Like into a mountain lion and do all the roaring and the running through the forest and everything! With the claws, and the fangs and the fur and, well, everything!”

  Cassadee sat back a little shocked at how incredibly fast she could talk. “Um, yeah, so you’re okay with that?”

  “Fuck yeah! That is so cool. Ty and Trent never told me that there could be other types of shifters. I mean, of course, if there are wolf shifters in the world, then it makes sense that there could be other species, right? This is so cool!” Again, Faith was jumping up and down.

  Cassadee turned to Lucy. “You’ve been a little quiet, Luce.”

  “Honey, I’ve always thought you were special. That’s why I hired your ass.” Lucy suddenly grinned. “Now that I know you can turn fang and kick drunken assholes out of the bar, I see that as a win–win!” Cassadee burst out laughing.

  Well, that had gone a lot easier than she had thought it would. She truly did have friends and a place in this world. Nothing could ruin this moment for her! Nothing!

  Suddenly Faith winced and Lucy muttered, “Uh-oh.”

  Then again maybe s
omething could. “What is it?” Cassadee asked as her heart filled with dread.

  “Well, you know about mating links and how sometimes when you are in shock or excited about something really cool, like one of your best friends having the ability to turn into a mountain lion, for example, and you forget to keep your shields up,” Faith said wringing her hands in a way that told Cassadee that was exactly what had happened.

  Oh shit. “Ty and Trent know?” Cassadee whispered.

  Faith cringed and nodded.

  “We’re sorry, honey,” Lucy threw her arm around Cassadee’s shoulders, and Faith came back to the couch to do the same thing from the other side. “My men know now, too. They were all together when Faith let it slip and now they are on their way here. They should be pulling up any second now. Ty is freaking out a little bit about us being here alone with a mountain lion shifter.”

  “What does he think I’m gonna do, eat you? I’m a vegetarian for fuck’s sake!” Cassadee threw her hands into the air.

  “I’m sure they—wait. What? Truly? A vegetarian?” Faith asked, shock and disbelief in her face.

  “Yes! Don’t you fucking judge me!” Cassadee crossed her arms with a huff.

  Faith threw her arms in the air. “Not judging! Just a little shocked is all.”

  “Look that’s not really our biggest concern right now,” Lucy made the timeout T with her hands. “Cassadee, you are going to have to tell Ty and Trent everything about yourself. It’s the only way forward at this point.”

  Cassadee nodded, seeing the logic in that. “Yeah, I kinda knew I would at some stage, but I have to admit I hadn’t thought it would be like this and so damn soon!”

  “Good, and now is as good a time as any,” Faith said as she turned to look out the window, “because they are all pulling up outside right now.”

  Cassadee heard tires squealing to a stop on the asphalt outside, then doors slamming, followed by footsteps pounding up the backstairs that led to her apartment. There sounded like a scuffle of some sort taking place on the landing for a few seconds before the door burst open and the room suddenly filled with men. Lots of men.

  Ty was trying to stop Sam from hitting Cody, and Brendan and Trent had AJ caught between them. Judging by the curses, ripped shirts, blood smears, and flashing blue eyes, this wasn’t the first round of their scuffle.

  “Sam, you fucking pain in my ass, no one is going to hurt her! Cody just said he wanted to make sure Lucy was safe with her! He never threatened Cassadee for fuck’s sake. Calm your shit down before I put you on your ass!” Ty roared. When that didn’t work, he loosened his hold on his dominance and filled the room with an alpha howl filled with the call for submission.

  Everyone in the room suddenly stopped moving, the men dropped to a knee, the women cringed a little, aware that their alpha had just exerted his dominance. Cassadee fumed that he would try to exert it over her, so she stood up. She felt the pressure of his dominance but pushed through it. After all she was the queen of her pride by right, bloodline, and birth, born to lead and not to bow to anyone. Ty’s howl ended in shock as he looked into her eyes. She knew hers were probably amber by now. He narrowed his arctic blue eyes and growled in her direction.

  Well, fuck. Now she’d done it.

  Chapter 4

  It was one of those moments in her life where she wasn’t quite sure what was about to happen next, so she wrapped her bravado around her like a shield, pulled on the royalty thread that was hidden within her, and stood as regally as she could while waiting to see how the others would react to her refusal to bow under the dominance of their alpha. Cassadee knew that once she gave her fealty to him, or rather if he ever asked her, too, which was a pretty big stretch at the moment, then she would submit, but until that time, her pride was one of the few things she had left. Ironic really, considering she no longer acknowledged belonging to her lion pride, but there you go—that was how the cards lay.

  Ty stood before her, his eyes completely blue, a shimmering ice that meant his wolf was close to the surface, no doubt scenting her. She kept her shields up, wanting to share the rest, not have it ripped from her against her will. When he encountered her shields, his eyes narrowed. A noise behind him drew her attention. It was Sam and AJ attempting to stand against their alpha.

  Confused she frowned at them.

  “Ty, please,” AJ pleaded. His voice garbled, signaling how close his wolf was.

  “Shut—up—AJ,” Ty growled back. Then he closed his eyes and heaved a sigh.

  Cassadee could almost see the numbers ticking over behind his eyes as he counted down from ten trying to calm down. When his eyes opened they were only flashing blue, meaning he had pushed his wolf back, at least for the moment. This pulled the impressive power of his dominance back into himself and allowed the others in the room to stand. “I’m not going to hurt you, Cassadee, but I think we should talk, don’t you? One alpha to another?”

  Gasps and sounds of disbelief came after this statement.

  “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, Ty, and I do have my share of answers. Would you like to meet in private?” Cassadee asked, not because she was concerned about telling the others in the room but because she was nervous about his reaction when he found out her role in the fire that had injured two of his closest friends.

  “Oh hell the fuck, no!” Sam strode forward so he faced his alpha and her. “We all want to hear what you have to say, baby, and I think you need us here. Besides, I don’t think my wolf would allow it either.”

  Cassadee turned cold eyes in his direction. “I don’t exactly care what your wolf will and will not allow at this point, Sam. Both you and your wolf have no say in anything that I do or say or with whom I do or say it.” Cassadee shivered as she watched his face darken. He was a little shocked, a little ashamed, and if she were not mistaken, a lot turned on. She stamped down on the need to shiver at that last thought.

  Ty suddenly grinned. “Sam, if you and AJ are gonna be the perfect mates to an alpha, then you gotta start strong and stay strong! We’re shifters, we respect strength and find it sexy as hell in our mates. You better step up and deal with your alpha mate.”

  AJ moved up beside them and pushed Ty out of the way. Faith came over with a dangerous look and flicked his ear.

  “Ow! Fuck, sweetness, what the hell was that for!”

  “And just how do you think he should deal with it, Tyler Jamieson, hmm? You just keep your opinion to yourself.” She spun away from him and marched over to Trent, who had settled into one of the few chairs in the room and plopped herself down in his lap.

  AJ touched a gentle hand to her arm, trying to get her attention but not wanting to cross the line. “Cassie, honey, we need to talk with you if you’d let us.”

  “I think we said everything we needed to say this morning, AJ.” Cassadee sighed and her shoulders stooped. “I don’t have the energy to deal with you as well as giving you all some background on me.”

  Sam and AJ both seemed to wilt a little, which made her feel a little guilty, but then she remembered that scene in the bar and straightened her shoulders.

  “Okay then, Cassie, we’ll let you tell us about yourself now,” Sam said softly, “but we are going to do everything within our power to convince you to give us a chance to apologize to you. If nothing else comes from it, and don’t get me wrong, darlin’, we want a whole lot of great things to happen between us, but if nothing else does come from it, we owe you an apology. A fucking big one. We would like the opportunity to convince you to give us the chance to offer it to you.” Cassadee got lost in his eyes. They darkened with sincerity and she found herself nodding slightly.

  AJ and Sam both gave her huge grins, positively dripping in hope, then stepped back, effectively making her as the focus for everyone in the room. She wasn’t sure how to tell them what she had to say, let alone where to start. She guessed the beginning was as good a place as any!

  “My father is the king of our pride. He killed my m
other after she gave birth to me.” Cassadee wouldn’t look at anyone in the room she just spoke to the room in general. She heard the gasps and growls coming from her audience but refused to acknowledge them. “He thought I was latent. He was so angry that he simply partially shifted and cut her throat. I was about six months old, and my older brother Bryan was nearly two. You see, in lion shifters, not all females can shift. Only the very strong. We have the usual list of physical benefits that come with being a shifter—we are faster, live longer, and are stronger than most humans.”

  “It’s not fair! Why don’t humans get any cool side benefits,” Faith grumped from her position on Trent’s lap.

  “It’s okay, baby. You have them now,” Trent said, comforting her with a wink, which made her grin and snuggle farther into his arms.

  “I went through my first shift at eight months. My father was delighted. As far as he was concerned, it would not have been right if the King of the Western Springs Pride had anything but the strongest of cubs.” Cassadee stopped when Ty growled.

  “Your father is Julius Hubbard.” Ty spoke through gritted teeth, and he didn’t make it a question.

  Oh great. This would go a lot easier if he already knew how incredibly insane her father was. Cassadee nodded. He leaped up and started pacing.

  “I heard rumors that he was messing with genetic enhancements for his pride and that he was trying to make them stronger and faster, basically invincible. To be honest I thought it was a load of shit.”

  “Be that as it may, it’s all true. Shaw was my mother’s maiden name. Western Springs wasn’t always such a mess. It was my father who turned it into the mental mind fuck it is now. There are people in the pride who want things to go back to how it used to be. But they need a leader who can actually help them to do that and not simply live for the power of being the king and using his pride as game pieces. My father did that, and my brother wants to continue down that same line.