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

by Maia Dylan

  “You should know that he hasn’t had any success with the physical enhancement side of things at all. Our metabolism is too fast and burns through whatever he tries to give us chemically. He has attempted to genetically enhance our kind through genetic modification using surrogates and a whole slew of doctors, but he has been extremely unsuccessful. The babies are either born completely normal with no shifter tendencies whatsoever, or they never make it to full term.” Cassadee tried to keep the emotion out of her voice but didn’t succeed completely. It was a little difficult but she needed to if she wanted to get the rest of it out.

  “Fuck me. He sounds like a real piece of work, Cassie,” Sam muttered from his seat to her right.

  “Yeah well, that’s Daddy,” she spat with all the venom and hatred she had inside her.

  “You said he had no success with the physical enhancements, what about psychic abilities?” Trent asked.

  Judging by his tone she suspected that he and Ty already knew the answer. “He has had varying degrees of success. The better the telepathic skill of the subject he is trying to enhance, the better the enhancement result. He has given a lot of our pride who couldn’t communicate telepathically outside their familial links the ability to do so. This makes for better communication on the battlefield as far as he is concerned.” With a deep breath, Cassadee sat on the couch. “The best success has come from using female shifters, but only those who are able to shift in their own right.”

  Sam and AJ tensed and she could hear them both growling low. “He experimented on you, didn’t he, darlin’?” AJ rasped, his voice low and rough. “That’s where those scars came from. He experimented then he tested how enhanced his experiment’s had made you.”

  All the others in the room grumbled and swore, unwilling to believe that a man could do that to a woman, let alone his own daughter.

  “I am the only female shifter in my pride for decades. So yeah, he experimented on me.” Cassadee swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. “And to all intent and purposes he was successful.”

  “In what way?” Ty leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, clearly intrigued by the thought of it all.

  “I can talk telepathically with anyone without requiring a bond.”

  Everyone in the room flinched as she matched her actions to her words, giving them all an apologetic grimace.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I don’t usually do that without asking or being asked to do so. I won’t do it again, I swear. I just wanted to show you.”

  They all still looked at her warily. She lowered her head and sighed. In for a penny, in for a pound. “I do have some skill at telekinesis but nothing too big or too far away. It also takes a lot out of me.” Cassadee looked up and concentrated on the bottle of iron supplements in the kitchen. Taking them into her telepathic hand, as she liked to think of it, she drew it across the room to the table in front of her.

  The room filled with gasps of wonder and growls of unease. From beneath her lashes, she looked up at AJ and Sam to gage their reaction. She was amazed to see their eyes flashing in amazement and wonder. Okay, so they were not freaked out then.

  “Damn, that is so cool!” Lucy’s voice practically vibrated with excitement.

  “There’s one other thing you can do, isn’t there, Cassadee.”

  Ty’s voice was strained. When she looked in his direction she saw anger flashing in his eyes, but no arctic blue. No, all this anger came from the man. She cast a quick look at Sam and AJ. Ty stood so suddenly the chair he had been sitting on fell over.

  “I fucking knew it! It was you, wasn’t it? The day of the fire it was you that was manipulating the fucking fire itself and you put that damn barrier up between me, AJ, and Sam! Just fucking admit it!”

  Cassadee jumped to her feet as well, but before she could even begin to explain, she was suddenly surrounded by two extremely tense and outrageously hot men, just seconds from shifting if the vibes she got off them were anything to go by. Acting on instinct she put her hand on them both and somehow managed to calm them and step them both back from the edge.

  “Alpha or not, Ty,” AJ snarled, “you don’t ever get to fucking talk to her that way.”

  “Ever, Ty. Not ever again will you speak to our mate in that tone, do you understand me?” Sam threatened as well.

  Cassadee was stunned. They were actually standing up for her? Jumping to her aid and protection even though she had just been accused of being the one who had caused them to be injured? And, Jesus, they were claiming her as their mate in front of all of them?

  Ty placed his hands on his hips and looked annoyed. “Oh, calm down, I know there has to be an explanation. The Fates wouldn’t choose someone that evil as your fated one. No fucking way!” He suddenly grinned and winked at Cassadee. “Sure was interesting to see how fast they jumped to your defense though, right?”

  Cassadee stood there completely dumbstruck for a moment. That was a test? What an asshole!

  Sam grabbed her hand and helped her to sit on the sofa, mumbling about matchmaking asshole alphas as Faith jumped off Trent’s lap and ran to Ty to kiss him and praise his little stunt. Traitor.

  “So, if it wasn’t you that was making that fire act all fucked up, Cassadee”—Cody frowned as he looked at her—“then who in the hell was it?”

  Cassadee gritted her teeth. “Bryan, my fucktard of an older brother. Daddy Dearest didn’t just mess with me. He messed with Bryan, too. He didn’t want to endanger me unnecessarily, so he would try all his messed-up little experiments on Bryan first. Once he worked out how to perfect it all, he gave me only the best. Bryan is still enhanced as well, but not to my level.”

  “Bryan started the fire, manipulated it, and kept me from contacting AJ and Sam.”

  That was no question. Ty’s eyes were back to flashing blue and Cassadee nodded, thankful it wasn’t because of her. “Yeah, he kept his mind open to me so I could see what he had planned and where. I made it up on that ridge a little too late to stop what had happened to AJ and Sam. I could feel the barrier he had thrown up between you and see his handiwork with the fire. Once I was able to get control of the fire and start to dial it back, that’s when he struck out at you, Ty, to try and force me to break my hold on him and the fire. He threw a psychic blast, which really fucking hurts!”

  “Yep, I can attest to that, and the bastard went after Trent and our mate as well.” Ty growled.

  “I know. I was able to break the barrier and knock him out, then pull the blast back from you.” No need to mention that she took the pain of it, too.

  “I know you shouldered the pain. I heard you scream.” Ty gave her a small smile.

  Sam and AJ both sighed heavily and leaned closer to her offering comfort. Not knowing what to say she just gave a small shrug. “Dad’s exiled him from the pride, and Bryan is trying to get back into his good graces.” It was truthful, but a little light on the exact details.

  “There’s a lot of the story you left out just now, isn’t there, Cassie?”

  Sam turned to look at her, turning her face gently so that he could look her directly in the eye. Damn, his eyes were beautiful! Oh shit, the force is strong in this one.

  “I think that your father liked to pit the two of you against each other. That way he could test his enhancements for sure, but also because he’s a sick, sadistic bastard. Those fights against your brother, they’re the cause of the scars, right?”

  Cassadee felt her face pale, but she nodded. She heard the growls of the other shifters in the room and her two best friend’s gasp in outrage. She realized that they hadn’t been there to see her rip her top off in outrage. Thank God!

  “All except the ones on my back.” She fought the tears and kept them from falling but couldn’t stop them from filling her eyes. “Bryan and I had fought, this time using fire as our weapon. I have the better control over most things, but fire is all Bryan. He is easily distracted, and you can taunt him into making mistakes, which is what I did t
hat day and won the round. As I turned, the spineless little shit shoved a knife in my stomach.”

  Sam wanted to punch something so bad he could almost taste it! He was fucking livid that someone could do that to a woman, but that someone did that to his woman made him fucking homicidal! “We find this Bryan,” Sam said to AJ down their link, keeping his face neutral so as not to alert her that they were talking.

  “And we fucking end him,” AJ sent back. “Don’t give a flying rat’s ass how or which one of us does it as long as he is ended.”

  Sam agreed. “So, after the little fucker stabbed you, he tied you up while you were weak then lashed you with a leather strap?” Sam guessed.

  “Please.” His mate gave him a look that clearly said, “As if!” “When I refused to end Bryan after I had beaten his ass for a second time that day, despite the knife wound, my father decided it was a punishable offense. He had his pride second, Adam Baker, help him to tie me to a damn tree branch. Then Dad picked up a leather strap and used that on me.”

  “Fuck! Your own father flogged you?” Cody yelled from the other side of the room. “That’s just cold, dude.”

  Leave it to Cody to find a way to sum up in a way that made it seem less painful. Everyone smiled in the room, including his mate.

  “So, Bryan was the one who started the fire.” Ty’s expression softened as he summarized the events that led to AJ and Sam getting hurt. “Then you turned it in on itself. Then you took Bryan on and won and finished your night by absorbing whatever the hell it was he was doing to me, Trent, and Faith.”

  Sam frowned. Ty had never talked about anything happening to them.

  “Cassadee, I don’t know if we will ever be able to thank you for what you did that night and no doubt at great risk to your own health. Please know that you are now considered a member of my pack, your mating to these dumbasses aside”—he winked at her—“you are mine, my pack, and part of my family. I decree it so as alpha of this pack.”

  Cassadee sat there looking stunned. “I’m not sure what to say. Thank you seems a little too simplistic, but I do need to say that I am so, so sorry for what Bryan did.” Cassadee sat back so she could see both AJ and Sam. “I know it’s of little consolation for what he did to you both, but he limped away from our fight that night. It’s because of my family that you were hurt. That you were scarred.”

  She whispered that last part and Sam wanted to throw his head back and howl at his own stupidity. It was because of him that she felt like he gave a flying fuck about those scars.

  “You and me both, brother, the blame lies equally on you and me both.” AJ took her left hand in his and Sam took her right.

  “Baby, you can’t take the blame for what your—what did you call him? Fucktard? Yeah, that works—your fucktard brother did.” AJ placed a light kiss across her knuckles and Sam heard her sharp inhale.

  “And besides that beautiful, if Bryan hadn’t started that fire, and you hadn’t stopped him, you may not have come here, and we may not have met you. So, these scars are a badge of honor that will remind me every day of how damn strong you are, how courageous and how giving. AJ and I fucked up huge this morning. We will never be able to forgive ourselves for it, and no matter how long we try to make it up to you, we will never, ever make up for what we said or how we said it.”

  Taking a page from his brother’s book, Sam pressed a kiss to the knuckles of the hand he held. He felt her shiver and despite all the dread and fear he was feeling that she might not be able to forgive them, hope bloomed within him.

  “Ow!” Ty suddenly flinched as Faith whapped him and Trent in the chest with the back of her hand then scowled at her mates. “What the hell, Faith!”

  “Sam and AJ can get with the romantic melting talk, too, huh? So it’s apparently only my mates who are unable to actually talk romanticlike.”

  Ty grinned unrepentant and must have said something quite X-rated down their link judging by the quick rush of color to her face. Ty stood up with his mate in his arms. “I find myself saying this a lot to the mates of my friends, but thanks for telling us your story.” Ty glanced at Lucy and gave her a wink, one she returned with a huge grin even as her mates petted her. “Do you know if Bryan is still in the area?”

  “I’ve been monitoring him. He’s back upstate, licking his wounds and planning his next step. He’s nowhere around here. But he will come. He needs to challenge me and win to get our father to take him back.” Cassadee looked Ty direct in the eye. “He is nowhere near as dominant as I am. Hell, no one in my pride is, except maybe my father. I haven’t tested that by challenging him, yet.”

  Sam tensed as he realized what that would mean. She would face off against her father in lion form and the battle would be to the death. He didn’t think he could sit back and watch his mate battle a fucking lion. It went against every protective cell in his body.

  “Okay, then we have some time to come up with a plan. Come, mate, I think we should head on out and let these three have some time to talk.”

  The two mated triads left the small apartment with waves and promises to talk soon leaving Sam, AJ, and their mate sitting on the tired and butt-ugly couch against the wall of her shitty one-bedroom shitty apartment. Sam could sense Cassadee’s apprehension.

  “Do you want us to leave?” AJ whispered.

  Sam wanted to object but knew that she had just had a monumentally bad day, and it wasn’t quite lunchtime. Shit, had their mate even eaten today? Her stomach must have sensed the direction of his thoughts as it rumbled at that very moment.

  “We could take you out to lunch, if you’d like?” Sam smiled at her and when she smiled back he felt his heart swell. Please God, he prayed, please help us to find a way to fix this.

  “Um, I’m not sure I’m up to anything more today guys.” Cassadee ran her hands through her short blonde hair, then leaned back against the back of the couch. She looked exhausted, emotionally drained, and extremely pale.

  “How about I go out and grab us something to eat quickly and you jump into your bed for a nap.” Sam stood as if to help her into the bedroom when he realized there were no rooms off this one.

  “Yeah, um, we are currently sitting on my bed. The bathroom is behind that shower curtain.” Her voice was strained, showing her embarrassment about where she lived.

  “Baby, you’re exhausted and hungry.” Sam knelt in front of her and lifted a hand to her cheek. “Please know that we have only the best intentions when I say come home with us? Let us take care of you. I can’t stand to leave you here. You will have your own room and we will be able to take care of you. Please?”

  Sam could see the internal war she was waging on her face. She would never be able to hide what she was thinking from them, but then again with her psychic ability, neither would they!

  “Well, I could go a burger right now, with fries. And a chocolate milkshake. And some pie. With ice cream.” Cassadee spoke almost tentatively as if she was expecting to be shot down or denied.

  “Never again, AJ,” Sam said down their link. “Never again will our mate be denied anything she wants. Never again will she be told she’s not good enough as she is when she is fucking perfection!”

  “Agreed,” AJ growled back.

  “That’s a fantastic idea. Let’s get you home.” Sam lifted her into his arms and felt her tense at his use of the word home. But he was determined to treat her so well that she never wanted to leave them or their home again. AJ grabbed her purse, and they locked up and left.

  * * * *

  Cassadee could not believe the day she’d had. She had been up and down on an emotional roller-coaster ride so violent that she was left positively dizzy by it all. She sat back from the table having eaten her fill, and enjoyed the bantering between Sam and AJ as they fought to make her feel at ease, doing everything possible to make her feel comfortable with them.

  She wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing by coming with them back to Country Blue, but something told her to
follow her heart. Her head was telling her to cut her loses and leave, to find another town and settle down there. Who needed mates anyway? She was better off on her own. But her heart was saying give them another chance. No one is infallible. Mistakes were made and words spoken this morning that shouldn’t have been from both sides. She was just too damn tired to work out which argument was actually winning.

  She sat in silence as they ate, and eventually Sam and AJ stopped the bantering and just looked at her, worry written all over their faces.

  “What are we doing?” she whispered.

  The men looked at each other and then leaned over the table to bring them closer to her.

  “I must admit, baby, that I can’t tell what you’re thinking.” AJ grinned at her. “I’m not psychic.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “But we can tell you that we are desperately trying to come up with a plan to…damn it if you repeat my use of the following word to Ty or Brendan, I will be forced to endure hours of shit from them both, and I will because I mean it and can’t for the life of me, think of another word…court you and hopefully convince you to take a chance on us.”

  Cassadee sat back in her chair and sighed. “I’m not sure if that’s the best thing to do right now. Even if we can get past all that shit from this morning, and you guys can accept the role that I played in you getting injured, I have to deal with Bryan, and then I will have to deal with my father. I just can’t see trying to build a relationship at the same time, with all of that other shit going on.”

  “Cassie—”

  No one had ever shortened her name before without her snapping at them, but surprisingly she adored it when Sam or AJ did it.