Bengal's Heart

by Leigh, Lora

  Losing him might well kill her.

  Cabal held on to Cassa, his arms wrapped tight around her as he slowly loosened the bite against her shoulder. He could taste the primal mating hormone in his mouth as he licked against the wound, spreading it over the tiny bite marks he had left in her flesh once again.

  Mating wasn’t easy, it wasn’t gentle. He was still shuddering at the force of the pleasure that had torn through him. The violence of his release left him shaking and suddenly much too aware of what would happen to him if he ever lost this woman.

  Brushing her hair back from her perspiration-damp face, he let his fingers caress her cheekbone, her jaw, as he stared into her dove-soft gray eyes.

  His woman.

  He fought to hold back the possessiveness rising inside him, the feeling of something belonging to him. Just to him. He knew fate, and she laughed at him for sport. She snatched happiness from his fingertips with a sneer and a laugh.

  He stared into Cassa’s eyes, and once again saw a flash of that ever hated fear in her eyes. Even now, seconds after the most incredible pleasure he had ever known, he still sensed her fear of him.

  Perhaps it was something time would take care of for him, if he had time with her, he told himself. She would learn she had nothing to fear.

  He would give his life for hers without thought. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that living without her now wasn’t something he could face doing. This hunger, this need, this total fulfillment of sexual pleasure was unlike anything he had ever known in his life.

  And her touch. Her touch was a stroke of pleasure and of comfort. Living without that comfort wasn’t something he wanted to ever risk.

  She was the other half of him, the one thing he had longed for ever since he had learned of the mating phenomenon. She was the part of his soul that had been missing and was now complete.

  “I don’t like seeing that fear in your eyes,” he told her softly as the barb slowly receded and her inner flesh released its grip on it.

  Her eyes flickered and he saw the lie coming. Placing his fingers over her lips, he held back the words.

  “No lies, Cassa,” he told her softly. “If you can’t tell me why, then don’t bother to tell me I’m not seeing what I know I see.”

  Her lips were pressed tightly together as a frown worried at her brow.

  “When you’re ready to discuss it, then I’ll be here,” he told her rather than demanding the answers.

  A man didn’t get far when demanding anything from Cassa. She was as willful as a woman could get, and twice as independent.

  “Will you?” she finally asked, her lips whispering over his fingertips. “Will you, Cabal? Or will you walk away like you always do?”

  His lips quirked mockingly at the thought of walking away now.

  “I think we’re both very well aware of the fact that there’s no walking away now. Even if it was something either of us wanted to do.”

  He moved against her, his hardening erection filling her flesh as her breath caught.

  “See, Cassa? There’s no walking away, honey. We’re bound. Just as you knew we would be.”

  He could see it in her eyes, in her expression. The knowledge, and the fear.

  ◆ CHAPTER 14 ◆

  Death smiled at the sight of the lights flipping off in the cabin. Death would have laughed, but something deep inside a frozen heart refused to allow the amusement to go quite that far.

  It was a mating. There was no doubt of that. Cabal St. Laurents and Cassa Hawkins were mates. It was one more sin to add to Death’s conscience.

  Death touched the shoulder that was still sensitive, even after twenty years, and still bore the bite of a mate. A mate long dead.

  Snow drifted in the air; the cold formed like freezing vapor and eased along the forest floor. The mist from the gorge not far away sent frozen fog to cover the land, even now, so close to spring. So close to the anniversary of Death.

  There was a job to be done, and it didn’t matter the regret now, or the fact that a mate would soon be lost once again. The past refused to die; Death had to help it along. That meant they all had to die. Everyone who had been a part of that massacre so long ago had to be taken from this world.

  It didn’t matter that Cassa Hawkins hadn’t been a part of that massacre at the time. Truth was, she had been a part of her husband’s life later, and her husband had been part of that massacre. The husband would come now. He would find a way, he’d slip from his hole and come here once he learned his precious wife had mated a Breed.

  Douglas Watts had been so young the night Death had been created, barely eighteen and following in his father’s evil footsteps. But still, it was an evil that refused to die. And Cassa, his precious wife, had helped him later to betray the Breeds—that put the mark of evil on her soul as well.

  As far as Death was concerned, Cassa was as much a part of the Deadly Dozen as her husband had been, and she would have to die.

  Luring her here had been easy. The pictures, the emails, the threat of framing the Breeds. The world would one day know that Breeds were no more than humans and humans were no more than Breeds. They all had the ability to kill, and they could all die. Proof of that had already begun.

  Death hadn’t expected the mating though. That thought flitted through a mind that was torn with the decisions made that now must be followed through. Losing a mate was a horror no creature should have to endure. It was a pain unlike any other. Each breath taken without that mate was a nightmare that never eased.

  Death slid slowly back from the cabin, easing along the path that the snow hadn’t yet covered but would soon. It wouldn’t do to leave proof that eyes watched and an enemy waited. The Breeds that chased Death through the silence of the night could never understand the mission that lay ahead. They couldn’t understand why their lives didn’t matter any more than those of the humans.

  Cassa’s day would come. It was right around the corner, her blood marked to be spilled if her husband didn’t arrive. But first, another’s blood would soak the valley of Death. Another’s blood would still the demons rising inside Death, tearing at the mind, searing the soul.

  The seventh of the Deadly Dozen. It was time for him to die.

  Cabal curled around Cassa like a living blanket, keeping her close to his chest, holding her warmth inside each pore that he could press against her.

  He was a man that had never relished sleeping with others. He had bedded enough women over the years, but as his brother could attest, the intimacy of sharing a bed with them was something Cabal hadn’t found much pleasure in.

  Until Cassa. He had fought it at first. He’d tried not to need it, to need her. Now he would have dared Cassa to find another place to sleep, at any time, after tonight. She would spend her nights here in his arms, no matter what he had to do to achieve it.

  He brushed back the long, tangled strands of her hair to stare at her sleeping profile. She slept deep, hard, her slight breathing brushing against his arm where she lay. She had slept the night away with the same deep intensity. But he couldn’t say her sleep had been dreamless. She had shifted about throughout the night, muttering to herself a time or two, a frown working between her brows.

  Did she relive the horrors she had seen during her years as an investigative reporter? he wondered. She had been there the night his lab was attacked, and during his rescue. She had seen the slaughter that had taken place in the pit of death; she had seen his wounds and his rage during his rescue.

  He stared across the room, fighting those memories himself now. That was a place within his soul that he tried not to revisit too often. Too many of his family had died in that pit. A dozen men and women who had given their lives to ensure that he lived, despite his protests. They had thrown themselves in front of him, blocked him, kept the blades that sliced through the metal walls from impaling him.

  So much blood had filled that pit before he had managed to escape. So many lives had been lost. Because a betrayer had
been harbored in the midst of the rescuers. Because Cassa’s false husband had betrayed them all.

  Damn, Douglas Watts had sowed a hell of a mess. He was still living, albeit a bit miserably, but those whose lives he had touched carried the bitter wounds of his actions.

  What would she do if she learned the bastard lived?

  He stared down at her, questioning within himself the decision he had made so long ago to allow Watts to continue living.

  It had been that cruel streak he harbored within him. To kill Watts would have been too easy. Too merciful. He’d wanted the man to suffer and to suffer hard.

  Had Cabal instigated the demise of his own future with that decision though? Would he be the first Breed to lose a mate to a former lover, to a man who had lied even to the point that the judge who had wed them had been false?

  Once this assignment was completed and the identity of the Breed killing humans was revealed, then, Cabal promised himself, he would take the time to learn more about his new mate. More than just her stubbornness and her loyalty. He would learn what made her laugh, what made her find joy. He had a feeling that Cassa hadn’t known great joy in her life.

  And then perhaps he would know if he had her loyalty over that which she had once given the man she believed was her husband.

  Glancing toward the window, he drew in the scent of the snow outside. The late winter air gave the forest a fresh, clean scent as well as a blanket of white to wrap the world outside within.

  The fire he had laid just after Cassa went to sleep was still burning, the glowing embers and low flames lighting the bedroom through the open ceiling of the living room.

  Moving from the bed, he tucked the blankets carefully around his sleeping mate before pulling on his jeans and easing from the bedroom. He could hear the Breed Raiders easing up the road to the cabin. Jonas would be in one of the vehicles, he knew. The director rarely left anything to chance, especially in a mission as delicate as this one.

  A rogue Breed killing humans wasn’t something to ignore. As Cassa had stated the night before, it could show the world the true face of the Breeds, and that was something they weren’t quite ready for.

  Moving to the front door, he watched as the two Raiders, the powerful ATVs the Breeds used in mountainous and desert settings, pulled into the drive.

  Leaning against the door frame, he watched as Jonas moved from the first vehicle, followed by his bodyguard and driver, a human simply called Jackal. The second vehicle held the two enforcers, Lawe Justice and Rule Breaker. The names rarely failed to cause Cabal’s lips to twitch in amusement.

  It wouldn’t do to let either Breed see that amusement though. They were rather proud of the names they had chosen for themselves.

  As Jonas neared the house, he paused, his eyes narrowing on Cabal as his nostrils flared. Cabal knew the director was taking in the scent of the mating, as well as Cassa’s scent as it surrounded Cabal’s body. Now there would be no doubt in Jonas’s mind that the mating was completed.

  “Hell, I thought you’d at least wait until this assignment was over,” Jonas growled.

  Cabal narrowed his gaze back at him. “I’d waited long enough.”

  And that was the damned truth. He’d held back because he’d sensed Cassa’s need to do so. That need was no longer there, for either of them. He should have held back for the sake of the mission, but the animal inside him didn’t give a damn about the mission. It cared about the mate, and the animal was closer to the skin than he had ever imagined.

  He watched as Jonas grimaced before staring back at Lawe and Rule.

  “Hey, Boss, don’t look at me,” Lawe ordered him. “I told you, I’m steering clear of that mating shit.”

  “It gives us the heebie-jeebies,” Rule drawled.

  Jonas grunted at that. “At least someone is still sane.” The look he gave Jackal was mocking.

  The other man stared back at him stoically, as always. Jackal didn’t talk a lot. He did his job and spoke when he had to.

  “Coffee’s inside,” Cabal informed them. “I have caffeinated for the four of you.”

  He’d stick to the decaf for now. He didn’t need any additional problems where the mating heat and Cassa were concerned. Caffeine tended to make the symptoms worse. If his current state of arousal was any indication, he didn’t need anything to hype them.

  Jonas looked around the clearing, his jaw tense before he shook his head and moved for the porch. “Pack up. You can head back to Sanctuary with your mate,” he stated as he reached the steps.

  Cabal chuckled at the thought. “Forget it, Jonas. This will finish out here, and we both know it.”

  “Not with that mate of yours tracking every move you make,” Jonas said coolly. “This investigation is too serious, Cabal. We can’t risk her.”

  Cabal shook his head at that. “She already knows just as much as we do. The killer sends it to her whether we want him to or not, Jonas. We can’t afford to ignore that.”

  He hated it. There was nothing he hated more than the fact that a killer was drawing his mate into these murders, but he couldn’t stop it. In the early hours of the night he’d admitted that he couldn’t keep her out of this. As long as there was a Breed going rogue, as long as he was drawing Cassa into this, then there was no way to keep her out of it.

  “Hell, just what we need, a damned journalist involved in my business,” Jonas cursed.

  “Come on in, Jonas,” Cabal sighed. “We don’t have a lot of time before she wakes up.”

  Not much time at all. The mating heat was a fever that couldn’t be ignored for long, and Cabal knew it. Already the need to touch his mate, to taste her, to possess her was rising again within him.

  The hormonal treatments she had been taking over the past years had helped those first few days. Adjustments were always required as time went on though, and Cassa hadn’t had an adjustment to counter the rise in hormones that mating heat was causing.

  It wasn’t as hard on the male as it was on the female mate. At least Cassa had had the foresight to start the hormonal treatments ahead of time. That would ease it for her, delay conception, sometimes, and lighten the stress on the body from the need for sex.

  It didn’t take away the need. There was no way to eliminate it, or to allow for the separation of mates for long periods of time. Jonas was stuck with Cassa in Cabal’s life for the moment.

  “We don’t need this, Cabal,” Jonas growled as they entered the cabin and headed for the kitchen. “This situation is too damned delicate. We have to find this Breed, and when we do, we can’t risk a journalist being aware of the fact that I have no damned intentions of turning him over to Breed Law.”

  Yeah, that was pretty much what Cabal had suspected. The rogue Breed had managed what no one else had. He killed without leaving a scent or a trace of his identity. There was no way to track him, no way to identify him.

  “I’m sure you’ll find a way to hide the fact that the bad guy doesn’t die in the end,” Cabal muttered. He knew Jonas. The man had the ability to make things work out in his favor.

  “You’re going to completely fuck this assignment up, Cabal,”

  Jonas bit out as Cabal moved to the coffeepot. “He’s going to kill again, and soon. We both know he will. Do you really want your mate in the middle of that?”

  Hell no he didn’t, but he knew there was no way to get her out of it now. Not without making her hate him, making her run. He wasn’t about to force her again, he’d already tried that once. It hadn’t worked then, it wasn’t going to work now.

  Cabal prepared the coffee before saying anything more. He didn’t have an argument for Jonas and he knew it. There was no damned way to explain to the other man that Cassa would hate them all if she was pulled out of this.

  He’d wrestled with it most of the night. He’d come up with a thousand different ways to pull her out, and he knew that not a damned one of them was going to work.

  “Cabal has a point, Boss.” Lawe spoke up as Caba
l poured the coffee. “The killer contacts her when he doesn’t contact us. We could use that.”

  “You don’t use my mate.” Cabal turned back to him with a snarl.

  Jonas’s bark of laughter echoed through the room as Cabal jerked around to meet the other man’s mocking gaze.

  “Hell, Cabal, it was no more than you were suggesting yourself,” Jonas informed him angrily. “Get off your mating high horse and settle the fuck down. If we’re going to figure out how to handle this situation from here on out, then I need your head clear, not filled with the need to fight or fuck.”

  That was Jonas, blunt to the bitter end.

  Pushing his fingers roughly through his hair, Cabal paced to the other side of the room as Jonas moved to the coffeepot. Cocking his head, he listened for any signs of movement from the bedroom and prayed Cassa would sleep just a while longer.

  “Have you found anything out?” Jonas finally asked.

  Cabal shook his head at the question. “Not enough. David Banks had a meeting in Charleston the day before he disappeared. He met with Brandenmore and Engalls, but we already knew that. The afternoon he disappeared he was supposed to meet with a reporter here in town, Myron James. He never showed up for that meeting.”

  Jonas rubbed at his jaw thoughtfully. “We weren’t aware of that before.”

  “Sheriff Lacey mentioned that Banks asked her for Myron’s phone number. When I questioned Myron about it, he admitted Banks called and requested a meeting. Said he had some information Myron might be interested in.”

  “Any idea what the information was?”

  Cabal shook his head. “He didn’t tell Myron, or Myron wasn’t telling me. I couldn’t sense any deceit though. There are secrets in this town, Jonas, plenty of them, but Banks didn’t seem to be privy to many of them.”

  “He was a former mayor,” Lawe pointed out. “Mayors get all the gossip.”

  “Not all of it,” Cabal said. “The movement that began here about thirty years ago to hide escaped Breeds wasn’t well known. There was only a small group of men and women involved in that. Banks wasn’t one of them.”