Pacing to the back door, he stepped outside, the early-evening sunlight bearing down with heavy heat. Making his way to the shaded corner of the house, he leaned against it, extracted the single, slim cigar he kept tucked in his front pocket and, bringing it to his lips, lit it with a flick of the lighter he pulled from the pocket of his jeans.
Relishing the flavorful bite of the tobacco as he inhaled deeply, he tried to make sense of events he’d worked hard to forget. And to push aside the unreasonable fear that those events just might have something to do with the danger Chelsea was in now.
CHAPTER 18
From Graeme’s Journal
The Recessed Primal Breed
Mating Heat in the recessed Primal Breed will often begin with more subtle signs physically, but with much more dramatic psychological results—
She was in serious trouble.
The next morning Chelsea fully admitted she was involved in emotional quicksand that she was totally unprepared to navigate. She still had no idea what had enraged Cullen as she talked to Ranger the day before.
She could see being angry over Ranger’s words; she was angry herself. But Cullen had been furious.
Stepping into the kitchen after her shower, wearing cutoff denim shorts, a tank and bare feet, she finished cleaning up the dishes from breakfast and acknowledged that the emotional situation was becoming chaos.
She’d been certain that what she felt for him was love during the years she worked for him, but in the time she’d spent with him in the past weeks, she realized she’d really had no true concept of love.
The depth of what she felt for him now was terrifying. It wasn’t just the explosive, hotter-than-hell sex or the fact that she knew the man he was, admired him, despite his arrogance, and knew to the soles of her feet that she’d never have to worry about him straying to other women.
It was that undefined, ever-deepening certainty that they’d clash often, challenge each other daily, but she knew she’d never regret living her life with him.
But if she ever learned for certain that he regretted not mating Lauren, and resented mating with her instead, then it would devastate her.
He’d loved his first wife. She remembered seeing that in his expression as Lauren walked down the aisle at their wedding. If it weren’t for the mating and the fact that if he’d mated Lauren he could have saved her, then the thought wouldn’t torment her. And she wondered, if he had the choice to make, would he go back and give Lauren the mating Chelsea claimed now?
When he’d told Graeme that she was the one who would want a cure for the mating that first morning, she’d heard the dark undertone in his voice and she’d had a terrible fear it was Cullen who wanted the cure instead. Maybe it wasn’t the cure but the regret that the mating had come with someone other than his dead wife.
What if Ranger was right? What if she was just a stand-in for Lauren?
Drawing in a deep breath, she pushed those thoughts away, determined to not let herself go there. She’d be damned if she’d be jealous of a memory. She didn’t have time for it.
Putting away the last of the dishes, she turned in surprise when the kitchen door opened and Draeger stepped just inside the entrance.
“Cullen around?” he asked, his gaze sweeping the kitchen and living room.
She shook her head, watching him curiously as she dried her hands on a dish towel. “I think he’s in the garage or basement. Should I go find him?”
“Company,” the Breed answered. “His second, Ranger. He said it was important.”
Great. Just what she needed this morning.
“That’s not a good idea,” she hissed, staring back into the kitchen, just knowing Cullen was going to walk in at any minute.
Behind him, the door was suddenly pushed open and Ranger barged in, his expression furious. Flushed, fists clenched, his gaze glittering with suppressed violence as Draeger moved quickly between him and Chelsea with a growl of warning.
“Call off these fucking guard dogs of yours,” he ordered, the violence in his gaze shocking. “Or are you such a coward that you can’t talk to me now?”
She had a feeling he really didn’t want to talk. He was staring at her like he wanted to kill her.
“Let him talk, Draeger,” she ordered the Wolf Breed quietly.
Cullen must have talked to him, she guessed. He deserved to be angry if he believed Chelsea had betrayed his attempt to protect her. God, she wished she could have warned him the day before—
“I was wrong about you,” he bit out, and she was shocked by the pure hatred in his voice now. “You’re nothing but a little whore determined to make certain no one stands in your way with Cullen, aren’t you? Not a wife’s memory. Or a friend.”