Wake A Sleeping Tiger (Breeds 22)

Sliding his gaze to the side of the house, he watched as Draeger stepped beneath the shaded patio, his expression faintly curious as he stared back at Cullen.

“That didn’t take long,” Cullen said between gritted teeth, still forced to restrain animal instincts that felt far too unfamiliar.

Draeger gave a short nod of his dark head.

“I’d watch my back if I were you,” the Wolf suggested. “He’s out for your blood.”

Maybe, Cullen thought wearily, though he’d never considered Ranger a stupid man until the other day.

“Don’t let him back in,” he warned the Breed. “I didn’t think he’d show up here or I’d have already given you a heads-up.”

“I figured,” Draeger acknowledged, producing his own cigar from the pocket at the side of his black mission pants and lighting up.

“Vanderale gets aro

und,” Cullen grunted, glancing at his own cigar and using it as an excuse to check the burning tips of his fingers.

“Yeah. True.” Draeger gave a short, amused chuckle. “Thing about Vanderale, though? He gets around more than anyone realizes. That laid-back-playboy persona of his actually fools most people and Breeds alike. Before you realize it, he knows everything there is to know about you. Even things you don’t know yourself. Then there are those little spies of his that no one can ever identify but who just love filling his ears with valuable little tidbits of gossip.”

Cullen turned and stared at the Wolf, waiting.

Leaning back against the other column, Draeger drew on the cigar and stared out at the desert for several moments.

“Some of us have actually learned from him,” the other Breed informed him.

“And what have you learned, Draeger?” Cullen asked, not really too worried about whatever information he had.

Draeger inhaled the tobacco deeply before releasing the smoke in a slow, heavy breath.

“You know Ranger was your wife’s lover,” Draeger said then. “Yet you’ve allowed him to ride your coattails all the way to your second in command.” Curiosity filled the other Breed’s voice. “Why did you trust him, knowing he couldn’t be trusted?”

Fuck. Now how the hell had anyone figured that one out? To his knowledge only he, Ranger and Lauren had known.

“I knew, even then,” he admitted; remembering those days wasn’t always comfortable. “They’d been in love before I arrived in Window Rock. They resumed about a year after we married, but not without my knowledge of it.”

“You’re a better Breed than I am.” Draeger slid him an assessing look. “Or are you just dumber?”

Cullen actually grinned at the insult. It was damned hard to take offense at the wry curiosity in the Wolf’s voice.

“Ask me how I’d handle it if one of Chelsea’s ex-lovers came around,” he grunted, then blew out a hard breath. “I realized why she married me not long into the marriage. She knew I was a Breed before I told her. Either she guessed that the tabloid stories about Mating Heat were true, or Ray Martinez told her. Hell if I know.” And it hadn’t mattered for a very long time. “I could smell death on her. I wasn’t going to deny her what she’d given up in her desperation to live. Ranger tried to stay away, but the sicker she got, the more they needed each other. And any love I’d felt for her was nothing more than compassion at that point.”

And why couldn’t he tell Chelsea that? Talking to her about those days was just about impossible for him. Pride? he wondered. To admit his desperation for some connection, for some kind of roots in those days was humiliating in a way.

Draeger nodded at the explanation. “Just because you’re trained by death doesn’t mean that dying makes it any easier.”

Cullen flicked him a glance and realized the lessons they’d learned, in different places, from different monsters, weren’t so dissimilar.

“Pretty much,” Cullen agreed. “The friendship was something I’d believed had endured.” He shrugged, feeling the loss of something that hadn’t even existed except in his own mind. “I was wrong.”

“Might have been, until he realized you were actually beginning a relationship with someone else. You moved on, he’s still living in the past. And seeing that mating mark on Chelsea’s neck didn’t help matters much. He’s going to become a problem.”

Cullen gave a short bark of laughter. “Don’t start trying to make me feel better, Wolf. I thought you might know me better than that.”

Draeger pursed his lips before giving Cullen a knowing look. “Lauren married you hoping the kitty’s love meant a feline mating, huh? An instant cure for the disease killing her.” There was compassion in the Breed’s voice but not an overabundance of it.

“That about sums it up,” Cullen agreed, hating the fact that he hadn’t realized that truth at the time.

“And now Ranger can’t accept that you’d actually give that mating to someone else. Let alone Lauren’s little cousin.” Draeger pointed this out as though in concession of what he’d already known. “What are you going to do when he strikes out again? And you know he will.”