“Lobby,” she spoke to the automated control.
The trip down was made quickly, but not quickly enough to hide the scent of the Wolf Breed’s distaste and resentment.
When the door opened, she wasn’t certain which of them was more relieved: her or the enforcer.
“Miss Sinclair.” The Breed manning the scanners was cool, polite, where he
’d always been friendly in the past.
She passed through the scanner and didn’t pause as she moved for the entrance.
Never had she been unable to contact her security detail before leaving the Bureau, or anywhere else for that matter. Walking through the doors of the Bureau took more courage than she actually wanted to admit to. To face the fact that if—when—a Council Breed realized she was alone, she’d have no one to depend on but herself.
As she stepped through the glass door and let it swing closed behind her, she refused to allow herself to give in to the uncertainties she could feel building inside her. The area outside the Bureau wasn’t exactly deserted. At this time of the morning, shifts were changing for communications and clerical staff. Meetings would be beginning soon, the business day just gearing up for the Breeds and humans milling about the front of the buildings.
Striding through the workers coming and going, she made her way to the curb and lifted her arm to signal one of the cabs idling in a waiting area well beyond the entrance to the building.
As her arm went up, she was suddenly jostled from behind, thrown to the side into a male’s hard body. His hand gripped her arm, the hold like fire against her flesh. Cassie jerked back with a cry, only to have her head collide with something much harder.
“Council whore …” Pain collided with her side, stealing her breath and taking her to her knees as her vision dimmed and she felt herself toppling to the ground.
They would attack her now? Her own people?
As she felt consciousness slip away, she could have sworn she heard Dog screaming her name, her father’s enraged voice joining it.
• • •
He was crazy to have let his lust and possessiveness for his little halfling get the best of him, Dog thought as he pulled the Dragoon in among the sedans, SUVs and pickups in the parking lot. The instinctive animal senses he’d possessed had gone insane at the thought of another Breed so close to her that the essence of his scent had been left on her. He’d made that damned bargain with her, believed he could have her without sparking the Mating Heat, and now, he’d only complicated both their lives and ensured a lack of trust from not just his mate, but those Breeds that his mate depended upon.
And there wasn’t a damned thing he could do to fix it. At least not yet.
The meeting scheduled with Mutt and Mongrel for an update on the extraction of their people from various Genetics Council holdings had taken longer than he expected. There were more than two dozen Breeds, male as well as female, working for suspected and known Genetics Council associates, risking their lives to complete the evacuation. That had been only one of deceptions he’d been working on; the other was the identification of those funding the labs. The search for the identities of the twelve-member Council had been ongoing for more than two decades, and because he couldn’t stay away from his mate, it was over.
Not that they were any closer to those identities than they had been when he’d begun his own search ten years ago. But according to the reports coming in, several of the Breeds working with him had gotten out with downloads of encrypted information from several select locations.
So far, the mission was progressing with no apparent suspicion from the wrong people. There were no teams of Council soldiers or Breeds being gathered together or sent out; everything was business as usual.
He could only pray it continued as smoothly, though he knew once word of his mating with Cassie made it to the higher ranks within the Council, notice would be taken.
So far, there were no reports of it coming through their normal channels, though.
Reaching across the console, he grabbed the bag filled with breakfast to share with his mate, pushed the door open and stepped out of the Dragoon, very well aware of the Wolf Breeds slipping along both sides of the vehicle.
Pushing the door closed, he faced Cassie’s father, Dash Sinclair, and six of his highly trained Wolf Breeds.
Brown eyes lit with amber and a hint of hazel narrowed on him from between black lashes. Thick black hair was neatly trimmed, almost military short, though he’d been out of the military a good fifteen years. At six-four, Sinclair matched him in height, and no doubt when it came to pure mean gutter fighting, Dog wouldn’t find it easy to defeat him without releasing the demented fury of the creature lurking inside him.
Son of a bitch. If he got into a fight with his mate’s father, or the Breeds who followed him, then she wasn’t going to be happy in the least. She loved her parents, and a fight with this Breed was guaranteed to piss her off. Or worse yet, it would hurt her, cause her to distrust him if her father were harmed.
Hell, if they struck, he was going to have to let them kick his ass. She would never countenance him striking her father, and he hadn’t secured her emotions yet, let alone enough loyalty to balance out her anger for him. “Well, fuck, get it over with,” he growled, lifting his lip in a disgusted sneer. “But I promise you, I’m going to make her feel so sorry for every bruise and broken bone that it will be years before she forgives you.”
Taking a beating was something he’d never done in his life. Even during his very brief time in a Council lab. He’d never allowed it. Knowing he was going to have to allow it now was making his ass itch for sure.
Sinclair crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to the side, surprise flickering across his expression.
“You think I’d damage my daughter’s mate?” The rumble of displeasure in the alpha’s voice was unmistakable.
“I think you’d kill me if she wouldn’t suffer for it,” he grunted, placing the bag of food on the hood of the Dragoon.