Cross Breed (Breeds 23)

She’d been unaware how cold she actually was until she felt his warmth, felt the beat of his heart, his arms surrounding her.

He was moving before she spoke, though, pushing through the opened door and carrying her along the hall to the elevator.

“There are guards at our door,” she told him as the elevator closed and they were alone.

“Really?” There was something in his voice that sounded just a little too self-satisfied. It was a warning she took to heart. Even if she hadn’t known who he was, she’d heard of the Council Coyote, Dog, for years.

He was lethal. There wasn’t a Breed she knew of who wasn’t at least wary of him.

“Please don’t fight.” She simply couldn’t deal with it. Not right now. “Not here.”

The totally male grunt that vibrated in his chest was a mix of disgust and amusement.

“You’re about to become high maintenance, darlin’. I enjoy a good fight,” he told her as the elevator doors opened. “But this one time, I’ll be a good boy.”

She doubted Dog had been a good boy a day in his life.

As they neared her door, the scents of dislike and distaste reached her nostrils. They were Breeds; they were trained to better control such emotions. The fact that the scent of them was so strong was insulting.

It wasn’t unexpected.

Whenever she moved about the Bureau’s halls, whether on the residential floor or in other areas, she caught the scents reaching out to her, normally from the Wolf Breeds rather than felines, though she could rarely identify whom the emotions were coming from.

“Interesting,” Dog muttered. “That normal?”

She knew what he meant and she could only shrug in reply. It wasn’t unusual. At least she could identify the Breeds it was coming from this time.

“Open the door, assholes, then back off.” Dog stopped several feet from the door leading to her suite.

The Breed Enforcers’ expressions were bland, but the scent of their disgust grew despite the fact that the door was pushed open and the enforcers stepped back as ordered.

Did they really believe they were safe from him? That he wouldn’t strike out at them simply because the emotions weren’t directed at him? That he wouldn’t take it as a personal challenge?

Dog strode into the room, caught the door with his heel and slammed it closed.

This would be dealt with, Dog assured himself as he carried Cassie to the bedroom and laid her on her bed. Very soon, and very painfully. At least, painfully for them. They had no fucking idea the animal they were screwing with or exactly how protective he truly was over his little mate. His halfling.

Cassie was too pale, and a sense of weariness emanated from her. But that weariness had been growing in her for more than a year now. Possibly two. No wonder if that was the bullshit she had to deal with.

“How often do they let their ignorance show like that, Cassie?” he asked her casually, careful to hold his anger at bay.

Once again, she shrugged, not looking at him as she dropped her shoes to the floor beside the bed and propped herself against the pillows.

“I think I’m hungry,” she sighed, a statement meant to distract him.

He didn’t distract easy. At least not that easy. She’d have to be naked and talking about more than food.

“Want me to go ask them?” Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back against the dresser and watched her, only allowing mild curiosity to show.

The glare she shot him assured him she wasn’t fooled. What she couldn’t smell, she was smart enough to know lay beneath the surface. She was smarter than they were, she sensed the animal he harbored, even if she didn’t realize how very powerful it was.

“It’s rarely that strong,” she surprised him with the direct, firm answer. “But going out there and knocking a few heads together won’t change it. They normally only allow me to sense it if I’m alone. They’ve learned not to show it at any other time.”

Because the few times her father had sensed it in those first years, he’d erupted in such savagery on the Breeds who dared show it that it taken some of them weeks to fully recover. But it hadn’t made those who feared her like her any better. They’d only learned to hide it better.

“So, because you can’t knock their heads together, they refuse to show their respect when you’re alone?” He didn’t bother to hide the growl in his voice then. “And you haven’t dealt with this yet?” That didn’t sound like the woman, the Breed, he knew she was trained to be. Or the animal that lurked impatiently beneath the surface.

His little halfling gave an irritated role of her eyes. “I could knock their heads together and they wouldn’t dare strike back, but what’s the point? The feeling would still be there. They don’t strike back because they know Dad and Jonas would skin them out. That’s not respect. It’s fear.”