Cross Breed (Breeds 23)

The scent that hit him when he finished speaking was so intriguing his cock hardened to iron and the glands beneath his tongue began throbbing with the need to kiss her. It caused such a punch of lust to hit his balls that it nearly stole his breath. Because that scent was one of such challenge, such daring, that the instincts he harbored in the darkest part of him nearly slipped free.

“Yes, your things did cause that attack.” Rising to her feet, she faced him. Without her heels, shoulders straight, she stared up at him with narrow-eyed fury. “I was called a Council whore before that fist connected with my head. And I was out there because I was looking for a cab to take me to where I had stashed a secure mobile phone, because mine were wiped. Phones, tablet and laptop. I couldn’t contact anyone and I had no access to any floor except this one, and there were guards to keep me from accessing the other hallways. I could use the elevator to go to the lobby. Period. Because of you.” Delicate, graceful, a finger poked at his chest with imperious feminine anger. “And because of your Council things, I was unable to even contact the enforcers my father sent to see to my protection, let alone the ones Jonas assigned me.”

Once he began killing, he might just start with Jonas. There were few who could give the order to have her so restrained. Very few. And Jonas was at the top of that particular chain.

Straightening from his slouched position against the dresser, he looked at that little finger pointing at him before lifting his gaze to her eyes.

The Heat was building in her, but it was far slower than his, indicating her body was attempting to heal rather than mate. She hadn’t been lying earlier when she said she was hungry, and beneath it all, he could sense the impotent fury that came from her belief that her mate was the enemy.

And that damnable pride he possessed wouldn’t let him tell her the truth.

“Why don’t you get out of those torn clothes and dress in something you can relax in. I’ll order some food,” he suggested.

Her eyes narrowed. “Your phone works?”

He couldn’t help but grin. “I don’t use a Bureau phone, sweetheart. And I use my own encryption. I have a spare I picked up for you this morning, though, to ensure the Bureau couldn’t track any calls I made to you.”

“I don’t want one of your Council toys,” she snarled back at him, striding past and heading for her closet. “I’ll get my own.”

“You’re going to get fucked before you get fed if you don’t watch all the little dares you’re throwing out,” he snapped, unable not to respond to the constant challenge. “Now, by God, do as I asked, just this once.”

Before she could make another smart-ass reply, he turned and stalked from the room. But instead of making the call for dinner, he strode to the door, jerked it open, and before the Wolf Breeds guarding it could do more than jump, he was on them. The flat of his hand to the diaphragm put the nearest one to the floor, struggling to breathe. The other took a full punch to the face—lights fucking out—ensuring he was unconscious as he hit the floor.

As the first glared up at him, coughing, Dog pulled a cigar free of his shirt and lit it with lazy amusement.

“You know what that was for. Let it happen again, and you’re dead.” Turning, he reentered the room and found himself facing his mate’s furious glare.

He closed the door and pulled his phone free of his belt and shot her a lazy grin. “I think steaks are called for. That work for you?”

• CHAPTER 7 •

Dressed in gray cotton lounging pants and a matching camisole, Cassie sat back in her chair, the remains of dinner almost nonexistent. The steak, loaded potatoes, salad and yeast rolls had seemed far too much for her to finish when Dog unloaded the bags that were delivered.

Now replete, all she had to do was fight back the distracting arousal beginning to build inside her for just a while longer. She could feel a sense of imperative warning awakening as well. That warning had begun before the attack, though. It had begun the night her sister Kenzi’s fear and panic had reached out to her.

It wouldn’t be easy for her sister; she’d lost the foster parents who had sacrificed so much to protect her, only to ultimately lose their lives. And now she was having to finally face the parents she’d been kept from.

The threads of knowledge were dangling in her mind; she could feel them, sense them. They were all connected somehow; she just wasn’t certain how, because that sense of impending warning still brewed inside her senses.

Though she and her father never spoke of it, as Cassie had matured, her underlying paternal scent had begun emerging. It was faint because of the Coyote genetics she possessed, too faint for most Breeds to detect, but it was still there. Somehow, the Council had acquired Dash Sinclair’s genetics and the scientist who performed the in-vitro procedure had created not just Cassie, but Kenzi as well.

“Here.” Dog moved to her side, laying a phone and tablet on the table as he took her plate. “Both are encrypted and secured. I’ve programmed my number into the phone, and both devices are equipped with a nano-ghost. They’re safe.”

Her brows lifted. Nano-ghosts were even harder to build and program than nano-nits. Their encryption and ability to access the Internet through the wireless connections around them without leaving a trail made them highly valuable.

“How did you manage a nano-ghost?” Turning her head, she stared up at him suspiciously.

“Because I’m good like that.” He grinned, flashing those canines he seemed so damned proud of.

Charm practically oozed out of him along with the arrogance and ever-present confidence. Unfortunately, that bad-boy charm only turned her on more. It had aroused her before he’d ever touched her. Six years of calls, messages, favors and ridiculous demands, and each time, she’d become more captivated by him. She’d always known he was part of the Council. She’d suspected he was a Coyote. And she’d still so rashly made that final bargain with him

.

“I’m not certain how I feel about that,” she admitted. “You’re too damned good at the wrong things, Dog.”

Rising from her chair, she wondered what that said about her, that she was so willing to break Bureau rules by accepting such a device. Not that she would be caught doing so. Detecting nano-nits was hard enough. Nano-ghosts were impossible to detect unless the programmer knew exactly what she or he was looking for.

“I try.” His expression was both sensual and knowing. “But you have a little bad inside you as well, halfling. Admit it.”