Cross Breed (Breeds 23)

“Hey, Grandpa.” The cheerful young woman who took her seat at the breakfast table had his head lifting, regret shaming him as he stared at her despite his return smile.

Those generations of careful selection had somehow bypassed this sweet girl. Her hair was a soft, nondescript brown, her eyes an unremarkable hazel. She was barely five-five, a little on the plump side, which he detested, but she loved him.

He was quite fond of her, just sorely disappointed in both her looks and her bearing. Finding her a husband should have been easy, would have been easy, but somehow it never quite worked out.

Not that he often regretted it, except for the fact that it still left him with no male heir. There was no way he could leave his fortune to this flighty, often forgetful child.

“Good morning, dear.” He shuttered his tablet and laid it aside. “Tell me, how do you feel about a little trip out west with your grandfather …”

• CHAPTER 13 •

She was dressed in her customary slim black silk skirt, a sleeveless white silk blouse buttoned and tucked into the waistband, a thin black belt cinching her waist. The blouse was buttoned to just above the vee of her breasts, the tailored fit not snug, but complimenting her breasts, while the sleeveless cut displayed the silken flesh of her arms.

She wore stockings nearly the color of her skin, and the black four-inch heels that added to her height and, sometimes, her confidence. The long, rioting curls that n

ormally tumbled around her were now pulled back from her face and woven into a loose braid, compliments of Dog.

As she walked across the hardwood floor of her apartment’s living area and went over her arguments displayed on the tablet, she felt energized. She felt strong. She could feel that energy surging through her and welcomed it, knowing that when she stepped into that meeting, she’d be a force to be reckoned with.

Breed Law statutes danced within her head, all the various pieces fitting together and displaying each loophole to allow her to present a scathing, censorious statement against the actions taken by the assistant director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs.

As she worked, her focus was sharper than it had ever been before, her awareness of Dog somehow heightened. He’d worked with her through the night, going over the individual articles of the law and finding several areas she’d missed. She’d known he was highly intelligent, calculating and logical, but as they argued back and forth, tested each other against each argument, she realized he was also amazingly intuitive and possessed an understanding of law she hadn’t expected.

He waited patiently now, leaning against the framed doorway leading into the bedroom. She’d had to threaten him with all manner of bodily harm to get him into the black silk slacks and gray shirt Dane had arrived with earlier. He’d glared at her, growled at her, swore he was going to spank her when he got her back to the apartment. He was wearing them, though, along with a pair of black leather boots that were possibly new as well.

His dark blond hair was combed back from his face, a little neater than his normally shaggy appearance, though she did like that rough bad-boy look, she had to admit. It wasn’t just a look; he was indeed a bad boy, and he was hers.

She almost paused at that thought before she let it sink inside her, let herself accept it. Whatever the future held, whatever came from the meeting with the Cabinet, she knew he was hers, just as she belonged to him. She’d belonged to him since she’d stepped out on that balcony of Seth Lawrence’s guest suite and felt Dog’s crosshairs land on her.

And he belonged to her as well.

“Halfling, that look on your face is making me hard.” The sexy rumble in his voice had her lifting her gaze from the tablet and fighting a grin.

“You’re always hard. Wouldn’t be a mating otherwise.” She almost laughed at the mock glare he shot her.

Sometime that morning, she’d realized that many of the contradictory and confusing emotions that had been roiling inside her had merely been a process of acceptance. The Mating Heat ensured that mates had to work through those beginning conflicts, the changes and different views they held, to find that place where something deeper, something more enduring, was just waiting for them to find it.

They were finding it, she thought. She was certain of it.

“Keep it up and I’ll do something about it again,” he promised her, glancing at the digital display on the clock hanging on the wall. “And then we’ll be late.”

Again. He’d done something about it twice through the night. Once, bent over the back of the couch while he powered inside her, his voice hoarse as he whispered her name. Then, when they showered, his powerful arms holding her to him as her knees gripped his hips and she rode him with delirious pleasure.

For a second she considered letting him, before regretfully rejecting the idea.

“We need to leave.” Turning from him, she strode to the dining table and the leather case bulging with files and exhibits in Breed Law statutes that backed her arguments.

“I’ll get that.” He reached around her and gripped the handle of the case, lifting it effortlessly from the table.

“Dog.” She stopped him, laying her hand on his arm as he looked down at her, his gaze somber. “On that island, when I was eighteen,” she said softly. “That night in the atrium.” She paused, feeling something rush through her heart and causing it to race. “I knew you’d be there, waiting for me. Just as I knew over the years after that I belonged to you. I was frightened …”

He laid a finger against her lips, his expression softening, his lips quirking with a grin that was in no way mocking.

“You fight so many parts of yourself, Cassie,” he said softly. “I’ve always known that, just as I knew you’d need time before dealing with a mating. Stop fighting everything so hard, baby. Don’t you know, I’ll always be here, watching over you. I won’t let you get lost.”

Tears pricked at her eyes before she quickly blinked them back.

“I won’t let you get lost either, Dog.” Did he know that? Did he really know he wasn’t alone anymore?