Cross Breed (Breeds 23)

“Cassie, let him go.” The Coyote lifted his hands as he moved closer. “Come on, no one’s forcing him to leave.”

“Get back, Mutt. I swear to God I’ll shoot you,” she warned him.

“I can’t do that, Cassie. Dog’s going to go no matter what you say or do. Let him go …”

She fired.

“Goddamn! Fuck!” His shoulder jerked as the bullet tore into it, but it wasn’t enough.

She should have shot his knee out.

He jumped for her, his arm going around her waist, one hand gripping her wrists together as she fired, and fired and fired, screaming in agony and rage at his touch as the limo shot past.

“No … ,” she screamed again, watching Dog staring straight ahead as the limo passed.

Mutt released her the second the limo disappeared from the garage, and she was ready for him. She lashed out as she turned, her fist burying in his balls. His eyes jerked wide, his breath a gasp, and her fist slammed beneath his jaw in a second blow, leaving him lying as she turned and ran.

She raced from the garage exit, her screams tearing from her throat, moving as fast as she could, fighting, fighting to get to him. He couldn’t leave. He couldn’t leave her.

He was her mate.

He was hers …

And he was gone.

The strength left her legs, slowing her until she felt her knees hit the pavement and heard an enraged animal’s scream explode from her. Her head tipped back, a demented sound, not a scream, not howl, exploding from her, the gun dropping from her fingers as she felt herself sobbing, heard the scream erupt from her throat again.

She was barely aware of her father yelling, her mother falling beside her, her arms going around her, the pain of the touch only blending with the agony tearing from her soul now. She had no idea what they were saying, there were so many voices, so many demands, and all she could do was scream Dog’s name.

He’d left her.

He’d let another Coyote restrain her. Touch her. And he’d left her.

The betrayal was slicing her to ribbons, tearing through her so deep, with such force, that the agony was horrendous. It was tearing her apart, ripping something from her very soul that she knew she could never replace without him.

He’d been with her for so many years. The hazy form of the Coyote he harbored had followed her, always just out of sight, and even that was gone now.

He was gone.

• • •

Jonas stood in shock, staring at the creature Dash and Elizabeth fought to hold on to Cassie as she knelt in the center of the road leading from the garage. Her screams were the sound an animal tortured, agonized and brutal as they erupted from her throat.

Long, riotous black hair whipped around her and tears ran from her eyes. All the control Cassie had fought for all her life was gone, shattered, wiped away as she fought like an animal to be free of her parents.

But it was what he sensed pouring from her that shocked him the most. There were no longer the separate scents of the Coyote and the Wolf howling in grief. They’d merged, and as he watched her struggles slowly ease, watched as the tears and the screams were silenced, he sensed the strength forging inside her.

Whatever pain she should have felt at her parents’ touch receded, sinking inside her, merging with the now silent howls he could feel echoing inside her.

“Come on, baby. Come on …” Dash lifted her in his arms, cradling her against him as he came to his feet, his gaze filled with agony as she lay limply in his arms.

Elizabeth’s face was wet with tears, as was Ashley’s as she trailed behind them and followed them into the Bureau. Breeds stood around the area staring, still in shock, weapons held ready with no idea what to fight, what to kill, to ease the horror and enraged pain that still filled the air.

Alpha leaders had always watched her warily, put off by her calm, by her air of steady strength. Distrustful of the shy smiles and overtures of friendship from the young Breed who always seemed to lack the dark-edged nightmares that most Breeds held.

Now her nightmares were free. A lifetime of them, and one had just been added. And the realization that the calm she had always projected—which, though they distrusted it, had still given them a glimpse of peace whenever she was near—was shattered.

“Find out who was in that limo …”