Cross Breed (Breeds 23)

“Cassie …” He believed it. Hated it, but he believed it.

“You knew.” She breathed out the words, the sound ragged, filled with pain and with betrayal.

“I suspected your mate was a Coyote.” He shook his head wearily. “I had no idea who he was, though, Cassie. If I had, I would have found a way …”

Bitter mockery filled her face. “You would have found a way to what? To fix it? To manipulate it?”

“To kill him first,” he snarled. “Mate or not, I wouldn’t have allowed this to happen to you.”

It wasn’t the first time he wanted to kill a mate, and he knew it would likely not be the last. Mating Heat was hell for a woman in some circumstances, more so for some than for others.

She blinked back her tears and he swore he could sense her releasing that incredible store of strength he’d always known she possessed.

That steel spine locked into place, her stubborn little chin lifted, and he watched the woman she’d grown into straighten her shoulders and face him with far more control than he had at the moment.

“Styx flew from Sanctuary yesterday. He can help me for a day or so.” She completely ignored his statement. “You’ll be rather busy with other things, and I need a friend …”

“Ya need yer mate,” Styx growled, but there was no heat in his words.

A bitter smile twisted her pale lips as her gaze moved back to Jonas. “And here he’s known for being agreeable and easy to get along with. I’ll have to check with Storme and see if she cut off his chocolate supply again.”

Styx merely grunted at the comment.

“If you want to avoid the Breed that’s mated you, then send Styx home,” Jonas advised her. “Your mate won’t allow this and you know it. Your name was linked with Styx romantically before he mated Storme. Just because his mate trusts him doesn’t meant yours will.”

Pure fury flashed in her eyes, brightening them, making them more eerie than before.

“Bastard Coyote,” she enunciated with a dagger-sharp tone. “He’ll be lucky if I don’t castrate him myself.”

“Cassie …”

“He knew we were mates,” she suddenly cried, the anger erupting with such fury that Jonas felt the need to step back. “He knew, and he let me make that damn bargain anyway. All these years he’d done nothing but manipulate me when he should have told me.”

Her fury was overpowering, lashing through the room, the scent of it, the sheer power of it like an invisible wave of heat.

What she said simply wasn’t possible. Even Jonas hadn’t known, and he’d run her DNA through every sample they had, looking for a match. He’d even run it through that Coyote DNA database and it had come up negative.

“He knew.” She was so tense, so determined to control that fury, that her body was strung as tight as a bow. “He knew before he touched me. Before he …”

Before he mated her.

“Cassie. Sweetheart … ,” Jonas whispered, aching at the need to hold her as he always had when she’d come to him, when she was hurting.

But the scent of that mating was one of the strongest he’d smelled since he’d learned what the scent meant. That meant any touch, male or female, would be painful, too painful for him to attempt.

She rubbed her bare arms, breathing hard as she licked her lips and glanced toward Styx.

“Call off the search. Tell Mom and Dad to concentrate on Kenzi …”

Jonas laughed at that, amazed she’d even suggest it.

“You know better than that, Cassie. Won’t happen. They’ve only just learned of her existence but you’re still their child.” He propped his hands on his hips, and as much as he hated to, he pushed back his affection for her, his regret for her position, and injected just the right amount of censure in his tone. “Get your head together, goddammit. I trained you better than this and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you turn into one of those simpering little woe-is-me females.”

Not that she didn’t have good reason to let her inner woe-is-me damsel free; he just refused to allow her to sink to that level.

“Unlike others, you’re not my boss—”

“Test me.” Just enough growl, just enough deep-throated warning to shut her up, and it worked. Thank God. “You obviously created this situation from what you just said. He couldn’t have manipulated you if you weren’t associating with him somehow, and before I see a fucking bloodbath on my hands between Wolf and Coyote, I’ll lock your ass up myself. Now, get your goddamned big-girl panties on and try to act like the intelligent, capable young woman I’ve trained you’d be instead of a fucking spoiled-ass brat. And think about this.” He paused just long enough to be sure he had her attention. “If your father even suspects, even has a moment’s suspicion, that this isn’t a voluntary mating, then Breeds will be warring with Breeds instead of humans. Is that what you want?”