Dash Sinclair was an incredibly powerful alpha. If he let it be known he wanted Dog dealt with, then survival might be iffy.
Jonas leaned back, his arms settled comfortably on the arms of the desk chair, and just stared back at Dog silently for long seconds.
This could become a problem. If he let it.
“If Sinclair attempts to take her, I’ll find her,” he told Jonas, ensuring that Jonas knew he was serious. “I’ll find her, and she’ll disappear. Not what I want to do. Not a choice I’d like to make. But I will.”
Cassie would probably kill him herself. Son of a bitch, he should have kept the game to messages alone …
Like hell. Nothing, not one damned thing in his life, had been so good as being buried in his mate.
“This is a fucking mess,” Jonas muttered, leaning forward then and placing his arms on his desk. “Why didn’t you tell me you were her mate?”
“None of your business.” He wasn’t going to be questioned by this Breed either. “Now, take me to my mate’s rooms or have her prepared to leave with me. One or the other …”
“I’ll ask you the same question I asked your mate.” Jonas overrode the demand. “Do you want to see a war between Breeds? Or risk Cassie losing her mate to his own foolishness?” The director’s voice deepened, the innate command in the animalistic rumble a challenge to the animal Dog was created from. “I’m not willing to risk either, Dog, but that’s what will happen if Sinclair believes even for an instant that Cassie is not a willing mate.”
Dog advanced on the desk, leaned forward until his palms were flat on the wood and stared Jonas fully in the eye.
“Prepare my mate to leave or show me to her rooms. Your choice. I’m in no mood to play footsie with her father, or with you. My mate. My choice.” The director should know better than to challenge an alpha Breed male where a mate was concerned.
He damned sure should know better than to challenge Dog in such a situation. He hadn’t survived amid the stench of the Council and its evil without learning how to navigate any challenge to his decisions or his actions.
Jonas simply stared back at him silently for long moments.
“Jonas … ,” he began warningly.
“Cassie’s willing to meet this situation halfway.” The director shocked him with that information. “She’ll pub
licly accept you as her mate. She’ll keep the true details to herself regarding how you bargained with her for a night of sex to save her sister’s life, and she’ll deal with you privately.” Was that a measure of satisfaction he heard in Jonas’s voice? “In exchange, you will not antagonize her parents or her friends during this time. You will play the considerate, loving mate at all times whenever others are around.” Jonas leaned forward then. “And by God, you will be a considerate mate when in private or you’ll deal with me.”
Those liquid-mercury eyes flashed, the color bleeding into the whites as claws slowly emerged from the tips of Jonas’s fingers. A phenomenon Dog had seen only rarely. Jonas’s control was usually far better than this.
“You make me wish I had plans to do otherwise, Director.” He smirked. “For the simple joy I’d find in accepting that little dare you just threw out.” He stood back, wanting to chuckle.
Hell, he was a fucking Coyote. What made Jonas think he could intimidate him so easily?
“You’ve been a hell of an ally over the years.” Jonas sighed. “But too many people believe you’re Council first …”
“My mate comes first.” The Council had never come first. The appearance of it had been necessary but was no longer an option. “Above everything else, never doubt that, Jonas: My mate comes first.”
“And the operation you’ve been conducting?” Jonas asked as Dog went to turn from him. “What about your people, Dog? The information you’ve been working to attain?”
“The evac order went out,” Dog informed him. “As of the moment I claimed my mate there was no other choice but to move the timetable up. It’ll take a few days to get the teams in place, though. Until then, as far as you, Sinclair or anyone else knows, I’m Council. Am I understood?”
The fact that Jonas didn’t think much of the information was evident.
“You couldn’t do anything easy, could you?” Jonas grunted. “I should have expected this. Son of a bitch if I shouldn’t have.”
To that, Dog shrugged while tossing him a hard smile. “Hindsight, my friend,” he stated mockingly. “Hindsight. Now, my mate if you don’t mind.”
Not that he gave a damn that Jonas minded. Hell, at this point he didn’t care if his mate minded.
All he cared about was finding her and relieving the hunger ripping through his body. A hunger he knew his mate would share.
She was going to puke.
Cassie could feel the nausea rising. Again. She’d thrown up twice already during the examination she was forced to endure by both the Wolf Breed specialist, Dr. Nikki Armani, and the Coyote specialist, Katya Sobolova.