“And why wasn’t I told this before?” She glared at Rhyzan, then her father. “Why didn’t you tell me when the tests were done? Like you were supposed to?”
He breathed out heavily, the sound rife with regret. “I wanted to be certain. I was waiting for the tests to be completed with the unmated Wolf Breeds. I wanted to be sure there wasn’t a match to your Wolf genetics before I told you.”
He hadn’t wanted her to mate with a Coyote. The words were unsaid, but there all the same. Just as Dog had said, the fact that she was a Cross Breed had been deliberately left unsaid for so many years that sometimes she wondered if anyone but her even remembered. Evidently, her father had remembered.
“But now that there’s no time left, you can tell me about Rhyzan? Any Coyote’s better than the one I chose, right?” she demanded.
Surprise glittered in her father’s brown eyes before they narrowed reprovingly. “You know better than that, Cassie.”
“The point is moot anyway.” Anger and hurt raged inside her as she shot Rhyzan a glare. “Any other test doesn’t matter. I have a mate now.”
“Not necessarily,” Rhyzan contradicted, his voice holding a vein of satisfaction that only pissed her off further. “You know Breed Law, Cassie. Possible anomalies were built into the Mating Laws. One of those possibilities was—”
“A Reconsideration?” she exclaimed in disbelief. “Are you insane?”
A Petition for Reconsideration stated that if another Breed tested as a match to a mated Breed or human, then that Breed could petition the Breed Cabinet to separate the two mates and give the possible mate a chance to convince the one his tests were compatible with that he or she would be the better choice if they proved compatible.
“Insanity isn’t one of my genetic anomalies.” Rhyzan grinned as though amused. “But I’m entirely serious. I want a chance to see if the tests were correct and we could be mates.”
“I have a mate,” she snapped.
“Cassie, Dog will get you killed. Or worse. He’s a known Council Coyote. He could turn you over to them … ,” her father protested.
“He’s not insane,” she sneered. “He knows they’d take him as well and he’d suffer the same fate. He hasn’t survived in that world by being stupid, Father.”
Everything inside her was screaming out in denial, in pain. She could see her father’s disappointment and it was killing her. He hadn’t told her Rhyzan could be her mate because he wanted to see if she could mate a Wolf instead. Anything other than a Coyote.
“Cassie.” Rhyzan drew her gaze back to him. “Wouldn’t you prefer a mate with honor—”
“How many times do I have to reject one of your advances? For God’s sake, Rhyzan. Whenever I’ve been in your company I can feel your contempt and distrust. Why would I want you for a mate?” She jumped to her feet, smothered between the combined disappointment and disapproval of her father and Jonas’s assistant director.
God, Rhyzan’s arrogance had made her crazy even before she’d mated with Dog. He was damned fine to look at it, and she would even have considered sleeping with him once or twice if his contempt hadn’t been a complete turnoff, but whenever she thought of anyone as a potential mate, the memory of the mysterious contact that had fascinated her for years interfered.
Her father and Rhyzan rose to their feet as she rushed between them. Where the hell was her mate? He was supposed to be here, he was supposed to keep this from happening, at least until she could handle the hormones raging through her.
“You have yet to reject me,” Rhyzan stated with his ever-present confident prickishness.
She shot him a furious glance. “You’re damned good to look at Rhyzan, but that’s about it. And if you had gotten that little sneer on your face one more time when someone was overheard calling me the psychic Breed, then I would have had to smack it off your face.”
It wasn’t just the sneer; it was the feeling that the thought of her former abilities was seen in contempt. He saw her with an edge of contempt.
“Cassie, my formal Petition for Reconsideration will be sent electronically to the Breed Cabinet at first light. I won’t allow that bastard to take my mate.” Ice filled his voice, his gaze.
That was it. He was cold. The Breed had an ice cube for a heart and she didn’t think she’d enjoy frostbite.
“Have you forgotten who you’re fucking with, asshole?” she snarled, ignoring her father as she faced a Breed she was beginning to see as the enemy now. “I’ll twist your petition in so many damned directions so fast, you’ll get whiplash.”
She’d never cared much for Rhyzan, had never liked his lack of compassion or his hard-line approach to Breed Law. He was a Breed who saw everything in black and white. The rule book was all that mattered, not the law broken or the reasons why.
“You’re not the only one who knows Breed Law,” he stated, assurance settling over his expression.
She turned to her father, seeing the speculation in his gaze as he watched her now. Could he sense the chill invading her, she wondered? The fear?
“How dare you do this?” she snarled, seeing her father’s and Rhyzan’s start of surprise at the sound of her voice. “You come to this room, the scent of my mate marking it, as well as me, and dare to suggest you’re strong enough to replace it?” A sneer curled at her lips as she raked Rhyzan with a contemptuous glare. “And then to suggest you can force it? I’d slit your throat if you even tried and I’d get away with it.”
“Cassie,” her father whispered, pain contorting his face. “Dog will get you killed.”
The slamming of t