Breedable? She was a baby. You didn’t breed babies. You cuddled them and you loved them and you raised them to be happy and free and to love you in return. She couldn’t make sense of this. Couldn’t accept the information battering into her brain.
“She’s just a baby. You can’t do that with a baby.”
“Elizabeth.” He groaned her name with agonizing emotion. “Listen to me, honey. You have to listen to me now. You can’t protect Cassie from this. You can’t shelter her or run far enough away to hide her from this.”
Elizabeth stared back at him in shock. Couldn’t protect Cassie? She had to protect Cassie. She was her child. She couldn’t accept anything else.
“I won’t let my baby die,” she raged furiously. “You’re wrong. You have to be wrong.”
“You know I’m not wrong,” he snapped. “The sounds she makes while she’s sleeping. There wasn’t a Wolf Breed in the labs I lived in that didn’t make that sound as children. When she was playing with Mica and bit her. It’s instinct to use the teeth rather than the hands to gain freedom. Her canines are longer. Her intelligence is far advanced for her age…”
“Stop!” She screamed out at the pain radiating through her body now. She couldn’t bear to breathe; it hurt so badly. She had to escape him. Had to help Cassie survive this. “Get away from me. Just get the hell out away from me.”
She moved for the connecting bathroom. She had to get to Cassie. Had to make sure nothing or no one could ever hurt her child again. She tried to run, tried to rush past him and escape the pain he was bringing into her life.
He caught her just past the chairs, moving faster than she could. His arms, so hard and strong, wrapped around her, dragging her against his chest as she collapsed. One big hand held her head against him, his broad chest absorbing her sudden scream of agonizing denial.
“No,” she wailed against his chest, her fists slamming into him as hard as the truth slammed into her soul. “Oh God, no. He didn’t do this to my baby.”
She was shaking so hard in his arms she frightened herself. On one level, she was aware of the breakdown. The past two years had culminated in this. The fragile hold she held on her control crumpled and memories assailed her mind.
She hadn’t been comfortable with Martaine. Dane had had to fight, beg and plead with her to allow the doctor to perform the procedure. Elizabeth had wanted someone else. Had wanted a doctor she trusted, one who didn’t make her skin crawl. But Dane had been insistent. It would be private this way. No one would ever know that their child hadn’t been conceived naturally. No one would be aware that he wasn’t man enough to get his own wife pregnant.
The list of excuses had been long and the fights had almost been violent. Finally, Elizabeth had given in. Dane had been ecstatic until they had been told the procedure had been effective. Elizabeth had conceived.
He had been quiet. His excitement had slowly faded from that moment on. And she had never known why. Now she knew. It had gone from his wife and child to an experiment. Dane had been almost obsessively jealous. The realization that she wasn’t carrying his child must have eaten him alive. It had. It had destroyed their marriage, and eventually his greed had taken his life.
“Mike, see what you can find out about Colder and Martaine, privately, such as any money owed or paid. I need as much information as I can get. Put a call into Tyler for me. We have to talk again.”
She had been barely aware of the other man and his wife entering the room as she and Dash fought. Now she was in his arms as he held her tightly to his chest, crying. She didn’t know why she was crying. Tears weren’t going to help. But she couldn’t stop.
As Dash threw out hasty orders to the other man, his hands were stroking her hair, her back, holding her close to the heat and hardness of his body. Sheltering her the only way he knew how. She recognized it. Had done it often with Cassie.
Her baby had been betrayed again, just as Elizabeth had been. It all made sense now. So many things she hadn’t been able to explain: the sudden influx of money after she conceived, Dane’s distance from the child, Martaine’s interest in her. He had visited the house often before her divorce and had called her personally several times.
And Cassie. Elizabeth felt her heart stop. Her daughter knew. She knew and hadn’t told Elizabeth. She had to know. She was there when Dane was killed, had heard her father haggling over the price of selling her to Grange. She would have to be aware of her birthright.
The pieces started falling into place. How Cassie had known all the times someone had been in the apartments they had lived in. She had stopped, fear holding her body rigid as she breathed in deeply. They’re here, Momma. The fairy says they’re here. The fairy hadn’t shown up before the night Dane had been killed.
The fairy told her when danger was coming. Instinct. Animal awareness, as had been explained in the interviews she had seen with the Feline Breeds. It developed in the young and only grew stronger as they matured. The fairy told her when their enemies were close. Instinct. She could smell them, just as Dash could smell the proof of her parentage. The fairy always knew the things that Cassie was training herself to accept and strengthen.
She pushed against Dash’s chest, wiping at the tears on her face, fighting for control. He wouldn’t let her go. He held her to him, knowing she wanted to run, to hide not just from Grange and the truth, but from him as well.
He had claimed her. He had already informed her of that fact. He wouldn’t let her go. She remembered Callan Lyons’ interviews. His fierce protectiveness of his wife, Merinus. The determination to see her safe at all costs. His eyes had blazed when he spoke of her and she had seen a man who would kill to save his woman. As Dash had done. He had killed to protect her and Cassie. How many more would he be forced to kill now? The thought of that, the danger to not just her child but to Dash as well, was destroying her.
Chapter Thirteen
“Let me go.” She pushed against his chest again as Mike and Serena left the room. “I have to check on
Cassie.
Please, Dash. I have to check on her.”
He let her go slowly as she fought to dry her face, to stem the tears still rolling from her eyes. She couldn’t go in there like this. Cassie would wake up. She always knew when her mother was upset, when she was crying…
God, let her be asleep. She rushed to the room, somehow knowing Cassie was awake.
She was. Sitting up in the bed, her own face wet with tears as she clutched the teddy bear Dash had bought her at the diner. Her frail shoulders were shaking with her tears as she rocked to and fro. Silent, heartbreaking sobs that destroyed Elizabeth. How much had her daughter heard?