Fuck, she was looking for Council-held Breeds; no wonder she was attacked. And the attacks wouldn’t stop either.
“I have two men shadowing her, out of sight of the two Breeds assigned as her backup. Just let me know when you return.” Graeme breathed out heavily. “And I wouldn’t be gone long if I were you, Cullen. That girl’s stubborn, and she knows her directive. She won’t wait for you to return before heading into trouble.”
No, she wouldn’t.
Disconnecting the call, he tossed the phone to the console as he glowered into the darkness, the silence in the Dragoon becoming heavier by the second.
“Don’t say it,” he finally warned the agent riding with him. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“Of course you don’t,” Ranger scoffed mockingly. “Sucks knowing you fucked up, doesn’t it? I told you to talk to her and get her back at the Agency when she first resigned. That damned pride of yours gets you in trouble every time.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Cullen ordered, hating the truth of his friend’s words.
“Admit it, Cullen.” Ranger sighed. “That girl’s been important to you since you first came to Window Rock. Lauren might have been paranoid, but she wasn’t wrong about you and Chelsea being close. She’s important to you. She always has been.”
More important than Ranger guessed. More important than even Cullen had realized at the time.
“She was a friend. She’s still a friend.” He sighed wearily. “How that’s changed since Lauren’s death isn’t the point, Ranger. I wasn’t unfaithful to my wife.” No matter the fact that she had been.
“If anyone knows that, it’s me,” Ranger stated quietly. “But now, Cullen, you’re going to have to make up your mind what you’re going to do where she’s concerned. Because she’s not one of those one-night stands you keep insisting on having. You break her heart, and you’ll make enemies.”
Sliding him a sidelong look, Cullen only grunted at the warning. It wasn’t the enemies he would make that bothered him. The thought of breaking Chelsea’s heart wasn’t the problem. If he took her to his bed, he’d keep her. He wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. It was that wild courage that was so much a part of her that held him back. A wild courage that terrified him on a good day. Chelsea would insist on fighting by his side and he’d go crazy worrying about her safety and losing her.
He was starting to realize that was all he was doing now, though.
Chelsea had proven she wasn’t going to be restrained with her rescue of the Cerves daughter that night in the desert. The memory of that still had the power to send fear crawling up his back. She could have died out there, alone, tortured by the monsters that had such a lack of mercy they’d killed a child with the physical and mental wounds they’d inflicted.
And making enemies wasn’t the greatest risk he was taking. Losing her was his greatest fear, but losing himself if anything ever happened to her was a certainty.
CHAPTER 6
From Graeme’s Journal
The Recessed Primal Breed
The recessed Primal Breed will deny Mating Heat only as long as his animal genetics will allow—
Two days later Chelsea stepped into the office of the Director of the Western Division of the Bureau of Breed Affairs, where Rule Breaker and his assistant director, Lawe Justice, and her handler, Cassie Sinclair, waited.
Cassie looked as cool and composed as ever dressed in gray tailored slacks, a white silk blouse and four-inch heels. Her long black hair was drawn back into a low ponytail and secured with a white silk ribbon. She appeared both innocent and confident and it was a look she did well.
Rule and Lawe, on the other hand, despite their expensive suits and smooth manners, were still the hard, savagely trained Breeds they were when they’d first come to the Nation several years ago. The rougher edges were smoother now, but they hadn’t lost anything in strength or the wary caution in their eyes.
“Chelsea. It’s good to see you again.” Rule rose from his seat behind the long executive desk at the other side of the room. A smile tipped his lips and amusement filled his dark blue gaze, but she was certain that could change as quickly as any threat could rear its head.
“Yes, it is,” Lawe agreed. “Though we expected to see you at Graeme’s dinner party the other night.”
Her brow lifted as she shook their hands, appreciating the light firmness that didn’t pinch her hand.
“I should have just attended,” she grimaced, taking her seat next to Cassie in front of Rule’s desk. “Our friendly commander of the Covert Law Enforcement Agency made things a little difficult while we were in the field.”
Rule grimaced at her comment as he took his seat as well and pulled a file up on the holo-screen he used at his desk.
“So your report noted,” he sighed. “I wanted you to come in to let you know in person that your cover has likely been blown with the commander, and definitely with his brother, Graeme. It’s rather difficult to keep Graeme out of our files whenever he decides to plunder them.”
She nodded at that. “It lasted longer than I anticipated. Cullen, I know, is rather good at getting the answers he wants. I suspected he’d request Graeme’s help in getting those answers after he showed up at the house the other day.”
She’d worked with him long enough to know exactly how good he was at it. She’d simply assumed after a month of no contact that he really didn’t give a damn what she was doing.