ulled one of his files forward and prepared to open it.
As though he had the final say in the matter.
“That is where you’re wrong.” She came to her feet quickly, her voice rising with her anger as his head jerked up, surprise gleaming in his eyes. Slapping her hands on the front of his desk, she leaned forward, the surging intensity of her anger refusing to allow her to back down or lower her voice.
“This operation damned well did depend on her as well as her mated status. Reorganize your own goddamned group. You won’t get a chance to fire me. I quit,” she yelled.
Jerking her hands back from the table, she turned to leave.
“You could have warned me of your parameters, Cassie,” he snapped behind her.
“Warned you?” As she swung around, outrage snapped in her tone. “It was my operation,” she yelled back at him furiously. “Mine. Your other team leaders don’t explain every damned detail to you.”
“When it’s important, they do,” he growled, the sound demanding she back down.
“Like hell they do,” she cried furiously. “Trust me, Rule, every damned one of them has an agenda in their little operations that you don’t know a damned thing about.”
She was shaking, so furious now a haze of red was threatening to mar her gaze.
“Dammit, Cassie, settle down,” he ordered, giving a hard shake of his head as he heard the door open.
“Oh, Rule, let him come in,” she sneered, enraged now, the scent of the arriving Coyote infuriating her. “Aren’t you just so threatened by little ole me?” she laughed mockingly. “I’ll be ready to leave in an hour. You can shove this position and you can shove your parameters while you’re at it because I’m done here.”
“Cassie!” The sharp command in his voice had her pausing. “Why is Chelsea so important to this operation?”
She turned back to him slowly.
“Because I decided she was important to this operation,” she bit out between clenched teeth. “And I resent that question, Rule, because we both know you would have never questioned one of your male commanders similarly.” She shook her head. She should have known better. “Get that jet ready. I’m done here.”
This time when she turned from him she swept from the room, ignoring the Breeds outside the door, especially those team members she’d more or less tattled on.
She was tired of dealing with their certainty that she would fail and their fear of her. Every one of them. They wouldn’t look her in the eye and they stank of their wariness that she’d learn their secrets.
She didn’t have to learn them, she already knew them. Each and every one of them. And even more, she knew the holes they were digging for themselves. Holes she could have helped them out of.
If she had stayed.
Cullen’s head jerked up from the file he was reading, Chelsea’s scent crashing into him. It wasn’t the scent of arousal that had a growl rumbling in his throat, though. It was the scent of her anger.
The scent of her pain.
She stormed into his office, the door slamming behind her with enough force to rattle the glass.
Cullen rose slowly to his feet, frowning at the overbright eyes and flushed cheeks, the scent of pain and betrayal sliding around him like icy tendrils.
“Thank you.” Her voice was husky as her gaze went around the room, taking in the stacks of files, books lying about that needed replacing on the shelves. “For making a mess of this office.” She dropped her pack into the chair in front of his desk, controlled the trembling of her lips and forced a bright smile to her lips. “Saved my position, did you, Cullen?”
He glanced around the room before returning his gaze to her. “The commissioner hasn’t approved the stupidity tests yet.” He shrugged, then tipped his head curiously. “What’s wrong, baby?”
She flashed him a look of pain-filled mockery. “How can you ask that question with a straight face?”
“Because I have no idea what the hell is going on,” he answered. “And I can’t do anything about it if I don’t know what I’ve done.”
All that anger and pain was definitely directed at him, though.
As shocking as it was, he could feel the tears she was holding inside.
“Have I ever asked you to fix anything for me, Cullen?” she demanded then, one hand settling on a cocked hip. “At any time have I asked you to fix any damned thing for me?”