The Recessed Primal Breed
Any creature—human, Breed or otherwise—foolish enough to tempt a recessed Primal Breed’s rage is a being living on borrowed time.
The mate who tempts such a Breed is a woman of unique and incomparable courage.
God help her—
He’d almost lost her.
That thought had every bone and muscle in Cullen’s body tightening with fury as he raced from the crime scene, heading for his own home on the other side of town.
If he had been just a single car behind her. If he hadn’t followed her. If he hadn’t sensed something wrong just before that vehicle had slammed into Chelsea’s, then she could have been gone, taken by the criminals, or worse, lying in a pool of blood, dead, in the middle of the street.
For years he’d pushed aside that unnamed something that drew him to her. Even before she’d come to work for him, hell, before his marriage. She’d been a sweet, quiet young girl when he’d first seen her in her father’s house the night he, Cat and Honor had been rescued. Peeking from the darkness of another room, her gaze had met his, and he’d known a friend watched him with dark eyes, compassion and a whisper of fear for his safety.
There had been nothing sexual in the fragile bond they’d shared until well after his wife’s death. But he knew it for what it was now. The animal waking just enough to ensure he didn’t overlook the woman who would one day belong to him.
As he glanced at Chelsea’s pale face, the scent of her courage and the sight of the determined tilt of her chin had him rubbing a hand wearily over his face. And he’d thought he could contain her? That he could protect her? It was like trying to contain the wind; she’d slip through his fingers every time.
Realizing that didn’t help the adrenaline-laced mating hormone ripping through his system now. It only spurred it. The challenge he glimpsed in her eyes every time he stared into them was the same challenge she silently shouted to the world. She was strong, that glint assured anyone willing to see. She wasn’t a victim, and she wouldn’t allow herself to become one.
She was his mate.
She was the one woman the creature inside him recognized as the one capable of walking by his side. And the thought of her facing any more danger filled him with fear.
No one was undefeatable. That challenge she stared out at the world with could be silenced with one correctly placed bullet or blade. And she’d just be gone.
If his hands hadn’t been gripping the steering wheel with an iron hold, they would have trembled. Fuck, his guts were shaking. It would take him a lifetime to get over what had nearly happened to her.
“Why would the Cerves cartel care what the Council wanted?” she asked, her voice tight with reaction to the attack. “They know it was the Council that ordered Louisa abducted and tortured.”
“We’ll have more information after the surviving assailant’s questioned,” he assured her. “Until then, there’s no sense in asking questions we can’t answer.”
He couldn’t talk about this. He simply didn’t have the control he needed right now to do so with any sort of logic.
“But there’s not been so much as a rumor of a coming attack.” Confusion filled her voice now. “I’m working every contact I know of as well as their contacts looking for intel on which Breeds are being targeted to be abducted. There’s not even a hint that anyone’s after me, or that I’m in any kind of danger. Even the Cerveses wouldn’t be able to keep that quiet, Cullen.”
“They kept this quiet,” he snarled. “And my informants are part of the family’s main security force.”
His informants’ heads were going to roll as soon as he contacted them.
“He said a price went on my head,” she stated, her voice low. “They don’t know I was there that night. This could be just business for them.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he growled. “Whoever put the contract out will pay right along with the Cerveses.”
Her worried glance and the smell of her regret slammed into him.
“Look,” she breathed out roughly, her hands twisting in her lap as she looked down at them for a moment. “I’m sorry you got dragged into this.”
“I didn’t get dragged into anything.” Where the hell did that from? “I came looking for you, remember?” He shook his head at her statement. “Dammit, Chelsea, you should have come to me the first time you were attacked. I might have fought you over having any part of it, but I would have protected you.”
“That’s just it, Cullen.” She swung around, staring at him, her expression fierce. “I shouldn’t have to fight you over it. If you needed my help I’d give it unconditionally. You should do the same or stay the hell out of it.”
Incredulity flared through him even as his dick only got harder. Damn her. What would it take to make her understand that he just couldn’t do that?
“It doesn’t work that way,” he gritted out. “You might think it should, you might hope it would, but to actually expect it is illogical, Chelsea.”
“You have several female agents working in Covert Ops, Cullen,” she pointed out, anger beginning to heat her tone. “Not once have you pulled them back because they might get hurt.” Her arms crossed over her breasts and a quick glance at her showed a delicate flush on her features and a battle gleam in her eyes.