Once again, she shrugged negligently. “I’m a big girl, Mom. I’ve learned to do my job without allowing other’s distaste for my presence bother me.”
She was a Cross Breed. She’d heard the distinction far too often. She was neither Coyote nor Wolf to other Breeds. For the most part. Strangely enough, it was the felines who were more accepting of her. But they’d known her since childhood.
The majority of the Wolves and Coyotes she knew regarded her with suspicion; some, like Rhyzan, just hid it better.
“I’ll discuss this with your dad, then. Jonas will need to revise his decision to keep Rhyzan in charge of Kenzi’s debriefing. I won’t have her bullied. Not after all she’s been through.” The sorrow in her mother’s voice was deep, the scent of it strong.
Kenzi was her child. Cassie’s full sister despite the fact that Kenzi had been created without the Wolf DNA.
“I’ll see her soon as well,” Cassie promised, though she sensed the fact that Kenzi wouldn’t welcome her.
She could feel it inside, deep, where that gift she had once possessed had retreated to.
“I’m here for you as well, Cassie,” her mother promised as they entered the elevator and Cassie pressed the button that would take her to the residence level of the Bureau’s offices.
“I know, Mom.” She stared straight ahead, refusing to give in to the need to spill the hurt, the pain, into her mother’s loving arms.
If she spilled that much, the rest would come rolling free. She wouldn’t be able to hide everything she’d kept from her parents for so very long.
Everything she’d kept hidden even from herself.
• CHAPTER 4 •
He was waiting for her when she stepped into her suite on the upper floor of the Western Bureau of Breed Affairs. The dun-colored buttoned shirt and matching pants were paired with work-scarred boots and a wide leather belt. The sand-colored fall of hair around his face was both rakish and almost boyish. But there was nothing boyish about the look in his gunmetal gray eyes.
He wasn’t armed—at least she couldn’t see or scent any weapons on him. They had a distinctive smell, one that reminded her of death.
Sprawled back in her recliner, remote in hand as he scanned the channels on the HD screen. On the table beside him sat several empty beer bottles and one half-full and a half-eaten ham, roast beef and cheese sandwich.
He flipped off the screen and in a move that bespoke pure male confidence tilted his head and grinned back at her mockingly.
“Well, mate, did they get all their samples from you? At least until after we have sex again?” A dark blond brow arched with curious sarcasm.
She hated him. She was certain of it.
Bastard.
She made certain her smile was cold. “Examinations are all finished and hopefully a hormonal treatment that will counteract the mating will be here soon.”
Of course, nothing could counteract the mating; it could only help ease it, nothing more. But even an easing would help, because she was damned if she could clear her head enough to think past the Mating Heat.
He flipped the recliner back to a sitting position, his booted feet meeting the carpet as she watched him warily. And he laughed at her.
“Nothing counteracts the mating, mate,” he assured her, the laughter still lingering in his voice.
His expression was frankly insulting.
Now she knew why Ashley, the Coyote female she worked with, swore she was shooting her mate at first sight.
Before he had a chance to exchange any bodily fluids with her.
“I can only hope this will be the exception.” She had a feeling it was anything but.
Arousal was burning through her, creating a fine film of perspiration along her forehead, and her hands were getting ready to shake.
She just wanted to touch him.
Taste him.