What he had done to her, she wasn’t entirely certain. It was beyond the physical pleasure; it went beyond anything she’d known with him before. And when it was over, when he finally pulled from her, all she could do was collapse on the bed, exhaustion weighing her down and dragging her into sleep.
Where she could hide. Just for a minute, she needed to hide from whatever he’d released inside her.
• CHAPTER 8 •
Dog pulled his boots on his feet the next morning, tracking the hours before dawn and the update he was awaiting on the evacuation of his people. His gaze touched his sleeping mate when he sensed the Breed that entered the suite through the living room. Rubbing wearily at the back of his neck, he rose from the chair and strode to the bedroom door. Opening it silently, he stepped from the room before securing the door once again and facing the Breed.
Hell, he didn’t need this right now. At least there were no longer guards on duty outside the room, though he expected more to show up soon. He hoped their replacements were a bit more polite. The next time, he might not be so nice himself.
“What do you want?” he growled, wondering why in the hell the director of Breed Affairs thought this was a good time to invade Cassie’s suite.
“We need to talk.” Jonas’s voice remained low. “But not here. Across the hall if you have a minute.”
Dog narrowed his gaze on the director. He liked to think he knew Jonas pretty well by now. The man was as deceptive and as calculating as any Coyote ever born, despite the fact that he was a Lion.
Jonas opened the door leading to the hall and tilted his head toward it. Following the other man from the residential suite, across the hall to another, matching suite, Dog forced himself to restrain an impatient growl.
Closing the door behind them, Jonas moved past him to the bar on the other side of the room, where he poured himself a drink. Considering the lateness of the hour, the fact that Jonas was drinking was an indication of his irritation level.
“Fuck, you picked a hell of a time to pull this shit. I wish to hell you’d warned me.” The other Breed turned back to him, his silver eyes flashing in anger as he tossed back his drink.
His mate’s apparent openness with Jonas could become a potential problem if she ever learned the truth of who and what her new mate truly represented.
“We’ve discussed this,” he reminded the other Breed as he moved to the bar himself and accepted the drink Jonas handed him.
“Dammit, Dog,” Jonas cursed, flashing him a look of brooding anger and frustration. “This situation is going to hell fast. When she came to work in this office, we ran hormonal tests with the Breeds she’d be working with. Those tests matched her to another Breed. All the initial mating signs were present—”
“She has no other mate.” Training, years of control, every emotion, every possible chance of giving himself away, nearly failed him.
The creature he was in the darkest core of his soul gathered itself, filled with fury, with territorial possessiveness, threatened to break free, to emerge in a way Dog knew he could never pull back.
Jonas’s look was intent, almost confused, as he stared back at him, as though he were trying to figure out a puzzle he’d never seen. This wasn’t a game to Jonas. Dog knew he wasn’t lying, because it was the reason he’d staked his claim as he had, before that son of a bitch he’d scented on his mate could make a claim.
“Those tests say otherwise. And the Coyote she matched with was aware of the possibility. I can’t say he won’t do as he’s threatened and test the possibility that he could change the outcome.” Jonas grimaced, rubbing at his neck wearily. “Son of a bitch. We don’t need this right now.”
“She was eighteen when I first realized she was my mate. And I would have waited until the time was more convenient had you not pushed that bastard at her.” A growl slipped into his voice then, something that rarely happened. “Whatever fucked-up anomaly allowed his scent to cling to her was a false attempted mating. Let him attempt to challenge me and he’ll die.”
Rhyzan Brannigan. The son of a bitch Coyote Jonas had chosen as his assistant in the Federal Bureau of Breed
Affairs. Dog had no doubt that was the Coyote she’d tested compatible to. The very fact that his scent had dared to cling to Cassie after they’d danced together several weeks before had ensured that Dog came for her, that he claimed her.
“You can’t ignore the possibility, especially if Rhyzan takes the matter before the Breed Tribunal. And your habit of associating with the Genetics Council, openly working with them at times, won’t endear your counterobjection to the Cabinet. Cassie will verify this.” He glared at Dog as though a crime had been committed. “She knows the Breed statutes better than anyone alive. Rhyzan can demand further testing, and if those tests show the compatibility is still present, despite your mating, he can force you to stand aside and force her to allow him a chance to convince her to test a mating with him instead.”
Jonas stalked from the bar to his desk, shaking his head before a furious growl left his throat.
“Then he’ll die.” Dog shrugged, feeling a shift in his senses, in his awareness of the darkness he carried within him. “Rhyzan doesn’t want to make that mistake. Cassie’s mine. I won’t let her go.”
He wasn’t some damned alpha leader forced to allow a separation from his mate because of Cassie’s arguments on behalf of the human mate. Cassie wasn’t a human with no awareness of Mating Heat or her Breed physiology. And Brannigan would know the rage he was tempting if he made such a move.
“Dog, your pride and stubbornness aside, you are not a member of the legitimate Breed community as far as anyone else knows, and until we have your people free, we can’t disclose it. You aren’t an alpha; you aren’t aligned with an alpha. You have no rights where Breed Law is concerned. The only reason you’re not in chains at the moment is because of Breed Law’s statutes to the effect that no matter your crimes in the past, the fact that your mate is innocent of those crimes gives you another chance.”
Dog’s eyes narrowed on Jonas. “My mate.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Jonas sighed, leaning against his desk as he crossed his arms over his chest and the warning in his gaze deepened. “If push comes to shove, support will go to Rhyzan. And Cassie’s upset enough that you tricked her into this mating …”
“Bullshit, Jonas. No one tricks Cassie.” Dog snorted. “She made a deal. She knew I was a Coyote. She knew the risks and she was warned of the risks. She simply thought she could control it.”
But hadn’t he thought the same?