• CHAPTER 7 •

Dressed in gray cotton lounging pants and a matching camisole, Cassie sat back in her chair, the remains of dinner almost nonexistent. The steak, loaded potatoes, salad and yeast rolls had seemed far too much for her to finish when Dog unloaded the bags that were delivered.

Now replete, all she had to do was fight back the distracting arousal beginning to build inside her for just a while longer. She could feel a sense of imperative warning awakening as well. That warning had begun before the attack, though. It had begun the night her sister Kenzi’s fear and panic had reached out to her.

It wouldn’t be easy for her sister; she’d lost the foster parents who had sacrificed so much to protect her, only to ultimately lose their lives. And now she was having to finally face the parents she’d been kept from.

The threads of knowledge were dangling in her mind; she could feel them, sense them. They were all connected somehow; she just wasn’t certain how, because that sense of impending warning still brewed inside her senses.

Though she and her father never spoke of it, as Cassie had matured, her underlying paternal scent had begun emerging. It was faint because of the Coyote genetics she possessed, too faint for most Breeds to detect, but it was still there. Somehow, the Council had acquired Dash Sinclair’s genetics and the scientist who performed the in-vitro procedure had created not just Cassie, but Kenzi as well.

“Here.” Dog moved to her side, laying a phone and tablet on the table as he took her plate. “Both are encrypted and secured. I’ve programmed my number into the phone, and both devices are equipped with a nano-ghost. They’re safe.”

Her brows lifted. Nano-ghosts were even harder to build and program than nano-nits. Their encryption and ability to access the Internet through the wireless connections around them without leaving a trail made them highly valuable.

“How did you manage a nano-ghost?” Turning her head, she stared up at him suspiciously.

“Because I’m good like that.” He grinned, flashing those canines he seemed so damned proud of.

Charm practically oozed out of him along with the arrogance and ever-present confidence. Unfortunately, that bad-boy charm only turned her on more. It had aroused her before he’d ever touched her. Six years of calls, messages, favors and ridiculous demands, and each time, she’d become more captivated by him. She’d always known he was part of the Council. She’d suspected he was a Coyote. And she’d still so rashly made that final bargain with him.

“I’m not certain how I feel about that,” she admitted. “You’re too damned good at the wrong things, Dog.”

Rising from her chair, she wondered what that said about her, that she was so willing to break Bureau rules by accepting such a device. Not that she would be caught doing so. Detecting nano-nits was hard enough. Nano-ghosts were impossible to detect unless the programmer knew exactly what she or he was looking for.

“I try.” His expression was both sensual and knowing. “But you have a little bad inside you as well, halfling. Admit it.”

A little bad? Sometimes she felt in danger of being possessed by instincts she had no idea how to handle. Jonas had once said he sensed the battle between the Wolf and the Coyote she was created from and he wondered which would win in the end.

She had walked away from the discussion, terrified that he had seen that inside her. That battle between the good and the bad.

“I can’t exactly deny it.” She lifted her shoulders negligently. “Those genetics aren’t exactly hidden. Any Breed can smell them.”

Dog was watching her too closely now, staring at her as though she were a puzzle he needed to put together.

“You think the Coyote genetics are responsible for the hellion you keep hidden?” A grunt of laughter followed the question. “I don’t think so.”

“There’s no hellion hiding, Dog.” Picking up the phone and tablet, she moved for her room. Both needed to go in the pack she kept ready in case she had to leave quickly. “Though sometimes, being nice takes work.”

Sometimes, she wanted to tear into those who allowed their hatred of her to mark their scent, who allowed their distaste to touch her. Sensing it and actually smelling it were two different things. Allowing another Breed to scent those feelings was considered the ultimate insult.

“And you think Wolf Breeds or felines are naturally nice?” He laughed at the idea. “Baby, you are so determined to deny the little Coyote crouched and ready to defend itself that you amaze everyone who really knows you. Breeds aren’t nice. Doesn’t matter their designation. Just as humans aren’t really nice. They just hide it from each other better.”

Crouched and ready to defend itself? No, the Coyote was crouched and straining to attack at all times. It was the impulse to slip up behind the guards outside her room and prove she was just as deadly as they. It was the need to snarl in fury at the enforcers who had worked beneath her when they questioned her every order, every decision. It was a lifetime of resisting the desire to run from the protection her parents put around her, to strike against her enemies with deceptive stealth.

How many times had she been forced to run and hide at Sanctuary with her brother while her parents faced danger? Her father had trained her to fight, he’d trained her to be deadly, but when she’d had to use that training, he’d stared at her with such disappointment, she’d cringed inside.

She agreed with Dog, though. Breeds weren’t always nice. Not when dealing with the enemy or the prejudice that poured from humans. But they weren’t cruel either. They took each situation as it came and dealt with it. They didn’t bemoan their lives or whimper over the blood they had to shed, but neither did they want to shed that blood.

The need to shed blood was becoming harder and harder for her to dismiss, though.

“Cassie, aren’t you tired of playing the perfect little Breed princess?” he asked as she passed him. “Haven’t you gotten sick of being a good girl all the time? You’re not human. You can’t keep pretending you are.”

He had no idea what he was talking about.

Flashing him a furious look, she passed him and strode into her bedroom to the closet. There, she stored the phone and tablet. Before she reclosed it, the hilt of her knife caught her eye, as did the small, old-fashioned handgun. There were a dozen clips for the gun, loaded with deadly bullets, at the bottom of the bag. The knife was sheathed in a holster made to fit her thigh.

She kept them hidden because carrying them felt too natural, and more than once, the need to use them had been overwhelming.

The good versus the bad.

Her fingers glanced over the leather hilt before she forced herself to pull back and secure the flap once again.

She was aware of Dog moving in behind her, watching her, daring her.

Yeah, that was another failing she shared with him. Passing up the challenges and dares so mockingly thrown out to her by the Wolf Breeds who regarded her with such suspicion and distaste. So many times the need to meet those challenges had been like a fever that refused to abate.

She could feel it now, the Coyote pacing, straining at her control, demanding release. As she’d matured, the Coyote and Wolf genetics had fought to outpace each other. Dr. Armani still studied the phenomenon and had drawn Sobolova into it when she’d joined the Breeds’ medical and scientific community.

“You were eighteen,” Dog stated, moving farther into the room. “I was in that fucking atrium waiting for Jonas when you walked in, that virgin’s gown flowing around you. It wasn’t the Wolf Breed you were called in the media that stepped in that room. You were wild and restrained. Like an enraged Coyote, caged. And I wanted nothing more than to mark you that night.”

She’d wanted nothing more than to carry his mark that night, she realized. The restlessness that plagued her had been one of those periods when her Coyote genetics had reigned.

“I was caged,” she told him coolly. “I’m still caged.”

Rising to her feet, she closed the closet door, pushed back the needs tearing at her.

Dog chuckled behind her again. “What an intriguing scent,” he murmured, the amused drawl causing her to stiffen. “Are you pissed off, little halfling? Does it offend you that I don’t allow you to hide? To pretend you don’t possess all those nasty Coyote genetics?”

She turned to him, her gaze raking over him derisively. “Stop trying to start a fight, Dog. Go attack the Wolf guards again if you can’t control your need to be nasty.”

“My need to be nasty?” His expression turned calculating. “You think I’m trying to be nasty, mate?”

“You’re trying to be cruel and I don’t like it,” she stated, refusing to meet the dare in his eyes.

If she gave in, just once, then it would all be over. She’d never rein those impulses in again. She’d never regain control of herself or the creature all too willing to attack.

Dog scratched his cheek, regarding her quizzically as she went to move past him.

Before she could clear his side, he reached out to grab her, to restrain her. She felt him getting ready to move, felt his need to control her.

Before he could touch her, she jumped clear of him, twisting away in a perfect flip as he moved to counter her.

As she came to a crouch, she stared back at him through the curls that fell over her face, before straightening quickly to glare back at him.

And he laughed at her. His gray eyes gleamed with mirth and the playfulness she sensed had her regarding him warily.

“I’m not in the mood to play,” she snapped.

“No, you’re not,” he agreed easily. “You’re in the mood to fuck and fuck hard.” Taking the chair next to the door, he placed it in front of the closed panel, sat down and pulled off his boots. “And I like fucking you, mate. It’s the only time you let that little bitch inside you free.”

The heat flashed inside her, brilliant hot and all consuming. Her breasts became so swollen, so sensitive, her nipples actually ached. Between her thighs, her clit became engorged, her vagina clenched, and the silky slide of arousal spilled free.

Breathing hard, she glared back at him. It was Mating Heat, she told herself furiously; that was all. Anger made it worse; she’d heard that for years.

That was all it was.

Dog watched those perfect lips curl at one side, flashing a delicate canine as a sensual challenge began to fill her expression. She was so desperate to be free, fighting herself with such strength he was amazed the animal inside her actually found a way to peek free.

But it was there, the she-Wolf and the Coyote female merged, wild and determined to prove he belonged to her. It wasn’t that she was more one than the other. It was that each part of her dictated certain traits and strengths she possessed. It was the Coyote, though, who faced him now. The scent of her Heat was particularly potent, a narcotic to his senses. It was a punch of lust to his balls and had the glands beneath his tongue instantly filling with the mating hormone.

“You like that, don’t you,” he growled, rising to his feet and releasing his belt. “When I talk dirty to you. And I do like talking dirty to you.”

“You’re crazy,” she snapped.

He wondered if she even realized the pure strength that filled her voice, the way the animal slipped free to lend that hint of a growl.

A natural alpha female. The kind of female created to lead beside her mate, not behind him.

He chuckled at her declaration as he unbuttoned his shirt.

“I can smell your Heat, Cassie. You’re burning alive. And when I get you down on that bed, the first thing I’m going to do is suck those hard little nipples pressed against that thin-assed shirt you’re wearing. Then I’m going to tear those pants off your body and shove my tongue up that hot little pussy. I’m going to lick every fucking drop of cream I smell saturating it right now.”

He swore he saw her eyes glaze over. Her face flushed and her nipples became impossibly tighter, poking against the material of the camisole in demand. Heat filled the air now, her spicy sweetness making his tongue ache to taste her.

He dropped the shirt to the floor, watching as her gaze jerked to it, then back to him warily.

“I’m going to mount you, mate,” he growled, pushing the wild, barely restrained creature he sensed struggling free. “I’m going to flip you to your knees, mount you, and fuck you until I’m locked inside you and filling you with Coyote cum.”

She attacked.

Dog couldn’t hold back the satisfied snarl as he met her, caught her shoulders and flipped her around before that knee she was bracing went into his balls.

“Really, Cassie?” He laughed, pushing her away from him, watching as she whirled around, her hair flowing like a cape around her. “Watch that knee, halfling. I’d hate to spoil your fun once I get you on your knees.”

She struck again, ducking at the last second in an attempt to sweep him from his feet. And she almost succeeded. God he loved her.

Watching her jump to her feet and fly at him with a kick, he laughed in sheer joy, then grunted as her foot struck his chest, throwing him back against the wall.

“Well now, that’s going to hurt later.” He chuckled, keeping his eye on her as she fell back to a crouch.

He’d watched her train in the sparring room over the past months, thought he knew how she moved, how she liked to play with her sparring partners. Now, he’d show her how a Coyote male played.

“Why don’t I just mount you and take your ass?” he suggested, the thought of that ultimate submission a temptation he could barely resist. “Teach you who’s your alpha and who’s your mate.”

She liked that idea more than she’d ever admit, he guessed, because the growl that slipped free was a sound of pure anticipation.

“Yeah, I like the thought of that too,” he decided, watching her body shift, the line of her shoulders, the tilt of her head. “And when we’re finished, you can tell me how good it was having me buried there, submitting to me like a good little mate.”

She jumped, prepared to kick again. This time, he caught her waist and tossed her to the bed, making certain to rip her shirt from her as he did. Before she could push that mass of hair from her face, he managed to shed his pants and rip hers from her hips.

He caught her hair, careful not to grip the strands near the area where she’d been struck, as he straddled her legs and held them closed with his knees. Jerking her head back, he bent his head, nipped her lips and growled when she tried to bite.

Releasing her hair he gripped her jaw, applying just enough pressure to keep her from biting, and covered her lips with his own, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, stroking hers.

The taste of her had him mindless.

The taste of him had her tongue stroking against his, the smell of her Heat a wave of lust-inducing pheromones that nearly had him coming against her thighs.

Pulling his head away, he released her jaw, gripped her hair again and pulled her head back once again.

Eyes narrowed in arousal, the blue gleaming like flames, her lips parted and moist. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen in his life. Her fingers gripped his wrists, the one wrapped near her head, the one at her shoulder, her nails digging in, holding on to him.

“You’re scared, Cassie,” he mocked her, fighting the need to relent, to let her hide. “You want to be bad with me with a power that makes you shake, admit it.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” she snarled up at him. “It’s the Mating Heat and your insanity.”

Bending his head lower, he teased her lips as he spoke. “You want to get nasty with me. I can sense it. Come on, it’s just me. No one has to know you enjoy fucking your Coyote mate. I promise, I won’t tell on you.”

Her gaze lightened, then darkened. The scent of her Heat was so damned heady he could barely think for it.

“Let me see you be bad for just a minute. Play with those pretty nipples for me while I watch; then I’ll suck them for you. Come on, give me a little of your bad, and I’ll give you a whole lot of mine.”

A moan whispered past her lips as she shook her head, desperation reflecting in her eyes along with the driving, furious need burning inside her.

“Come on, baby,” he whispered, licking her lips teasingly before lifting his head again. “Show me what you did to yourself when you thought of me through the years and I’ll show you how I can make it better.”

She felt her fingers release him, as though forcing herself to let go one by one as he eased back, his dick throbbing as it rested in the seam of her thighs. The thick crest rested just below her clit, the heat of her slick moisture cushioning it.

Eyes narrowed, he watched as she slowly cupped her breasts, her fingertips at first ghosting over the stiff points, drawing a ragged sigh from her lips.

“Is that how you want me to suck them?” He was burning alive for her. “Nice and sweet and easy like that?”

She gripped the points, jerking in his hold, a wild gleam of anticipation filling her gaze as her thumbs and forefingers tightened on the tips. A cry tore past her lips, her body arched and the pink tips flushed, darkening as her fingers tightened, then released, plumping the little points as her hunger scented the air.

“If I suck those pretty nipples, then you’re going to tease me a little bit, just to punish me,” he suggested, lowering his head to whisper a breath over one tight point. “I’d go crazy if I saw those pretty fingers between your thighs, bringing yourself pleasure. You know how fucking possessive a Coyote can be of his partner’s pleasure.”

He glanced up in time to watch her gaze darken, felt the lash of overwhelming lust taking control of her.

“Let me have one, mate,” he groaned. “Let me suck one of those sweet nipples.”

Cassie felt the moment she lost control of her response to him or her ability to deny the greedy waves of demand rushing through her. She watched as his lips covered her nipple, feeling him shift until he rested beside her while pushing her thighs apart with one hand.

Then flaming sexual need erupted through her body. The heat of his mouth, sucking, tugging at her nipple, his teeth rasping it, his tongue licking it as the hormone that spilled from his tongue sensitized the peak to almost painful awareness. She heard her own cry, the arch of her body, and the grip of his fingers on her wrist, pushing them to her thighs.

And oh God, she needed. She needed to be touched there. Her clit was raging, so swollen and aching. The flesh between her thighs was slick with the rich moisture spilling from her.

“Dog, it’s so good.” The words tore past her lips as her fingers parted her folds. “Do it harder, suck me harder.”

She was dying, arching. Her fingers found the tight bud of her clit, rasping against it in her desperation to find her release. When the stroke of her fingers against the sensitive little kernel didn’t push her over the edge, she pushed them lower and found the entrance hidden there.

The growl that vibrated on her nipple was a primal warning to stop. And one she ignored. Lifting her hips, she speared her own fingers past the entrance, her head tossing as his lips moved to her other nipple and his fingers found her hand.

He pushed at it, driving her fingers deeper inside her. And still, it wasn’t enough. It had never been enough in the past when she tried to pleasure herself. No matter what she did, she could never find the ease she needed.

Pulling back, she moved for her clit once again, then froze a breath before a cry tore from her.

His fingers pushed inside her, thrusting against the clenched tissue, parting it, calloused fingers stroking, working inside her as violent pleasure lashed at her.

She was only barely aware of his lips releasing her nipple, his kisses spreading down her stomach. When he pushed her fingers aside and his lips found her clit, her hands sank into his hair, desperate to hold him there.

She needed him right there. Licking, sucking. His tongue moved over it, then lower as his fingers slid free of her. His tongue pushed inside her then, filling her, licking her …

“Dog …” She cried out his name, twisting in his hold as his fingers moved lower and found the smaller, tighter entrance that awaited him.

She was so lost within the pleasure, the lust, that she could only cry out as his fingers eased inside her. Lubricated by the excess moisture spilling from her vagina, his fingers took her rear with an ease that rocked her. Stretching her, thrusting inside her, until she was pushing into each penetration and begging for more.

And just as suddenly, he was gone.

“No.” She jackknifed up, reaching for him, only to find herself flipped to her stomach as he jerked her hips to him, forcing her knees beneath her.

The feel of the broad, iron-hard crest tucked against her rear entrance had her freezing.

“Submit.” The growl in his voice was primal, demanding. “Submit to me, damn you.”

A cry tore from her. She let her head and shoulders fall back to the bed, her fingers fisting in the blankets as she felt a pulse of heated pre-cum ejaculate against the entrance.

Instantly, the hormone-rich fluid began easing her, creating a sensual, insidious burn that demanded he satisfy it.

“Take it,” he snarled, his body lowering, his lips at her shoulder. “Submit to me, mate. Take it.”

She pushed back, feeling the pulse of heat as her muscles parted further for the crest. Lashing pleasure mixed with an unfamiliar pain as the hunger that filled her drove her to take more, to feel him taking her, to trust him to guide her through it.

With each press into the tightened muscles, another pulse of the hormonal pre-cum shot inside her; slick, heated, it built such a demanding pleasure she was shaking from the force of it.

With each thrust against her rear he took her deeper, stretching her as she burned higher and felt herself fall beneath the onslaught of sensations. With him buried to the hilt, his cock throbbing in a place so private she’d never imagined she’d allow it, Cassie knew something had changed inside her.

“Fuck, Cassie,” he groaned.

A second later his teeth gripped the mark on her shoulder and he began to move. At first in long, slow thrusts, then harder, until he was driving inside her, pushing the flames inside her higher.

The powerful strokes drove him forcefully inside her as she screamed out his name, desperate for release, the pleasure tearing her apart until she felt herself melting.

It wasn’t a true orgasm, because the need only rose as Dog slid from her, then gripped her hip with firm fingers.

“Don’t move, Cassie. Move, and I swear I’ll make you wait hours before I give you what you need,” he growled when he thought she might protest.

Instead, instinct had her freezing in place. If she had to wait hours to orgasm, then he might as well kill her now.

She heard the bathroom door open, heard water running. A minute later the scent of the soap he’d washed with teased her nostrils as she felt him move onto the bed behind her once again. She was dazed with the needs still pulsing through her. Her clit was so swollen, the folds between her thighs sensitive and her vagina clenched in involuntary contractions.

“There, baby,” he crooned, touching her thighs, angling her hips. “Go wild for me now, Cassie. Give me all of you now.”

As he spoke, the feel of his cock invading her, pushing against the clenching tissue, working inside her, stole the last of her sanity. She pushed back, taking him deeper as pleasure and pain merged, creating such wild hunger she was helpless against it.

“Ah fuck. Your pussy’s so sweet, Cassie. So fucking good …”

The words merged, explicit phrases, erotic demands as he thrust inside her, stroking over sensitive flesh, stretching it. She struggled to adapt to the thickness even as she craved more. She bucked into each impalement, driving herself harder on his cock, hearing his approval, his pleasure in his voice.

When he bent over her once again, his teeth locking on her shoulder, his thrusts driving his hardened flesh inside her, she felt herself dying. She knew she was dying. Nothing could explode through her with such force, with such shattering ecstasy, and let her actually survive it.

At the same time, she felt his release, felt the heavy swelling of the Breed knot locking inside her. Each pulse of the thickened extension triggered another explosion, the heat of his seed spilling inside her, the lash of his tongue at the mark on her shoulder, all converged until the final, violent wave of ecstasy shattered her.

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.