Chapter Eleven

Kassian

The next two days passed in what seemed like a blur.

He was ecstatic. Despite all his fears and worries that she would be overwhelmed by the knowledge, Rosie hadn’t freaked out when he’d told her he believed she was his mate. And then they’d had sex! His lips threatened to curl into a full-fledged grin if he didn’t keep them in control every time he thought of the memory of lying with her. It was intense, passionate, enjoyable, and so many other things that he ran out of words to describe the experience when talking to himself about it.

Despite that, and the fact that they’d been sharing a bed since—although they hadn’t had sex again—it was still clear that Rosie didn’t accept the idea that she was his mate. She didn’t believe in it to the same extent he did. He could tell. She knew that she liked him, and that they were a good team together. She’d never argued that. But to accept that they were destined to be together forever? That was going to take longer to settle in, and he knew it.

Instead of trying to push it though, he’d gone the opposite direction. Knowing now that he was right in his feelings toward her, Kassian had backed off. He didn’t push for any physical contact, though he also didn’t turn it away. He’d taken to trying to court her, in what he hoped was a fashion similar to how humans did it amongst themselves. So far none of the other women had pulled him aside to tell him he was acting like a fool. He hoped that was good, but then again, they all hated him, so maybe they were just letting him do it.

Kassian didn’t know, and frankly, the more he got to talk with Rosie, the less he even cared. She continued to interact with him, and to talk with him. They chatted, flirted, and just generally got to know more about each other. It was an incredibly refreshing experience to find someone who understood him.

It also helped to take the edge off the deepening depression he felt over knowing what he was going to have to do in just eight short days. The ten-day deadline was looming large over his head, and although he mostly managed to keep his emotions about that separate from his interactions with Rosie, he didn’t always succeed. It was getting harder as well. Plan after plan was discarded as being unworkable. There had to be a way to avoid killing this human without it backfiring on him and his brothers. If there was one, he wasn’t coming up with it.

He’d hoped that perhaps Lena, Gavin’s mate, could somehow use the back door into the Institute’s computer system. Kassian had exactly zero idea what the hell that meant, but he knew it had helped them find the convoy and track it down. But apparently it had been finally closed, locking her out of their system. They were now completely on their own, and no solution was presenting itself to them.

The continued futility of it all was beginning to wear on all of them. Including the particular planning stage they were currently conducting.

“I still think we should find a way to just kill that gryphon shifter,” Rosie insisted. “Do that, and you give yourself a chance.”

“We can’t,” he said forcefully, shooting down the idea for what felt like the millionth time. “Don’t you get it? If we kill Gregory, Director Burnatawiz will find out about it. And if he finds out about it, then he’ll kill Maximus! How is that not completely obvious to you by now?”

“Besides, how the hell are we going to kill him anyway? We don’t have the manpower to do that. Not with just the four us. He’d wipe the floor with us. It’s not feasible. We need to find another way to do this.”

He leaned backward, ignoring the looks from his brothers as his mind fell deep into thought. The answer had to be somewhere in there. There was a way to make this situation work in their favor. There had to be. No trap was perfect. It was up to him to figure it out though. To see the hole that the director hadn’t.

Rosie got up from the table and headed back into the other room, leaving him to his thoughts.

“Why don’t you go and at least recon the area that the director wants you to do this in?” Gavin suggested. “Maybe actually being on site will help you come up with something. Maybe there’s a way we could use the land itself to our advantage or something.”

“Or a way to lose Gregory, and hightail it out of there,” Pierce added.

Kassian almost dismissed the idea out of hand. What was he going to come up with by looking at it? All he would do is find himself imagining how that would be the place where he became a murderer. An assassin. Or where he would kill his brother if he failed to be strong enough. It was either sacrifice his conscience and who he was, or be the reason his brother died.

What a choice.

Then again, maybe his brothers were right. After all, he wouldn’t really know until he got there, now would he?

“Good idea,” he said suddenly, deciding to do it. What was the worst that would happen? He’d have yet another thing to fuel his nightmares? It wasn’t like the outside world could do more damage to himself than he did.

Striding past the assembled group, he pushed through the wall to tell Rosie that he was leaving, and to see if she wanted to come along for the journey.

“Hey,” he said, seeing her sitting on the bed, her back against the wall. “Listen, I’m going to go take a look at the place where the director wants this to happen. To see if that helps give me any ideas. I know it’s kind of morbid, but I was wondering, did you want to come with me?”

Rosie snorted. “Oh, so now you value my opinion?” She still didn’t look at him.

“What?” he asked, dumfounded by the response. What the hell was going on? What had he missed?

“Get out.” She pointed at the doorway.

“What? Why?” he looked behind him at the door, as if that was going to magically give him the answers he needed. What was going on? What had happened to cause her to start acting this way? He didn’t think he’d done anything. Had he?

“I said. Get. Out.” Her voice was frosty, chillier than the coldest snow in mid-winter.

Kassian opened his mouth to protest, but she just pointed at the door once more.

What the fuck?

“Listen, Rosie,” he began.

“I said get out!” she shouted.

“Okay, okay! I’m going!” he protested, backing away from her toward the door. He ducked through the makeshift entrance, and back into the communal room. His mind was going crazy as he tried to figure out what it was he’d done. Was she upset about what he was doing?

Everyone was staring at him as he came back into the room. Kassian knew they must have heard the entire exchange. With the fridge pulled out of place the sound carried well from one room to the other. Growling angrily, he pushed past them, flinging open the door. Once outside he stopped, one hand on his hip, the other running back through his hair as he stared at the door to Rosie’s unit. Where the hell had he gone wrong? Everything had been going so right between them. They’d been so good. So close. He’d thought her acceptance of them being mates to be not far off.

Now it seemed like she hated him. And she wouldn’t tell him why!

Angrily he threw his arms up into the air and marched around the side of the motel, until he could turn back away from the street and head toward the forest. His shoulders were hunched slightly forward in frustration, lending forward momentum to his already long-legged stride. Aided by his anger, he crossed the distance in the blink of an eye. The forest swallowed him up.

Normally this would have been a source of relief and relaxation, a place where he could let his bear out, roam around and just enjoy the natural aspect of everything. Not anymore though. The Institute had taken even that away from him. His temper flared, turning anger into rage. They were taking everything away from him. His brother, his freedom, his forest, and if they got their way, his entire species. His upper lip pulled back, and he began to shake with fury.

The wolf shifter with the regal face appeared again.

“What do you want?” he asked as Kassian stalked by.

“I said, what do you—”

Crack!

Kassian’s fist connected with his too-perfect nose, and the shifter dropped like a stone, blood beginning to flow freely from the crooked bone.

“Hey!”

Another wolf shifter in human form came at him. Kassian turned calmly, acting as if only the one shifter was worthy of his wrath. Seemingly calmed by his change in body-language, the second shifter came closer to him. Kassian sent him flying with a single punch as well.

“Get me Gregory,” he snarled as more figures emerged from the woods.

“I’m here.”

Kassian spun. The calm, detached voice had sounded from right behind him. He stumbled backward a step as he warily took in the other shifter. There had been no sound, no warning, nothing. Kassian realized that if he hadn’t stopped himself then, the gryphon shifter would have done it for him. His anger had blinded him to the sounds of the powerful being approaching. Even a light-of-foot gryphon shifter shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on him from behind in a forest. There was simply too much debris around that made noise for that to happen.

“What do you want, Kassian?”

The question was delivered in a cool tone, devoid of anger and other emotions to a degree that surprised him. Gryphons were not known for their temperament control. In fact, if any race was more prone to anger than bears, it was gryphons. So to hear him deliver his question so icy calm unnerved Kassian more than the silent approach.

“I want to go take a look at the place the director has decided the target must be executed. Reconnaissance. To allow me to better plan how it will be done, with as little fallback on anyone but myself as possible."

The last part was a completely fabricated lie, but the gryphon didn’t need to know that. Kassian had tried to phrase that as dully as possible, so that it would make it sound like he had resigned himself to following Burnatawiz’s orders. Which wasn’t hard, because he was rapidly closing in on that point anyway.

“Why all of this then?” Gregory asked, waving at the two shifters he’d downed.

Kassian glanced over at where the first one was getting up, glaring at him, his face filled with fury, despite the completely mangled nose in the middle of it. A smile threatened to crease his face, but he reminded himself about Maximus’s predicament and any amusement he might have been feeling died immediately.

“Because I hate all of you,” he said bluntly. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

The gryphon shifter stared at him, evaluating. “You’re a loose cannon. If you try anything like this while we are out looking around, I will not hesitate to snap your neck. Any of your brothers will do just as well as you,” he threatened.

Kassian just blinked. “Ready to go?” he asked, not letting the intimidation tactics get the best of him.

“How are you planning on getting there?”

He just stared. “You’re the ones who want this to happen. Get me a damn ride. You know it’s too far to walk.”

The first sign of anger flashed through Gregory’s eyes.

Good. You can be manipulated. It just takes a lot, and treating you like a lackey. Which, considering that’s all you are, is going to be relatively easy.

“Well, I’m waiting,” he said, crossing his arms. “Call your handler and see if you can get permission, okay?”

This time the man’s nostrils flared. It was the only indication he made of hearing Kassian’s words, but it was enough. The calm exterior was just a projection, a mask of the true anger on the inside. Which meant that Kassian could get to him. He had no idea how he was going to use that to his advantage just yet, but he knew there had to be a way.

“Follow me,” Gregory said, turning and walking toward the edge of the forest, not waiting for Kassian.

The bear shifter shrugged, tossing a wink over at the injured pack leader. “Next time you’ll get me, I’m sure.”

A snarl from Kassian’s blind side had him turning to see another wolf shifter coming at him. He sighed.

“They just never learn.”

His closed fist dropped the young shifter like a rock. The juvenile hadn’t even seen the blow coming. Ahead of him, Gregory didn’t even flinch. Smart gryphon.

After all, nobody liked wolf shifters.