Cole wasn’t sure what to think after meeting with Kassie. He was confident at least that she would accept her daughter, regardless of what lay within her, but he didn’t think that she believed him about the threat that loomed over them in Spartanburg. He couldn’t blame her for that though. She hadn’t met the men or felt their ominous presence the way that he had.

Regardless, as he sat in the motel room that she had paid for, he wondered exactly why she was being so kind to him. It had been a long time since anybody had gone out of their way to help him the way that she was doing. He didn’t think that it was pity. She didn’t seem to be the kind of person to do things just for pity’s sake.

Raking a hand through his hair, he continued to think back to those moments when they sat across from one another in that coffee shop.

God, she was beautiful. He felt almost ashamed of himself for thinking like that, especially when he still felt so guilty for coming back into her life and for the possible chaos that his presence might bring in the future if those two men really did mean to cause trouble.

But looking into her eyes had made him feel things that he had never felt before. Not since that night when he had first met her.

Cole genuinely thought that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, not that he believed he stood a chance with her. Just because he was the father of her daughter didn’t mean that she was going to welcome him into her life with open arms.

Standing, he made his way to the window and pulled open the curtains, looking out into the darkness. From there, he could see out past the highway and to the edge of the woods. Inside him, the bear stirred. It wanted to run free through the trees, but he suppressed it.

Tonight, he would stay inside and rest. Kassie had given him the phone number of her friend, and he had already called the man for an interview. In the morning, he was going to go see about that construction job. Hopefully, he could actually do something productive, get back on his feet so he didn’t have to rely on the kindness of anybody else.

More than anything, he didn’t want to have to rely on Kassie’s kindness, especially when things were already so difficult for her having to take care of a child on her own. He wondered how she had done it for so many years. From the looks of things, she didn’t seem to have that much help. Where was her family, he wondered? She didn’t seem to have anybody as far as he could tell.

She was a strong woman, and he admired her for her strength and resilience already, even though he had only known her for a short time. She reminded him very much of Miss June. She had the old woman’s tenacity and will and certainly exhibited the woman’s kindness. Thinking of that brought a smile to Cole’s face. He wished that he could introduce the two. He thought that they would have liked each other.

Standing there at the window thinking, he was startled by a sudden knocking at the door. Cole turned. Nobody should be there. Perhaps it was just the desk attendant, stopping by for some reason? But he couldn’t think of anything that would make the old man stop by.

“Yeah?” he called out, but there was no answer. Cautiously, he made his way over and pulled the door open, and he wasn’t surprised to see the old white-haired man and the dark-haired man from before standing there waiting for him.

“We meet again, Cole,” said the older man, who walked straight into his room without waiting to be invited. He had a smile on his face, but it was a cold smile, and the glint in his eyes made it obvious that he wasn’t pleased. The younger man stayed outside as the door was closed behind them. “Now, I know you’re a young man, and you have certain attachments to this world that you’ve lived in for so long, but I had hoped that the promise of finally being with your own kind would be enough to help you understand that—”

“I don’t have any business with you,” said Cole. “And it’s not about whether or not I have any attachments in this world. I don’t think I like these ideas you have about blood purity.”

“Oh?” The man turned and looked at him, and there was a vicious look about him that made Cole’s blood run cold. “Well, then I think you just need to understand what you are—what we are. Cole, you come from a very special race of beings. You have a gift. These humans that you’ve lived with, they’re inferior to you. Surely you can see that?”

“I don’t think anybody is inferior just because of what they can or can’t do,” said Cole. Which wasn’t necessarily true. He had spent a long time thinking less of himself because of his so-called gift, but he wasn’t about to say that to this man’s face. However, the older man seemed to be able to see what Cole was thinking. He turned on him, pushing a hand against his shoulder.

“You’ve suffered boy, haven’t you?” he said. “These humans have made you suffer because they’ve made you think less of yourself. They’ve made you think that having a gift is something to be afraid of. They saw you as a tool, and that’s how you’ve come to see yourself.”

Cole shook his head, and yet he thought back to his time in Afghanistan. He thought back to the way his fellow Marines had looked at him after he had slaughtered livestock. How they had seemed to fear that he would one day turn the beast that lay inside him against them.

What the man was saying was true. The few people who had known about his powers in the past had made him believe that it was something to be afraid of. Or else they had made him believe that it was nothing more than a tool to be used.

“This is why you need to come with us,” the man continued. “We can give you a place where you can be yourself, where your powers won’t be feared but celebrated. And all you have to do is tell us where the half-breed and its mother are right now.”

All at once, the sway that the man had held over Cole was lifted, and he was back to himself. He pushed the man away.

“Like hell I’ll give them up,” he said. “Those two are under my protection, and I’ll never let you get to them.”

“Is that so?” said the old man.

“It is,” said Cole. “I don’t care if I have to go the rest of my life alone. They don’t deserve to be hurt because of your ideals. They’re innocent.”

The old man started to laugh, and it was a horrible sound to Cole’s ears. Before, he had thought the man was simply an old fool with archaic ideas about the society that he lived in, but now Cole was beginning to realize that the man was actually worse than that. There was something cruel about him—something evil.

“Innocent you say?” he said. “You call them innocent, but they will destroy us, and I can’t call that innocent. In the past it was pitchforks and torches. Then it was the crusader’s blade and inquisitor’s pliers. Now they will eradicate us through breeding, making us as a drop of blood into an ocean. That’s why they must be eliminated. I’ll let this go for tonight, Cole, but trust me when I say that this isn’t over.” He moved back toward the door and opened it. The dark-haired man was standing right there, ready to intervene in case anything was to happen inside. “I was young once, believe it or not. I remember the way my blood pumped, hot with passion. I, too, let myself become attached to lesser things. I’m older now. Wiser. I know what’s important, and it’s you, the future of our race. If I need to tear this city down to it’s foundation to save you from yourself, I will. I won’t abandon you like your parents did.”

And then he closed the door on that warning, leaving Cole standing there, heart racing inside his chest.

His first instinct was to call Kassie, but it wasn’t as if she would be able to do anything if he did. The only purpose that would serve would be to scare her. His second instinct was to slip out of the motel room and to go to her apartment, to watch over her in the night, but he knew that if he did that, it would only be easier for the old man and his henchman to track him and find out where Kassie and Taylor lived.

Cole had never felt more helpless. For the moment, at least, he knew that they were safe. They wouldn’t be able to find them right now, and he was fairly certain that Kassie was safe in her apartment for the night.

However, he needed to figure something out to keep her and Taylor safe. He was the one who had brought this trouble on them, and he needed to be the one to be sure that no harm was brought on the two of them.

Once again, he found himself angry at the blood that ran through his veins. If only he hadn’t been born this way then none of this would be happening. If it weren’t for the beast inside him, there wouldn’t be any problems. He could simply go through life like a normal man with normal problems. However, that wasn’t the case.

Stop thinking this way. Cole shook his head. Letting himself drown in depression the way he had over the past several months since he returned from Afghanistan would do nothing to help Kassie and Taylor. He needed to be strong now. He had been unable to find the inner strength he needed for himself, but for the first time in a long while he finally had something—someone—to fight for.

And he was surprised at the fact that he wanted so much to fight for them. Perhaps it was only natural to care for his daughter, but when it came to Kassie, already he could tell that something was rising up inside him. She was someone who mattered to him, and he didn’t want to lose her.

Regardless of whether she slipped out of his life as quickly as she had slipped into it, he was not going to let anything happen to her. With that thought in his mind, he took a deep breath and realized what it was he was going to do.

Perhaps he didn’t have the abilities that the two other shifters had, but he was a Marine. He had been in tough situations before, and he knew how to fight. So, if that was what they wanted, then that was what they were going to get. Kassie and Taylor were under his protection. That was what he’d said, and he meant it.

Finally feeling resolved, Cole allowed himself to clean up, enjoying the use of a proper shower for the first time in weeks, and lay down in a proper bed. As he did so, images of Kassie crept into his mind. She really was beautiful, he thought again, even more so now than she had been all those years ago when he’d seen her for the first time. The fact that her heart was as lovely as she was only endeared her all the more to him as he drifted off to sleep, the promise that he had made to himself that he would keep her and Taylor safe above all else at the forefront of his mind.