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Cassa could feel the tension rising inside her. As Patrick stepped out of the van and slid open the door by her seat, she met his gaze calmly.
“You can’t trust Douglas,” she told him. “He always has a backup plan.”
“As do I.” He shrugged. “Let’s go. We’ll get this taken care of as quickly as possible. Perhaps you’ll get lucky and you’ll see your mate before the night is over.”
Cassa inhaled slowly and stepped into the cold. She could feel it wrapping around her, prickling over her flesh despite the coat Walt had given her to wear.
“Move out.” Patrick urged her forward, but she noticed that he, Walt and Keith surrounded her.
There was no sense of safety here though. There was a heavy sense of danger instead. As though she could feel evil surrounding her, coming closer to her. Or rather, she was moving closer to the evil.
Her chest hurt with the knowledge that blood was going to spill, one way or the other, tonight. There was no way to stop it. Whether Douglas lived or died, the Breed that had dared to kidnap her, to attempt to trade her, no matter the reason, would become the hunted rather than the hunter. Cabal would see to that.
“Keep your head up.” The Breed that had spoken little through the day and evening, Keith, spoke to her softly as he walked beside her. “Watts fears strength. Don’t be surprised by him, don’t be fooled by him. He’s not going to be as strong as he wants you to believe.”
“Enough, Keith,” Patrick cautioned him, both their voices low and calm as they led her through the forest to the meeting Patrick had set up. “She’ll survive by her own wits. To be a Bengal’s mate, she’ll have to learn now.”
“And a Bengal’s mate is different how?” she asked him.
She wished she could forget where they were going, what awaited her.
She stared through the night again, her heart whispering for Cabal, aching for him. She had never been so frightened in her life, or so uncertain. She wasn’t the least bit ashamed to admit that she was way over her head here. “And if Cabal gets here before this is over, stand behind me,” she told the younger Breed. “I might be able to keep him from killing you.”
Patrick chuckled, more at the fact that she hadn’t offered to stand in front of him, Cassa figured. He could stand on his own, he’d proven that. She had a feeling he was a little overconfident when it came to Cabal though. Primal Breed or not wouldn’t matter in Cabal’s case.
Stilling the shudders that wanted to wrack her body, Cassa kept her eyes opened, watching, waiting for a chance to run. No doubt they would find it rather easy to chase her down, but she would never be able to ignore the opportunity if it presented itself.
Cassa could feel her palms sweating as they moved closer to the valley that she had been directed away from before. Sliding through the thick growth of pine and bare trees, a single narrow path led through the dense growth of thicket, boulders and wild roses.
Tiny thorns caught at her borrowed jacket, and she stumbled more than once over the large, hidden stones beneath her feet.
She felt as though she were walking through another reality, a different dimension. She could feel the clash of fear and disbelief rocking through her, shortening her breath as panic rose inside her.
The past was catching up to her with a vengeance, and she wanted nothing more than to escape it. Just as she had prayed to escape Douglas when she believed he was her husband.
Escaping him wouldn’t have been easy. He was manipulating, controlling, and Cassa had been too young, too uncertain of herself at that time to defeat him. She would have, she assured herself, in time. Douglas wouldn’t have had the power to hold her indefinitely. But he hadn’t wanted to hold on to her, she reminded herself. She had been a tool he had needed at the time, nothing more, and she was suddenly thankful for that.
They came to a hard stop as Patrick moved ahead of the group and lifted his hand imperiously. She could feel the in-drawn breaths around her, sense them testing the wind.
“Four Coyotes and one human,” Keith murmured.
Patrick shook his head slowly, his head lifting as though searching for answers in the very air itself.
As he turned to Cassa, his teeth flashed in the darkness. “You shared the little gift we sent you, didn’t you?”
The gift? The pills. He was talking about the scent-neutralizing pills that had been sent to her before she left for West Virginia.
Refusing to answer him, she stared back at him coolly instead, wondering if he could smell something in a way that Jonas had not anticipated. Was there a way for a Breed to detect others who were taking the neutralizer? She’d assumed it blocked all scent.
Patrick shook his head slowly as he chuckled in amusement. “I would have enjoyed having time to get to know you better, Ms. Hawkins,” he finally said. “I have a feeling you would have increased my understanding of humans in a few small ways.”
“Humans?” she asked him. “You’re human as well, Patrick.”
He shook his head at that.
“He looks like a human. He walks like a human. He speaks with the voice of a man.” His eyes seemed to glow red in the dark for the briefest moment. “The animal is loose, Ms. Hawkins. There is now nothing but blood for drink and death for peace.” He turned to Walt then. “You know what to do if all does not go as planned.”
Walt sniffed and nodded slowly. “I’ll take care of your boy, Rick.”
