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She stared back at him, her gray eyes somber, drowsy.
“I didn’t protect you,” he said quietly. “This won’t happen again, Cassa.”
“Don’t cage me, Cabal.”
He shook his head at that. “I can’t cage you. You’d die, just as I would. But from now on, we work together. No more assignments apart.” It was the best way to ensure that she was never threatened again.
She grinned at that. “Tame little assignments, huh?”
“By my standards perhaps. I doubt others would see it that way.”
She stared back at him silently for long moments, and he knew what she was waiting on, what she needed.
He lowered his head as he dragged in a hard, desperate breath.
“I never blamed you.” He finally lifted his head and caught her gaze once again. “Never. Not even that night when he accused you of knowing, I knew you couldn’t have.”
She frowned at that statement.
“Your scent,” he explained. “It was one of innocence, of desperation and sorrow. There was no guilt in you, Cassa. There never has been. From the moment I smelled that innocence, I wanted nothing more than to taste it. To touch it. To hold it as my own. All these years, I’ve longed for that alone, and I’ve been too damned scared to reach out for it. Too scared that fate would tear you away from me and take you forever.”
Terrified she would die. A part of him had always feared that this incredible gift that God had given him would be taken from him just as quickly.
“No more running.” Her fingers caressed a stripe.
“No more running, Cassa,” he swore. There was no place he wanted to be other than right here by her side. “I’ve loved you since the moment that sweet tongue licked across my blood. Since the night I watched you fighting so desperately to save me. I’ve loved you, Cass, and I’ve been terrified of losing you.”
Her fingers paused in the slow rubbing caress of the tips against one narrow stripe.
“Terrified?”
“Shaking in my boots.” He leaned closer, his lips against hers. “So terrified I ran as far and as fast as I could.”
She stared up at him, her eyes wide, so filled with hope. His Cassa. His brave, adventurous Cassa.
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“No more running?”
He licked across her lips, tasted her, loved her. His hands framed her beloved face, his thumbs stroking across her jaw. He was nearly shaking with the need to assure himself she was fine. That she lived. That she was his.
“No more running, baby.”
He eased onto the bed with her, thankful that it was so damned big. They had to make room for large men in pain when they made the beds for the Breed intensive care facility. It was just large enough for him to lie on his side beside her, to hold her, to feel her warmth, to soak in the fact that she still lived. That she was still his.
“I love you, Cassa.” He gave her the words he knew she needed, and felt that last barrier toward her collapse.
If she died, he would follow her. He would avenge every moment of pain she felt, and then he would give up his life to be with her in death.
“Always?” she whispered.
She had always loved him. She would always love him. He knew it, felt it to the ends of his soul.
“Always, baby.” He brushed the hair back from the side of her face, lowered his lips and touched hers once again. “I’ll always love you.”
She would always be his mate. She would always be the Bengal’s heart. Man and beast, they existed for her alone.
“I love you, Cabal.” She sighed against his lips, drowsiness finally taking her as she went to sleep to his kiss.
