“Fucking Breed whore.” A hard fist to the side of her head froze her.
Stars erupted behind her closed eyes, and for a second Cassa swore she was going to lose consciousness. Then rage kicked in. Pure, unfettered rage. It boiled through her stomach, raced through her brain and sent adrenaline surging through her system.
Years of brief, almost amusing episodes of “training” with Breeds rose to the forefront of her mind. They had made a game out of teaching her this little trick and that little trick to get herself out of trouble. Several of her “instructors” had claimed with rueful smiles that someone had to teach her, considering the fact that Cabal was gone so often.
Cabal had arranged that training. She sensed it. She knew it. Bracing herself against the ground with one foot, she kicked out with the other. She didn’t try any sissy moves. She didn’t go for the cool little ninja maneuvers. She kicked out hard and swift, her boot slamming into Douglas’s crotch and stealing his breath as she prayed she’d crushed his nuts.
She was only dimly aware of the enraged roars that filled the night. Along with feet crashing through the forest, the sound of a heli-jet and someone screaming out orders.
Coyote howls, there might have even been a Wolf in there. Human screams. She heard several of those. The night became centered, the cold disappeared. Cassa came to her feet in a smooth jump, facing Douglas as he slowly straightened.
His face was white, his eyes were filled with inhuman rage.
“You’re a whore!” he screamed. “A dirty stinking animal-fucker.”
“And I’m loving every minute of it.” Her croon was harsh, filled with her own fury.
He had once made her go to her knees and beg for mercy. This man who had taken vows with her, who had sworn to love the young woman she had once been. He had made her beg and then he had slapped her so hard she had blacked out.
There had been no mercy.
“I’m going to kill you.” His arm lifted.
Too much happened at once. Too many impressions, too many sounds. An animal scream of pure demonic rage echoed through the night. Cassa went flying, thrown to the ground by a shadow with amber eyes, as a gun fired.
Rage was a scent. It was a feeling, like rain washing through the night. It was the smell of blood and a scream like nothing she had ever known.
Rolling to her knees, she pushed her hair from her face and stared in shock at the sight that met her eyes.
There were lights now, streaming down from the heli-jet that hovered overhead. Dressed in shadowed colors, his face streaked with black, his eyes glowing amber in the night, Cabal stood over Douglas’s writhing form.
Screams poured from Douglas’s throat, raw, brutal, agonizing screams. His upper body writhed on the ground, his hands clawed into snow stained heavy with blood.
“You f**ker!” he screamed, pain burning in every word as tears spilled from his eyes now. “Do it, you son of a bitch. Motherfucker. Do it. Kill me.”
Cabal roared in his face as Douglas covered it with his hands and sobbed in pain and fear.
“Don’t take me back.” His screams were rough now, demented. “No. You can’t take me back. Please.”
Cassa stared at Cabal in shock. The marks on his face weren’t face paint. They were tiger marks bisecting his savage features. His hands were tipped with claws, bloodied now, and his eyes glowed gold in the night as he turned, his gaze raking in a slow circle before falling on Patrick.
“Azrael.” His voice was a harsh growl. An animalistic sound that had Cassa flinching.
Patrick inclined his head as he stepped back. “Another day, Bengal.”
The night swallowed him as Cabal roared his fury and started after him.
She couldn’t let him leave. She stumbled for him, her leg going out from under her as a startled cry left her throat. Pain streaked through her now, a burning hot lance of fire tearing through her body as she went down, collapsing on her side.
His mate. Cabal jerked around, his gaze locking on her pain-filled eyes, his senses registering more than pure fury now.
Blood. His mate’s blood. He rushed for her even as the others moved to where she had fallen.
Del-Rey, the Coyote Breed alpha. Wolfe was there, alpha of the Wolf packs, even Callan and Tanner were racing for her as they tore through the forest.
“Cassa.” He slid to the ground beside her, fear suddenly tearing through him.
He had raced here for her. He had used more than what he had once thought was every ounce of strength he possessed to find his mate. Had he failed her in the end?