Logically he knew that it wasn’t possible for such a threat to succeed. This woman was designed for him; no other could mate her. Or so the Breed doctors and scientists claimed. But the animal inside him refused to listen. It wouldn’t listen any longer.
Finally, Dog inclined his head and backed away. It was only then that Cabal realized that his voice when he uttered that final threat had been more a savage snarl than a recognizable human voice. Not that he was human, but never had he heard that tone in his voice before.
It had silenced Cassa as well. She was standing still now, tense, waiting.
“Take care of her, Bengal,” Dog stated quietly as he moved farther back. “You may be the only one who can. She seems to have a bit of a reckless streak.”
A reckless streak didn’t describe it. She was independent, stubborn. She was the woman nature had declared would belong solely to him. If he claimed her.
“I hate Breeds,” she muttered at his side as he stepped back, moving toward the parking lot of the Kanawha Falls Park.
His truck was parked there. It was a short distance, and from there the ride back to the hotel would be brief. If he made it back to the hotel before he mated her.
He was dying to kiss her. He was all but carrying her as he kept his gaze firmly on Dog’s receding form. His nostrils flared as he tested the wind, searching for any hint, any scent of an enemy, Coyote or human.
“This is insane, Cabal. I have a job to do here.” But she wasn’t struggling. He could feel the anticipation moving through her, building in the air around them just as it was building inside him.
The anticipation of the mating, the arousal. Pleasure. There was said to be no greater pleasure than that of a mating. Cabal was about to find out.
“I told you to get the hell out of here,” he bit out harshly as he turned and moved for the truck.
Hitting the remote, he strode quickly to the truck, threw the door open and lifted her into the passenger seat. He didn’t give her a chance to slide around into the seat. Gripping her hips, he pushed himself between her thighs, notched the hard length of his c**k there as he gripped her hair, tilted her head and took the kiss he had been dying for, for eleven long, lonely years.
CHAPTER 6
It was fire and ice. It was a kiss unlike anything Cassa had ever known. It was infused with passion, with hunger, with the spicy taste of the mating hormone and the dark seductive taste of the man himself.
The taste of the man himself was more potent in ways than even that of the mating hormone she could feel rushing through her system. Like the strongest narcotic shot straight into her system, it produced a sense of euphoria, of need, of a clamoring, fiery hunger invading her body.
It wasn’t much different from the needs that had filled her before his kiss. The only difference was the physical burn, the taste, the sudden, overwhelming need for more. Now.
Her hands dove into the thick gold and black strands of hair that lay to his shoulders. Her fingers clenched in the coarse mass, pulling him closer as she took his tongue again and again, accepted the taste of the mating hormone and gave herself to him.
She had fought it. She really had. For over ten years she had tried to ignore it, just as he had. They had stayed as far apart from each other as they could. Now there was no ignoring it. There was no way to hide from it. They would never be able to hide from it again.
Lips and tongues melded, stroked and sucked. His hands pushed beneath her T-shirt and Cassa felt the shudder that tore through her body as his calloused hands touched her bare back.
She remembered the sensation of his skin touching hers, even before the hormonal influx that spilled from his tongue. So long ago, his hand around her neck as he swore he owned her. The touch of his hand then had nearly overwhelmed even her fear. Now his touch sent a rush of sensation, hard and brutal, to strike to the very core of her.
It was too much, too soon. The hormonal fluid from the glands in his tongue shouldn’t react on her this quickly, not this hard. Not considering that for the past five years, she had been taking the hormone treatments given to mates. She shouldn’t be reacting this strong, this fast. She shouldn’t be, unless the hunger of the mating heat was reacting to her own desperate need for his touch.
And it was desperate. It had been desperate for years. He had been the focal point of her deepest fantasies, her every desire, and she needed him.
She needed him and she was going to take him. They could run from the need, but they couldn’t hide from it. For eleven years both of them had run, and now the running was over.
“Damn you!” His growl was one of frustration and driving need as he tore his lips from hers long enough to watch, the amber in his gaze flaming, as he jerked her shirt over her br**sts.
The cold air met her heated flesh, adding another sensation. It was surrounding her, rushing through her until she could barely breathe for the need.
“Damn you,” she panted brokenly. “You’ve screwed everything in sight for eleven years. You’ve ignored this. Ignored me.” And she hated him for it. Hated him for the years she hungered for him, the years he had kept that distance between them.
“I spared you this!” His hand tightened in her hair as the fingers of the other flattened at her waist, stroked upward, then cupped one hard, aching mound of a breast.
Cassa sucked in a hard, deep breath at the feel of his hand through the lace of her bra. The heat of his touch was brutal. The feel of his fingers was like a fever raging in her blood.
“You didn’t spare me anything,” she gasped, glaring back at him even as her body rioted for more of his touch.
“I spared myself then,” he snarled, a second before his head lowered, the sharp tips of his canines raking her neck as a growl rumbled in his throat.