Coyote's Mate (48 page)

As bad as she wanted to peek over the border of shrubs, she didn’t dare. The scent of her body may be masked, but there would be no way in hell it would affect the men’s exceptional eyesight.

“That’s a good description of what we’re facing,” Cabal answered the curse. “It’s not over. The hunters are becoming the prey, and if the first five are any indication, we could be looking at some pretty high-profile individuals. The former mayor that was killed last week was a well-known individual throughout the nation. We’re looking at a PR nightmare here.”

“PR is your brother’s area,” Jonas growled. “I’ll let Tanner worry about the sugar coating. I want the killer caught, Cabal. That’s your job.”

“It’s hard to do a job when there’s no evidence to go on, Jonas,” Cabal snapped, his voice irritated. “There’s no DNA left on the scene, and no scent. We were notified within hours of the mayor’s death. When we arrived, you could smell the scent of his terror, but the scent of his killer was no where to be found.”

Cassa felt her mouth go dry. The former mayor that had disappeared recently was David Banks, a proponent of Breed rights. David Banks had gone for his evening walk one night in the little town of Glen Ferris, West Virginia. He hadn’t been seen again. His body hadn’t been found.

There was no trace, no clue where he might have gone. Until now. He had argued for Breed Law, and had been known to host several charity parties a year in honor of the Breeds. Now, he was also rumored to have been a member of a group of men that once hunted Breeds?

She could believe it. She had never liked Banks, but she knew his popularity, his smooth, charming smile and his soft voice had fooled more than one journalist.

“Find something, Cabal,” Jonas ordered. “We’re working on borrowed time here. If you don’t find the killer before news of this leaks to the press, then we’re fucked.”

“It looks to me as though we’re fucked either way,” Cabal informed him, his voice cold. “Horace Engalls and Phillip Brandenmore are making certain of that.”

Brandenmore and Engalls. The owners of a pharmaceutical and drug research company were under indictment for the drugging of the Breeds’ doctor, Elyiana Morrey, and for conspiracy to murder in several Breed deaths. They had been caught attempting to buy research conducted by Dr. Morrey from her two assistants and were rumored to be conducting research into an aging phenomena the Breeds and their wives were supposedly experiencing.

There was no supposition to it. Cassa knew the truth of it. The Breeds were experiencing a slow down in the aging process once they went into mating heat. The phenomena was making Breed doctors crazy as they tried to figure it out, and sending the breed ruling cabinet into a frenzy each time the gossip tabloids came up with another angle to tell the story.

So far, it wasn’t being taken seriously. But that couldn’t continue much longer. It had been ten years since the Feline Breed alpha had announced the existence of the breeds. Ten years since he or his wife had aged in any noticeable way.

Cassa was one of the few people who knew the truth, and she knew the consequences of ever writing that story or revealing her knowledge of it. The non-disclosure agreement she had signed in return for special consideration in interviews and breaking Breed stories had been frightening.

She may have signed away her soul, her first born child, and her cat’s blood. Or something close.

“Engalls and Brandenmore are being dealt with,” Jonas drawled, his tone one of pure ice. “I’m more concerned with a rogue Breed’s indiscriminate killings. Find him, Cabal, or we could all be up shit creek without a paddle.”

Cabal grunted at that. “I thought we already were.”

“No, at the moment, we have a paddle,” Jonas informed him sarcastically. “Now find that bastard before he kills again. I’ll be damned if I want to try to clean up another mess like Banks. I’m certain there are still pieces of him missing.”

Cassa forced herself to remain silent. She had the pictures of that killing; she was certain she did.

That one, and four others. Pictures that had been sent via secured emails, accusing the Breeds of hiding a killer.

She hadn’t doubted the Breeds were capable of it; she just hadn’t imagined that even a Breed could do the damage that had been done in those pictures.

Trepidation built inside her as she felt the sweat that began to trickle down her temple at the thought of being caught now. She knew Breed Law, and she knew the price of eavesdropping on this conversation. Like David Banks, she could disappear and her fate would never be known.

“You’re pissing in the wind, Jonas,” Cabal informed him. “We have nothing to go on here. No suspects, no clues. Until I have one or the other, we’re screwed.”

“Get it.” Jonas voice became dangerous, clipped. “Quickly, Cabal.”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that, Director, just as soon as you tell me who the hell I’m looking for.”

Cabal’s voice lowered until it vibrated with suppressed menace. “Until then, there’s not a hell of a lot more I can do.”

“Banks was from Glen Ferris. Get back there; see what you can find out. We’re supposed to be searching for him. Investigate it from that angle.”

“Just what I need, you telling me how to do my fucking job,” Cabal grunted.

“I could be telling you how to find your mate,” Jonas drawled with a hint of amusement. “I’m certain she’s around here somewhere. What do you think?”

A dangerous growl filled the air as Cassa felt her heart sink in her chest. Cabal was mated? No, that couldn’t be true. Breeds did not ignore their mates, and they sure as hell didn’t flirt with other women as Cabal had flirted with her earlier in the day during the wedding reception.

He wouldn’t have watched her as he had, nor would he have followed her to her cabin later.

Jonas had to be talking about a mate in general, not one in particular. Such as, seek and ye shall find. A why aren’t you looking for your mate type thing. That had to be it.

“Don’t fuck with me, Jonas,” Cabal warned him. “I’m not in the mood.”

Jonas chuckled. It wasn’t a comfortable or amused sound. It was frankly frightening.

“I’m not the one you have to worry about fucking with you, my friend,” he drawled. “I do believe though that our intrepid little reporter, Ms. Hawkins, could give you lessons in it.”

Cassa felt her lips part in shock. There was a hint of amusement in Jonas’s voice now but none in Cabal’s rumbled snarl. The sound was sexy as hell even as it sent chills racing up Cassa’s spine and a flood of warmth between her thighs.

“Drop it, Jonas,” Cabal warned him.

Yes, Jonas, please drop it, Cassa moaned silently. She was becoming aroused despite her best efforts. She had a feeling that whatever the pill did, it would be little defense against the scent of her need. And she was definitely needy. In the ten years since her husband’s death, she had never been so turned on as she was when she was around Cabal St. Laurents.

“Fine, consider it dropped.” She heard the shrug in Jonas’s voice. “The heli-jet will be ready to fly you to Glen Ferris in the morning. Investigate Banks’s disappearance. We might get lucky and you’ll find a suspect while you’re there.”

“Keep hoping,” Cabal grunted. “Trust me, Jonas, if they’re hiding a feral Breed in their midst, they’re not going to turn him over simply because I ask nicely.”

“You know how to ask nicely?” There was a wealth of sarcasm in Jonas’s voice.

“Go to hell.” There was a wealth of arrogance in Cabal’s.

Cassa wanted to laugh at the confrontation but stifled the impulse.

“I’ll return to hell, you check on our nosy reporter,” Jonas’s voice echoed with command once again as Cassa gave a small start of fear. “She was too jumpy at the reception tonight. Make sure she’s where she’s supposed to be.”

Cassa sensed the hesitation that filled the area on the other side of the shrubs.

“Is she becoming a problem?”

She definitely didn’t like the flat, cold tone Cabal used now.

“She’s always a problem when she’s here or at Sanctuary,” Jonas answered.

Cassa’s eyes narrowed. She was never a problem at Sanctuary. The Feline Breed stronghold was homier, and a damned sight more welcoming to her than the Wolf Breed compound she was in now.

“You don’t know how to handle her,” Cabal injected.

Handle her? No one handled her, period.

“Only with a whip and chair,” Jonas growled. “Callan and Merinus give her much too much freedom in Sanctuary. She thinks she deserves it elsewhere.”

“And this is my problem how?” Cabal argued. “She’s a reporter. You should have known better than to allow the invitation she was given to stay, to stand.”

Bodies shifted. Cassa was dying to look over the top of the shrubs, but leaned to the side instead to try to get a view through the opening in the foliage.

The glimmer of light from a nearby building revealed the two men. Jonas was still dressed in his tuxedo, Cabal though had changed into jeans, a T-shirt, a rain resistant jacket and boots. His black-striped golden blond hair dripped with the misty rain and fell long to his shoulders.

His shoulders were broad, his waist lean, his thighs muscular and his legs long. Standing there in the rain, he looked like the male animal he was. In his prime, ready for action. Sexy as hell.

Mouth-wateringly male.

She breathed in slow and easy, and felt the familiar slick warmth between her thighs.

“Just make certain she’s in her cabin and well guarded, if you don’t mind.” Jonas ordered in a drawl heavy with mockery.

“And if I mind?” Cabal asked carefully.

Jonas’s teeth flashed in a hard, cold smile as the chilly rain dripped along his face and saturated his short, clipped hair.

“Then I might make you part of her protection detail rather than sending you to Glen Ferris.

Come to think of it, that might be a good idea after all.”

Cabal’s brilliant green eyes narrowed, and Cassa could have sworn she saw the glitter of the amber flecks within the green as he stared back at the other breed.

“I’ll check on her.” The hard fury that echoed in his normally cold voice surprised Cassa and sent a chill racing down her spine.

She had to get back to her cabin before he arrived. If he found her sneaking around in the rain, or God forbid, found her missing from her cabin, she could just imagine the consequences.

She slid back from her position silently. Heart racing, she fought to move slowly, carefully.

She was running out of time anyway. The single pill she had taken only gave her a small amount of time. Two hours, the information had warned. She had spent most of that time testing it against the Breeds patrolling the compound.

Once the time limit was reached, her natural scent would return quickly—that meant she had less than half an hour to get back to the cabin.

She couldn’t let Cabal know she hadn’t been there all along, and she damned sure couldn’t face him while that drug was still in her system.

They continued to discuss her, much to her dismay, as she slowly retreated. She could hear their voices, but not what they were saying. Once she reach a safe distance, she straightened again and moved hastily through the shadows back to her cabin.

She used the heavy trees that grew throughout the compound to hide her return. Skirting the areas she knew the Breeds were prone to guard more heavily, she made it back to her cabin in twenty minutes. The delays were nerve-wracking as she waited for sentries to move slowly past her or when she was forced to backtrack to avoid them.

Rushing back through the unlocked window of her cabin, she raced to the bathroom as she heard a vehicle pulling up in the small driveway outside.

Twisting the knobs to her shower, she quickly adjusted the water and stripped the wet clothes from her body. Tossing the saturated fabric into a nearby closet, she grabbed her scented shampoo, squeezed a large amount into her palm and worked it quickly into her long hair before snatching the bottle of bath gel from a shelf and soaping up a sponge.

She needed scent, lots of it. Pear scented shampoo in her hair, apple scented bath gel. Lather built over her body from head to toe as she fought to make damned certain Cabal had plenty to smell when she faced him.

Rinsing quickly, she beat back the racing of her heart, forced herself to calm and assured herself the drug would have time to get out of her system by the time she conditioned her hair, rinsed it and shut the water off.

Minutes later she left the bathroom, her hair bound in a towel, a heavy robe wrapped around her and plenty of apple scented body lotion smoothed over her.

Normally, she would have used the products sparingly. She preferred unscented shampoos and conditioners, even soaps. The heavy scents bothered her, as well as Breeds. Tonight was an exception, and she was thankful her assistant had once again slipped the scented stuff into her overnight back.

Kelly thought everyone should smell like a fruit stand just because she did.

Calm and poised, Cassa stepped out of her bedroom into the wide living room and came to a stop at the sight of a damp haired, much too handsome Breed as he sat in the large easy chair across the room.

It was no more than she had expected, and it wasn’t the first time she had walked into a room that should have been hers alone to find a Breed waiting for her. Though, she admitted, it was rarely this particular Breed.

“A little late for a visit, isn’t it?” She tugged at the towel around her hair as the mocking question passed her lips.

She didn’t miss the flicker of his eyes to her hair as it fell around her shoulders, curled down her back and fell just above her waist. Damp, riotous curls snaked over her shoulder and fell down the front of the robe to lie over her breasts. His gaze touched there, and Cassa was suddenly thankful for the thick robe. It hid the hardening of her nipples, but she knew nothing could hide the scent of her arousal now.

Cabal’s nostrils flared, his eyes narrowed, and his muscles bunched as he rose slowly from the chair to a very impressive height of at least six feet four inches tall. She felt dwarfed by him, despite her own five feet eight inches.