Mated to the Pack(7)

Cassie made a little noise at that, one of mixed approval, desire, and tenderness.

"Ah, Cassandra." Trevor groaned, his slowly unfocusing eyes still  capturing hers. His entire body seemed to be melting into hers. "My  Cassandra."

"Yes," she said, caught by his eyes. "Yours. Always." She smiled up at  him, completely overtaken by her emotions as well as the physical  sensations zinging around her body.

"My love," he whispered, the words slipping out of him so naturally and carelessly they had to be true.

Cassie's heart about stopped before it started to pound again in hard,  excited thumps. She felt a thrilled smile race across her face as  everything fused into one big, joyful explosion of rightness.

Mate.

Wolf.

Love.

Mine.

Oh, god, yes.

"Yes. And you're my love," she said, stroking her hand over his cheek in complete awe at the truth of it.

Trevor abruptly snapped his mouth shut so hard Cassie actually heard his  teeth crack together. His shattered expression from moments ago  disappeared into the usual cold blankness he wore, topped off with a  sudden chill in the summery night air.

"Trevor," Cassie said. The ugly cold began to seep into her skin. "Come  back to me." She tried to pull his head back to hers, to kiss him back  into the softness. The rightness of being mates.

The alpha of the pack, no longer simply the man who was her lover and  mate, pulled back from her, lifting his body away from hers so that a  literal chill swept over it. He moved off the bed, eyes completely  hardened again. Cassie sat up, staring at him in confusion and denial.

"Wait a minute-" she began, totally lost.

"No." His voice and hand sliced the air at the same time, cutting off her voice as if with a blade.

She heard the tiniest shake in it, though. As if something in him really  needed to be said, and he was fighting his hardest to refuse to let it  out.

"Trevor," she tried again.

"Enough!"

His voice assaulted her ears with a blast of desperation that shocked  her like nothing else this crazy day had. Stunned, she stared at him.

"I-cannot," he said. Teeth gritted, he inhaled hard through his nose,  the back out. "You," and he stabbed a finger at her, "shall stay here  and stay safe. Is that understood?"

Still shocked, Cassie shook her head a little. She manage to say, "I  don't understand-" before he cut her off yet again. Rising anxiety  filled the air. Her wolf senses could pick up on it

"You would not understand. You cannot."

Staring at her for another long, ragged moment, Trevor abruptly turned  and strode for the door. "I will be back. You will do as I say and stay  here."

That did it. Um, no. Flicking her shock off her, Cassie felt her newly  awoken self take charge again. "No. No more ordering me around. I won't  stay here, and you can't make me, Trevor."

Rather than childish, the words came out like a smooth warning. Cassie  watched in some satisfaction as her suddenly crazy-ass mate whipped his  head around to look at her, a frown etching deep lines in his forehead  as his gorgeous eyes pinned her.

"I'm a wolf shifter now, too," she went on, watching him carefully.  Whatever the hell his problem was, being a wolf had something to do with  it. "Because you wanted me to be one. So I'm pretty much invincible  now, right?"

He just stared, though a tiny muscle in his jaw worked with a little twitch. Mr. Granite Man was here for sure.

"Well, isn't that right?" she said, starting to get off the bed so she  could go to him. If only she could touch him, maybe that would startle  him into telling her what the hell was going on.

But he had yet another zinger for her suddenly fragile heart.

"No. You are not invincible. Wolves can still be vulnerable, too,  Cassandra." His voice was so dark, so heavy, it halted Cassie in her  tracks. "Stay here," he added. He unlocked the door and left her alone.         

     



 

For a wrenching moment, Cassie felt like all the air in the room had been sucked out of it, leaving her gasping and frozen.

Until she heard the unmistakable click of the door being locked from the outside.

Oh, no, he did not.

If her big, bad, confusing, and apparently very confused alpha wolf  shifter thought his little mate was going to roll over and still play  the "Yes, sir" game with him, he had another damn think coming.

Leaping up from the bed, Cassie shifted into her own wolf self halfway to the door.

Fucking kick-ass, she thought with a serious amount of glee, before she battered down the locked door.





Chapter 6



Trevor's head throbbed in time with his steps as he damn near charged  down the hallway. A lounging young shifter saw him coming and abruptly  bolted from the area at what must be a frightening sight.

Good, Trevor thought grimly. He needed that right now. He needed to know  his pack still feared his strength. He could run with them, howl in joy  under the moonlight at being a wolf, let them leap and play around him  if he chose.

But he expected their utter and unquestioning loyalty the second he demanded it.

Despite that wish, he knew he didn't always command pure loyalty. From  most of them, yes. He was alpha by dint of having fought hard for it,  and by proving his worth.

But that hadn't stopped Aliana and Thayne from threatening him and his mate.

And it hadn't stopped his first mate from dying.

Those goddamned ripping, snarling, clawing, terrifying emotions surged  through him again, promising to drag him into their relentless undertow.

Howling in utter rage, Trevor shifted and bolted on four paws down the  hallway for the freedom of the land outside. He sensed the entire pack,  scattered throughout or nearby the sprawling estate, hold their  collective breath as their alpha voiced his rage.

His fear. Fucking spineless, weak, useless fear.

Trevor burst out into the night, unsure whether he was chasing his fear or it was chasing him.







Cassie barreled down the hallway, her ears still ringing with the echoes  of her mate's enraged cries. She skidded on the floor as she rounded a  corner, but picked up speed again as she loped downstairs. He wasn't  getting away with calling all the shots anymore.

What was the use in being a kick-ass female alpha wolf if her mate  wouldn't allow her to behave like one? And if he would not soften enough  to really let her in. The faint shadow of a mysterious, lost something  she'd seen in him from almost the very moment they met, the little hints  that beneath his control, the pain hidden deep within him-no. She  wasn't going to them go anymore. He was going to tell her what the hell  was going on, or else.

Dang it.

Rounding another corner, Cassie almost skidded directly into three  people huddled in a small knot. They stepped back and let her slide on  the floor, but one shot out her hand to grab her golden fur, stopping  her.

Cassie growled, then swallowed it with an apologetic sound when she realized it was Tamsin, shaking her head.

And Finn and Mac, her two almost-onetime lovers. She hadn't seen them  once since she'd first been surrendered to the pack. Still huge and  gorgeous-though truly nowhere near as gorgeous as Trevor, not that she  was biased or anything-the one still dark and dreamy, the other still  light and cheerful. Regardless, she felt absolutely zero attraction to  either one. She had found her mate, and no others could hold a candle to  him. Whatever that phrase meant, anyway.

"Hold on," Tamsin started to say, the same moment Finn said, "What's  your rush, lovely Cassandra? Can't even stop to say hello to two old  friends?"

He awarded her a slow, molten smile she was sure would have burned off  her panties had she never met Trevor. Now, Finn's smile did nothing more  than vaguely make her think, That's nice, dear. Even so, despite her  urgency to reach Trevor, Cassie cocked her head and simply gave Finn a  quizzical look. Really, she wouldn't say they were friends, it was more  like they'd been-that is....

Mac laughed, a rich sound that dispelled the echoes of Trevor's fierce  howls. "The look on your face is priceless right about now."

Finn still smiled at her, his gaze also fascinated. "And look at you. From meek human surrender to this magnificent wolf."

Also smiling, Mac said, "Apparently we missed the action earlier today. Tamsin was just telling us how amazing it was."

"Where have you two been?" Cassie asked, knowing they could understand her despite the fact they were all in human shape.

"We had a mighty mission to accomplish." Finn wagged his dark brows and tried to look mysterious.

Tamsin clarified with the tiniest roll of her expressive eyes, "The  alpha sent them away to visit another pack after the claiming ceremony.  He wanted to be certain they stopped thinking about you."         

     



 

Mac's laughter echoed down the hallway again. "He wanted to make sure we  sowed some wild oats far away from his new mate, whom we'd just been  about to-oof," he ended with a grunt. Tamsin had elbowed him, kind of  hard.