Shooting off again into the dark, Cassie ran faster.
"You don't get to hide anymore, you big badass," she muttered to herself as she raced deeper into the forest. Her voice came out as a whiny bark, which made her almost laugh. Almost.
Scraping between two huge pine trees that sort of smelled like butterscotch, she ducked through a thicket of ferns. Their large fronds whipped in the breeze she left as she plunged through them. Legs churning in almost tireless motion despite the insane stuff she'd been through so far today, Cassie felt incredibly powerful and free as she ran.
The only thing that kept her from fully reveling in the experience was the empty sound of her mate's howls as they ripped through her heart. Being a wolf was fucking fantastic, yeah. Being a wolf with an unhappy mate who refused to tell her what the hell was up? Nope. She didn't want to do this wolf thing without him. She needed him, dammit. She needed her mate.
Trevor's howls grew louder. She had to be close now.
So close, in fact, that she startled herself when she busted through another swaying cluster of ferns and tumbled into a small glade, lit by the moon. Shadows and silvery light mixed together in the scene, but all Cassie could focus on was the big, black wolf sitting right in the middle of it, nose pointed to the sky, howling.
Her gorgeous, stunning, totally bewildering wolf mate.
Trevor almost choked on his own howl when Cassandra exploded into the clearing. He immediately turned toward her, snarling in his shock.
"I told you to stay inside! Who let you out?"
He advanced a step toward her, glaring. Knowing full well he was posturing to cover the way his heart had jolted at her appearance, not to mention that she'd caught him howling like an unsettled, scared little pup. Even so, he still couldn't help but admire the grace and power flooding off his once-human mate.
She truly was magnificent, beautiful-and his. His to protect.
The thought lodged more terror in his chest, much to his utter fury.
His lovely mate, who apparently was still just as sassy in her wolf form as in her human, said with a small huff, "Nobody let me out. I let myself out, thank you very much. Oh, and by the way," she added, looking quite pleased with herself, "we'll need a new door for our room. I do believe I broke it down."
Trevor pricked his ears straight up as he stared at her in even more shock. Who was this little she-devil loosed upon the world?
It seemed he had created a saucy, sexy, irresistible monster.
Cassandra abruptly shook her head. If a wolf could roll her eyes, she would have. Instead, from one heartbeat to the next, she shifted back to human.
"You," she said, pointing at him, advancing on him, "are going to talk to me." She stopped a scant foot away from him, narrowing her beautiful eyes. Angry sparks virtually scattered off her.
Trevor growled at her words. That was such a female thing to say. And never a good thing.
Ignoring the fact he was a huge, snarling wolf, his mate said in a high-handed voice, "Trevor Reginald, as your mate, I command you to talk to me."
Trevor's fur ridged up along his back in more shock. She was resolute. Uncompromising. Nothing at all like the unbearably sexy yet very nervous young woman he had first met. No, this was a woman knew exactly what she wanted. Clearly, she intended to get it, one way or another. With her hair streaming over her shoulders and down her back in a wild, tangled golden mess, her lush body planted firmly on the ground, hands settled on her gorgeous, full hips, chin tilted up with stony determination, Cassandra looked every inch an alpha female in this form.
Most definitely the mate of the alpha of the pack.
Trevor shifted, the change flowing over him in a rippling second. In human form, he stood in deliberate mirror of her stance, arms slanted on his own hips, eyes narrowed back at her. She was so close he was almost overpowered by her enticing scent, her dazzling presence, but he held himself still.
Something still frantic to escape flung itself about in him. Voice thunderous in his desperation, he said, "You command me? I am your alpha! Especially now that you have become a shifter. You," he pointed at her, holding onto his false anger like an anchor, "shall listen to me."
His incredible mate didn't even look at the ground. Instead, she locked her determined eyes with his astonished ones and matched him glare for glare.
"Oh, really?" Her voice was pitched high and getting higher every second. "That's how it is? We're back to Yes, sir, No, sir, Whatever you say, sir? Too bad! No fucking way, o high and mighty sir."
Her chest heaved in the most distracting way as she yelled, her face becoming a sweet shade of red as she reached up to thump his chest with an enraged finger.
"Refuse? You cannot refuse me. Not as your alpha and your mate." He forced himself to glare at the delicious woman, standing there before him in all her glorious curves and irrepressible spirit. The one he was sworn to protect now and forevermore.
Perhaps, he mused, still frantically searching for a way to regain his usual steadfast equilibrium, he should just bite her again, the bite of an alpha male letting his female know he was the stronger. The one in charge. Always in control. The one responsible for the safety of all his wolves. Especially his very own mate.
Jagged pain struck at his heart again, images flashing through his mind as fear kicked him, hard, in the gut. Voice booming with his own helpless rage at himself, he said, "I told you to stay in there for your own safety, Cassandra. You do not-"
"My safety?" the little wench interrupted him, eyes flashing in the moonlight. He could smell the sweetness of her body, the delectable offerings within its softness. "I'm a wolf now, o master and lord! I can keep myself safe, thank you very much! I proved that today, didn't I? So there's no point in locking me up."
Her nostrils flared with the force of her temper. Trevor felt his pulse thumping out of control, like everything in his body threatened to do within seconds.
"And why did you call me your love, then just up and vanish like that?" Her voice trembled despite the force of her words. "Why do you keep acting like this?"
"Because I do not want to lose you!" he roared back, unable to contain it. Pain and frustration finally spewed out of him like the volcanic mountain upon which they stood. "Because I cannot bear that thought, Cassandra. I cannot lose you! I cannot lose my mate again," he whispered raggedly, voice cracking on his own words.
Words that echoed like thunder in the abrupt silence. Even the crickets didn't dare to sing, cowed into silence by the turmoil sweeping the glade.
Cassandra stared at him, mouth open, all the anger suddenly draining away into a sudden sorrow and understanding that softened her features and energy into a blanket of warmth he thought might smother him if he let it. "Oh, Trevor," she whispered. "Oh, god. What happened?"
Something clutched his heart so hard he gasped. Held by the strength of Cassandra's gaze, unable to staunch the tide, the words spilled from him with relentless abandon. He shook from the force of their release. "I was mated." His voice grated as if it was being dragged over jagged rocks. "Shortly before I became alpha."
Cassandra simply nodded, urging him to continue.
"We planned a life. But it was not to be." He heard his own voice tumbling out the truth he had not allowed anyone to mention ever since it had happened.
Cassandra's wide eyes regarded him, shiny in the moonlight with what he knew were tears. Tears for him, damn it all. Yet it was useless to try stemming either the flow of memories or his voice.
"Even wolf shifters are not immortal." He felt a tiny muscle below one eye twitch, but his words continued without his permission. "It was a car accident. Such an inane, stupid thing." His voice turned suddenly savage, but she did not quail before him. She merely looked at him. Unafraid to face whatever he might say, or do.
"I was driving." He held Cassandra's gaze as steadily as he could. "We'd been quarreling. Rather, I quarreled with her over something so insignificant I do not recall it. I did not pay attention to the road as I should have been in wintertime."
Willing his voice to be blank, failing because beneath it roiled everything he recognized was desperate to get out, he said, "We hit a patch of ice and skidded off the road. She broke her neck and died instantly."
He saw Cassandra's breath hitch as she brought one hand to her mouth, staring at him over it.
"We had been officially mated for less than a year. Naturally, I did not think we would be parted for hundreds of years. I did not handle the loss well."
Silence dropped even more heavily now. Trevor forced himself to stand still, to not speak more. He had said enough. Admitted more than an alpha ever should to any wolf.