Mated to the Pack(9)

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.