“I molded her to live and you have somehow showed her how to die instead.” He sighed in exasperation. “For that alone I owe you hours of agony.”
The fucker was muttering again. Begging for his life. Please. Please . . . yeah, he’d heard it all before. Thank God it wasn’t quite words. He hated all that pleading and crying bullshit. It did nothing but feed the madness inside him.
“You lost control of her,” the Jackal pointed out. “You let her go while she was young enough to learn weakness.”
He hated it when the enemy was right. And he hated this particular Jackal. The fucker. He’d end up being trouble yet again, he was betting on it.
“You and Graeme will regret this,” Graeme snapped, allowing her the game.
He knew he was going to regret it. He could feel it tightening through his senses, a primal premonition there was no escaping.
“Graeme can handle this.” She had far too much confidence in what little sanity she believed he possessed. “Jonas will definitely handle it, and he’ll enjoy doing it. Besides, Graeme could use the debt Jonas will owe him for these two.” She flicked her fingers toward the Jackals.
No doubt Jonas would fucking come in his jeans when he learned the prize awaiting him.
“Leave, Gideon,” she whispered. “Please. Before Graeme and Lobo arrive.”
Because the separation she was creating between Graeme and the monster he harbored could also become his protection. And it could start here.
A low, enraged snarl left his lips, and before the inner chaos of killing rage eased he moved quickly for the hall and the back of the house.
She wanted Graeme, did she?
She may find Graeme had about as much mercy for those bastards as Gideon had.
? ? ?
Cat restrained the sigh of relief that might have escaped otherwise and kept her attention focused on the two Jackals watching her intently.
Graeme might not have taught her mercy, but he had taught her quite well how to block her senses and how to ensure no Breed, no matter how perceptive, could read her if she didn’t want to be read.
“I would have sworn you were his mate,” the bigger Jackal mused softly.
She merely rolled her eyes before stepping back to the foyer entrance. There were Breeds parked outside the front entrance of the house. It would take very little to encourage them to storm over the walls.
Lifting the laser weapon from its holster, she smiled back at the Jackal as he watched her. The paralytic was wearing off; she could see the slow tensing of the muscles in his partner’s hand.
Flipping the weapon to ammo rather than laser, she fired off three quick shots, holstered it then leaned against the door frame as she smiled back at the bigger Jackal.
“Your buddy isn’t as good as you are at hiding the fact that the paralytic is wearing off. And I don’t trust you.”
Disgust filled his gaze.
“You would have made a worthy mate to that crazy-ass Gideon,” he grunted. “Neither of you shows so much as an iota of logic.”
“Logic is highly overrated,” she assured him as the front door flew open and, rather than the two male enforcers she expected, she found herself face-to-face with two female Coyotes and their alpha instead.
Ashley and Emma Truing paired with Del Rey Delgado? This was really about to get interesting.
She turned back to the Jackals. “Oh boy, your ass is really in trouble now.”
“Cat.” Del Rey’s weapon was held confidently at his side as he strode toward her warily, his greeting making it evident Jonas had made him aware of who she was. His nostrils flared as a grimace of distaste crossed his face. “Tell me that’s not fucking Jackal I smell.”
“And here I bathed just for this little gathering,” the bigger Jackal muttered mockingly.
“It would appear so,” she assured him as Ashley and Emma flanked their alpha more protectively now. “They were given a paralytic, but it appears to be wearing off. Chief Martinez’s is still fully in effect, though.”
The small group stepped to the doorway as both Graeme and Lobo, followed by a small Wolf Breed force, rushed from the kitchen entrance.
Thankfully, Graeme had quickly changed clothes. The stripes were gone from his face, the scent of Bengal rage no longer covering him like a coming storm. The Lion Breed scent was once again in place, the amber eyes were green once more and even his facial features seemed less savage, less sharply defined.
“Cat?” He stepped to her, drawing her quickly to him as he watched Del Rey narrowly.
“Graeme.” Del Rey nodded, familiarity apparent in his greeting.
Did he know everyone?
How the hell did he manage it? She doubted Del Rey had been to Window Rock more than a few times.
“Alpha Delgado.” Graeme nodded as the Breeds following him and Lobo entered the room to restrain Cat’s “guests further.” They were a bit nicer about it than Cat had expected as well.