by Maia Dylan
“We’ll make sure you get used to feeling well loved and cared for baby. That’s what lovers and people in love do for each other.”
She smiled and snuggled into her mates. How quickly things had changed. She had thought she was doing the right thing by holding back on the mating link until the threat to them was eliminated. She had been adamant that she was going to stick to that decision until Bryan and her father were out of her life for good, but then she hadn’t counted on the fact that her mates would be harboring the guilt of it all on themselves. Now here she was, mated to them both and before the sun came up tomorrow morning, they would be sporting her claiming bite, too.
That didn’t eliminate the threat that Bryan and her father posed to her and her new pack, but she was sure she had come up with a pretty good plan. She would call Ty, Trent, and Faith tomorrow and take them all through it. She needed their help to make this work for sure. But more important, she needed help convincing Sam and AJ!
Chapter 8
“So, she claimed you, huh?” Faith asked, positively vibrating with glee.
Her eyes kept going to the claiming mark on his right shoulder. Cassie had claimed him hard and quite high, directly over the scar. Effectively claiming that as well as him, and Sam saw no reason to hide the mark. In fact he wore it with honor. His woman, his mate as destined by the Fates and mated in truth. He would remember the moment she claimed him for the rest of his happily claimed life. Her eyes flashing amber, his no doubt flashing blue and at the moment he felt her pulsing around his dick, she struck. The white hot pain morphing within seconds into the most incredible pleasure he had ever felt.
“Awww, look at you looking all goofy about your mate. That is so cute!”
Faith leaned over the pinched his cheek. Pinched his damn cheek for God’s sake! He brushed her hand away and growled at her. Her grin widened as she shook her finger at him.
“Now that you shouldn’t a-oughta done!”
From out of nowhere, Ty fell into the chair beside his mate, glaring at him. Oh, fuck. God save him from overly possessive alphas with excellent hearing.
“You wanna growl at someone, you growl at me.” Ty sat forward and took a drink from Faith’s cola. “Then, because I’m a nice guy and don’t want to upset Lucy or Cassadee, I will take you outside and into the parking lot before I kick your ass. Got it?” Ty grinned.
“Yeah, Ty, I got it.” Sam grinned back. “But perhaps you could ask your mate not to call me ‘cute’ and then stroke my face?” His own grin widened when Ty’s eyes flashed blue and he spun to look at his mate, who had narrowed her eyes at him. Yeah, two could play the sic-the-crazy-alpha-wolf-on-the-other game.
Faith turned to her mate and quickly pulled him in for a passionate and pretty full on kiss. Ty wrapped her in his arms and took over the kiss. Sam, feeling a little like a voyeur began to look around the room, at the people in the restaurant, shit, anywhere but at them.
Ty suddenly pulled back, eyes no longer flashing and a huge grin on his face. “We’ll discuss this later my love,” he growled leaning forward and biting her gently on her neck right over her own claiming bite.
Sam guessed that it was a more than effective way to get Ty out of his crazed alpha moments but probably wouldn’t be as effective if he were to try it. Now didn’t that just give him a bunch of visual mental imagery that he would need to bleach his retina to remove.
“What are you thinking about, baby, that’s put that look of abject horror on your face?” Cassadee asked as she slid into his lap
. His heart swelled that she felt so comfortable with him and AJ now that she had no issue showing her affection for them in public. “Me kissing Ty,” Sam timed it perfectly for when Ty was taking another drink of Faith’s cola. He enjoyed watching it shoot from his nose. “I’m not sure I would be able to achieve the same level of distraction as Faith can.” He had to speak louder to be heard over Ty’s coughing and Faith’s and Cassie’s giggling.
“You’re not fucking kidding! The reaction would be me going homicidal!” Ty grunted once he stopped coughing.
“I for one would be willing to pay to see it”—Faith’s face was positively glowing—“and pay big dollars! How hot would that be?”
“Pretty damn hot! And, I don’t know about that, Ty. I find Sam’s kisses quite distracting,” Cassadee murmured as she gave him a soft, sweet kiss that had him craving her even more. She sighed, then snuggled against him. Sam wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight against him. He had sensed there was something bothering her, something she was hesitant to talk to them about. He didn’t really know how to broach the subject with her, but if she didn’t talk to them by tomorrow then he would have to try and coax it gently from her.
“So, Cassadee”—Ty turned to look at them both, an intense look in his eye that had him tensing—“apparently you have something you want to talk to us about and it’s bothering your mates, so spill it, would ya? I’m not a patient man, and I can’t be bothered trying to coax it out of you. Both of your mates are so worried that they are apparently projecting it to me. And to that point, so are you by the way. I’m not sure if it’s because you are like an überpsychic or because you’re now mated to a couple of my pack, but I’m getting some serious need to talk vibes from you, too.”
Faith shook her head at him. “Sweetie, that is why you need to take a few lessons from Cody and Brendan on how to talk to people. Patience and a little bit of tact go a long way.”
“Yeah, but I’m hungry and want to get to lunch. These guys and their psychic shit will stop me from enjoying it.” Ty leaned on the table and stared at Cassadee.
Sam looked down at her waiting. Now was as good a time as any. Ty must have sent out a call to Trent and AJ because they suddenly sat and didn’t say anything, just waited and listened.
Cassadee sat up a little straighter. “I want to talk to you about Bryan. My entire life has been about waiting for that bastard to strike. My father would just let us play out his little game, and he would often plant a seed of strategy or attack in Bryan’s mind and watch it play out between the two of us. Bryan has no mind for strategy. His idea of a good plan is to go in and go hard. But as I told you, he is easily distracted and can be taunted into making mistakes.”
Sam gritted his teeth so hard he could almost feel them cracking. Looking at AJ he could see the tension in his brother’s face mirrored his own. Damn, it about killed him to think of her having to fight this fucker to play in some warped fucked up game instigated by her own damn father.
“I have an idea, and I am pretty sure it will work. I want to open my mind to Bryan so I can talk to him. I want to taunt him and bring him out. I’m done with the waiting. This time, I want to be the one to start the fight.”
“Cassie”—Sam frowned—“he probably knows where you are. Why do you think we need to call him out?”
“If I can call him out, taunt him enough that he comes hard at me, but stupid. I’ll make sure my dad hears what we are saying to each other. Make it so he can’t help but come here. Then I deal with them both at the same time.” She grinned at those gathered around the table, clearly hoping that they were as convinced as she that this would work.
“Once you get them both here, what then?” AJ frowned. There was quite a bit of detail that would need to be filled in on that plan for it to work.
“I challenge him.”
Cassadee looked down at the table, and Sam knew she was holding something back.
“Let’s be clear here for a minute, Cassadee,” Trent leaned forward, his face intent. “You are talking about a death match, aren’t you? You are going to throw down with Bryan until one of you kills the other right?”
Sam tensed. Surely it wouldn’t have to come to that. But at Cassadee’s sad sigh he realized that was exactly what she planned.
“It’s the only way. He’s been messing with his own experiments, and he needs to be stopped.”
“But not by you!” Sam growled. “Can’t it be one of us?�
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Cassadee shock her head. “No, it needs to be me. He’ll come at you psychically as well as physically, and he’ll win against anyone but me. I’ve trained for this my whole life Brendan, I won’t lose.” She placed a hand on his arm and reached for AJ with her other. “I have way too much to live and fight for now than Bryan could ever hope for. Then once I have dealt with Bryan, I can deal with dear old Dad.”
“For you to go up against your king and for that to be righteous you need some of your pride members to stand in witness.” Ty sighed. “That means we’re gonna have lions running around our woods.”
“No, Ty. My plan is to call them to neutral ground, outside of pack lands.”
Cassadee had thought this out obviously. That kinda pissed him off. She had been working on this plan for a while and hadn’t thought to let them help her.
“Fuck that!” Ty’s eyes flashed blue.
Damn that man was quick to fire up.
“You are part of my pack,” Ty said. “Grey River is strong alone but stronger together. You will call your brother out, and you will gather your pride to witness this on our land. And our pack will be standing right there with you.”
Cassadee nodded and Sam caught the strong emotions that came down their bond. Cassadee was humbled and pleased that she belonged. “Thanks, Ty,” Cassadee said softly.
The conversation turned to timings of when this should take place. It was decided that Cassadee would start taunting her brother tomorrow and start broadcasting to her Pride the location of the challenge, which would take place Friday night, fittingly, during a full moon. Things were moving fast, but Sam had to admit, the faster they got this out of the way, the faster they could move on with their lives—together.
Faith and Cassadee eventually went to find Lucy to bring her up to speed. The three women had come to depend and rely on each other over the past months and Sam loved watching the three of them together.
“So what’s our plan?” Sam asked once the girls were out of earshot. He had known Ty and Trent his whole life, and he knew when Ty was planning something. He would go over and over it and look at all possible angles until he had it perfected. He had been sitting there in full on planning mode.
Ty smiled, but there was nothing humorous about it. “I have a plan, one that not even her fucked-up father will see coming. It’s so much easier to hunt when your prey comes straight to your front door.”
* * * *
What was it they said about the best-laid plans often going awry? Cassadee had finally talked with her mates and alphas yesterday and had reached out to people in her pride she thought would stand with her against her father. Today she planned to start communicating with her brother. All that flew out the window when her father and his two seconds stepped through the door of the bar. Cassadee had been laughing with Lucy as she cleaned glasses behind the bar when she sensed his presence.
She felt herself pale and she dropped the glass she was cleaning, she turned to the door just as he walked in. Dressed in a thousand-dollar suit with high-polished shoes, he stood out like the proverbial sore thumb. He walked in as if he owned the place, eyes going straight to her. He smiled and walked toward her, acting normal as you please, until he stood right in front of her, only the bar between them.
“My father just walked into the bar,” Cassadee sent out to her mates, Ty, Trent, Cody, and Brendan. Thinking there would be safety in numbers, all of them growled in response. She then closed her link so she could concentrate on her father. Experience had taught her that she needed every ounce of wit and each brain cell she possessed to deal with the bastard.
“Cassadee, my darling, aren’t you going to come and give your father a hug hello?”
Her father’s cultured voice rang through the bar and pretty much everyone in there was now listening and watching.
“I don’t think so, Father. Why don’t you just tell me what you came here to say then be on your way.” Steel ran through her words, which made her father’s eyes widen and his seconds rumble in protest.
“Oh, Cassadee, you continue to be a disappointment to me.” He turned and looked around the room, his disgust clear for all to see. “Why a queen would be in a place such as this, I just cannot fathom.”
“Perhaps she just got sick of the smell of kitty litter at your place, Hubbard,” Ty suddenly walked in from the side of the room, Trent and her mates right behind him. “So, Jules, what are you doing on my pack lands?”
Cassadee wanted to laugh as her father’s face started to change color, turning a shade of red she had never seen on him before. No one ever called him Jules! Well, no one who had lived to talk about it at least.
“Tyler and Trent Jamieson,” her father spat their names. “Such a…pleasure to meet you both.” His tone said it was anything but. “If only it were under better circumstances.”
Ty stepped forward to stand in her father’s space, and Trent and her mates shifted to lean against the bar, leaving Ty to do his thing, and trusting that he could deal with the three shifters that stood in front of him. “What circumstances might those be, Jules?”
Adam Baker, one of her father’s seconds and a sadistic mean bastard, came up on Ty’s left, growling.
Not even tensing, Ty just shot him a slow look, “Problem, kitty?”
Jesus, Ty was now officially her hero. Adam’s eyes changed amber and his growling increased. Ty grinned at him and Cassadee knew he was just seconds from turning.
“Adam! Calm yourself!” Her father roared and Adam dropped back immediately. If he were to shift and attack the alpha of another shifter pack, it would be war.
Ty turned back to look at her father as if unfazed by it all.
“There is no need for this to cause trouble between my pride and your pack. All we have come for is Cassadee.”
Sam and AJ tensed, and Cassadee saw their eyes flashing blue.
“She has been challenged to a death match by my son, and she must comply and then take her rightful place at my side.”
Well, shit. There went her plan of standing tall and being on the offensive for once. Damn Bryan and his craptastic timing. She turned to her mates and saw that they were looking straight at her. “It’s okay, this needs to be done, and it has to be done by me,” she sent down their link.
“We know, baby,” Sam’s growling voice came back.
“But that doesn’t mean we have to be happy about it,” AJ added.
Nodding her understanding at them she turned to her father. “Then, as is my right and custom, I choose to meet my challenger tonight and on my pack lands.” Her father turned another interesting color, this time more of a purple than a red.
“You are pride, not pack,” he growled, and Cassadee could see his eyes flashing amber.
“Well now, see here, Jules, that’s where you’re wrong.” Ty turned back to indicate her mates, who were now looking as relaxed and calm as ever. “My boys AJ and Sam there are mated to Cassie. Chosen by the Fates and mated in truth. So she is very much a Grey River Pack member.”
Her father glanced at her neck, so she grinned and pulled the collar of her Country Blue work shirt out a little so he could see the claiming bites in all their glory.
“You stupid little whore! Why would you do that!” her father yelled, stepping up to the bar. “You are a lion queen, not a fucking dog!”
Cassadee watched as the entire room suddenly started to growl, all standing. AJ and Sam were right in her father’s face, Ty and Trent standing behind them.
“Call my mate a whore again”—Sam’s voice was a little garbled, his wolf so close his canines had descended—“and I will fucking rip you to pieces.”
Her father didn’t even look at Sam, or anyone else in the room but her. Cassadee could see the hatred and no small amount of madness there. Daddy Dearest had completely lost it. Cassadee wrote down the directions to the open field Ty had suggested for the match to take place and handed it out to her father. When he wouldn’t take it, she handed it
to Adam, who glared daggers at her but took the paper.
“Bring Bryan to this place tonight at nine.” Cassadee glared at her father with all the power of an alpha lioness, knowing her eyes turned amber. Her father stepped back a little. “I will play this one last round in your sick little game, Father, but after this night”—she partially shifted her hand into claws, a skill only the strongest of their kind had, and pointed at him—“you will be dead to me.”
Her father just stood there staring at her hand, and the crazy bastard actually looked proud.
“Julius,” Adam said as he started to pull him back, “we must leave. Cassadee must prepare.”
The three lion shifters started walking out of the bar and the tension eased off a little. Cassadee shifted back and took a calming breath.
“Wait!” Sam growled, and all three stopped just before they reached the door. “You must be Adam Baker.” Sam’s voice rang with hatred as he and AJ stepped forward and rightfully addressed Adam in the group.
Adam got his usual cocky half grin and bowed slightly in his direction, “Yes, dogs, that would be me.”
Sam suddenly grinned, no humor in it at all, just a bloodlust that made Cassadee shiver. “I’ve got something planned for you that you ain’t gonna live through.”
AJ nodded at Adam, mocking him with a bow of his own. “So, we’ll see you tonight and just so you know, you’re going to fucking die screaming at the hand of my brother here, and our mate is going to have the pleasure of watching. So you go on and enjoy your afternoon pussy cat.” AJ’s eyes blazed blue and Adam’s grin slipped from his face. “Because it’s going to be your fucking last.”
Then all three were gone and the tension dropped in the bar. Cassadee leapt from behind the bar and threw herself at her mates. “I can’t believe you called Adam out like that?” she whispered.
“Babe,” Sam growled, “that bastard helped to have you fucking whipped. He dies tonight, end of story.”
“Well, Cassadee,” Ty said as he took a seat at the bar, “I sure hope you can get some of your pride here for this thing to be righteous. Oh, and they had better be sane, ’cause, baby doll, I don’t think your daddy is playing with a full deck of cards.”
