Seeing Fiona standing there, Cassie frowned. “Why are you here?”
Fiona’s arms were crossed, and she smiled. “We want to talk.”
“We?” Cassie asked. Who was we? It was just her.
No, she could now sense two other women. Were they here to pick a fight? She reached out behind the door to pick up the knife that lay there, and raised her brow. “Talk. I’m listening.”
Fiona shook her head, “Come outside then.”
“Uh. No.” Cassie showed her teeth. “I’m not stupid. Luke wants me to stay in the room, and I’m not going to walk into a fight and put my baby at risk. So, if you want to have a catfight, we can do it later.”
Fiona’s pretty face twisted in an ugly scowl. “Look, you–”
Cassie slammed the door shut in her face. Or she would have if Fiona had not blocked it with a club. Cassie stared at the baseball club. Had they really brought a club to a fight? Had they no pride in their animals?
Usually three-against-one were odds she could handle, but right now, her weakened body was not up to this. She snarled at the intruders but it was too late. Fiona smirked as she kicked at the door, pushing Cassie back.
Grabbing her by the wrist, Fiona dragged Cassie into the hallway. Her two friends, Hilda and Bianca, stood by. Cassie snarled again and Fiona shook her head, smiling. “Drop the act. We know all about you. You’re an omega.”
Cassie paled.
“Your packmate from Black Eye isn’t really big on hiding your secret.”
Cassie eyed them suspiciously. “So what, I’m still Luke’s mate. He’ll kill you if you touch me.”
The other two women looked a little worried at that, but Fiona just shrugged, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “You’re an omega, Cassie. We had Omegas back in my old pack, too. There’s always more of you. And as for Luke, once you’re out of the picture, he’ll have better options for mates.”
Cassie chuckled, marveling at the female shifter’s stupidity. “You think a mating is a joke? One dies, and the other can mate again?”
Fiona looked uncertain for a second and then regained her confidence. “I don’t want to hear how a mating is done, omega. You’re not even a real mate. Omegas don’t have mates.”
She swung the club towards Cassie who was prepared for it. She ducked and rushed at Fiona, launching a kick at her midsection. As the female fell backward, her friends rushed forward in defense. Hilda was relatively weak when it came to her punches, but she was quick on her feet and avoided most of Cassie’s blows. Bianca snarled and Cassie felt a familiar burning sensation on her back. The bitch had clawed her!
She turned around, growling, her animal showing in her eyes, and swiped at Bianca, but she was not her healthy self, so she missed. A swishing sound in the air made her turn, but it was too late. The club hit her directly in the stomach.
Cassie was blinded by its intensity. Her bear roared with rage and pain. The baby. She could feel her child’s pain and confusion.
“NO!”
Cassie rushed forward but was kicked in the back, falling directly on her belly.
Her mind snapped as she saw the blood on the ground. The hold she had over the mating bond slipped and she let go of the reigns. She was losing her baby!
Her scream of pain and fury echoed in the hallway and Bianca looked worried as she glanced over her shoulder. “Fiona, we need to leave!”
Fiona, however, held the club in her hand, sneering, “Not yet. Let’s finish this.”
Cassie shifted in a shimmer of light, and attacked. She clawed the woman responsible for making her lose her baby and caught her in her arm and face. She ignored the gasps of the other two women. She felt the changes in her body and her bear screamed in anguish.
She ran.
She ran as fast as she could away from this place and away from this pain. She was curled up in a ball inside her mind, screaming repeatedly. She could feel Luke’s panic through their mating bond, but she cast it aside.
Worthless. Everything was worthless!
****
Luke held Bard by his neck, growling when he felt the punch of the mating bond hit him, followed by a feeling of excruciating pain and fear. Cassie!
He felt Cassie lose herself in her grief, and his mind went blank with shock. The baby. Something was wrong with the baby!
As Cassie’s scream of anguish vibrated through their bond, he too, roared, echoing her grief. His lieutenants looked on, worried.
“Luke!”
His eyes were no longer human as Kevin’s alpha looked at him. His eyes were bleeding with rage and his expression was inhumane. The voice that came out was the bear. “Cassie. The baby. Hold him.”
Luke rushed towards the den, not even waiting for Kevin’s nod.
She was running.
He didn’t know which direction she was heading towards but she had closed herself off to him in her palpable grief. He tried to call her back – begged her to come back – but she was too far gone to listen. His feet came to a stop in front of their quarters.
So much blood.
She had lost the child. The door to their rooms was hanging by its hinges as if someone had kicked it in. His bear moaned in pain. Why hadn’t she called him? Luke fell to his knees as the loss hit him. He’d just lost his mate and child. His mate was in the wind, and his child was gone.
He couldn’t get through to her no matter how much he tried. How did this happen? He heard the footsteps and scented Abigail. He heard her sharp intake and felt her arm around him. He felt the shake, but he was entrenched in shock and nothing made sense to him.
He felt like his whole world had been ripped apart.
He could feel Cassie in the back of his mind. He could feel her torment – her animal’s denial – and he called out to her.
There was no response.
****
Cassie ran.
She didn’t stop.
She tried to outrun the grief.
Hours passed and finally, she broke into a clearing and stumbled forward. She saw the clear stream in front of her, and although her body craved hydration, it was not in sync with her mind. She collapsed in the middle of the clearing and fell unconscious.
Chapter 11
‘If anything happens to you, Cassie, I would not survive.’
‘Don’t be silly, Mom. Nothing’s going to happen to me. We’re going to be just fine.’ Cassie cuddled in her mother’s embrace. ‘Just you see. They’ll never find us here.’
Cassie’s eyes opened.
Her head felt heavy, and her abdomen hurt. She had shifted back.
Corrigan and his men had found them, however. They’d tracked her and her mother in the warehouse they’d been squatting in.
She wanted her mother’s embrace. Even now, after all these years, she could feel the warmth of her arms.
The tears streamed down her cheeks as she stared listlessly ahead of her. Her mother would know how to comfort her. She would have held her in her arms and kissed her forehead, her cheeks, and her nose. She would have offered her the safety and comfort of her embrace.
And now, there was nothing.
There was no mother.
There was no baby.
The mating bond was out in the open. Luke knew by now. She could feel his desperation and pain though their bond, but she didn’t care.
She felt the stone hit her forehead, and her eyes fell on the small creature sitting on the tree trunk across from her. The next stone hit her on her arm. She welcomed the pain. It was the only thing that told her she was still breathing right now.
The one thing that shifters did not realize about white omegas was that their offspring were their life. They were very protective of their children and loved them fiercely. Her mother had told her, but Cassie had never realized how potent that love was until she had lost her own child.
She felt the blood trickle down her temple as something small struck her.
She was in fairy territory. The small creature
s that sat hidden in the foliage were glaring down at her. They were too scared to come down and attack her.
Fairies were very territorial and hated trespassers. They usually minded their own business and very rarely did they stray from their home. They were not vicious like sprites, but they could be quite nasty when provoked. They lived in nature and they nurtured it. The clearing she was in was proof of that.
It was blooming with fertility. The grass she sat on was lush and springy. The abundance of wild flowers scattered all over was a magnificent sight. The tinkling of the stream captured Cassie’s attention, and she thought about how thirsty she was. But her body held no will to move.
Her bear was silent and subdued. The wild despair echoed within Cassie and a few more tears trickled down. She heard the angry chatter of the fairies on the trees and felt the small stones and sticks thrown her way, but she was beyond caring. There was nothing to her life but running. That was what she was destined for. The brief moments of happiness and contentment she had experienced in Luke’s arms where she had felt loved – even if it had been an illusion – had been a nice dream. There had been a routine, someone to come home to, and the hope of a family.
In seconds, that dream had been snatched from her.
“I told you,” she murmured to her animal, her tone harsh. “It was never going to work out.”
Her bear whined – a soft sound of anguish and torment, and she felt her heart break.
“We should have never stayed,” she mumbled, her voice thick with tears. “At least our cub would still be alive.”
Her bear could feel Luke’s animal reach out to her and it shied away, no longer trusting. Why hadn’t he saved her cub? Why hadn’t he been there?
Because he had been trying to protect her and her cub. Luke had never known that the danger would come from the inside. She couldn’t lay any blame at his door. She needed to blame someone. It had been her own fault. She should have been able to protect her child. She should have fought harder.
Cassie closed her eyes as sleep once again embraced her in its darkness.
****
At the den, packmates who had been out on missions had been called back. In his grief, Luke had abandoned everything. He didn’t cry. He didn’t howl. He had simply shifted and wandered away. The cubs were upset. They needed Luke’s presence, but Abigail and Heather kept everyone away from the alpha for a few days. He needed time to come to terms with what had happened.
Cassie had disappeared. She had lost the baby.
There had been evidence of a struggle, but no scent outside or inside the area. That meant that they could not know what had happened.
The truth had been wrenched from Luke by the two elders who had been present in the den. Cassie had not been Luke’s mate. But she was now.
“How does that happen?” Kevin growled. “How do you go from being pregnant and not being a mate and then losing the child and getting mated?”
Heather leaned against the wall, “She’s an omega. She didn’t have to be mated to Luke to have a child. But for a mating bond to spring up, they needed to be very intimate. They were too far away.”
“What if the mating bond had already been there and they just didn’t know it?”
Ronnie was a red-haired lieutenant. He had been two states away on business when he was called back. His eyes betrayed his Japanese descent, and right now those black eyes were narrowed with worry.
“For that to happen, one of the of the mates must already be in possession of that knowledge.” A gruff voice spoke up. Ronnie looked over at the wise old archives keeper. Samuel had been with the pack since the time of their grandfathers. He recorded the pack’s history. He knew everyone’s deepest, darkest secrets and nobody knew how. The man was positively ancient.
“It’s not possible that the mating happens and both parties don’t know about it. One of them had to have known and then suppressed the mating bond. I’d put my money on the girl.”
“But why? What would be the point?” Sheila, another lieutenant, spoke up. “From what I hear, this Cassie girl was already expecting. She couldn’t possibly have left the pack, not with our alpha’s child. We wouldn’t have let her.”
“Luke might have. He was in love with the woman,” Abigail muttered.
“For an omega, she was incredibly strong,” Samuel said. “Now I’m not entirely sure of the details, but there have been rumors about a certain lineage in shifters. Each animal pack has its own name for it, but we call them the white omegas, because of, well,” Samuel coughed, delicately, “their fur. It’s white, and they have a black marker running across their back.”
Kevin frowned. “I’ve heard about them. My grandfather told me about them. He always thought they were a myth.”
Samuel was silent for a few seconds as he collected his thoughts. “Well, yes and no. They do exist. But they’re incredibly rare.” When he received blank stares, he pursed his lips. “White omegas were forcibly used to procreate, because they were always in heat. I’ve only ever heard about there being female white omegas. They have these distinct markers. I only know of one which is their fur.”
“And their eyes,” came a rough voice from behind them.
Everyone turned around to see Luke standing there, holding Keenan in his arms. The boy had been desolate without Luke, and now he was clinging onto him like a monkey. “Their eyes are purple and silver. So, that’s why Cassie told me to keep it to myself.”
“Her eyes weren’t–”
“She wore contacts,” Luke cut Kevin off, gruffly. He looked terrible. And he smelled even worse, but no one was willing to say anything. They were so relieved to see their alpha back. It had been a whole week since they had seen his human form. A whole week since Cassie had disappeared.
“Go on, Samuel. I want to hear the rest of what you know.”
Samuel’s eyes did not waver from Luke’s face as he said, “There were mentions of them in the records kept by previous archive keepers. These females were kept imprisoned and one of their offspring always carried these same genes within them. The mothers were extremely attached to their cubs. And when they realized that their children were sharing the same fate as them, they would kill those cubs which bore these genes to protect them from this fate.”
Sheila looked horrified. “They killed their cubs?”
Samuel looked at her, his face grim. “It was an act of kindness, no matter how you look at it. Those females suffered tremendously. And for them to murder their own children showed how desperate they were.”
Ted, who had been silent up until now, asked, “Are you suggesting Cassie might have–”
“No!” It was Luke’s snarl that answered his question. “Cassie loved the baby. Somebody attacked her, and when I find out who it was, they’re going to pay dearly.”
Samuel shifted in his seat unhappily. “It’s going to be hard to do that, Luke. Not only did the attackers cover their scent up, it could have been anybody. White omegas are incredibly strong. They must be to protect their young. No matter how weak Cassie was, she could have held her own. It had to have been an ambush. And it was someone who knew exactly where to look for her.”
The room was silent as they all processed this new information. The attack on the alpha’s mate and cub had been an inside job. One of their own was responsible for this.
“Has Bard said anything?”
Kevin looked at Luke, “He said he got a call from someone that you had brought in a female into the pack. And he assumed it was Cassie. We tried to trace the call, but it was made from a payphone in town, and the voice was distorted so that it couldn’t be identified.”
“Release him.”
Abigail and Kevin growled. “What?”
Luke gave them a steady look, “Release him. Let Black Eye do what they can. They can’t take my mate away from me. And if they try, they can find themselves a new alpha.”
He waited until Kevin nodded and then said, “I’m going to leave for a while. I’
m going to bring Cassie home.”
Chapter 12
Cassie didn’t have the strength to scowl at the fairy who sat on her knee and chattered with her. They had been hostile for a few days – hitting her, biting her – but when she had shown no signs of resistance, they had stopped. A few of them had watched her in curiosity as she did nothing but sit there, leaning against the tree. Then one of them had brought her water trapped on a leaf.
It had not even been a mouthful, and she hadn’t had the strength to turn her head away. The creature that was just a little larger than her hand had flown up and fed her the water. The others had followed suit, making a game out of it. She wanted them to stop, to let her die, but they wouldn’t let her. She wondered if they had taken pity on her or if they found her a strange creature. She couldn’t understand a word of what they said. They would just talk to her and sometimes look annoyed and sometimes amused.
Two of them carried berries on a leaf towards her, and when she refused to open her mouth, they looked angry and chattered so loudly that Cassie just gave in. What was the point? They would get bored of her soon enough. Her bear lay silent within her. It hadn’t so much as moved.
Cassie gave a bitter smile. “So you gave up as well, did you?”
A shifting inside her mind.
She hadn’t felt anything from Luke’s end and wondered if he was angry. Did he blame her for losing the child? She did. She had felt his probing a few days back, but it had stopped and she had stopped caring. A part of her still liked to dream about a happy every after with Luke. It was always with Luke. His face was the only one which came to mind.
She had fallen for him.
The great and mighty Cassie had handed her heart over to a man. A lot of good it did her.
But Luke would have made a wonderful father. He might even have accepted her and loved her. Despite his snarly attitude, with her, he was kind, he was funny, and he tried his best to seduce her even if it was just to annoy her. She hadn’t thought it possible to fall in love so quietly. It was like she had slipped into love with him, and it had fit her like a glove.
Saved by Alpha Bear (Paranormal Shifter Romance) (Shadow Claw Book 1) Page 7
