“Are you going to tell him something you didn’t tell me?” Liza stopped her with the question.
Turning back, Cassie couldn’t help but smile. “If I did, Liza, he’s your mate, and I know Stygian well enough to know that he would tell you anything I might tell him.”
Relief scented the air as Liza nodded, some of the tension easing out of her as Cassie left the room.
Now what? she thought as her father met her outside the door. Why the hell did it seem so important that she be here?
As the elevator stopped on the fifth floor and the doors slid open smoothly, Stygian was immediately aware of the additional security forces along the floor.
Dash had been slowly amassing his own pack to ensure the protection of his family. Cassie was one of the most valuable members of the Breed community, simply because of their love for her.
As a child, she had managed to pull Sanctuary as well as Haven together and created bonds that had become unbreakable as she matured.
She had been the only hybrid Wolf Breed child for many years, and was accepted as the Feline Prides’ adopted child due to the months Dash and Elizabeth Sinclair had been forced to leave her in their care.
As a young adult and the only Breed who seemed to have the ability to effectively argue Breed law without revealing the secrets it hid and protected, she had become even more important.
Nodding to the additional Wolf Breeds who lined the hall leading to Jonas’s suite, Stygian made his way to the entrance, stepping inside as the probationary enforcer opened the door for him.
“Stygian!” The happy cry sang from Cassie’s voice as she jumped from her chair, her long black hair flying around her too delicate form as she raced across the room.
Dressed in jeans, white sneakers, and a white T-shirt claiming BREEDS RULE, in black, she looked more like a kid than a young woman rapidly approaching her twenty-first birthday.
She stopped inches from him, her blue eyes twinkling teasingly as she stared up him.
“You dog,” she accused him with a grin. “You went and mated and now I can’t even give you a hug. Tell me you’re totally happy and I’ll forgive you.”
Stygian couldn’t help but laugh. Cassie had a way about her that simply invited laughter.
“Come here, imp.” Despite the vague irritation that came with holding a woman other than his mate after mating, he still gathered Cassie’s slight form into his arms as she threw hers around his neck. “Trust me, I’m totally happy in my mate. Now, how have you been, sweetheart?”
No one who knew the fragile young woman could dislike her. She was filled with charm and compassion, and despite the ever-present shadows in her eyes, she spread happiness wherever she went.
“I’ve been completely bored now that Styx has mated,” she told him as she stepped back with a little pout. “Who am I supposed to cause trouble with now?”
Stygian grinned back at her. Styx Mackenzie, the red-haired Scot Breed, had been her partner in crime for all her hijinks until he had mated the year before.
“I’m sure Breeds are standing in line to help you cause trouble.” He chuckled before turning to her father and clasping the hand held out to him. “Dash, good to see you.”
The man was black-haired, blue-eyed, standing over six feet tall and still in his prime despite the fact that he was now in his forties.
Mating, as with all Breeds, seemed to have frozen him into the age he had been when he mated the human Elizabeth Colder.
Just as it had delayed her aging as well.
“Elizabeth, you’re as beautiful as ever,” Stygian swore as he passed the back of his hand over the silk of her hair where it flowed to her right shoulder.
The greeting seemed to come about naturally over the years. Female mates were incredibly sensitive to any male’s touch other than their mate’s. The mere act of shaking hands was mildly painful if a female was in mating heat, and something no Breed would inflict on any other’s mate.
After the first phase of mating, the heat came in cycles rather like a female’s menstrual cycle. There were times, though, that the heat itself wasn’t detectable after mates had been together six months or longer.
But friends and family had developed a habit of, rather than touching, the males passing the backs of their fingers along the right side of the female’s head in a gesture of affection, just in case mating heat had flared again.
“You’re as handsome as ever, Stygian.” She grinned before stepping back to her mate’s side. “It’s good to see you again.”
“And I’ve already met your mate,” Cassie told him as he turned his attention back to her. “I’m surprised you asked me to come, though. I think even you sense that there are no answers to be found right now. And once they are revealed, I don’t think it’s something you—or Liza—are ready to know.”
That knowledge was out there now.
Stygian stared back at her, silent, wondering why she had made the statement and why she would put that between himself and Jonas.
“I wanted her to have the chance to come to that knowledge herself,” he told her, reminding himself that he should have remembered that Cassie rarely practiced tact when she was around those she loved. And she did dearly love Jonas Wyatt—poor kid. “Those memories won’t be easy for her to accept. But I’m smart enough to know the danger she’s facing, Cassie. I won’t risk her because I might not be ready to know whatever the truth may be.”
Cassie didn’t say anything; she just stared beyond him, her blue eyes glowing neon now.
How she did what she did, no one knew for certain. What she actually saw, heard or felt, no one could detect. Unlike most Breeds and humans, there wasn’t a Breed yet that could sense anything Cassie was feeling.
Cassie saw the form that wavered into her view. She almost flinched. Every part of her soul filled with pain, filled with an agony she couldn’t understand.
Chills raced over her flesh—hot and then cold, as Cassie felt herself weakened at the sight of the spirit that slowly materialized beside Stygian.
This wasn’t Honor. It wasn’t Liza.
Who was she? What did she want and who did she belong to?
The spirit was slowly shaking her head, her hands clasped in front of her, her caramel-colored hair flowing over her face as her brown eyes stared back at Cassie pleadingly.
Who was she?
“Please. He’ll hear, no matter where you are, no matter where you speak, he’ll know. Please don’t betray me, Cassie. Please don’t let him kill me.”