by Lora Leigh
e always had shadows. Shadows our Breeds could never identify or track. They’re damned good, Stygian, if they can evade us.”
“I’ve glimpsed them,” Stygian admitted. “Each time I’ve sent Flint or one of my own team out to track them, they simply disappear.”
“What’s your gut telling you?” Dog asked when Stygian said nothing more. “What are your animal instincts telling you?”
The bastard knew exactly what his instincts were telling him, Stygian thought as he glared out at the desert once again.
“When it happens, no matter how much she suspects it, it’s going to destroy her,” he snapped, enraged at the thought. “She believed she was one person. Her parents, her friends, everyone treated her as though she were Liza Johnson. To definitively learn the truth will destroy her.”
“Not if Honor’s memories are still there,” Dog stated. “If she’s having nightmares, then no doubt they are. Someone has simply overlaid Honor’s memories with Liza’s. They’ve done just enough to keep her safe and to keep her alive.”
“And now the Breeds will destroy that security,” Stygian retorted. “What a fine gift to give my mate.”
Dog breathed out roughly at the thought. “Too bad Liza’s medical records from the lab were destroyed. We know her DNA was changed by the treatments she received there, but we have no idea what it changed to. Have you asked her to have a Core Level DNA test done?”
“That’s not the answer,” Stygian argued. “As you said, we have no idea how Honor’s DNA was changed. It wouldn’t prove anything.”
“It would prove she’s not related to Audi Johnson,” Dog reminded him. “Just because she carries his familial scent doesn’t mean anything other than the fact that she lived as his daughter, in his home, for so many years. A Core Level test could reveal the truth.”
“It would.” Stygian agreed. “Unless a genetic wipe was done, which we suspect it was.”
“You think her natural father would ever have allowed her genetics to go unprogrammed, Stygian?” Mockery filled the Coyote’s voice now. “Who are you fooling, my friend, and why?”
Thank God Liza hadn’t asked that question, or seemed to have suspected the truth of Honor’s father’s love for her. No, her natural father would never have allowed such a thing. Any more than Stygian would allow the Core Level testing for the simple fact that telling her she was Honor Roberts wasn’t going to help her. It would only endanger her.
“You bastards and your mating bullshit,” Dog retorted irritably. “You’d keep your mates from getting a scratch even if it meant risking stitches in the long run.”
“You’ll understand when you find your mate,” Stygian informed him as the memory of ecstasy clashed with every fear he had for her.
Nothing mattered but taking away all chances of pain, of risk, of anything but that which would bring a smile to her eyes, laughter to her heart.
“I like to think I wouldn’t ignore reality,” Dog growled. “My mate will always have to fight. If she’s not prepared for that, then she’ll have to become prepared. She’ll have to face the knowledge that hell awaits her every minute of the day, and I hope I’m man enough—Breed enough—not to forget that just because she’s my mate.”
“Just because she’s your mate, nothing will matter but protecting her from that hell. Nothing will matter but giving the gentleness in her, the compassion in her, a chance to grow. Seeing her fight will destroy you. Knowing she may have to fight will remind you of every weakness and limitation you have. She’ll change every rule you live by and every belief you’ve been certain could never be altered.”
“God, just shoot me first.” Dog grunted.
To that Stygian had to laugh. “She’ll fill your soul with such light, Dog, with such humble certainty that you simply don’t deserve the pleasure she brings to you, that suddenly, your creation, the hell of training, all of it, suddenly becomes worth it, because it brought you to this one woman that only death can steal from you. And though her death would mean yours as well, still, it’s worth every moment you have to spend with her.”
Mating Liza had been the most humbling experience of his life, and given him the most pleasure and happiness he had ever known.
Even amidst the danger and the fight to ensure her safety, Stygian knew there was no other woman, no other life he would face if it meant facing it without her in his bed and in his life.
“Like I said, save me from mating if it’s all that,” Dog grunted. “I’d rather just go ahead and eat one of my own bullets, I believe.”
Stygian was saved from a reply as the communication devices they wore in their ears suddenly activated.
“Be advised. Arrival in progress.”
The lack of identities assured him and Dog that it was the Sinclair family that was landing on the helicopter pad on the roof of the hotel.
The Sinclairs were arriving a day earlier than expected.
Stygian’s head jerked around to stare at Dog, certain the Breed had drawn him out here to allow Jonas to complete some manipulative little drama he might have in mind. Dog was just as surprised. His eyes widened as well as he slowly straightened from the boulder.
They both shot from their positions at the same time, jumped over the ledge that led to the position they had taken to survey the desert.
Hitting the soft incline with the flat of his boots, arms extended, Stygian went into a sliding crouch as he raced to reach the bottom of the towering stone pillars that jutted up from the desert floor.
They were approximately thirty miles from the hotel once they reached the Dragoon parked at the bottom of the tower.
He was screwed. There wasn’t a chance in hell he would reach the hotel before Cassie got to Liza.
“Arrival completed. Justice, Breaker, confirm positions and secured access to base two.”
“Confirmed, in position and access to base two secured. Arrival completed and en route.”
“Be advised, Team Three, movement along area seven detected.”
“Team Three moving out,” Loki answered the call.
“Team three confirmed, advise base two when in position and movement sighted.”
“I guess Dash still has a ban on Coyotes in the princess’s presence,” Dog growled in irritation as they hit the base of the rock column they’d taken as a lookout and went at a full run across the short distance to the hidden Dragoon.
Dash Sinclair rarely allowed Coyotes in his daughter’s presence because of the distress it placed her in with the visions that bombarded her.
“Control, be advised, Enforcer Black and C dash one en route.” He gave Dog’s call sign rather than naming him. “I request my mate remain secure until my arrival,” Stygian activated the link at his ear as they jumped into the Dragoon. “ETA in twenty.”
There was no way the Dragoon was going to gather enough speed with its weight and weapons array across the rough terrain between their location and the hotel.
“Request noted,” Control responded blandly.
“Control, be advised, I request solitary security for my mate until my arrival,” he gritted out as the Dragoon shot from the hidden shadows of the shallow cave he’d found to park it within.
The request was a demand. As Liza’s mate, he was well within his rights to make it, and to have it heeded.
“Repeat, Enforcer Black,” Control came back. “Your signal is deteriorating.”
“The fuck it is,” he yelled out as the Dragoon jumped a shallow, dry bed, and Dog cursed beside him as he held on to the safety grips hanging from the roll bars above them. “Control, advise the director—”
“Repeat, Enforcer Black,” Control cut in over the demand. “Please repeat, your comm-link is fading.”
“Jonas, I’ll make your mate a fucking widow,” Stygian yelled into the link. “You conniving bastard, don’t you do it.”
He stomped the gas, knowing there was no more speed to be found as the vehicle bounced over the rough terrain, stirring up clouds
of dust that nearly obliterated the vision outside.
“You’re wasting your fucking breath, Wolf,” Dog snarled from beside him. “You know Wyatt and you know that freaky little witch of Sinclair’s. Stop wasting your time threatening Wyatt and figure out how you’re going to deal with the fallout instead.”
“By killing Jonas,” Stygian snapped back.
“Yeah, you and the rest of the world,” Dog sneered. “Good luck there.”
Stygian snarled in fury, tore across a shallow creek bed and fought to right the vehicle as he all but forced it up the sharp, uneven incline.
The Dragoon wasn’t meant for the speed or the terrain he was using it against, but he had little choice. He had to get to Liza. He had to get to her before Cassie did, and he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell…
Cassie tilted her head to the side and regarded the older woman that stepped into the sitting area of the suite she and her father, Dash, had been shown to, from the connecting bedroom.
Immediately, her gaze went beyond Liza Johnson to the hazy form of a young woman, of approximately the same age, that moved behind her. The form had long blond hair, gray eyes, higher cheekbones and her lips were more lush, but with a slight resemblance to the woman known as Liza Johnson.
The flow of natural, sun-kissed hair was like a halo around the spirit’s head, while her gray eyes watched Liza with a mixture of sadness and fear. This was the real Liza Johnson, Cassie sensed. The woman the young girl would have become had she not died in a fiery crash at the bottom of a canyon.
“Liza Johnson,” Rule Breaker—God love his heart but she did love his name—stepped forward for the introductions. “Dash Sinclair and his daughter, Cassie.”
Liza stopped in the middle of the room, watching them warily, her darker gray eyes moving between the three of them before they settled on her. Cassie sensed the flash of trepidation.
“I see you’ve already heard about me.” Cassie sighed as her gaze moved to the misty form of the young girl now standing close beside Liza.
“It’s nice to meet you both.” Liza extended her hand to accept the handshake Cassie extended, before taking Dash’s proffered hand as well.
Her father was still as handsome as he had been the day he had rescued her and her mother, Cassie thought, but this was one of the rare times that a woman hadn’t sighed in appreciation of her father’s rough, dangerous good looks.
“A very nice avoidance of my statement.” Cassie laughed.
“Don’t taunt her, Seer,” the spirit chastised her. “She’s facing more than you could understand.”
Spirits chastised her often these days.
“Yes, Ms. Sinclair, I’ve heard of you.” Liza nodded, her gaze darkening, not with fear, but with a flash of resignation instead. “If you’re looking for Stygian—”
“No, I’m here to meet you,” Cassie assured her before turning to her father. “Dad, I’m sure I’ll be fine now,” she promised him. “Could Ms. Johnson and I chat for a minute, privately?”
Her father scowled at her.
“You shouldn’t be here. You’re going to ruin everything. Go away. I’ll find you later.”
Yes, the spirits had learned to do just that. This one had been calling out to her, though. Cassie had sensed it even before Stygian had requested her presence. She’d sensed this spirit since the moment she had met him, knowing they were somehow tied together.
“I’ll be right outside,” her father promised her.
The spirit turned to Liza then. “Tell her to leave. You’re tired. You know Stygian will want you to wait for him before talking to this woman.”
A frown creased Liza’s brow. “We should wait for Stygian,” she said, though her jaw tightened and her gaze flashed in irritation at herself as she heeded the subconscious demand of the spirit at her side.
Cassie tucked her hands into the back of her jeans and watched the woman and the spirit with a heavy heart. “I’m here to help you, Liza.” She glanced at the spirit as she spoke before meeting the other woman’s gaze once again.
As she spoke, Cassie wasn’t surprised to see the dark-haired being that slowly wavered into view on the other woman’s left.
It was all she could do to hold back her shocked surprise as the spirit of Honor Roberts appeared, looking as she would have without the plastic surgery that made her look more like Liza Johnson. The alterations to her face weren’t drastic. An added fullness to her lips, a rounding of her aristocratic nose, her cheekbones had been sharpened, and her eye color darkened from blue to gray.
The two girls hadn’t looked much alike before the alterations, but just enough had been done to bring her closer to Liza Johnson’s facial features, while the differences between Honor and Liza had been explained away as damages that had to be corrected from the wreck.
It was obvious the spirit of the true Liza Johnson was weary. She was tired of lingering in the half state, not alive and yet not dead. While Honor Roberts appeared to be patient, if concerned, with Cassie’s presence.
“It isn’t time.” Honor Roberts shook her head as she watched Cassie worriedly. “You can’t do this right now.”
Oh, how she wanted to question these two, to learn the secrets they hid. To know their thoughts, their fears in that state; one held to the earth through ancient magic, the other kept silent, unable to take her rightful place within the body she was still held to, yet could not share.
“Liza, don’t you think it’s time we talked?” Cassie asked, holding the other woman’s gaze, wishing she could read her as easily as she could hear the two spirits standing to each side of her.
“Ms. Sinclair, I’m certain you’re here to help,” she said tensely. “But you’re not someone I can deal with right now. If I wanted to talk to any ghosts that followed me, then I have six tribal chiefs that would be more than willing to talk to me.”
“Oh yeah, right, like they’re going to give her any answers.” The young blonde beside her rolled her eyes sarcastically. “Those old geezers won’t even take her phone calls when she gets up the nerve to call them.”
“Are you certain they’re that willing to help?” Cassie asked as she withdrew her hands from her back pockets and moved to a nearby chair. “Have they been answering the calls you’ve made to them?”
Liza smiled faintly. “Jonas probably told you he compromised my phone the second he had the chance. He’s known all along I was trying to reach the chiefs.”
Cassie nodded at that as Liza sat slowly on the couch across from her.
“He didn’t mention it actually,” she said, her smile commiserating. “But knowing Jonas, I have no doubt he did just that. He’s very worried about Amber.”
“You could draw that damned Breed a road map and he’d still ignore the obvious,” the dark-haired vision cursed Jonas, as most fully living creatures did as well. “He wouldn’t listen if he could see and hear us, as well. He’s like one of those junkyard dogs that just refuse to let something go.”
“Amber’s his little girl.” The other vision sighed as she berated the darker one. “He can’t let this go, and you know it.”
“Just as you know that he’s refusing to see the truth,” Honor’s spirit stated irritably.
It was all Cassie could do to keep her expression from revealing her complete amazement at these two. It was no wonder the woman they knew as Liza Johnson couldn’t navigate her way through the drifting nightmares and fragmented memories to find the place she needed to be.
To remember.
“There is a time and a place, Cassie.” Honor’s spirit suddenly turned to her, the wavy, hazy figure all but glaring at her as though she had read her thoughts. “The time has not yet arrived.”
But the place was here? Was that what she meant?
“Ms. Sinclair, did you hear me?” the woman known as Liza questioned her, a hint of her irritation showing in her tone.
Cassie blinked and turned back to her quickly, only now realizing that her attention had been focus
ed on the two spirits tied to the other woman.
“I’m sorry.” Shaking her head, she smiled, a bit abashed. “My attention drifted.”
“What do you see?” The immediate question was almost a whisper, and one filled with trepidation. “Tell me who you see, Cassie.”
“Not yet, Cassie,” the true spirit belonging to the woman, Honor, turned to her quickly once more, beseeching, her voice pleading though her expression was filled with demand. “Chaos hasn’t arrived yet. You have to wait.”
“It’s not so much what I see, as what I sense.” Cassie focused on the other woman with a sigh.
She had learned long ago not to disobey the spirits that came to her when they made such demands. She had no idea the fate that awaited this woman, nor did she know the part the two spirits were to play.
“Then what do you sense?” There was an edge of fear, but her voice was filled with the need to know, to understand what was happening to the life she had once thought she’d known.
Cassie glanced at the wavering figures, their somber faces, the aching fear and uncertainty that shadowed them.
“Cassie, those who did this, those who hid me and gave her the life Liza was unable to live, knew what they were doing, just as they knew what was coming,” Honor whispered as the two forms began wavering, dissipating slowly. “Let me be safe, Cassie. Please, please let me and Stygian be safe.”
If anything happened to the woman known as Liza Johnson, if she died, then Stygian would follow her, Cassie knew. He was an intense Breed, known as a lone wolf, and he had mated this woman. He had given himself to her body and soul. If he lost her, then the Breeds would lose him.
The two slowly eased away, disappearing slowly as the woman known as Liza watched her with curious uncertainty.
“What do you see?” Liza asked again softly, almost too softly to hear, as though she were frightened of what was coming.
Cassie sighed wearily. “I didn’t come here to see anything, Liza. Stygian is one of my dearest friends, as are Jonas and Rachel. I’ve been worried about all of you and wanted to make certain there was nothing I could do to help.”
Why was she here?
Cassie wanted to rage, to scream. The spirits she had seen today were not the ones that needed her the most. Yet, the moment she had met Stygian, she had felt these two tied to him.
Was there another?
She looked around the room, opening her senses, calling out to any other that could be lurking, frightened to reveal themselves.
But there was nothing there.
There was no other spirit lurking in the room, no areas in the small sitting room that seemed blurred, or wavering. There was no hint of paranormal presence, and yet Cassie could still feel that cry, the one that resonated within her senses the moment Jonas had called with Stygian’s request. “If there was anything you could do to help, then only Stygian is aware of it.” Liza sighed as she pulled her long hair over a bared shoulder and sat back against the couch.
The sleeveless cotton top and jeans the other woman wore looked cool and comfortable, but Liza was anything but comfortable at the moment. She was off balance, and she felt that way because of Cassie’s presence.
“If there’s nothing I can do, then I’ll go see Rachel and Jonas.” Standing to her feet, Cassie looked around the room once more, searching, wondering where the presence that had called out to her was hidden.
Liza rose as well, her expression drawn, the tension that was tearing her apart inside evident in the set of her face and the shadows in her eyes.
“If you need me, Liza, I am really good at keeping secrets,” Cassie promised her sincerely. “I can be a very good friend.”
“I’ve heard that about you as well.” The small smile Liza gave her was one that assured Cassie that the other woman at least believed her, even if she wasn’t willing to take her up on the offer.
“Ask Stygian to call me later then?” Cassie asked as she headed for the door.
“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 caus