Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
“If you kill him, you’ll kill Casey.”
Something flashed in Ignacio’s eyes. “And why should I care if anything happened to her?”
“Considering you believe she’s your mate, I’d say she’s probably the only person on this planet who matters to you. I get why you want Eli dead. If someone not only imprinted on my mate, they convinced her that they were her true mate—that she was born for them, that she belonged with them, that she was no one whatsoever to me—I’d want him dead. Dead and buried.
“If I couldn’t have her, I’d at least want her to acknowledge that she was meant for me. But Casey hasn’t acknowledged that she’s yours, has she? Eli has her utterly convinced that you’re no one to her. Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. In any case, they’re mated now. And like I said, killing him would kill her.”
Ignacio’s jaw hardened. “Their bond is incomplete.”
“But not fragile.”
“She’d survive his death. Casey is too strong to do anything but survive. She and I are very much alike, you know. Driven. Resilient. Ambitious. She understands how achieving what you want in life can mean making sacrifices you might resent.”
Cain wouldn’t say that she and Ignacio were alike at all, but whatever. “That doesn’t mean she’s your mate.”
Ignacio’s face darkened. “She is mine.” The words were spoken flatly, but there was a wealth of possession there that was almost child-like in its simplicity.
A normal person might have questioned how Ignacio could ever have mistakenly thought that she was his mate. But people like him and Cain couldn’t rely on feeling the pull of the mating bond, since they didn’t feel in the same way that normal people did. They just didn’t have the emotional capacity to.
It was clear that Ignacio was drawn to Casey, and Cain could understand it. She was strong, loyal, full of life, and fairly brimmed with positive energy. She was everything Ignacio could never be; everything that the people around him had never been. For him, she’d be like a lone bulb in a dark room.
Given the cougar’s nature and past, it was not at all surprising that he’d want to own her. And that was all it was—Ignacio wanted to possess her. Not because she was born for him, but because she appealed to him on a level that no other female had done before, and he’d mistaken that for the pull of a true-mate bond.
“I don’t believe she’s yours, Ignacio. And I don’t just say that because I’ve seen her and Eli together. I say it because you see her as a thing that belongs to you, not a person—I can hear it in the way you speak of her. You’d never prioritize her needs over yours, would you? Having the position of Alpha is more important to you than she is, which tells you everything you need to know.”
Ignacio snapped his teeth together. “Think what you like, Holt. But facts are facts. Casey Frost is mine.”
“Here’s a real fact for you.” Cain took a step toward him. “You’re going to die today, Ignacio. See, you’re right that very little matters to me other than my family and the Movement. But there is a little someone who matters above all else to me. A little someone who’s safe behind that door you want to get through. A little someone you had shot.” Cain felt his nostrils flare. “I almost lost my mate because of you, Ignacio.”
The cougar went very, very still. “I didn’t know she was yours.”
“I don’t care.”
“If I’d known—”
“It wouldn’t have made a difference to you.” Cain tilted his head. “Men like us … we live with dark, violent, destructive thoughts and urges, don’t we? They poke at us. Prod us to act. And we have to make a conscious decision every day not to act on them, even though we see no real reason why we shouldn’t.
“Me personally? I don’t understand why I should be so concerned about following what’s ‘right’ when the lines of morality are blurry at best. Morality is objective. Ethics can be twisted to suit a person’s agenda. For example, I can argue that I’m justified in killing you, considering you’ll kill a whole lot of people today if I don’t. But that’s not why I’m going to kill you, Ignacio. I’m going to do it because the thought pleases me. Because you tried to take the thing that matters most from me. Because I’m a cruel, vindictive bastard who likes to hurt people sometimes.”
Ignacio lifted his chin. “You won’t find me easy to kill, Cain.”
“You’re already dead. You were dead the moment that bullet sank into my mate.”
Eli had no sooner switched off the engine than he was hopping out of the SUV. Following the growls, snarls, shrieks, and hisses that rang through the air, he ran out of the parking lot, dashed around the main lodge, and onto the clearing near the play area. There, he skidded to a halt. His wolf ceased panicking and blinked in surprise.