Shoving the pain to that place where she’d shoved the other broken promises and disillusioned realizations, she fought back her tears and finished packing. Three suitcases contained her life. Twenty-five years and so very little to show for it.
A small collection of knives she’d found each year on her birthday for the past years. Just as many small crystal dragons. They were her only keepsakes. Presents over the years had included gift cards and clothes. Terran had given her his older-model pickup when the one she’d bought last year had been repossessed within weeks of her losing her job as a receptionist at the tribal headquarters.
Raymond had ensured it was repossessed, she’d known that.
Lifting the largest suitcase in one hand, she slung the strap of the overnight bag on her opposite shoulder and picked up the smaller case.
Over the years she’d acquired a few things herself. Weapons she’d hidden, cash she could access. It wasn’t much, but it was enough that she didn’t have to worry about the fact that no one would hire her since she’d moved from Raymond’s house.
Either employers were put off because of the charges brought against her supposed father or, if that wasn’t it, they weren’t hiring her because Raymond had specifically asked them not to. For whatever reason, the position she was left in was precarious at best.
She did seem to have a place to live, though.
Surprisingly, the voice text that had come through from Lobo Reever just after she left the meeting was an offer of a rental house he owned just outside his huge estate in the desert. A nice little place with a pool, adobe walls surrounding nearly an acre of property. It was private, easy to secure and, she hoped, safe.
She was certain Lobo hadn’t been behind the offer alone, though. Graeme was quite good at getting the very influential Wolf Breed to do his bidding. She just hadn’t figured out how he’d managed it yet.
She wasn’t going to look a gift wolf in the mouth, though. It was a place to live. She didn’t have to force herself on the Martinez family any longer, nor feel as though she were some orphan relation to the Breeds.
Jonas may pretend to want to be her new best friend but in the few seconds that her sense of smell had been at its peak, she’d scented the truth.
Contempt, distaste, arrogant superiority. They’d all filled him. He didn’t see her as human nor as Breed but as some inferior in-between without worth.
Which didn’t bode well for the daughter she knew he adored.
How a man, or a Breed, could hate one and love another of the same genetic mutation, she didn’t understand.
She didn’t intend to spend much time trying to make sense of it either. She had other problems, much larger problems. One in particular, a big, muscled Bengal Breed posing as a Lion and determined to destroy her.
If only she could make herself just as determined to destroy him.
? ? ?
“I don’t like allowing her to leave like this.” Terran watched the pickup until it was out of sight.
The anger in his voice matched that of his scent, the tinge of regret and sorrow filling the early evening air.
“I know,” Cullen assured him. “These are decisions she has to make alone, Terran, we’ve always known that.”
“Not like this,” the Navajo argued. “It doesn’t matter if Claire still protects her or not. I accepted her as my niece the night she took Claire’s identity. Whether or not Claire’s spirit survives to shield her has nothing to do with it.”
“Graeme and Orrin are the ones you should be arguing with,” Cullen sighed, pushing his fingers through his hair as he blew out a hard breath. “They decided this was how it had to be, not me.”
The old Navajo had guided Cat this far, Cullen could do nothing but trust in Orrin’s visions now and pray Cat survived the coming realizations she had to face. As for Graeme, there were complications there that Cullen had no desire to consider at the moment.
“That brother of yours is a menace to Breeds and humans alike,” Terran muttered. “And I don’t trust him. He should have come to her, faced her . . .”
“There is nothing on the face of this earth that will stand between him and Cat.” Cullen turned to face the other man fully now, staring at him intently, willing him to understand, to know, that Graeme would never tolerate it for an instant. “Do as Orrin instructed. Let Cat face what’s to come. Encouraging her to hide from who and what she is now, could get her killed.”
It could get all of them killed. And life might not be exactly what he’d envisioned sometimes, but he still had things to do, dying before he completed those tasks wasn’t something he wanted to face.
“She’s been deserted all her life, Cullen,” Terran snapped, the scent of his anger growing. “Even by him. And by God following suit with everyone else in her damned life doesn’t sit well with me.”
Turning Terran stomped back into the house, leaving Cullen to turn and stare into the desert, the weight of Terran’s words weighing on his shoulders. Because he was right. They’d all deserted her in one form or the other, to save her. But in ensuring her physical survival, what had they done to her heart?
? CHAPTER 2 ?