Bengal's Heart

◆ CHAPTER 27 ◆

Cabal had never known such a hellish experience in his life. Even watching his family die hadn’t impacted him, hadn’t destroyed him, the way watching Cassa drift away from him had.

The heli-jet ride across the mountains to Sanctuary, the nearest facility with the equipment and doctors to save her, had been a waking nightmare.

Now, standing outside the operating rooms, his gaze locked on the doors that Dr. Morrey would use to enter the room following the surgery, he felt the rage and pain burning inside his soul.

He had waited too long. He had held himself back from her for too many years. He had fought what he felt for her, what he needed, and now he was paying the price.

“Cabal.” Jonas stepped back into the waiting area, his face heavily lined and somber as his secretary moved in behind him.

Rachel wasn’t timid, but she was quiet. Her gaze was filled with compassion, her composed expression saddened.

She was Jonas’s mate. Cabal had known it the moment he met her, and he was sure Jonas knew it as well.

“Ely’s certain she’s going to be okay,” Cabal stated, though he didn’t really believe it. He’d always feared that fate would steal her from him. Now he was terrified he had been right.

“Ely knows what she’s doing,” Jonas said quietly. “Watts has been transferred back to the Middle East. We’ll be questioning him next week in regards to the remaining members of the Deadly Dozen, as well as Azrael’s child. If we can find the child, then we’ll find the father.”

Cabal growled at the thought of the Lion Breed that he blamed for Cassa’s injuries. If Azrael hadn’t kidnapped her, hadn’t decided that she could be traded for the information he wanted, then she wouldn’t be in surgery now.

“I’ll kill him for this, Jonas. He had no right to involve her this way.”

Rachel spoke up then. “She’s not a doll. You won’t put her on a shelf and dictate how she can or cannot live. If you do, Cabal, you’ll lose her.”

He glared at her, noticing absently how Jonas moved to block sight of her with his own body.

Hell, he knew better than to growl at her. She might not realize it, but Jonas was like a damn dog with a bone when it came to his little secretary.

“I don’t need any advice at this point,” he warned her instead, when he knew that what he might need was a miracle.

He hadn’t protected his mate.

He hung his head, refusing to look at either of them further. He couldn’t look at them. He had failed his mate, and that was even worse than failing his pride and his family.

“We know Azrael is alive now,” Jonas finally stated. “We need him alive.”

Sucked to be Jonas.

“You need everyone alive,” Cabal said. “You just like killing them yourself.”

“There is that,” Jonas agreed. “But we won’t have to worry about a funeral for anyone anytime soon. If Ely says Cassa will be fine, then she will be just that.”

Cabal clasped his hands between his knees, his grip tight. He prayed. As he had never prayed in his life, he prayed that Cassa survived.

He rubbed his hands over his face, still feeling the sensitivity of the marks across it. He hadn’t lost the stripes. Rage was still burning inside him; fear was still a metallic taste in his mouth.

As he lifted his head to glance back at Jonas, the door swung open and Ely stepped through. Her face was somber, but it always was now. Her eyes were dark and almost emotionless. That too was normal for her lately.

“She’s doing well.” She was wiping her hands. Cassa’s blood still stained the front of her surgical gown. “We had a few tense moments during surgery, but it appears the bullet didn’t do any lasting damage. Entered and exited through her right side. A few weeks’ recuperation and she’ll be . . .”

Cabal didn’t hear the rest of it. He pushed past her and followed the scent of his mate to the recovery room, set deep beneath the estate house that served as the main base of Feline Breed affairs.

He stepped quietly into the curtained-off room and stood by the bed that held his mate.

She was pale. Her hair was streaked with blood. A light sheet was pulled up over her bare breasts and the mating mark he had given her was clearly displayed on her shoulder.

Cabal reached out, his finger barely glancing it.

“You have stripes.” Her weak voice drew his attention as her hand tried to lift, only to falter and fall back to the bed.

He knew what she wanted. She had been fascinated with the stripes on his hips and thighs. These on his face would be no different.

He lifted her hand to them as he slowly sat down on the small stool next to the bed.

“These will be gone soon,” he said quietly. “It won’t be long now.”

She smiled as her lashes drifted closed, then opened once again.

“Ely pulled me through, huh?” There was an edge of wariness in her voice. “Everything is okay?”

“Everything is okay.” He turned her palm into his kiss. “You’re okay.”

She stared back at him, her gray eyes somber, drowsy.

“I didn’t protect you,” he said quietly. “This won’t happen again, Cassa.”

“Don’t cage me, Cabal.”

He shook his head at that. “I can’t cage you. You’d die, just as I would. But from now on, we work together. No more assignments apart.” It was the best way to ensure that she was never threatened again.

She grinned at that. “Tame little assignments, huh?”

“By my standards perhaps. I doubt others would see it that way.”

She stared back at him silently for long moments, and he knew what she was waiting on, what she needed.

He lowered his head as he dragged in a hard, desperate breath.

“I never blamed you.” He finally lifted his head and caught her gaze once again. “Never. Not even that night when he accused you of knowing, I knew you couldn’t have.”

She frowned at that statement.

“Your scent,” he explained. “It was one of innocence, of desperation and sorrow. There was no guilt in you, Cassa. There never has been. From the moment I smelled that innocence, I wanted nothing more than to taste it. To touch it. To hold it as my own. All these years, I’ve longed for that alone, and I’ve been too damned scared to reach out for it. Too scared that fate would tear you away from me and take you forever.”

Terrified she would die. A part of him had always feared that this incredible gift that God had given him would be taken from him just as quickly.

“No more running.” Her fingers caressed a stripe.

“No more running, Cassa,” he swore. There was no place he wanted to be other than right here by her side. “I’ve loved you since the moment that sweet tongue licked across my blood. Since the night I watched you fighting so desperately to save me. I’ve loved you, Cass, and I’ve been terrified of losing you.”

Her fingers paused in the slow rubbing caress of the tips against one narrow stripe.

“Terrified?”

“Shaking in my boots.” He leaned closer, his lips against hers. “So terrified I ran as far and as fast as I could.”

She stared up at him, her eyes wide, so filled with hope. His Cassa. His brave, adventurous Cassa.

“No more running?”

He licked across her lips, tasted her, loved her. His hands framed her beloved face, his thumbs stroking across her jaw. He was nearly shaking with the need to assure himself she was fine. That she lived. That she was his.

“No more running, baby.”

He eased onto the bed with her, thankful that it was so damned big. They had to make room for large men in pain when they made the beds for the Breed intensive care facility. It was just large enough for him to lie on his side beside her, to hold her, to feel her warmth, to soak in the fact that she still lived. That she was still his.

“I love you, Cassa.” He gave her the words he knew she needed, and felt that last barrier toward her collapse.

If she died, he would follow her. He would avenge every moment of pain she felt, and then he would give up his life to be with her in death.

“Always?” she whispered.

She had always loved him. She would always love him. He knew it, felt it to the ends of his soul.

“Always, baby.” He brushed the hair back from the side of her face, lowered his lips and touched hers once again. “I’ll always love you.”

She would always be his mate. She would always be the Bengal’s heart. Man and beast, they existed for her alone.

“I love you, Cabal.” She sighed against his lips, drowsiness finally taking her as she went to sleep to his kiss.

“I love you, Cass.” He lowered his head beside hers and let his own lashes drift closed.

She was safe. She was his. She was the Bengal’s heart, the man’s soul. And forever the mate he would cherish.