For a second, the barest second, his self-control slipped. Anger surged through him at the thought that she honestly believed she could so carelessly endanger her life and he would do nothing to protect her.
“I have the right to protect my mate.” He pushed his face close to hers, felt her surprise, saw it in her rounded eyes and the flush that suddenly mounted her skin as his voice rumbled dangerously. “However need be, Cassa, I claim that right. You’re in danger here. The very fact that that bastard contacted you tells me that he’s already targeted you. You know that as well as I do.”
“Well, you can unclaim that right.” Suddenly, she was nose to nose with him, her stormy eyes darkening further as they narrowed back at him angrily, daring him, challenging him. Hell, he was going to come in his jeans now. “Don’t think I’ll tolerate force, Cabal. Not from you or any other man. Never again. And don’t for one minute think that you can force me out of this. Mating heat be damned, I won’t allow it.”
Cassa could feel the anger she had been trying to stem over the past days rising inside her now, trying to break free of the careful self-control she used to maintain it. She’d focused on the story she’d come here to uncover; she’d even allowed herself to focus on her own guilt rather than his actions. That tunnel vision was beginning to expand though and her ability to continue to ignore his actions was eroding.
He had dared to manhandle her, to all but lie to her. He had frightened her, deliberately in the forest her first night here, and in the back of her mind she admitted to herself that she had always believed that no matter the circumstance, her Bengal would never treat her in such a way. He would never allow another Breed to chase her, nor would he try to push her out of something that was so important to her.
“Never again?” The golden glitter of the amber flecks in his dark green eyes intensified. “I know I’ve never forced anything from you, Cassa, so who the hell are you talking about?”
His voice lowered. There was a throb of latent violence in it now that sent a chill up her spine and made her wonder if the man she had been married to wasn’t lucky to be dead. He’d died easy. The look on Cabal’s face made her suspect he could make a man die hard.
“You deliberately allowed me to be chased through that forest,” she accused him furiously. “You let Dog terrify me. You let him run me from that valley so you wouldn’t have to deal with it. What you did was terrifying and painful and something I would have sworn you could never do to a woman, let alone your mate.”
She watched his jaw clench, the muscle ticking furiously beneath the flesh as he glared back at her. Let him glare. She felt like raging—hell, she felt like hitting.
“How dare you!” she yelled as she moved from the stool and slapped her hands furiously on the top of the counter. “How dare you do that to me.”
“How dare you risk your life in such a manner!” he yelled back at her. “How dare you to think I’d allow any Breed, no matter the reason, a chance to so much as breathe your air. Damn you to hell, Cassa. I nearly broke my own fucking neck getting to you that night.”
“Then you should have done more than attempt to run me off later!” she yelled. “You have zero respect for me, Cabal. And even less understanding of who I am, or you wouldn’t think you can lie and connive to get me off this story.”
“What the hell did you expect?” he growled out. “You’re like a fucking bulldog with a bone. I doubt death would stop you.”
She rolled her eyes at his male outrage. “Oh, forgive me for doing my job,” she bit out sarcastically. “Excuse me for giving a damn if the Breeds are framed or in danger of losing all this great public sentiment they’ve acquired over the years.”
“Public sentiment my ass,” he growled, and she couldn’t blame him. The majority of goodwill and expressive sympathy toward the Breeds was no more than an attempt at political correctness for many of the high-profile individuals that spouted it.
“I’ve worked hard, Cabal, as have other journalists that I work with, to make certain the Breeds are portrayed in the best possible light, while still staying within the bounds of truth. You aren’t helping me at all here.”
“Truth?” He came around the counter, his body tense, wired for action as his expression tightened in outrage. “What truth, Cassa? If you found a Breed bending over a bloody body, what would you do then?”
“The same thing I’m doing now!” she yelled, her hands going to her hips as she faced him defiantly and loved every second of it. “Investigating, Cabal. I have the pictures of an obvious Breed attack and death. Do you see any damned thing in print, or do you see me trying to figure out who the hell is trying to frame the Breeds and why?”
“I see you trying to get your ass killed. That’s what I see.”
She almost laughed at his expression. It was completely male, infuriated and filled with frustration. And she wasn’t frightened. She was facing him defiantly without fear.
He wouldn’t hurt her. He hadn’t allowed her to be hurt that night in the forest, and he wouldn’t do it now. He had frightened her, brought back memories of a past she wanted to forget and pissed her the hell off, but he hadn’t hurt her.
“Well, I guess you’ll just have to let me continue on my merry little way and hope I get lucky,” she snapped. “Because there’s not a chance in hell, Cabal, that you’re going to stop me.”
Cabal could feel the heat and hunger rising to a boiling point inside his mind. She knew better than this. He knew she knew better than this. She had been around Breeds long enough, especially mated couples, to know what such vocal and physical defiance did to a mate.
“We are not normal combatants, Cassa,” he warned her, his voice dropping as the growl in his throat echoed inside it. “You know what you’re doing.”
Her brow arched mockingly. “Do I really?” She turned away from him and paced a few feet before turning back. “What am I doing, Cabal? Refusing to give you your way? Poor little Bengal Breed. He’s been so spoiled by his little toys that he thinks all women are going to kneel down and worship those pretty little stripes he has on his ass. Sorry, babe, not me. Your arrogance is pandered to enough the way it is.”
The thought of those women, a damned parade of them who had visited his and his brother’s bed, was enough to set her teeth on edge. There were times she was certain that pissed her off more than the way he’d manhandled her and fought to keep her from getting to the truth in Glen Ferris. If there was a Breed groupie he and Tanner had missed over the years, then it wasn’t because he hadn’t tried to screw them all.
“Leave the stripes out of this.” He paced closer, his growl warning.
She should have known better than to mention the stripes; Cabal was also rumored to dare his lovers to mention them. It was said he hated the Bengal stripes, the oddly colored fine hairs that ran from a point along each buttock around his leg to end in a point on the inside of each thigh.
The unusual markings were highly erotic. She wanted to kiss every damned one of those hairs but hadn’t yet found the courage to try.
She widened her eyes in false innocence. “You mean all those snickering little debutantes you’ve fucked over the years didn’t dare mention them to you all? Why, Cabal, they were quite remiss. They’re sexy. They make me wet.” She was nose to nose with him. “They make me just want to pet you all over.”
His eyes narrowed on her. “You’re daring me,” he stated, his voice so dark and warning that it sent chills racing down her spine. “Why, Cassa? Why push me like this when you know where it will lead? Do you think I want to take you without thought? Without consideration? Why push me like this?”