"Only if you don't manage to break anything," Storme stated regretfully. "I apologize for the insult to your husband and to the alpha, Hope. There's no excuse for it, and if I could retract my behavior, then I would do so."
She wouldn't grovel, but the Hope she remembered would have never expected her to.
"Nothing was broken, Storme," Hope assured her, the cool gleam in her gaze warming marginally, enough to give Storme hope.
She nodded before turning to Wolfe once again. "If you and Director Wyatt could meet with me tonight, Alpha Gunnar, I believe we have some business to discuss."
Styx stiffened at her side. For a moment, she swore she could feel his tension wrapping around her. His hand moved from the small of her back to her hip, his fingers curling over it firmly.
"I'll be there as well," Styx stated, his voice firm.
Wolfe nodded, his gaze still on Storme. "I look forward to the meeting. Let's enjoy the party for now, and enjoy all our freedoms." He glanced to Styx before his arm lifted, his hand clapping on Styx's shoulder. "As Hope said, once again, you've outdone yourself."
"Of course I did," Styx answered with a grin. "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing with excellence."
Storme turned to him, as always amazed at the easy, smooth charm and easy conceit he seemed to possess.
A subtle wink in her direction nearly had her shaking her head in exasperation.
"I guess I've lost my dance now." Cassie chose that moment to step forward.
Storme felt like a dowdy peon in the presence of a princess. The other girl's waist-length black curls and vivid blue eyes were amazing enough, but she managed to make even jeans and boots paired with a sleeveless camisole look like royal threads.
There was laughter in her gaze though, a smile on her lips, and Storme could see that the certain affection she felt for Styx went no further than a familial bond. There was no jealousy in Cassie's eyes, and no anger in her tone despite the fact that she propped her hands on her hips and gave Styx a mock glare.
"You have a lot of dance partners here, Cassie," Styx assured her with an easy laugh as his hand settled at Storme's hip once again. "If nothing else, you can torture Navarro."
Storme saw the look that crossed Cassie's face and filled her gaze. A mysterious, knowing look filled with concern.
"Navarro isn't available anymore," she said regretfully.
The tightness in Storme's chest increased. It wasn't what she said, or even the way she said it. It was that look in her eyes, the concern and the regret.
Something that even Styx and the others seemed to sense.
"What's happening, Cass?" It was her father that asked the question.
Cassie turned back to her father, breathed out roughly and shook her head. "I don't know, Dad. All I know is something is going to happen, and we all need to be ready for it."
"How long have you felt it?" Wolfe questioned her.
"The moment Navarro was introduced to my friend Micca this evening."
"The rumors are true," Storme injected softly. "You're psychic."
"Actually, no, I'm not." Cassie grimaced. "It's more complicated and not nearly so sane as being psychic." Her head tilted then, a light frown edging her forehead as she blinked slowly.
Her face seemed to pale before she shook that off and inhaled slowly, evenly.
As her lips parted to speak, another voice, a voice from the past, from a nightmare, spoke behind them.
"Dash, Elizabeth, congratulations."
Storme turned slowly.
She didn't know what Styx sensed, didn't understand the sudden, warning growl that came from his chest or the way his hand settled on the weapon he wore at his thigh, the one she hadn't noticed him strapping on before they left.
But she knew the voice, and she knew the Breed.
Almost in slow motion she turned and faced the nightmare she had been running from for so long. A nightmare she had always known, she realized, that she would come face-to-face with sooner or later.
The Breed wasn't expecting her any more than she was expecting him. She watched the shock that flickered in his cold brown eyes. Those eyes were carefully blank, as though he knew to hide the malicious, bloodthirsty nature that had once glowed almost red in them.
Curved canines that looked a bit dark. They weren't nice and pristine white as most Breeds' were. Storme imagined that the taste he had for blood had stained them, just as it had stained his soul.
As she stared back at him in shock and horror, his lips curled back, flashing the canines predominantly in a vicious snarl.
Storme shook her head, trying to deny that she was seeing who she was seeing, what she was seeing. He couldn't be here. Styx would have never allowed her brother and father's murderer to be here.
"Storme?" Styx stepped into a defensive stance next to her, pulling her partially behind him as she and the Coyote locked gazes.
"There's nothing you can do," the Coyote said with a smirk. "There's nothing they can do." He nodded to the Breeds gathered around her. "Breed Law protects me as well. Had I known you were Styx's captive, I would have ensured my absence." As though it mattered. As though he felt some remorse. There was no remorse, and she knew it, she could see it in his eyes.
She was shaking. Storme could feel her body shaking, shuddering as agony began to tear through her.
"Storme." Styx's voice was hard, demanding.
"Storme, what's going on?" Hope moved in beside her, her husband, Wolfe, moving protectively to flank her as Styx flanked Storme.
"He killed her family." It was Cassie that spoke, her voice eerie, lacking any emotion, any fear, compassion, mercy or pain. "He's the Breed that tore her brother's and father's throats out."
It was said so matter-of-factly. As though those deaths were little or nothing in the total scheme of life. But they were everything to Storme.
"Marx Whitman," Cassie continued, her voice turning slightly hoarse, strained. "Dad. Do something."
"There's nothing he can fucking do," Marx snapped back at her, his teeth flashing dangerously. "I'm under Breed Law as well where my protection is concerned, you stupid little girl. I can't be punished for anything. I have committed no crimes since I joined Haven."
As though the crimes he committed before could be wiped away so easily.
Dash stepped forward, his larger body keeping his wife as well as Cassie pushed behind him. Storme was aware of them surrounding her, the males positioned to ensure that the Coyote came no closer.
"We may not be able to punish you, but you won't be allowed to torture Storme with your presence either," Wolfe snapped back.
Storme would have been surprised if it weren't for the fact that it took all she could do to control the rage tearing through her, demanding justice, vindication.
"He killed them," she whispered through numb lips. "And he enjoyed it."
"I haven't killed since accepting Breed Law, outside my capacity as an Enforcer." Triumph glittered in his brown eyes. "I do what I'm told. I'm a good little Coyote now, Ms. Montague."
She wanted to scream. Her fingers curled into claws as she fought back the need to jump for him, to rip the smirk off his face.
"Find his alpha," Dash demanded, his voice low.
"Have him held," Styx demanded furiously as Marx's gaze glittered with surprise and his lips twisted into a snarl of disgust.
"Your precious princess, Cassie, can tell you that arresting me would be a mistake."
Cassie flinched as his gaze raked over her.
"Cassie?" Her father questioned her.
"There are always loopholes," Cassie drawled, though her voice was strained and hinted at indecision. "Unless we can prove he's committed an act of aggression against Breed Law, then there's nothing we can do. And I can't prove it." Her eyes glowed within her paperwhite face. "Even though I know he has."