The Breed Casstiel's Vow (6 page)

 “So you’ve been?”
Tessa asked.

“Oh yeah
lots of times, usually because Memphis was going out there to help the Embassy
with something.
Honestly if he didn’t pledge himself to taking care of
me he’d probably be working as a defense agent. He feels like he owes me, even
though he doesn’t,” she replied with a hint of sadness in her voice.

New York had always been on
her list of places to see, but she had never gotten around to going. After what
happened to Quinn and her mother’s current fragile mental state, she wasn’t
sure if she would ever get another chance.

If they didn’t find Quinn
soon, Tessa wasn’t sure how far her mother would decline.

“I wonder how these Embassy
people are going to be…. Have you ever been to one?” she changed the subject.

“Nope.
Every time Memphis ever had to go it was on some pretty serious business, so I
always stayed with Sebastian, or went sightseeing by myself. I have met others
of the Breed besides Memphis and Sebastian though.  Some of them are
dicks, you know thinking they’re superior to humans or that they’re entitled to
a lot of things, but most of them are really cool,” Nora reassured her.

“They sound just like
regular people then,” Tessa smiled, feeling a little better.

She thought briefly about
the pep talk Sebastian had given them before they left. He had assured them
there was no safer place in the world than the Embassy, or with his brother.
With an amazing sense of pride he had told them how fierce and dedicated
Casstiel was, and for the first time she felt like Sebastian actually cared
about someone.

“They are regular people,
they’re just a little more in touch with their animalistic side,” Nora laughed,
“You do NOT want to flirt with a mated man, trust me, Breed females are
vicious.”

“How do
you know if they’re married or not?”
Tessa was not interested in pissing
off anyone in the Breed.

 “You can tell the
taken men apart because they are all about their females. If a Breed male is
staring at you, flirting with you, or giving you any indication at all that
they are interested in you, you can bet your life that they’re single. So just
don’t go throwing yourself at random men,” she laughed, “Not that you would.”

Tessa was about the last
person on the planet who would throw herself at a man.

“It sounds so romantic,”
she sighed, thinking that it sounded similar to the ‘high school sweethearts’
romance her parents shared, “with humans even if you’re married, men and women
still cheat and leave each other all the time. My parents are one of the very
lucky couples who never fell out of love.”

“Yeah mating is different
for the Breed, from what I’ve heard it’s more of an instinctual thing. It’s
like when you meet the person you’re supposed to be with something clicks into
place in your brain and you don’t want anyone else but that person. You would
never cheat on your mate because you don’t even look at other men or woman
anymore. It’s like everyone else is in black and white and they are in color,” she
explained.

“Wow so it’s like fate or
something?” Tessa sighed, “It sounds powerful.”

“I guess you could call it
fate. Who knows though? Some of the more spiritual members of the Breed say it
is, but the more cynical people think it’s just another gift like our strength
and speed. We can sense when we’ve found the person that our genetics would mix
best with to have strong offspring.

“When Billy attacked me he
said it was because he was in love with me. So later after it was all over and
they took me back to the pack leader, I asked him if that’s how all werewolves
were… if that’s how I would be one day. He told me what happened was the opposite
of what a bonded person would do. He explained what being mated meant, that you
share some kind of a mental link, so that if one of you are in pain, you’re
both in pain. It would be like ripping into your own soul to hurt them.”

Tessa had never heard
anything so poetic in all of her life. She thought about Memphis and Sebastian
and suddenly had a new appreciation for the softness that they must have
somewhere deep inside.

“It’s so beautiful, I never
knew Memphis or Sebastian could be like that,” she gushed.

“
That’s
because they aren’t like that,” Nora shook her head, “don’t
go getting
the wrong idea ok? Most men, in fact I’d say all of them, try to avoid being
mated, they like being wild and free. Actually I don’t think the women really
like being tied down either. That’s probably why we bond the way we do, if we
didn’t we would have died out.”

“Well romantic vibe
ruined,” Tessa laughed, zipping her dark blue hoodie up farther as the chill of
the autumn night crept into the car.

“Oh I think that’s it!”
Nora pointed at a massive building just off the freeway exit.

“Holy shit this place is
huge!” she exclaimed as they pulled into the drive way.

Before them stood four
tower-like buildings placed on the same spot of land and connected together
with bridges and walk ways.  It looked like four large hospitals connected
as one.

As they drove further down
the driveway they came to a closed gate that ran the length of the buildings
and grounds. They had to be on at least ten acres of land.

Nora pulled up to an
intercom system stationed in front of the closed gate.

“Welcome to Lee Com Biological
Studies, how may I assist you?” A crisp female voice came from the other side
of the intercom.

Nora turned to her with
wide eyes and shrugged her shoulders.

“Umm… I have an appointment
to speak with someone today, but maybe we came to the wrong place,” she piped
up from the passenger seat. Sebastian had never mentioned anything about
biological studies.

“Name?”
The voice asked.

“My name is Tessa… Tessa
Roberts. I’m here to talk to someone named Casstiel.”

“Please pull your car
forward to the main lobby doors, an agent will be out to greet you shortly,” came
a cheery reply.

As soon as the voice
finished her sentence the thick fifteen foot gates in front of them began to
open.

“This is weird,” Nora
mumbled while putting the car into gear.

“Just pull up to the main
lobby, it’s gotta be that first building there, I’m pretty sure we’re being
watched,” Tessa said feeling antsy, the whole place gave off the vibe that they
were unwelcome.

 “Hell yeah we are,
there’s camera’s all over this place,” Nora replied, pointing them out as she
drove.

“Shut up your freaking me
out,” she snapped, her eyes darting all over the ‘Lee Com’ buildings.

They pulled to a stop at
the front doors of the lobby and sat in the car waiting. In less than a minute
two very large men came walking out and up to each side of the car.

One was shorter with a
relaxed posture and a slow strolling walk, while the other was taller with a
stiff proud back and tight military gait. 

“Tessa Roberts?” asked the
taller one. He looked like he should be wearing a marine core uniform instead
of the fitted black muscle shirt and jeans he was in.

She nodded her head and
couldn’t help staring him, which told her instantly he was a Breed member.

He had very short almost
buzz cut dark hair and steel grey eyes with full sensual lips, and a lean
chiseled body.

When he caught her staring
at him he gave her a wink.

 She blushed and
quickly turned her attention to his friend on the other side of the car.

The partner had a short
cropped blonde faux hawk and light blue eyes. He dressed much more fashionable,
wearing a blue and red tight fitted flannel shirt and expensive looking jeans.
Tessa noticed however Mr. Faux hawk was openly staring at Nora, making a pretty
big ass out of himself. 

“You’re the female
werewolf?” he asked her, his voice a soft bass.

Nora cut her eyes at him
and flashed some of the fire they held, “Yeah, I am. Is there a problem?”

Tessa loved her courage and
fire. There was no way she herself would ever give either of these two men an
attitude.

“Yeah no problem, I’ve just
never met a female werewolf before, I’m Jax,” He smiled sweetly and extended
his hand.

Instead of shaking it she pushed
open the driver’s side door, knocking his hand out of the way, and stepped out.
Tessa followed suit.

“Nice to meet you both, but
we’re not here for a social call. Where’s this Cass guy? We just need to answer
his questions so we can both get out of here,” Nora stated, giving both men a
‘don’t fuck with me’ attitude.

Tessa had never known her
to be a big fan of men. She wasn’t a flirt, and generally saw men as nothing
more than friends and companions, but she was being a little rougher with these
two than usual.

“This way,” the military
guy replied, walking into the building.

He led the way into a
massive foyer, then down a hallway and to a long row of elevators.

Tessa couldn’t help her
eyes from taking in every inch of the building so far. She was shocked at how
different it looked in comparison to what she thought it would be.

In her mind it had been
more like a political building, with people in suits holding brief cases
walking the halls, or maybe something out of an Anne Rice book with black décor
covering every inch of the place and vampires with blood filled goblets
sauntering around.

Instead it looked more like
the inside of a high tech hospital or modern hotel lobby. It had glass and
metal
everywhere, with splashes of colorful art in between
making everything look fresh and sophisticated. The whole place looked so
normal, so human, it caught her off guard.

The elevator dinged and the
doors slid open for them to pile inside.

When the doors opened once
more it was to a cold looking hallway, just plain white walls with mahogany
doors on either side. Not the slightest attempt at decorating had been made. In
contrast to the first floor, this one was very unwelcoming.

The girls followed Jax and
his friend down to the very last door in the hallway and stepped inside.

The room looked like a mix
between a tech lab, with computers and monitoring screens everywhere, and a
police squad room with four desks covered in stacks of papers and folders.

An Asian man with dark
sunglasses nodded a greeting at them, then stood up and walked out the doors.

“That was Ghost.  He’s
going to get Cass, I’m Kain by the way,” he held out his hand to Tessa. Unlike Nora,
she politely shook it.

Both men then sat at their
desks. Jax’ desk was covered with both black and white and colored photos and
untidy stacks of papers.

Kain’s desk didn’t have any
pictures, but it did have a row of miniature model guns, an ancient looking
wooden cross and stack of books on old wars and weapons progression through the
years in the corner. Apparently Kain liked fire arms.

There were two other desks
in the room, one of which Nora had sat on, her maroon colored pencil skirt
neatly falling down past her knee, and her tan high heels dangling feet above
the ground.

It was obvious why she had
chosen this desk to sit on.  Besides Nora, there was nothing else on top
of it. No sentimental knick knacks, no homey touches of any sort.

The last desk, which was placed in front of
all the other ones like the flag ship of a naval fleet, had to belong to the
team’s leader Casstiel. It had the largest stack of paper work and looked the
most lived in, with empty energy drink cans and a cold cup of coffee sitting on
top.

 Tessa wondered what
kind of man this Casstiel was.

~

As Cass walked down the
hallway behind Ghost, the strangest feeling hit him, a mix between nerves and
excitement.

What the hell was he so
excited for?
he
tried to shake the feeling, but the
closer he got to his squad room the stronger the feeling became, sending a
prickling sensation down his spine. 

He had never been nervous
to interview a witness before, what was going on?

He pushed open the double
doors and stopped dead as the sound of tinkling bells assaulted his ears.

What the fuck is going
on? Am I dreaming?
he
panicked. But as he looked around and saw the other members of his team he knew
that didn’t make any sense. He had never dreamt of any of them before and if
she was in the dream there certainly shouldn’t be any other male but him
around.

Then he saw her standing
twenty feet in front of him, her dark red curls bouncing merrily as she laughed
with another female.

He walked over to her
slowly, unbelievably. His brain screamed for his feet to stop and figure out
what was going on first, but they wouldn’t listen, they just kept carrying him
towards her. He was like a blind man seeing light for the first time.