CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Since she’d missed her celebratory night out with her teammates, Eli proposed they go on a date the following evening to make up for it—somewhere they could relax, wind down, and have fun. So, of course, they went to The Den. If that made them weird, Casey didn’t care.

It was packed, as usual. Some stood around the combat ring while others sat at tables or hung out at the bar. The scents of beer, sweat, blood, and various breeds of shifter filled the warm air. Beneath the cheering and shouting, she could hear pained grunts, angry growls, and flesh hitting flesh.

Walking around The Den with Eli was something of an experience. Everyone knew and respected him, so they nodded, waved, or said their hellos—they were also sure to get a good look at the female whose hand he was holding. She’d competed there many times, so a lot of people recognized and greeted her, too. Quite a few of the females, however, shot her dirty looks. Yeah, well, if she’d seen Eli breezing around the place with another female, Casey wouldn’t have been too pleased about it either.

For the first hour, she and Eli watched fights and placed bets on who’d win. Most of those bets paid off. Casey later hopped into the ring with a female hyena. Eli shouted words of praise and encouragement as she let loose on the hyena. The two females exchanged blows, kicks, bites, and scratches—it was an ugly fight, but it was over halfway into the first round after Casey knocked the hyena clean-out.

As people once again cheered, Casey slid out of the ring and right into Eli’s arms. “I’ve got blood on me,” she warned.

“Don’t care.” He held her tight and gave her a quick kiss. “Well done, baby. You were ruthless.”

“Is that why you’re hard as a rock?” She could feel his cock pressed against her lower stomach.

“Oh, yeah. It has to make me twisted that I want you so badly when you’ve got someone else’s blood splattered on you. But seeing you let loose in that ring never fails to fire me up.” He set her on her feet. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

Not in the least bit bothered that it was the women’s restroom, he followed her inside and helped wash the blood from her skin. Satisfied that her wounds were shallow and would heal within the hour, Eli said, “Now it’s my turn.”

She smiled. “Good. Watching you fight is always a treat—especially since you take off your shirt. I often find myself objectifying you when you’re half-dressed or naked.”

He chuckled. “As it’s you, I’ll let it go.”

Taking her hand in his, Eli led her out of the restroom. They were a few feet away from the ring when he felt Casey tense. He looked down at her. “What’s wrong?” He tracked her gaze. A growl rumbled up his chest and out of his throat—one that came from both Eli and his wolf. Ignacio and four of his cats were sat in the corner, and the Alpha’s eyes were locked on Casey.

“We should go,” she said.

Eli frowned. “Because he’s here? Fuck that.”

“Not because he’s here. But because he’ll probably take this chance to play mind games with you.”

“Probably,” Eli agreed. “But I’m not going to let anyone chase me out of here.” There wasn’t a chance in hell that Eli would jump in the combat ring, though. He wasn’t going to leave her side for even a second.

“Half an hour,” she said. “You promised me you’d fuck me silly later—I expect you to deliver.”

Eli smiled. “Oh, I’ll deliver.”

Just as they’d done earlier, he and Casey watched fights and placed bets. It was just when two polar bears started their second round that the scents of cougar drifted toward Eli. That might not have made his wolf lunge to the surface, wanting to maul and kill, if one of those scents hadn’t belonged to Ignacio.

Keeping his body slightly in front of his mate, Eli turned to face the Alpha, his expression carefully blank.

Ignacio smiled at them as he greeted, “Eli, Casey.” His gaze danced between them. “Mated life suits you. Although … I cannot help but notice that your bond hasn’t yet snapped into place,” he said with false sympathy. “Hmm. That must be driving your animals insane.”

“Is there a point to this conversation?” asked Casey, sounding bored.

Ignacio tilted his head. “Still smarting after that unnecessary business with Dahlia?”

“And the attack on Eli,” she said. “And the shooting. And the fact that you breathe.”

Tension coiled in Eli’s muscles, readying him to spring. The cougar would surely lunge at Casey for that remark. Surely.

But he didn’t. The corners of Ignacio’s mouth tipped up. “As I’ve said before: Balls of steel.” His gaze shifted to Eli. “I am sorry to hear your pack has had such problems recently. I take it there have been no more incidents, since I’ve had no other accusatory calls from your Alpha. I suppose it’s fortunate that I’m not easily offended. If I were, I might take exception to his insistence in pointing the finger of blame my way.”

“I think we can safely say that, no, there is no point to this conversation,” Casey decided, turning to Eli. “Let’s just go.”

“Have you seen anything of Miles, Casey?” Ignacio asked.

She lifted a brow. “You think I’d really tell you if I had?”

“Perhaps not,” said Ignacio. “If I were you, I’d be worried. He’s disappeared several times in the past, but never for this long. Yes, in your shoes, I’d be on tender hooks, dreading that I might get a call to say he’s been found in a gutter somewhere.”

“And if I were in your shoes, I’d cut off that ponytail and just face the fact that it didn’t look good on me.”

Once again, Eli braced himself to intervene, expecting the Alpha to try pouncing on her for the derogatory remark. But Ignacio’s smile didn’t even falter. And, wait, had the cougar’s eyes just … softened? Hell, yeah, they had. Not much, but a little. Something wasn’t right. Unease slithered through Eli as a dark suspicion pricked at him.

“It’s touching that you have such a vested interest in my appearance,” the Alpha said to her.

“Go back to your table, Ignacio,” said Eli, wanting the male away from his mate yesterday.

“At least let me buy you both a drink first. Call it a congratulations on your mating.” There was the slightest edge to his voice as the cougar spoke the latter word, and it made Eli’s wolf bare his teeth.

“I only drink with people I respect,” Eli told him. “And how can I respect a man who has lone shifters do his dirty work?”

The cougar’s face hardened. “I can assure you, Eli, I do my own dirty work. Mostly because I enjoy it. There’s something about watching the life leave a person’s eyes that is almost … invigorating.”

“Is that comment supposed to spook me?” Eli snickered. “I’ve met plenty of people in my time who were sick in the head. It didn’t keep them conscious when I beat the shit out of them.”

“Yes, yes, you’re a big, tough guy,” said Ignacio with a bored sigh. “We’re all very afraid.”

“You should be,” Casey told him. “Come on, Eli, we have plans.” The sexual implication was clear.

Ignacio tensed. “Leaving so soon, Casey? I was going to propose that you and my enforcer, Brenna, have a duel in the ring.”

And there he was, trying to snag Casey’s attention again. Narrowing his eyes, Eli cocked his head. “Why is it that you feel the need to toy with Casey? It’s like you just can’t help yourself. You see her, and your first instinct is to pit your personality against hers; to needle and goad her into reacting to you … almost in an attention-seeking way. Why would you want my mate’s attention?” That dark suspicion pricked at him again. “You don’t think she’s your true mate, do you?”

Ignacio’s expression didn’t alter in the slightest. “Dahlia is my mate.”

“But not your true mate. Do you think it’s Casey?” It would explain a lot of things—why Ignacio had repeatedly sought her out rather than punishing Miles for not paying his debts; why Ignacio had never hurt her, not even when she held a knife to his throat; why he’d never insisted on retribution for her hurting and embarrassing Dahlia.

Miles had said that he’d paid his most recent debts to Ignacio. Eli hadn’t believed him at the time, but what if it were true? What if the reason Ignacio came to her again and again looking for cash to cover Miles’ habit, was very simply that he wanted to see her?

Ignacio could even have been responsible for the attack on Sherryl. He wasn’t the type of person who’d claim their true mate—he’d consider her and the bond itself a weakness. But he probably wouldn’t keep his distance, and he’d likely want some form of attention from her. He’d also avenge her if he felt the need to.

“No, I do not,” said the cougar.

“Yeah? I’m not buying it. As I recall it, you questioned that day at the marina whether I was sure she was mine. You didn’t seem convinced.”

Ignacio gave a careless shrug. “It just seems rather coincidental to me that you didn’t like me confronting her, wanted me to leave her be, and then the very next day you claim you’re her mate. Naturally I wondered if you made that claim purely to protect her.”

“Well I can assure you that she’s mine,” said Eli, his voice thick with possessiveness. “You know, I originally thought you targeted me to strike at her. But it wasn’t that, was it? You targeted me because you don’t like that I have her.” The more Eli thought about it, the more it all made sense … and the more he wanted to slit Ignacio’s throat.

“That’s quite an elaborate theory you have there. Even if I were single and had my eye on Casey, I’m not the jealous type, Eli. Rest assured, I have no designs on her, just as I have no wish to do you harm. I’m also not in the habit of hiring loners. As I said, I do my own dirty work. I wish you luck in finding the real culprit.” Ignacio gave a courteous nod. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

As they watched the cougar walk away, Casey spoke. “I don’t think he ever thought he and I were true mates, Eli.”

“I think we’re both too close to the situation to really be sure,” said Eli. “We need an outsider’s opinion.”

A short while later, Eli stood near the fireplace while most of his pack mates were scattered around the living area of the main lodge. Casey and Cain were also present. She sat on the sofa, her legs crossed, her arms folded, her gaze focused inward. She’d been quiet on the drive home, and she hadn’t spoken much since arriving at the lodge, which was why some were casting her concerned looks that she totally missed.

Although the pack often headed to their own homes after dinner, they’d lingered to attend the meeting that Eli had called for. He was just waiting on his mother and Gwen—both of whom were cleaning the kitchen. Eli could hear cutlery clinking and the faucet running, so he knew the females weren’t done yet. The only people absent from the room were the two pups, who were playing in Cassidy’s room upstairs.

“Can you give us a hint about what this relates to, Eli?” asked Shaya. “My imagination is coming up with all sorts of dark scenarios.”

“It’s about Ignacio,” he replied. “He hasn’t attacked again, before you ask. But we did see him tonight.”

“So nothing bad has happened?” asked Ally, nibbling on her nail. “There wasn’t another incident that I failed to foresee?”

Derren squeezed his mate’s thigh. “You haven’t failed anyone. Don’t use that word again.”

“There hasn’t been another incident, no,” Eli told her. “And Derren’s right: You haven’t failed us.”

He heard the click of heels on the hardwood floor moments before Kathy walked inside closely followed by Gwen. The human female headed straight to Zander and let him pull her onto his lap.

As soon as his mother had taken a seat, Eli said, “I’ll get straight down to it. Casey and I saw Ignacio at The Den earlier. Some of the things he said and did make me wonder if he believes that Casey is his true mate.” Just speaking the words was enough to make Eli’s stomach harden. He didn’t want anyone coveting her. “She disagrees with my theory. I wanted to run it by all of you.”

There was a boom of silence, and some of his pack mates exchanged uneasy looks.

Nick rubbed his jaw. “He didn’t seem happy at the marina when he realized you’d mated with Casey. He also wasn’t convinced it was real, and I could see he didn’t want to heed your warning to keep his distance from her. But I never got the sense that he thinks she’s his.”

“Ignacio isn’t a person who’d stand back and deny himself what belonged to him,” said Marcus as he pulled open a pack of potato chips—the guy never stopped eating.

“He also isn’t a person who’d claim his true mate,” said Eli, sure he was onto something here. Despising that he was onto something. “I’ve met guys like him before—they see a true-mate bond as a weakness.”

Bracken gave a slow nod. “One of my old pack mates had that attitude. He claimed that having a mate made a man vulnerable; that by binding yourself to another person in such a way that their death could cause your own, you were giving them the ultimate power over you. ‘Fate won’t control my life,’ he used to say, ‘I choose my own path.’”

“Ignacio has certainly chosen his own path,” said Madisyn, sitting cross-legged on the rug, absentmindedly tracing the little scorch marks on it that were courtesy of the log fire. “He wanted to be an Alpha more than he wanted his true mate. He proved that when he claimed Dahlia.”

“But it’s not a real mating,” Caleb pointed out. “It’s just a façade. He could walk away from her at any time.”

“Not without giving up his position of Alpha,” said Zander, stroking Gwen’s thigh. “He won’t want to do that. He wouldn’t have forsaken his true mate in the first place if having the position wasn’t so important to him.”

Nick leaned forward in his seat and braced his elbows on his thighs. “Let’s consider what we know about Ignacio. His life’s goal was simple: become what his father always wanted to be and then use his position of Alpha to cut his old pride off from their alliances, which he’s been very successful at so far.”

“Yes,” said Shaya. “He wants power. Wants to isolate his old pack. Wants all the right connections so he has pawns to play in his games. And those wants won’t just go away, because they’re motivated by his own personal demons—the powerlessness he felt as a kid, the hatred he feels for his father, his disgust in his old pride. He probably planned his revenge very carefully. It no doubt gave him purpose.”

Eli nodded. “He made sacrifices, bound himself to someone he doesn’t care for. If he doesn’t get his revenge, all that will have been for nothing. He also can’t afford to lose his power. If his true mate was to then come along, he wouldn’t abandon his plans for her. But I think he’d want to watch over her.”

“He’d need to be very careful about it, though,” mused Cain. “He wouldn’t want to risk that anyone would even begin to assume she was his. Wouldn’t want her to be targeted by his enemies, and he wouldn’t want it to be known that he has a vulnerability. People would use her to get to him, just as he strikes at people’s loved ones to hurt them.”

“And given the way he’s acted toward Casey, who’d ever think he believes she’s his?” Eli folded his arms. “I don’t like that I could be right, but I do believe I am.”

Casey sighed, so done with this conversation. The cougar had never given her any indication that he saw her as anything but a pain in his ass. She’d certainly never done anything other than be a pain. Surely he’d have treated her much differently or, at the very least, left her well alone if he believed she was his mate.

“I can see why your thoughts have taken you down this road, Eli.” Sort of. “But come on, he harasses me for money. He plays little mind games with me. He even tried blackmailing me into throwing a fight at The Den. Who would do shitty stuff like that to someone they thought was their true mate?”

“I don’t think he did those things to hurt you,” said Eli. “I think that was about control. You said yourself that you got the feeling he likes pushing and cornering you.”

“Control,” echoed Cain with a nod. “That would make sense. He’s all about control, and he’d want to have some form of it over her.”

“I saw for myself that he enjoys playing with her,” said Eli. “But what if he wasn’t toying with her to be cruel? What if he did it because it was the only form of interaction that he’d allow himself to have with her?”

Casey scooted forward in her seat, still unconvinced. “But—”

“You held a blade to his throat, Casey,” Eli reminded her. “A blade. He didn’t retaliate. Didn’t even demand vengeance, although Dahlia did. My guess is he knew you’d wrestle it from him.”

Casey felt her face scrunch up. “You think he wanted me to hold that knife to his throat? Seriously? I mean, I’m trying to be open to what you’re saying, but it’s just not adding up for me.”

“Because you don’t want it to. Think about it, baby. Ignacio is very well-known for dishing out some real ugly punishments. He never once hurt you as a message to Miles. Never once punished you for any of the things you did or said to him. That has never made sense to me.”

“He didn’t harm me because my pack would have decimated his pride.”

“I think it suited him to let you assume that. But I don’t think it’s truly why he never hurt you. He could have harmed you in a way that never implicated him; could have hired loners to do it for him. But you’ve never once been randomly attacked, have you?”

Casey’s lips thinned. “Well, no, but—”

“Do you have a reason whatsoever that would explain why he never went after you, other than your belief that he feared how your pack would react?”

“He said I remind him of his sister; that he admires the loyalty I show to Miles.”

“I’m sure he does admire your loyalty—it’s not exactly something that his family or old pride members showed him much of. But that wouldn’t be enough for him to ignore the need to punish Miles through you.”

“Okay then, how about this? Miles said that he paid his recent debts, and I think he was telling the truth. If that’s the case, it stands to reason that Ignacio wouldn’t really feel a huge need to punish him.”

“And yet, he went back to you again and again. Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s an asshole? Because it amuses him? Because he’s bored shitless and gets a kick out of manipulating someone as dominant as me? As Cain said, he’s all about power.”

“Yes, he is. And since I came along and blocked his access to you, he lost whatever power he thought he had over you. He wants me gone.” Eli swept his gaze across the room as he went on, “I think he sent the falcons after me. I think he sent the hired gun after me. But I don’t think Cassidy’s bullet was meant for me. I think me, Nick, Shaya, and the pups were all targets.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time that Ignacio wiped out a family as a punishment,” said Cain. “I can tell you of at least three families he slaughtered.”

“I think he also sent someone after Sherryl,” said Eli. “I think he was punishing her for threatening Casey.”

“But there’s no way he could even know about the trouble I’m having with her,” Casey told him.

“Unless he has a mole on your territory,” said Eli. He felt her denial slam into their bond. “If he believes he’s your mate, he’ll want to know what’s happening in your life—knowledge is power, baby. The mole might not be someone from your pack. It could be one of the people who work in the stores that your pack own. They’d hear plenty about what goes on.”

Nick straightened in his seat. “It might be a good idea to run that theory by Adrian.”

“I intend to,” said Eli.

Shaya sighed. “I really do hate to say this, but your theory has weight, Eli. There were some things that didn’t add up for me. But now, looking at it all from this angle, they come together.”

Casey shook her head. “After seeing us tonight, he’ll know he was wrong because our scents have mixed, Eli.”

“That sometimes happens with imprinted couples,” said Jesse, setting his mug on the table beside the lamp. “Usually, they just wear each other’s scent. But mine and Harley’s have started to mix ever so slightly. Ignacio might just think you two have imprinted on each other.”

Roni nodded. “Originally, he probably just thought you lied about being her mate to protect her, Eli. That will have pissed him off, because he’ll think protecting her is his job. Now he’ll see you as someone who’s stealing what’s his from right under his nose. It won’t matter to him that he has no intention of claiming her. He won’t want you to have her.”

“No, he won’t.” Eli shifted his gaze to Nick. “I’ll call Adrian and suggest he talk to his employees. If one of them is leaking info to Ignacio, it’s something Adrian needs to know.”

“I don’t think any of them would do that,” said Casey.

Eli looked back at her, hating the pain he saw in her eyes. “I hope you’re right.” But he didn’t believe that she was.