that liked to tell everyone’s secrets hadn’t told her, then Mica felt it was best her friend didn’t have to worry about it.
“You’re keeping secrets from me?” Cassie’s voice lowered as an edge of hurt entered her tone.
No. No. “Cassie, don’t do this to me,” she groaned. “Nothing happened. There are no secrets.”
That pesky damned lie thing. She swore there were times she could almost smell a lie herself, Cassie had told her so many times what one smelled like. And she swore she could smell that hint of acrid sulfur now, like hell considering a visit.
Mica wanted to groan in defeat but knew better than to allow Cassie to even suspect such a weakness.
Cassie stepped closer, bent, her nostrils flaring as she breathed in deeply, and Mica could do nothing but stare back at her friend in resignation.
Cassie blinked and jerked back. For a second, for just a second, a curious expression came over her face before her gaze became shuttered, her expression stilling to that calm, serene look that hid every thought and emotion she could be feeling.
Mica hated that expression. There was simply no way to convince the other girl to tell her anything when she adopted that look.
“Well, how interesting,” Cassie stated, her tone just as bland as her expression now.
This, Mica hadn’t expected. Her gaze narrowed. “What’s interesting?” There was that panic thing again. It was making her heart race, making that sense of impending doom rise inside her. “There’s nothing interesting, Cassie. Do you hear me? There’s nothing interesting, nothing period. Tell me there isn’t.”
What was Cassie seeing, or what had she seen as she leaned closer and drew in whatever scent Mica couldn’t smell herself?
That was the worst part about Breeds. Sometimes they could sense more about a person than that person knew about him- or herself.
“Of course there isn’t.” Cassie cleared her throat and blinked back at her.
Mica came slowly to her feet. “Don’t make me strangle you, Cassie,” she warned her, her voice low.
“And I can do it. You know I can do it.”
Cassie grimaced, her bow lips pouting as amusement began to sparkle in her gaze. “Dad made a mistake when he had you trained alongside me. He should have foreseen all these threats you would make against me.”
“Don’t try to distract me, Cassie.” Mica breathed out roughly. “What did you see?”
The secretive little smile that twitched at Cassie’s lips was terrifying. It was horrifying. Mica knew she would have nightmares for weeks if Cassie didn’t tell her what was going on, simply because of that smile. Too knowing, yet with a hint of concern, of uncertainty.
“I didn’t see anything.” Cassie waved a hand as though it were nothing to be concerned about.
Anytime Cassie had a vision, a visit or whatever the hell it was, it was never, ever, nothing to be concerned about.
“Cassie, don’t you play games with me.”
“It was a scent.” Cassie shrugged. “A feeling.” A frown flitted between her brows as she glanced at the window, then back to Mica. “Mica, I don’t think I know what I smelled.”
Mica doubted that. She came slowly to her feet. “I may not have your nose, but I know you,” she warned her friend. “Don’t lie to me, Cassie.”
“I would never lie to you, Mica.” Her eyes widened as though she were innocent. And Mica knew better. She knew that expression. It was anything but innocence.
“Cassie,” she bit out between her teeth, irritation beginning to surge through her. “Don’t do this to me.”
Cassie’s brow arched. “Don’t do what, Mica? What am I doing?”
“Hiding the truth from me,” Mica accused her. “Tell me what you saw.”
Cassie’s brow arched. “I didn’t see it, I smelled it,” she repeated. “But it’s not a scent you carry now, Mica. It’s one you could carry later.”
There was the panic again. It was making her sick. Her stomach felt weak, shaky.
“And it will be what?” Clenched teeth, frustration. She hated it when Cassie played with her like this.
“Contentment,” Cassie finally answered. “You know, Mica, as much as you may hate the thought of it, I smelled contentment.”
Cassie watched her friend, fighting to hold her expression, fighting to convince Mica everything was fine, to hold back the worry and the concern. She wasn’t lying to Mica, the “future” scent was one of contentment, but it was a potential contentment. A maybe thing. One of the many paths Mica could take. And beside that path was deceit and rage, to the other side was agony and heartache.
The path would depend on too many things.
It would depend on Mica and on a Breed . . .
And the Breed it would depend on wasn’t Navarro Blaine.
And that was the scary part. Because the other scent she detected was so slight, so subtle, that Cassie doubted it would even show on tests. That other scent was Navarro’s, and a hint of mating heat.
Mica was Navarro’s mate, but her friend’s happiness would lie in another Breed’s hands. A Breed other than her mate.
CHAPTER 1
Thunder crashed, lightning blazed and sheets of rain poured from the sky as though rage itself were given a physical presence. It slashed through the windswept streets and tore through the back alleys as most inhabitants of the city watched from indoors. There were few brave enough to venture into the streets and face the wrath of the storm pounding furiously outside their windows, but they were very few and very far between.