The Other Part of Me

Cassie

What Cassie neglected to tell Braden was that she was heading home. She had done everything she had set out to do in Los Angeles. One venture was a success, and the other was a complete failure and she was running out of options with

Eva.

Before she went to the Bloodstone grounds, she wanted to stop by Lake Reva to see if Caspian had written a new supply order in the ledger which she had returned to him for that purpose. The thought of more unchecked entries made her melancholy.

She parked Braden's SUV and stepped out of it. She was wearing a short, button-down strapless white dress with the outline of big, orange flowers printed all over it. Knowing she would be making a stop here first, she wore a pair of strappy sandals with a platform heel to best balance on the uneven surface.

She made her way to Caspian and Orphea's shelter, knocking on the door. When no one answered, she knocked again. She waited another moment and got the same result. She was about to turn and walk away when she heard her a voice behind her.

"Welcome back."

She jerked to see Talon standing right behind her. She laughed at her own reaction. "You scared the heck out of me."

"Sorry," he said with a smoldering smile. He walked over to Orphea's door to lean against it. "I always thought wolves were harder to sneak-up on."

Indeed, she usually was more alert but came to realize the one that provided the super-human senses was Eva who was still MIA. She shrugged. "Guess it doesn't apply when the wolf in question is half-human."

He nodded. "You must have had an interesting childhood."

Cassie nodded. "Well I was on my own pet, so I had that going for me."

He chuckled.

"Do you know where Orphea and Caspian are? I've come to see if there is a new order in the ledger I can help with?"

He looked at her, "They should be back any moment now," without missing a beat, he went into his next question. "Where did you disappear to, Cassandra? You were gone a while."

She cringed at the use of her full name. "Please call me Cassie. 'Cassandra' makes me feel like a 70-year-old tarot card reader."

He laughed. "Cassie suits you better anyway," he agreed, he went back to his question. "What happened? I thought maybe you changed your mind about helping us."

She shook her head as her gaze moved down to the ground under their feet. "I went home to L.A. for a spell. Guess I wanted a taste of my old life." Although she was inexplicably comfortable with Talon, she didn't want to air her grievances of the past month with him.

He reached down to the door knob and turned it, "We don't lock our doors around here," the door opened wide. "Come in, I know where Caspian keeps the ledger."

She nodded, walking past him.

When he entered, he went straight into the same room Caspian had gone into when he initially gave her the ledger. He emerged a few moments later with the bound book in hand. "Here," he handed it to her.

She immediately started flipping through the pages to see if there was a new order, and there was. As she was reading the items on the new list, she felt Talon push her hair back, revealing her bare shoulders. The touch sending prickles of electricity through her. Her eyes shot to him, questioningly.

"I just wanted to see if he had marked you yet."

Nervously, her eyes turned back to the words on paper, truthfully, all she saw were squiggly lines at this point since she couldn't focus anymore. He placed his hand on her chin, lifting it so their eyes met. "I wouldn't have delayed in letting the world know you were mine."

When a darkness clouded his eyes, she wondered if he was thinking of the mate that rejected him for Braden. When he leaned down towards her, she knew he wasn't.