Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Eli licked his lips. “Ignacio and his cats are invading my territory right now.”
“What? Shit! You should have left without me!”
“Fuck that, I’d never leave you while you were in the middle of a damn duel.”
“You bitch!” A Seal made a fast beeline for Casey. Kristin crashed into the bitch and took her down. A second Seal jumped into the fray, followed by another Hound. Then the two teams shifted into their mink forms and began ripping into each other.
“I should have seen that coming,” said Adrian before turning back to Casey, who was now fully dressed. “I’ve sent backup to Mercury Pack territory. Ignacio won’t survive this attack.”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t take out some of my pack mates before then.” Cupping her elbow, Eli led her out of the crowd—most of whom gave her nods of respect or pats on the back—and over to the SUV.
Inside, she snapped on her seatbelt. “You’re going to kill Ignacio, aren’t you?”
Eli switched on the engine. “No.”
“No?”
“I want to,” he said, reversing fast out of the parking space. “I want to fucking dismember the bastard. But I’m not the only guy whose mate he targeted. And there’s someone in Nick’s lodge who wants Ignacio as dead as I do.” Once he’d driven out of the lot, Eli slammed his foot on the accelerator. “I’ll be surprised if Ignacio is still alive when we get there.”
For Cain, an advantage of being a sociopath was that you could accurately predict what other sociopaths would do. You knew how their minds worked, how they operated, how essential control was to them, and just how badly they’d react when they lost said control. You could also anticipate their next move. And so, Cain wasn’t outside the lodge, helping the others fight off the cougars. He was standing near the basement door, waiting for Ignacio, knowing he’d come.
The Alpha had deceived, manipulated, and blackmailed Casey in order to get into her head and gain control of her. In molding her reality, making her believe that her brother wasn’t paying his debts and that she was the only thing standing between Miles and sadistic punishments, Ignacio had gotten a firm grip on her. He’d become someone she was forced to interact and toe the line with. That had satisfied Ignacio’s need for power and dominance; had made him feel that she was under his control.
And then Eli had pushed him out of the picture, ripping that control away from him.
Ignacio’s attempts to punish him via the lone shifters had failed. He’d be determined to put that right. Determined to prevail over Eli and win at all costs—it was probably something only another sociopath would really understand.
Cain knew Ignacio hadn’t invaded Mercury Pack territory purely for a war. No, Ignacio had come to fix his failures. The abrupt attack on the pack had been a diversion. A way for Ignacio to get on the land and keep the strongest members occupied while he hunted down the pups he’d marked for death, trusting the cougars outside to eliminate Eli’s other closest relatives. Ignacio would want every single one of them dead. And he’d want to kill the pups himself because he knew it was their loss that would hurt Eli most.
More Phoenix wolves had appeared before the cats had the chance to launch their attack, so the cougars weren’t finding the battle an easy one. Cain doubted that Ignacio would care much if he lost pride mates or allies to this battle, though. People were often interchangeable to those like Ignacio and Cain.
One counsellor at juvie had told Cain that he was a ‘stable sociopath,’ if there was even such a thing. By that, she’d meant he wasn’t self-delusional and hadn’t let himself become a slave to his impulses.
Cain was no slave to anything. He was always fully in control of himself.
Ally constantly told him that he wasn’t ‘bad,’ just lost. She didn’t want to face the cold truth. Didn’t want to acknowledge what he’d become.
By his own admission, he didn’t care for society’s definition of right and wrong. He put his own needs and wants first, and he felt zero empathy for others—something he was glad of since, from what he’d seen, it seemed to weaken a person. The only people who held any value to him were Ally, his uncles, and Cassidy.
If asked, he would have said he’d have no problem walking away from his true mate. He didn’t bond with people. He was loyal to those that mattered to him. What he did feel for them … he wouldn’t term it ‘love.’ The feeling was fifty percent respect, forty percent possessiveness, and ten percent of something that was close to adoration—an odd brew that was intense but selfish, because he didn’t prioritize those people over himself.
He’d been fascinated by Eli’s telling of how he recognized Casey as his mate so fast. Cain hadn’t felt an instant emotional pull toward Cassidy. Hadn’t quite simply known she was his mate. But he’d felt something on first meeting her. Something he hadn’t been able to name; something that had tickled his instincts in a way he couldn’t explain. It had grown with each interaction they had, until he’d finally recognized it for what it was: a primitive sense of ownership.