The Breed Casstiel's Vow (7 page)

This couldn’t be her he
told himself. It wasn’t possible. This was just a random human who had the same
hair and laugh as her, that’s all, just a coincidence.

He only wanted it to be her.
That feeling in his gut was just the excitement of finding a girl who looked so
similar.

The girl from his dreams
was just that, a dream.

When he was standing two
feet behind her, she turned around to face him with the remnants of the laugh
still on her lips.

The sight of her punched
all the air out of his lungs, his knees were crumbling,
he
could barely find his voice. The woman he had been looking for, for what felt
like his whole life, was standing right in front of him.

“Red,” he croaked out and
shaking like a leaf extended his arm and placed his fingers into her hair.

           
Casstiel’s finger tips tingled as they made contact with the soft curls. It was
exactly the same feeling he remembered from his dreams. 

The only difference being
the look on her face as he touched her.

           
She stared at him in shock and confusion; there was no recognition in her eyes.
To her he was a random stranger who had just suddenly invaded her personal
space and was now staring at her like he wanted nothing more than to fling her
over his shoulder and carry her off to his bedroom.

Which is
exactly what he wanted to do.

           
“Yeah red, that’s the color of her hair,” snapped her brunette friend, “
there’s
a couple of people out there in the world who have
it.”

           
“Who the hell is this creep?” The brunette demanded, when Casstiel still
refused to take his eyes off of Red.

“That would be our boss,”
Jax replied sounding a little embarrassed.

Red stared back at him, her
eyes full of confusion and intimidation. She was scared of him and didn’t know
how to handle this situation.

The thought of her being
uncomfortable had him immediately pulling his hands away from her.

           
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and tried to calm himself for a moment.
He needed to think, to try and figure this whole mess out and what it all
meant. He had to come up with something fast to keep her in the facility, but
also give him some space and time to think.

           
He knew he shouldn’t look at her again, but he couldn’t help himself.

Her eyes were exactly the
same shade of green as they were in the dreams, and now that he wasn’t pawing
at her she began to look at him with a curious appraisal.

Casstiel stood stock still
and held his breath as he watched as her eyes slowly roam his body.

Her eyes slowly swept over
his face and lips, then down his neckline and across his shoulders. He watched
her intensely as they traveled down his torso, then finally to his hips.

As her gaze lingered for a
moment between his hard edged hip bones an erection sprang to life. All the
moisture left his mouth as he thought of her touch on his skin, not in a dream,
but finally in reality.

Her eyes quickly sprang
away from his stiff erection and she met his gaze, a blush spreading furiously
across her face.

           
He couldn’t help the smile that slowly spread across his lips as their eyes
met. Was she feeling the connection too?

           
“What’s your name?” Cass asked, heat pouring off of his body in waves.

           
“Her name is Tessa, and I’m Nora. You made us drive four hours out here with a
tracking device on our car to get questioned by you. Ring any bells?” she
wedged herself between them in an attempt to break their stare.

           
“The tracking device was necessary for your own protection,” he replied still
refusing to break eye contact, no matter how much her friend glared at him.

           
When Tessa finally lowered her eyes Casstiel felt his insides grow cold at the
absence of their connection.

           
“You sound like Memphis,” Nora scoffed.

           
“Well Memphis is a very smart man,” Kain replied coldly.

           
“Alright alright
alright
, clearly we all got off on
the wrong foot here, how about we show you to the guest rooms where you’ll be
staying tonight. You can settle in and relax for a bit while we get our shit
together, then we can all meet back here in a couple of hours, ok?” Casstiel
asked pointedly looking at Nora, feeling like if he could please her first
things would go a lot smoother.

           
“Fine,” she begrudgingly agreed,
then
linking her arm
through Tessa’s, walked towards the door.

           
Casstiel’s eyes couldn’t help but follow the swing of Tessa’s hips as she
sailed past him with her friend.

           
“Ghost, do me a favor and get the girl’s luggage from their car and bring it up
to them. I’m gonna stay here and try and sort everything out,” Cass delegated,
wanting to be alone with his thoughts for at least a few moments.

           
Ghost followed behind the girls and the three of them walked out the glass
double doors together.

           
“Cass, you alright?
I know you like red heads, but
damn,” Jax asked nervously, they had never seen their leader lose it like this.

           
Next to him Kain didn’t say a
word,
as usual Jax
voiced the things Kain would never bother to say.

           
“Yeah I’m fine, just making an ass out of myself I guess. Come here you two,”
he waved them over, trying to seem casual, but feeling his blood boiling as a
new thought crossed his mind.

           
Without question the men stepped forward. When they were within reach Cass
grabbed the front of each of their shirts and jerked them within an inch of his
face.

           
“Listen and listen
good
, if either one of you lays a
finger on those girls, I will personally disembowel you. You understand me?” he
growled, his fangs jutting out from their normal perch in his gums, a display
of aggression Casstiel had never used on a member of his team before.

           
“Jesus Christ man! Ok
ok
!” Jax hollered out in
surprise, while trying to wriggle out of his hold.

           
“Cass get the fuck off me,” Kain bit out as the hair began to rise on the back
of his neck; the first indication that a werewolf was going to turn.

           
The look of cold fury in Kain’s eyes snapped him out of the rage he was
feeling. Never had he given a member of his team a reason to look at him like
that.           

           
Slowly his fangs began to retract, and his grip loosened.

           
Kain immediately slapped Casstiel's hand away and stormed out of the room. Jax
however, stayed behind and stared at him for a moment as if waiting for an
explanation. When none came, he finally shook his head in disappointment and
walked out.

           
Cass let out a long slow sigh. He couldn’t tell them what his problem was
because he didn’t know himself. He had no idea why he had been dreaming of a
human woman for the last six years, or why one day she decided to just come
strolling into his life.

More important than either
of those things, Cass had no idea what he was going to do about this situation.

All he knew was that he had
needed to make sure that no other man was going to touch her, that they would
know she was his. The primal part of him roared inside.

           
Tessa
… her name slipped through his mind like silk. 

           
As Cass looked up to watch her walk away their eyes met again. For a second she
stopped walking and stared, then a blush slowly crept up from her neck into her
cheeks and she turned to jog away.

~

           
“What was that all about?” Nora demanded as the elevator doors closed.

           
“He’s just been really stressed out,” Jax replied, though he didn’t sound all
too sure himself.

           
Kain, Tessa noticed, said nothing, just angrily stared at the closed elevator
doors.

           
“Stressed out? You’ve never had to deal with a missing person before?” Nora
scoffed, “great, we’re in the hands of a real crack team here.”

           
Tessa watched as a glance passed between Jax and Kain. She couldn’t tell what
it meant, but they were definitely hiding something.

           
When the elevator doors slid open again everyone piled out.

Tessa immediately noticed
the difference in hallways. This one seemed friendly and warm, reminding her of
a hotel. It had thick plush carpeting, soft glowing light from sconces in the
wall, and fresh cream colored walls.

           
“I mean does he usually man handle girls like that? Who does he think he is?”
Nora hissed, apparently still not done.

           
“He didn’t man handle me,” she corrected softly, “anyway let’s change the
subject.”

           
“You two are our only guests so you’ve got the whole floor to yourself. Do you
want to share a room, or have your own?” Jax asked, clearly eager to change the
subject as well.

           
“Share,” they replied in unison.

           
Behind them they heard Jax chuckle, as he took a left at the fork in the
hallway and brought them to a solid mahogany door.

           
Tessa let out an audible gasp as they entered the room.

           
“It’s bigger than a house,” she said, stunned at the size and beauty of the
room.

           
“
Ghost’ll
be here in a few with your stuff,” Jax gave
a friendly wave goodbye.

           
Kain gave them a stiff nod of the head,
then
took off
down the hallway.

           
As the door snapped shut behind them Tessa and Nora turned to stare at each
other.

           
“Can you believe this place?” Nora screamed.

           
Tessa began running around looking at everything. There was a full sized
kitchen with marble countertops, two bedrooms each with a balcony, two
bathrooms, state of the art electronics everywhere, and a working fire
place. 

           
“I need to test out that shower,” Tessa shouted, practically sprinting to get
into it.

           
“Alright I’m gonna try and figure out how to get this fire place working, maybe
that guy can help me when he gets here with our stuff. I wonder why they call
him
Ghost?
” Nora asked, while poking around at the
fireplace.

           
“I dunno, to me most of you guys have weird names,” she replied trying to
remember the conversation she had had months ago with Memphis about why he
chose such a peculiar name.

           
“Yeah I mean you have to leave your old life behind when you transition, so why
not leave your old name too? Most of us don’t go for things as extreme as
‘Ghost’ though, I just went from Eleanor to Nora,” she shrugged and went back
to what she was doing.

           
So much had happened in the last hour that Tessa was ecstatic to get under the
hot spray of the shower head and try and de-compartmentalize it all. 

           
The water had barely touched her skin when her thoughts shifted to Casstiel,
and what had happened between them.

Nothing happened
, she tried to convince herself, but for some reason in
the back of her mind she felt like they had had some sort of connection. It
felt like lightning had struck her heart when she had turned around to see him
standing there staring at her.

           
Well he’s probably the most gorgeous man you’ve ever seen in your life
,
she chided,
ok he is definitely the most gorgeous man you’ve ever seen in
your life
.

           
He had just looked at her in a way no man had ever done before.

 
That’s because
he’s not a man. Now stop getting your hopes up, no super hot vampire sex god is
gonna want plain Jane, flat
chested
, still living
with her parents, you
.
 

           
Tessa felt better after having the shower pep talk with herself. The truth of
the matter was men like Casstiel didn’t like normal girls like her, they liked
super models and actresses, and he probably had the money to date legions of
them.

           
She felt refreshed as she stepped out of the shower. Being in New York was
definitely going to be an adventure. 

~

           
Cass clutched his head in his hands as he leaned forward against his desk. How
could this be happening?

           
He felt like banging his head against the wall until answers poured out of it.

           
As far as he could remember nothing like this had ever happened to another
member of his kind. Every mating story followed the same general guide lines:
the couple met and instantly felt a deep connection, immediately being able to
feel the others emotions, and after some time they pledged their lives to one
another.

He had never heard of
anyone dreaming of their mate before their meeting, but as he sat in stunned
silence he had no doubt what so ever that that was what just occurred. Tessa
was the woman he would give his life to.

His only obstacle was
getting her to feel the same way. Humans did not bond, and she most certainly
was not feeling the same as him.

           
“Alright what the fuck’s going on?” Kain demanded as he pushed open the double
doors and stormed inside.