'Let me get into her head,' Liseli said eagerly to Talia.
Talia wanted to find out what Cassie knew, but the image of Vincent's confusion and diminished mental capacity was something Talia wouldn't wish on anyone. Not even Cassie.
'Let's leave that in case of an emergency,' Talia responded.
'This looks like an emergency to me.'
'Lis, you are not helping.'
'I want to help, but you are not letting me.'
Talia couldn't believe how casual Liseli was about this. And it was more than casual. Liseli was thirsty for blood, willing to crush Cassie like a bug. Pregnancy hormones were messing up with Talia's mood, affecting Liseli as well.
'Let's calm down first,' Talia said. 'We should use minimal force to get her to talk. We can always resort to violence later.'
Liseli snorted, and Talia felt that the old wolf yielded. For now.
Cassie groaned when Talia's aura pressed on her, making it difficult to breathe.
Cassie looked at Damon, thinking it was him, but then she saw Talia smirking, and Cassie realized who the source was.
Cassie panicked. How could Talia exert so much pressure without even trying? Was it because of Damon's mark?
"What are you doing?" Cassie asked with a strain in her voice.
"Getting your attention," Talia responded before retracting her aura. "Now listen and listen well because I will say this only once. Here is how this will work. You will give us the information you promised. If we don't believe you, we will send you back. If your words are believable and useful, you will stay in a safe house until we confirm if what you said was the truth. If it turns out to be rubbish, we will send you back to your father. So if you want your ticket out, you better start talking, and it better not be nonsense."
Damon's hold on Talia tightened. She was bossy, and it turned him on.
Cassie could see that Damon was looking at Talia with sparkles in his eyes and her insides tightened from the jealousy that swelled within her. She knew that Damon was taken. She couldn't believe how he had changed from a cool and aloof guy into a doting mate. If the Moon Goddess paired up Cassie and Damon, wouldn't Cassie enjoy this special treatment?
Cassie remembered Talia as a weak and submissive Omega who was sneaking into the kitchen and not fighting back after getting slapped. Did Talia change so much because of Damon's support?
How much would Cassie's life change if Damon picked her over Talia?
Liseli growled in Talia's head. 'How dares she look at mate like that!?'
Talia agreed. Cassie was gazing at Damon with the longing that was pushing Talia's buttons.
'SNAP-SNAP!'
Talia snapped her fingers to make Cassie look at her.
"If you keep looking at my Damon like that, I won't care about what information you have. I will rather face ten calamities than allow any woman to get close to my mate. So you better start talking before my patience runs out."
Damon swallowed hard. He really wanted to tell Cassie to scram so that he could have his way with Talia right there, on his desk (it wouldn't be the first time). The idea of such a powerful female claiming him as his and then giving herself to him was the biggest turn-on ever.
"Do you plan to let her go free after this?" James asked from the side.
Damon frowned at James. "I assume there is a reason you asked that."
James looked at Cassie, and his smirk made Cassie's hairs stand on ends.
"We have ways to make her talk," James said. "Instead of wondering if she was sent here by someone, or if she is lying, or if she is concealing something, we might just force her to tell the truth, to tell us everything, and then we can dump her body. No one will find her." James turned to Cornelia. "I know my Cora would love a werewolf specimen for her experiments."
Cornelia looked at James dreamily. "You know me well."
Cassie was sure that her heart would come out of her chest. Will she pass out now?
She was almost confident that Damon wouldn't harm her. Not seriously, at least. And she believed that Talia wouldn't go to the extremes, but James was a different story. He was Alpha Edward's son, and everyone knew they were ruthless.
"Wait! Wait!" Cassie spoke breathily. "I came here to cooperate. I have information that will be useful to you. It can save lives!"
Talia rolled her eyes. "Should we believe you are here to save the world?"
Cassie regretted her idea of coming here. "You can't kill me!"
"I have no intention of killing you," Talia said. "But I will send you to give company to Miss Jade. If you don't want to experience hard work in the name of charity for the world to see, I suggest you start talking. Or are you thinking that delaying is working in your favor?"
Cassie gritted her teeth. What were her options?
Disagreeing would probably mean going to a dungeon, or maybe they put her to do dirty jobs like Jade. Everyone knew that Jade was forced to work in the Dark Howlers pack; no one bought the story of how a fashion supermodel would ruin her image for charity.
"As I mentioned, my father is collaborating with a few other Alphas to attack the Dark Howlers pack. Someone is organizing them, and rogues are involved as well." Cassie lifted her chin. "I'm sure you confirmed that after what happened at the Spring Leaf pack."
"Rogues were there, but we didn't see a single warrior associated with a pack," Damon said.
Cassie shook her head. "You wouldn't notice them. Warriors were observing from a distance. Rogues were used to see how close they can get and to figure out the best strategy to divide your forces so they can capture their target." Cassie frowned when she saw Damon's skeptical expression. "You don't believe me? Didn't you notice that rogues are switching from infiltration and scouting to attacking?"
'She is right,' Talia spoke to Damon through their mind link. 'Rogues are escalating. At the Blue River pack, they would retreat and avoid fighting unless cornered, yet at the Spring Leaf pack, they were attacking.'
Damon agreed. Cassie's words were not wrong, but that didn't mean he could trust her. Actually, the more Cassie made sense, the less Damon trusted her. Cassie was not meddling in politics or warfare. It sounded like someone coached her on what to say.
"Who is pulling the strings?" Damon asked.
Cassie shook her head. "I don't know. I'm not sure that even my father knows."
Damon cocked an eyebrow at Cassie. "Are you expecting me to believe that Alpha Richard will follow instructions of someone without knowing who that is or their goal?"
Alpha Richard was shrewd and prideful, but those were exactly the reasons why he wouldn't allow anyone to push him too far. It was one thing to accept paying a tribute but working with rogues meant turning his back away from everything packs stand for. Even his own pack would reject him as their Alpha if this were spread. They would label him as a traitor or mentally unstable. Rogues have no loyalty, and their wolves are feral; no one would follow an Alpha that went rogue.
