Navarro's Promise - Lora Leigh [82]
Mica wanted to laugh. Her only fear was that the sound of it could possibly be more hysterical than amused. This was so Cassie. Knowing and not telling, fearing that the telling would somehow change what the future was supposed to be.
Somehow though, Mica had always thought Cassie would warn her about something like this.
“Say something,” Cassie sobbed. “I keep feeling your pain, Mica. I feel it clawing at my chest and I can’t stop it. And I keep hearing a fucking Wolf howl and no one here is howling this week.”
“Stop crying, Cassie,” she whispered. “It’s okay, I promise.”
“I was at Dr. Armani’s office when Ely called her earlier. I know what he’s done. I didn’t know before, Mica, I swear I didn’t know. I had no warning that Navarro could walk away from mating heat so easily.”
“I know.” Mica wrapped her arm across her stomach and rocked forward. “It’s okay, Cassie, I swear.”
But it wasn’t okay. Because even she didn’t know exactly what Navarro had done, or how he had managed to do it.
Cassie was silent for long moments, the sound of her heavy breathing and occasional sniffs all Mica heard.
She held the phone to her ear though; as fragile as the connection was, she needed it desperately.
Cassie finally spoke again. “Dr. Armani is going over the tests results Dr. Morrey sent her. Dad spoke to me this morning though, he’s already heard there may be a mating. I pretended not to know anything. The last thing you need is our fathers heading to Haven right now.”
Mica cringed. “Thanks, Cass. That’s definitely the last thing I need right now.”
Her father would likely rupture a blood vessel. She could hear him screaming now, she could hear the anger, the concern, but even more, the fear that his baby girl would be harmed in some way.
He loved her. He just didn’t know how to let her grow up. In his eyes, she was still that child that he needed to protect from the world.
“Have you spoken to Navarro since you were with Dr. Morrey?” Cassie asked, her voice still rough, weary, but thankfully she was no longer sobbing.
“No.” Mica shook her head. “I haven’t seen him, but it’s only been a few hours.”
Long enough to allow the truth to sink in. To realize that somehow Navarro had been so against mating her that he had managed to escape it.
He had done what no other Breed had been able to do. He had been able to reverse the mating hormone.
How? How could he have done it?
“He fears what he carries inside him more than he fears losing his mate,” Cassie said softly as that thought brushed through her mind.
Mica froze. “What did you say?”
“Aren’t you listening, Mica?” Cassie asked gently.
“I missed part of it.” Her heart was racing now. How had Cassie known?
“I said, Ely told Dr. Armani that Navarro fears what he carries inside him more than he fears losing his mate. I think I believe it. I know he’s recessed, but he sometimes appears more human than even a recessed Breed.”
Mica was on the verge of breathing a sigh of relief. God help them all if Cassie ever developed the talent to read others’ thoughts. She would single-handedly start World War III.
“It doesn’t matter what he fears,” Mica finally said, the weight of the rejection pulling at her, exhausting her until she just wanted to curl into a corner and weep herself. “He started this, Cassie. He mated me. I didn’t ask for it. Now he thinks he can escape it?” Bitterness welled inside her. “He obviously wants to escape it.”
“I don’t believe that, Mica,” Cassie sighed. “But I’m not there either. You always told me you were woman enough to know when a man was yours and when he wasn’t. You’ll know if you should fight for him, or if you should see if all those vicious little mating hormones can become compatible with another Wolf Breed. Just think, girlfriend, you could set a precedent yourself by showing all Breed females, and perhaps later the world, that no one has to be a victim of mating heat. Right?”
“Yeah, right. How about I just swear off Breeds period? I think that would be the better course of action, Cassie.” All she wanted to do was find ease and