SCAPEGOAT
A Cal Leandros Novel

Book Four of the Sidetrack Series

Cal Leandros has always had a list of enemies waiting to take a swing and he has taken every blow as a new challenge, a new game for the devil in him to play. But now it's his family that stands as pawns in the bloody death match. Now everyone he loves is hunted by a different enemy and he knows every threat by name.

CHAPTER ONE

CAL

I had sex the day before I met a god. And it was fantastic; I'm focusing on the sex first, mind you. It was unbelievably hot, raucous, exceedingly satisfying, intense, and all the adjectives and adverbs that would make me feel a little more masculine about the fact that lying with her curled up against me made me happier than I'd felt in a very long time. It wasn't as if we'd never had sex before; in fact, when we first started seeing each other we went at it like rabbits every time we caught each others eye. And honestly, masculinity revived, it was the sex that made me feel that much happier in the after glow. Because we used to go at it like rabbits...it'd been a while. Three weeks, and five days to be exact. Not very long to most, but when I was previously used to at least once a week, it felt like months.

I wasn't as experienced as most guys in their mid-twenties, despite a puck being my best friend. I was half monster after all; born that way, but not raised. I was half Auphe, from my father's side, which meant I was half of the most heinously evil race known to the world as far back as the world went. Most women weren't very attracted to that level of 'bad boy'. Except for Cassie, who, if such cheesy things existed, was my soulmate. She was born from the same heinously evil race, but had the grief of the other half being possibly the most annoyingly righteous and prudent race known to the world since the world was known. And I liked her just fine that way.

I trailed my fingers over her temple to pull a few locks of auburn and dark blond from her face. She hummed softly to assure me she was still half awake, then nudged her nose to my chest and drifted back to sleep. My laziness was bleeding into her. Or it might have just been hormonal fatigue. Castiella had always been nothing short of vibrant. She liked to lounge around on the couch an afternoon or two, but even then she was playful and other times she liked to be as active as my big brother. Which meant Niko and I finally got our compromise; running or sparing every morning with a little mid-day siesta.

My health nut, body-is-your-temple, brother always attempted to drag me around on tasks to hone my senses, skills, and body, mostly because daddy's side of the family was constantly trying for our necks after I fucked up their grand plan to take the world back from the humans. I much preferred watching sitcom reruns and stuffing my face with pizza or any other melty cheesy goodness. It was a constant battle between us for eight years, nah, longer than that. Even when we lived with our greed-driven mother Niko tried to show me how to use weapons properly and tried to force me to run crazy po-dunk town marathons. I guess tried wasn't the best verb. Niko taught me. Niko taught me everything I knew.

I smirked and glanced down at Cassie, skin on her pale shoulders still kissed with pink, still warm and slightly damp from our recent activities. Maybe Niko didn't teach me everything; some things I learned on my own. Like how to satisfy a half Auphe, half peri, who was over three thousand years old.

It still amazed me –how we got here. Niko and I running from the Auphe to New York, finally settling down and meeting Niko's inevitable lover Promise and our not-so-inevitable best friend Goodfellow. We killed lots of evil nonhumans, some not so evil that just pissed me off nonhumans, and we saved the world three, maybe four times. The game changed when I met Cassie, because she was like me, she understood and she couldn't have little half Auphe kids...until the humans fucked around with her uterus.

Because, of course, the story couldn't end with two bachelor hunters settling down with a pair of hot, ass-kicking women. Two years ago, Cassie had a baby boy. My baby boy. A hilarious, adorable, sweet, destructive son, with big Leandros-gray eyes and a mop of deep chocolate brown hair. And barely two months after I met him, my relatives spirited him away. We thought him dead. I still had nightmares. Running through a blazing inferno after his little cries of fear and pain. Watching, helpless as the boy's dark head lolled to one side in a werewolf's jowls, neck snapped. It would have been me that went insane and slaughter-happy if I wasn't dying from blood loss at the time, but it wasn't me. Cassie lost it. She killed every werewolf in that place and went on to systematically take out four more Kin hideouts. The werewolf mafia should have known better than to piss off the Harbinger.

But Dante, my scientific miracle of a son, survived. He survived the Auphe and, somehow, made his way home. Now, I knew, he slept in the next room over. Constantly with his eyes on his mother during waking hours. With good reason. Apparently scientific miracles came in pairs. As my suddenly fifteen-year-old son came home to us, we found out he had a baby brother on the way. I was going to be a father of two…since when did I abide by the normal person statistics of the world?

I smiled as I brushed my hand over the small belly of my lover. Three weeks and five days was understandable when her entire body was giving all it had to the little guy renting out her womb. I felt him shifting inside there; I no longer pulled my hand back in disturbance at the sensation. It was only little flutters, no hands pressing to give space –too early for that, I guessed. Not that I didn't think it was still a little creepy, but what else was he going to do when he got too big for his fish bowl and it couldn't be comfortable.

A brief knock on the bedroom door startled me out of my thoughts, but my brother didn't wait to crack open the door to peer in. Both Cassie and I were covered, but not by much. I lifted my eyebrows at Nik and gave him a pleading look. A small smile teased the side of his mouth and he gestured twenty minutes before he dutifully closed the door. He always demanded to be active. Exercise, training, planning missions, something had to be keeping his brain in hyper drive or he was convinced it all deteriorated. It didn't help that our jobs were of an exceedingly low caliber as of late. Kin still avoided us, Grimm – my arch nemesis – was either in hiding or locked up in the Vigil, and the Auphe were watching Cassie grow in anticipation from a distance. They hadn't even bothered to collect Dante again, which was unnerving and that feeling was probably their end game. Wait until we were comfortable and attack when we least expected. Or were they waiting for the newest member of the Leandros clan to be born and off the teat, before they swooped in and stole both my sons from me.

Next to me, Cassie stirred, probably woken by Niko's brief interruption. I shifted my arm over my head so she could stretch. It took a little more effort than usual. She wasn't by any means busting at the seams, actually she wasn't even showing that much, but I knew the changes in her body made everything a little more difficult. Organs were packed in there tightly to begin with, then to have a little creature shifting them around…yeah, still a little creepy.

Castiella's hair cascaded down her pale back when she sat up, hiding most of the scars there and succeeding in stirring a little reaction from below on me. What could I say? Pregnant belly or tight abs, every inch of her body set mine ablaze. I'd even started to love the pink scars on her jaw, a parting gift from our relatives, mostly because when I followed it with my mouth the three jagged lines led me to one of her breasts, which -one could guess- were two of my favorite parts of her body. And right now she was making no effort to cover them and I was making no effort to cover my staring at them.

"Hey," she teased and tipped my chin up with a finger. "Up here, stallion."

I chuckled out a throaty laugh. "Well, I suppose that is an apt nickname. You certainly did ride me for a while there." Her mahogany eyes hooded at my joke and not in that 'what an immature pervert' kind of way. Yet, another thing to love; wit as dry and perverse as mine. Cassie leaned over me, locks of long wavy hair tickling my chest as they slipped over her shoulders. She kissed me with a smirk on her lips.

"It was a good ride," she whispered. It was astonishing how good she smelled. First thing in the morning, after dynamic sex, and she smelled like flowers and...well, sex, but that wasn't necessary a bad smell. I probably had morning breath and stank like a construction worker after a day on a city street job in the middle of summer, but she still kissed me. "I'm sorry." And apologized for it?

I tilted my head in confusion, but she was serious and she looked utterly guilty over something. I'd been with her long enough now that I was starting to read her more subtle expressions. Plenty of practice with Niko Leandros, poker face master, after all. Her lower lip gave off little trembles when she was nervous or guilty and trying to hide it. Of course, my brother's emotive facial quirks were never as sexy. I shifted up on the bed, stuffing a pillow at my back. "Cassie, what are you apologizing for?"

"It's been a while," she replied, explaining that statement further by running her hand over my hip.

"You don't need to apologize for that," I countered. "I'm not an incubus. I'll survive a couple weeks without sex, Cas."

"I guess I just wanted you to understand that the desire is definitely still there," she told me, which I could more than gather during the sex. My gaze unconsciously shifted down and ogled for a moment, before I sighed.

"Alright, if we're going to have a serious conversation you need to put some clothes on. At least a shirt." Cassie smiled, cupped my jaw, and kissed me again. "And Nik's only giving us twenty minutes so you might want to make your decision wisely. Clothes we talk, no clothes...we don't talk as much."

"I can't, Cali. You wore me out." Her dark eyes were squinting in sympathy and her dark blond eyebrows pulled in. Old me would have taken that at face value and either passed out for the rest of the twenty minutes or…nope, passed out would have been my chosen option. After a few years with a woman though, even the densest of men could figure some things out. Like when his lover was feeling guilty and when to press that guilt, whether it was to tell her to suck it up or that it wasn't her fault.

"Clothes it is." I reached down to pick up the closest article of clothing, which happened to be my tee shirt from yesterday. I tossed her the shirt and went back for my boxers that she'd torn off of me that morning. "I want to settle a couple of things, so listen up. One, I love you. Two, I like sex, I don't need it. In fact, it is possible that you like sex more than me. Three, you're fucking pregnant. If you don't want to have sex because everything in your body is going haywire because of the human-size parasite in your uterus I'm okay with that." I kicked off the sheets to pull my shorts on and waited for her to pull on my shirt. "Got it?"

She was grinning at me; the same sly little smile that spoke so much without words. "If we're settling things, then I suppose I should retort," she paused, kneeling on the bed with my tee shirt barely covering her thighs. When she rounded her shoulders the collar gape at the neck, giving me full view of those breasts that I was so desperately trying not to let distract me.

"Okay, really. Please, stop seducing me for two seconds."

The smile, still gracing her full lips, was upon mine for a few brief seconds. "I love you, too. I like sex, too. In fact, it's possible I like the sensation of you inside more than an orgasm." I took in a deep breath at that, mostly because that was spoken in my ear and she was still leaned over me. "The rest is pretty much true and I appreciate your understanding."

I slid my fingertips over the little slight outward curve of her belly; my other hand touched to the scars on her cheek, brushing my thumb over her lower lip. I stretched forward to replace my thumb with my own lips. "Whatever you need, Cas. Rest, pickles and ice cream, sex, if you get me in the right mood I'll even offer up a foot massage. Though I think Goodfellow might be better at it than me." Cassie snickered as I kissed her again, briefly, for good measure. I knocked my forehead to hers and closed my eyes, just taking in her scent for a moment. "I'm not naive either. I know we're passed the halfway point, but even after Connor's born I know there will be very little time for us to be alone—"

"Hey," Cassie cut in. Her expression had fallen just slightly as I spoke, but wasn't an obvious change. "Shut up." I lifted my eyebrows, but couldn't really rebuke when, in a graceful movement, Cassie shucked my shirt off her body and tossed it back onto the floor. "You do that on purpose, don't you?"

"What?" I asked, exceedingly distracted by her crawling over me.

"You know those little speeches of yours make me want to mount you like a wild cat." I laughed at her playful comment and tilted my chin up to take her mouth. I hadn't been trying to entice her – I didn't want to push her after all – but I wasn't going to pass up another go if she was offering. My little speech had been honest. Once Connor was born, even with his big brother and my big brother around to help out, Cassie and I would still be run ragged. So I pulled her against me, savoring the warmth and scent…

"Oh sweet Jesu— I said twenty minutes."

"Nik!" I rolled Cassie down to the bed, quickly covering her with the comforter we'd kicked off either last night in sleep or this morning during sex. She was laughing, hardly shy about her body after being best friends for a thousand years with a puck, who pretty much wrote the Karma Sutra. I, on the other hand, didn't want to be that close with my brother. I tucked the sheet around myself even if I was more covered; my arousal was a bit more obvious than Cassie's. "Knock you, asshole."

He crossed his arms over his chest and lifted both eyebrows. "I said twenty minutes."

"Listen, I know you've got a hard on for this job because it's you might get to see an original legendary work of art, but much prefer the legendary work of art that is currently in my bed and I believe you would hardly think twenty minutes is enough time to appreciate a legendary work of art." Cassie was grinning like a Cheshire cat from her curled position on the bed beside me. I realized why she was smirking like that when I felt her warm palm side over one thigh and under the hem of my boxers. My leg twitched and I gave her a panicked look. "Cas?"

"What?" She managed to look innocent, sweet and innocent, how she achieved that with her hand around my—

"Cassie, please be aware that I am still in the room and have no desire to see my little brother in this position," Niko cut in. His voice made me wilt substantially, which was reassuring, yes, but Cassie wasn't stopping. Instead she was slinking up against my side, drawing her mouth along my jaw. I could see her dark eyes flicker over to my brother with a devilish kind of relish.

"Nik, please be aware that I shared various living spaces with a puck for several hundred years and they were often single rooms; I don't care if you're still in the room."

"I do," I pleaded. This was getting extremely uncomfortable very quickly, especially because several unwanted images popped into my head at her comment. I knew Robin Goodfellow. He opened his door butt-ass naked on more than one occasion both pre and post monogamy status. He once had phone sex with his boyfriend in a hotel room with my brother on the next bed over. I had no doubt he would have eagerly screwed Ishiah if the peri had joined us on that road trip, shared room or not. When he was living with Cassie she had seen the puck in action probably more times than she could count and they'd both confessed to some wild exploits together. No, talking about Goodfellow would not help her current efforts.

"Give me another minute and you won't care if we have an audience of fifty," Cassie challenged in a low tone that ramped up my pulse; that, on the other hand, would help her current efforts. As happy as I was to have my rambunctious Castiella back, this was a bit much for even her. I whimpered, caught between screaming at Nik to leave and stopping Cassie's deft hand. I ended up just covering my radiant blush with my arm and praying that Niko would leave on his own. "If it's the position that bothers you, Niko, I can always—"

The door slamming was her answer. I lifted my arm cautiously.

"Is he gone?"

Cassie snickered and nipped at my ear. "Couldn't duck out faster."

"You are the devil, Castiella," I hissed at her, though I couldn't contain my smile. She hummed lustfully in response and caught my mouth.

"And you are adorable when you blush, Caliban."

"Would you have? If he didn't leave?" I asked meekly.

"Doubtful. I just like seeing him blush too." She shrugged as she slipped one leg between mine to brace her body over me. It left nothing to the imagination, except for the brief pang of sympathy pain when I grazed my fingers over the scarring that stretch over the curve of her stomach. The pink shivery lines were jagged, one crossing over the rest a little more violently. They matched the ones on her cheek and across her sternum; each one a war story we tried not to think about.

Her gaze followed my hand, then her own covered it over her belly; her skin was the same pale hue from the same moon-white race as mine. "I can never tell if my stomach is a turn on or not with you," she mused and lifted my chin to brush her thumb over my mouth. "It's only going to get bigger, you know."

"I'd hope so. Right now it just looks like your overate at an all you can eat buffet," I teased, changing the pressure of my hand to clutch at the curve of her waist. "I wouldn't say it's a turn on though, more like…resisting you is impossible no matter what. Knowing you're pregnant with a baby that has a fifty percent chance of being mine just gives me the warm and fuzzies. Makes me proud of my little guys." Even if they were frozen when they were pumped into her without our consent for this baby.

Cassie shook her head in good humor as she gazed down at me. It was an ongoing joke and an obvious defense mechanism. Connor (named by me before he was more than the size of a bean and likewise before we even knew if he was a he) was a product of either artificial insemination with my frozen sperm or the product of rape by a monster that I looked forward to ripping the entrails out of one day. Grimm's goal in life was to create a new, better race to replace the Auphe on their throne of Most Feared. What better way than to render my half-Auphe lover helpless and force her to pop out that army for him? He even tried to get me to go along with it, the asshole. My favorite moment of that whole ordeal was still the look of pure agony on his face when Cassie dug her claws into his dick.

"He's yours, Cali. The baby will always be yours," Cassie told me. His genetics shouldn't matter and to an extent they didn't, but the question would always be in the back of my head; I just couldn't let it show. I cupped the nape of Cassie's neck and guided her lips to mine, trying to pull her confidence out to strengthen me. She gave it to me as eagerly as she surrendered her body. Within seconds, I had my bravado back and, while he had to wait another half hour for me, Niko seemed to approve of my steady post-sex focus.

"Are you ready to go now?" he asked snidely, unable to let my tardiness off without an edged word. I smirked and adjusted my light leather jacket over the Desert Eagle holstered under my arm. Dante was waiting for me too, but he didn't seem to care what I'd been doing before. He was different than most teenagers; no comments on how gross it was that his parents were having sex or complaints about having to do chores. He accepted everything as fact. Mom and dad had to have sex or he and Connor wouldn't be born. Chores needed to be done because hygiene was proven to stave off bacteria and disease and they improved basic motor functions… He was still learning the practice of emotions. I blamed myself for that, but honestly he was a pretty awesome kid despite the Auphe imprisoning him for fourteen years.

"I'm ready," I replied, eyeing up my son to make sure he had armed himself as well. Sometimes Dante seemed to think he was better off without weapons outside of his own body and while he had the wings of a peri, the retractable talons of an Auphe, and the ability to gate, I still felt better when he had a gun or a blade on him. Tonight he opted for, or was forced to carry, two tactical knives. That was enough for me. I looked back to my brother. "So, what's tonight's episode about again?"

"We need to go see a man about a painting," Niko intoned as he finished off his own ensemble with a duster. A little warm for May, but it was the price we paid to make it look like we were abiding by the laws. I snorted at my brother nonchalance. He was a fountain of knowledge and loved anything historical be it human or paien. Actually, paien was even more interesting because he could still find a few tidbits he didn't already know.

"Don't be acting like you aren't excited."

The side of his mouth pinched into a miniature smile. "Maybe a little."

"Glad one of us is," I groused. Even homeschooled I flunked history. I motioned for the two of them to follow me as I headed for the door. "Alright, let's go and get this boring shit done."