Page 11 of Bullied By the Alpha Wolf

I blinked; the reality of Kaiden’s room around me settled back into place, and I yanked my hand away from his clothes again. The pain of the past felt fresh, new wounds carved over the old, and I swallowed hard, holding back the tears successfully this time.

I was older now, and there was no way in hell I was letting that damn wolf see me cry again.

Leaving the closet, I shut the door behind me and went to the other one, the one that led to the bathroom. I felt gross after running through the woods like that, and the bottoms of my feet were aching more and more with each second. I didn’t want to leave myself vulnerable in the shower, so I just tiptoed over to the bathtub that stood on four claw feet under a large window against the far wall.

I sat down on the ledge, turning on the water. For as quaint and rustic as the bedroom looked, the bathroom was still full of modern amenities, and I appreciated that the water had gotten warm right away. As I stuck my feet under the faucet, I hissed as the liquid hit, cleaning out the cuts and scrapes. The water ran brown as it dripped off my skin, and when my feet were good, I got inside the tub on my knees to rinse off my arms. The water seeped into my clothes a bit, but it was better than getting naked and using Kaiden’s shower.

Okay, that was actually a vast improvement.

I still wanted to change, but it wasn’t like I had any clothes with me, so I just stepped out of the tub before I rinsed out my hair. Grabbing a towel once things were as clean as they were going to get for now, I rubbed it across my skin and then wrapped it around my head.

The sound of the water rushing out of the faucet had staved off the silence, and now it was back with a vengeance. My skin felt hot and itchy, thanks to the anxiety roiling in my blood. I stepped away from the tub, trying to distract myself from where I was, and my eyes hit my reflection in the mirror.

“Shit.”

Haggard was a nice way of putting it. I was cleaner, sure, but the cuts and scrapes still littered my face, arms, and legs. Reaching for the towel on my head, I squeezed my hair to soak up more of the water and then unwound it from my head. I hung it up over the shower door.

I turned back to the mirror, holding myself up straight and looking down the length of my body.

Do I look any better than I did when he knew me?

I didn’t know why I cared. Kaiden was a jerk then, and even if I did look different, I knew he’d be a jerk now. Still, I couldn’t help staring at my curves, noting how, even after years of doing manual labor for the Williams pack, I still had a hefty serving of them.

My thighs hugged together as I traveled my eyes up to my wide hips. My waist did nip in, but not like a supermodel’s, and my belly was far from washboard hard. Full breasts and softer arms, which surprisingly did have some muscle definition now that I studied them critically, topped me off.

Wet strands of chestnut brown hair hung over my back and shoulders like noodles, and I had even more freckles now than I did at eighteen.

“Yup, you still look like you, Kit.”

I sighed, leaving the bathroom to go wait in the main area, maybe sit down. The sounds of my steps were louder, the clinging moisture making them slap down across Kaiden’s floor. I was almost to the bed when the door opened behind me, creaking loudly.

It was enough to startle me, and I jumped in place, yelping. Unfortunately, the water on the soles of my feet did not provide enough traction, and I slipped, my foot sliding out from under me. I was going down hard on my ass.

“Fuck!”

But just before I could collide with the ground, a set of hands shot around my waist and hauled me back up to my feet. My heart hammered as the surprise receded, and when I was stable on the ground again, I turned around to see Kaiden looking down at me, his eyes wide on his face.

His hands were still on my arm, and I tugged them back, glaring at him. “Don’t touch me.”

Kaiden scoffed, stepping back with his hands raised in surrender.

“Sure, yell at me when I’ve kept you from landing on your ass.”

My cheeks burned, but I just kept glaring at him. He was keeping me in the damn room after all, and I wasn’t about to thank him when I was his damn prisoner. I crossed my arms over my chest, holding his stare as I clenched my jaw.

“Right,” he dragged out, rolling his eyes. “Look, we need to talk.”

Chapter 5 - Kaiden

My fingers itched with the desire to touch her again. Kit was in my fucking room, her smell mixing into every molecule of the air. She’d washed off, at least a bit, and that had shed any of the forest smells that might tamp down that lilac scent of hers.

And her hair was longer.

It was such a stupid thing to notice, but I couldn’t stop myself from running my gaze down the wet chestnut brown locks, wishing to tangle my fingers in them. My wolf paced, anxious to break free, and I could hear the repeated word in my head clearer than ever.

Mate. She’s your mate. Mate. Mate. Mate.

“Oh, goody. Well, it’s not like I have much of a choice, now is it?” Kit responded, glaring all the harder.

---