Page 35 of Pack Kasen: Part 1

But it still smells of sickness, which is deeply disturbing because I’m never sick. In foster care, all the other kids got sick, but I never had so much as a sniffle, no matter how cold it got and whether or not I wore a jacket out.

When the door swings open, I brace myself for battle.

It’s the other shifter. The quiet one.

The beta… whatever that’s supposed to mean.

He’s holding a bottle of water, which he walks over to me and pushes between the bars of my cage. “Here.”

I can’t help but notice he’s careful not to brush against them. Just what the hell is this thing made of?

I study the bottle but make no move to take it. “Did you poison it?”

He shakes his head. “I have no reason to poison you. Drink.”

“Did your friend tell you to bring it to me?”

Again, he shakes his head. “In fact, I could get into trouble for this, which is why you need to drink and return the bottle to me so he doesn’t find out.”

“So it’s definitely poisoned then.”

He gives me a steady look. “I have no interest in poisoning you.” His gaze sharpens then. “You look sick.”

I bend my head and pick up the bottle, more to hide my face from him than from an eagerness to drink. My hair is a tangled mess at this point, but because I have no hair ties, I combed my fingers through the dark strands and called it good.

“You’re the beta. Does that mean you’re his servant or something?” It takes a surprising amount of effort to twist the bottle cap open.

“It means I’m his second. An advisor, if you will. My name is Finan. Packs do not have a family name the way humans do,” he says, watching me closely. “We do, however, share a pack name. Ours is Kasen.”

I don’t know why he feels I need to know that. “So you’re like a family?”

“Yes,” he says. “And your name?”

“Ask the guys your boss had watching me. They seem to know all about me.” When he opens his mouth, I speak first. “So you’re likely to get into trouble for not doing what you’re told.” I take a small sip of the coolest, most refreshing water I’ve ever tasted in my life.

“Aren and I are in agreement about most things,” he says.

But not about me if he’s here secretly sneaking me water.

Unless his boss is outside listening to this conversation and this is just a ploy to get me to talk. After Blaine’s betrayal, I learned to keep my eyes open, and for the most part, I haven’t had too many knives in my back.

“A feral killed his mother,” Finan says suddenly.

I blink at him. “Why are you telling me that?”

“So you can have some idea of why he is the way he is.”

“And I need to know that before he kills me because…?”

“There is something different about you.” He studies me for a beat. “I saw it when he had Cruz and Wes brought you here. Aren refuses to see it. Perhaps in time you—and he—will see it too.”

Talk about annoyingly vague.

“See what?”

He shakes his head. “I came to tell you a little of his past so you could understand him.Thatconversation is best for another time.”

I think I’d have a little more sympathy if he didn’t have me squatting over a bucket in a cage. “Losing family is a hard thing,” I say slowly. If anyone would know how hard, it’s me. “But for him to tar every single bitten human, because that’s what they are, with the same brush, seems excessive.”

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