Page 6 of Pack Kasen: Part 1

“Because you knew all the victims?” Doug asks, watching me closely.

Doug isn’t a jock who chose an easy major and parties often. He’s smart. I don’t know why I’m surprised he’s put all the pieces together. It’s another reminder that we couldn’t have worked. How long would it have been before he figured out I wasn’t human? What would he have done about it? Accepted me?

Most likely he’d have done the smart thing and run, and a rejection like that would have hurt.

“And because I wanted to ask if you were near the library yesterday?”

He looks away, breaking eye contact. “Why would you think that?”

From his evasiveness, I know he’s lying. “Just thought I might have seen you, but I wasn’t sure if it was you or not.”

Lie. I picked up his scent near the bottom of the library stairs.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have picked up on it, but his clean sweat, musk, and cedar scent was strong, like he’d been standing outside there for a while rather than just passing by on his way to somewhere else.

“Doug?” I prompt when he doesn’t respond.

He closes the jar for the coffee pods and gives me a sheepish smile. “Busted.”

“Why would you be busted?”

“I know you sometimes like to study late. I was hoping to speak to you.”

“About?” As if I don’t know what he would want to speak to me about. It’s in his eyes. I’ve seen what he wanted the moment he swung the door open and invited me inside.

Me.

The longer he doesn’t speak, the more I’m aware of the fact we’re alone in his room.

I skirt around him, heading for his door. “I have to go.”

Any other guy would push the issue. Not Doug. Never Doug.

He follows me to the door, reaching around to open it for me.

“My door is always open, Kat,” he says softly, his words stirring the hair on the back of my neck. “I know you can do everything on your own, but if you ever need help, you have it. And I can always rustle the rest of the football team for backup.”

I twist to face him. “Not necessary, but thanks.”

He looks at me, and I see the same thing in his eyes as I did when I broke up with him four months ago.

Pain.

Hurt.

It hurt me too, Doug. I wish I could tell you how much.

I drag out a smile for him. “We wouldn’t have worked out, Doug.”

“Because I’m a brainless jock and you're a smart accountant?”

“You’re going to law school. Not justalaw school.Thelaw school. I don’t think that makes you a brainless jock.”

He’s a talented quarterback who could go professional if he wants, but he wants to change the world into a better one if he can. So he walked away from the NFL and is headed to Harvard instead.

His eyes sparkle with amusement. “The admissions team must have been having a good day when they got my application.”

I snort. “And it has nothing to do with that 4.0 GPA and so many extra-curriculars that you filled three sheets?”

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