Page 84 of Pack Kasen: Part 1

We are separate, my wolf and me, two halves of the same whole. We don’t touch.Ever.

No. Once we did.

When I cried outside the bodega after robbers killed Robert, my foster dad, I felt her fur brush me from the inside, like she was rubbing up against me. It comforted me. I was hurting, and she comforted me when I had no one else.

The feeling is faint, at least at first, but Idofeel it. The sensation of wolf fur brushing my cheek, like she’s nuzzling me.

I’m wallowing in my wolf’s presence when a scream penetrates the silence.

My eyes fly to the door as I recall the sound that woke me before.

A female scream. Not directly outside this cabin, but close.

I brush the tears from my cheeks and get to my feet. This time, standing doesn’t make me lightheaded. I’m out of thesilver cage and my strength is slowly returning. I’m still weak, though that probably has to do with a lack of food and water.

Edging closer to the closed cabin door, I pause, listening hard.

When I hear nothing outside, I push the door open a couple of inches and stick my nose out, not eager to walk into an ambush. But no one is around. It looks to be late-afternoon with the sun setting in the distance, and it’s quiet.

Some lights are on in the log house on stilts, though more lights are on in the bunkhouse beside it.

There’s an eerie silence coming from the schoolroom. Other than the quiet hum from the generator on my left, and the scream that woke me before, everywhere is silent. Like one of those camping in the woods horror movies just before the monster attacks, which only adds to my deep sense of foreboding.

I chew my lip as I hover in the doorway, considering my options.

I’d love nothing more than to shift and sprint out of here as fast as I can, but the Wolf King was not lying when he said this place was remote. Other than the towering pine trees in the distance and a dirt track that leads to my left, I don’t think I’m going to be wandering into a city five minutes away.

If I take the Wolf King at his word that I’m somewhere remote, running back to my life in the city is either not an option because it’s too far, or he’s set a trap that will snap shut around me the second I take a step outside.

So what do I do?

I let my gaze drift over the buildings as I mull over my options. There’s a faint prickle of unease that makes me think I’m not as alone as I think I am. Someone is covertly watching.

My gaze lands on a small, flat roofed, single story building on the other side of the main house. It’s closest to the narrow road that leads out of here.

If they live remote here, surely they have to have vehicles to get into town. Someone had to have brought me here in a car, right? They certainly didn’t walk me here.

The fastest way out of here isn’t going to be on four legs.

It’s going to be on four wheels.

I have to get to that building, hope I’ve guessed right that it’s a garage, and there are keys inside.

We have to be alert,I warn my wolf.We might only get one chance at this. It might be a trap.

My wolf growls her assent. Her presence has been growing stronger in my mind with every passing second we’re out of the cage, and she’s as wary of a trap as I am.

I don’t know where the Wolf King is, but there’s no way he would open my cage like that unless he was setting me up for something. Because it had to have been him. Gregor said only he had the key to my cage and it would be a death sentence to anyone who opened it.

Robert once told me that bravery only needs to last twenty seconds.

As a kid, there was a lot I was afraid of, mountains I never believed I would overcome, including the hell that was my high school senior year after Blaine betrayed my trust.

This is a trap.

Iknowthis is a trap.

But it also offers a chance for freedom. I just need to be brave for twenty seconds.

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