Page 52 of Pack Kasen: Part 1

“Talk to her,” he says, speaking slowly. “She’s not behaving like a feral and I can only think of one reason why that might be.”

I glare at him, regretting having asked him his opinion at all. “She is a feral.”

He raises an eyebrow. “She?”

“It is a feral.” I scrub a hand over my face because that’s a mistake I keep making over and over. “How did you know the feral was dying?”

“You don’t want to know the answer to that.”

Which can only mean he paid her a visit this morning. He was holding a bottle of water. And that suspicious bulge… He looked like he’d been coming from the kitchens, which means…

I glare at him. “Youfedher.”

“Yes.” He doesn’t look the least bit contrite. Probably because he knows I like him and won’t kill him. “I took her food, and she didn’t even realize I was there. You need to do something, Aren, before you kill an innocent woman.”

“She is not innocent. There was no other shifter on that campus. Wes and Cruz would have sniffed them out.”

“They weren’t there for long. And if the feral there is smart, they might have smelled Wes and Cruz and known to take cover.”

“A feral wouldn’t be that smart. They would be devolving.”

“Then maybe this feral isn’t a feral either.”

I cock my head as I roll one word around my tongue. “Either.” My eyes narrow. “You keep saying I’m wrong in this, but you are not giving me any proof otherwise.”

“Her behavior is proof.”

“Where is her pack?”

“She might be a lone wolf.”

“If she were, then she would stillhavea pack she chose to walk away from. But there is nothing. No record of her from years before, no pack, and no idea what it means to be in a pack. You saw her confusion when I first mentioned shifting.”

Finan slowly nods.

“So she’s a feral. She has no pack because she was bitten, and those murders on campus all go back to her. All of them. It’s her.”

“She seemed to have feelings for the last one. Doug Hart.”

I order my wolf to shut it when he snarls. Silencing the growl I make in my head at Finan’s soft admission isn’t so easy.

I get to my feet. “Guilt. That’s all that was. He was a jock who broke her heart or whatever. She killed him, knows we’re onto her and is using guilt as a defense. That’s all. Let’s go.”

Finan opens the door and follows me out of the office. “Where?”

I peer over my shoulder. “Where do you think? To do something about the feral.”

17

KAT

Snap.

Cold pressure compresses my throat.

I flutter my eyes open, my vision hazy, and so weak, I couldn’t lift my head if I tried.

A chain hangs from my throat, and the Wolf King, crouched beside me, holds the end of it.

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