Page 7 of Pack Kasen: Part 1

He scratches his head, his smile bashful. “I might have gone alittleoverboard.”

“Maybe a touch.”

His smile fades. “You’re determined to be the one who got away, huh?”

“You’ll find someone else and forget all about me soon enough. I really do have to go.”

He doesn’t return my smile, but he opens the door wider for me. “I’m not sure I agree with that statement.”

The longer he looks at me, the more I wish I was a little more human than I am. “Goodbye, Doug.”

He steps closer, and I hold still as he presses a soft kiss on my cheek. “Bye, Kat. Forever the girl who got away.”

I walk away.

Just before I hit the stairs, I turn around.

He’s standing in the middle of the hallway, watching me go, and his smile is so sad it breaks my heart.

3

AREN

“You have ten minutes,” I tell my beta.

I stuff a mouthful of steak into my mouth. As always, no one in the dining room moves to eat until after I’ve had the first bite.

The Alpha always eats first.

“It’s not really a ten-minute conversation, Aren,” Finan says.

I narrow my eyes at my second in command. When he’s not convincing me to do more meetings, he’s trying to talk me into something I don’t want.

Today is the perfect running weather and I fully intend to clear my plate and enjoy it. Today is not the day to stay cooped up inside when I could be a wolf.

He slides a newspaper across the table, sandy brown hair falling into his light green eyes as Marisa takes the seat next to mine. Smiling cheekily, she leans over to steal a piece of steak from my plate.

Snorting, I drag my plate away from her. “Mine.”

She pouts. “You need to learn to share, Aren.”

“No, I don’t.” I don’t share my food with anyone. If they want to eat, they can serve themselves. I point my fork at Finan. “Eight minutes.”

A news headline on the front page captures my attention as I take another bite of steak. My chewing slows, and I swallow as I read.

I put my fork down, push my plate away, and pick up the newspaper as I shove myself to my feet. “Meeting in my office.Now.” I raise my voice to be heard over the hum of conversation filling the room. “You know who I want to see.”

I stalk out, glaring at Finan, who follows close behind. “Why didn’t you say it was a feral?”

My enforcers, the protectors of the pack’s borders, trail me. Marisa does too. She’s a beautiful blonde, more than a little flirtatious, but dominant enough to be an enforcer, though she has no interest in the role.

I have six enforcers, which is plenty for a pack of twenty-five, and it’s not like Marisa hasn’t been occupying another position over the last three months: my lover.

She takes a seat at the long, black table in my office alongside my enforcers, laughing at Silas when he cracks a joke.

They’ve been friends since childhood, and even though I’ve been sleeping with Marisa for the last several months, I’m sure she flirts with him to make me jealous when I don’t pay her enough attention. I’ve never been the jealous type. If she wants to fuck Silas, it wouldn’t cut me up too badly.

I sit back in my seat, ignoring the newspaper for now to focus on Finan. He’ll have picked out the most important information I need to know now. The rest, I’ll read later. “What do you know?”

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