Page 83 of Pack Kasen: Part 1

All of it.

If I smell, it’s on him.

My head is spinning. That’s on him too.

I don’t just hate the Wolf King. I want him dead.

But I have to get out first.

I plant my feet beneath me, wait until the dizziness subsides, then slowly walk to the open cage door, my knees shaking with each step.

And I stop as my instincts flare to life, lifting the hair on the back of my neck.

I can’t shake the feeling this is a trap, and that somewhere just out of sight, someone is waiting with a pitchfork or some other weapon to spear me with.

Just like the wolf in Gregor’s story.

I stare at the cage door and lick my dry lips. Silver. If I touch it, what will happen to my wolf when it’s already taking everything I have to stay on my feet? Will I collapse and fall into another nightmare flashback of my past self, from before I became Kat Meadows?

Will I wake at all?

“Go,” I breathe, as I focus on the silver inches away. “You can stay here and die, or you can get out and dodge whatever trap they’ve set for you.”

But no way in hell am I touching those bars without some form of protection. Not after the last time it nearly fried my brain.

I wrap my hand in the fabric of my T-shirt, and I creep closer to the partially open cage door.

Lifting my head, I strain to listen for any sound outside but… nothing.

Outside, there’s nothing.

“Bet that’s exactly what the farmer thought before the wolf attacked,” I whisper.

Quit scaring yourself and just go.

Heart lodged in my throat, I eye the cage door that I don’t want to touch, not even with my hand wrapped up in my shirt.

“Fuck it,” I mutter, and I kick the cage door as hard as I can.

Big mistake.

I stagger forward as I fall, momentum carrying me out as the door slams against the other side. My knees collapse under me, and I literallysplaton my face, my strength exhausted.

Only…

Itisn’texhausted.

Not anymore.

My wolf is growling at me like I just told her I’d be eating prawn curry for dinner, and I haveneverheard a more loved sound in the world.

Rolling over onto my back, I stare at the ceiling with tears in my eyes.

Hey,I whisper into my mind.I missed you.

She stops growling at me to make a chuffing sound that tells me she misses me as much as I missed her.

Rabbit,I promise her.When we get out of here, you can have all the bloody, raw rabbit you can hunt.

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