Page 26 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

Something that feels an awful lot like fear squeezes my heart when she picks up her bag from the floor and turns to walk out.

“Where are you going?”

She peers over her shoulder. “I’m not sleeping in that bed. I can sleep in the bunkhouse with everyone else.”

“Kat…” I reach for her and swallow my frustration when she side-steps me, evading my touch. “You’re not everyone else. You’re mymate. You sleep with me.”

“No, thanks.” Her tone is curt.

Doesn’t want me to touch her, kiss her, or even share the same room as me.

She doesn’t want anything from me, and I don’t know what to do to change that.

I’m following her out into the hallway when Tagge appears at the top of the stairs.

He has no reason to be up here unless he was snooping. His room is behind the bunkhouse, a special cabin big enough for five or six people.

We rarely have guests. Usually, we have new prospects, shifters from other packs looking to move and settle here. That happens maybe once or twice a year. Other times, the cabin stays empty.

His gaze bounces from me to Kat, and he arches his eyebrow. “Problem?”

I know exactly what would happen if the answer to that question is yes.

He’d be right back to shoving his sister at me.

“Nope.” I grip Kat’s hand and draw her back into the room. “No problem.”

I close the door and lift my finger to my lips as I nod toward the closed door, mouthing, “he is listening.”

Thankfully, she doesn’t try to fight me. She just nods.

We listen to the slow tread of steps down the stairs.

“You can’t sleep somewhere else,” I whisper. “He will find out, and I will wake up with his sister in my bed. I’ll kill her. Then Tagge will try to kill me. He will fail, and his pack will want revenge. There will be a civil war.”

She arches an eyebrow and her tone is dry when she says, “You have that all worked out, huh?”

“Take the bed, Kat.”

When she doesn’t respond, I nod, relieved that I’ve finally won a battle with her.

I head for the bathroom to get ready for bed, hoping she’s packed some sexy lingerie in her bag. It’s wishful thinking on my part, but I can’t help it.

I’m not long in the bathroom. But when I walk out, I scowl at the pretty brown wolf on the floor in the corner.

“You’re not sleeping on the floor,” I growl.

She looks at me, sniffs, and lowers her head again, closing her eyes.

I stand there and I don’t know what to do.

Then I look at the bed.

I washed the sheets even before I broke things off with Marisa. As soon as Kat entered my life, I had no interest in anyone but her. The sheets no longer smell of my former lover. What else can I do? How can I sleep on the bed and leave my mate to sleep on the floor?

I look around the room.

There’s no spare bedding up here. That’s downstairs in the laundry room, and if I go down there, I’ll probably bump into Tagge, who will wonder why I need extra bedding.