Page 36 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

She’d have thrown them in my face, and I’d have deserved it.

I don’t know if this is enough, but Ineedit to be. Because I can’t lose Kat.

I can’t.

11

KAT

I’m stepping onto the decking when a familiar blonde woman staring into the distance with her arms crossed spins to face me.

Marisa.

I hadn’t seen her from inside the house, otherwise I wouldn’t have ventured out here. But with Aren’s mysterious order not to go upstairs, the breathtaking view of pine trees in the distance had drawn me outside.

I hadn’t thought about how I’d nearly died here before I’d taken a step outside, but with Marisa standing in front of the railing she tried to hang me from, I’m seriously regretting my decision.

My memories of what happened after are hazy. I remember choking as I struggled, and then waking in the infirmary with Gregor, a man in his fifties with a salt and pepper beard, who had taken care of me.

She glares as she stalks past me, her sharp orange and wild jasmine scent tickling my nose. I step aside as my wolf tenses, giving her no room to barge me out of her way or do anything worse than that. Like, try to kill me again.

“I bet you’re pleased to have gotten exactly what you wanted,” she says.

“I don’t want the Wolf King.”

She snorts. “Says the woman now sharing his bed.”

“I am not?—”

“I don’t care. Take him. Do whatever the fuck you want. He’ll soon get fed up with you the way he’s gotten tired of all the rest of us.”

“Marisa…” A tall man in his mid-twenties with black hair, gray-blue eyes, and olive skin slides the decking door open and steps outside.

I vaguely remember him sitting at the table playing cards, right before Marisa used the chain wrapped around my throat to hang me from the decking.

He gives Marisa a look of warning. “You’re in enough trouble.”

Her laugh is hard and bitter. “Quit trying to save me, Silas. I don’t want your help, and I don’t need it.”

She stalks inside, leaving me alone on the decking with the guy who looks as awkward as I feel.

I cross my arms. “Well, since you happen to be friends, can you pass on the message that I have nothing she wants? She’s welcome to have him. I won’t be staying.”

Not hers. Ours.

My wolf growls at me, staking her claim on a man I have no interest in. The longer I’m around Aren, the more she wants to sniff and rub up against him. Which means the sooner I leave this place, the better.

I’m walking away when he calls out, “Marisa didn’t mean what she said. She’s just hurting. She doesn’t mean any harm.”

“I’d be more inclined to believe you if she didn’t try to kill me.” I jog down the stairs that lead away from the stilted decking, fishing my cell phone out of my pocket to check for any messages.

Nothing.

When I left town, Cristofer was missing. I keep hoping he went on a spontaneous vacation and didn’t tell anyone, and isn’t lying mauled to death somewhere on campus, his body waiting to be discovered. All because he walked me to my car.

I glance at the cabin that houses the cage.

The door is closed. There’s no lock on it, so I could wander in there anytime I wanted. Cristofer isn’t in there. I’d know if he was there.

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