Page 55 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

“Karlie as well?” I thought at seventeen he’d want to keep her at home.

He snorts. “Karlie is breathing down the back of my neck that the verysecondshe turns eighteen, she’ll get to be an enforcer.” He shrugs. “She’s a better fighter than most I have, but the rules are no enforcers until age eighteen.”

“Who set the rule?”

He grins. “Your mother. Karlie is stubborn, but she didn’t get it from me.”

We say our goodbyes, and I walk him to the bunkhouse to collect his bag and then to his car.

I stand there, watching until his truck disappears from view. It’s so much harder than I thought it would be seeing him leave.

He’s going to come back with the family I didn’t know I had and Iwantto see them. I truly do want that. But I’m not sure how that’s going to feel. Or even what’s going to come next. Family takes you as you are. Even if you don’t like them, you love them. But they don’t know me enough to know that they love me.

What if they don’t like me?

And what comes next?

He wants me to go home to Nebraska, but what does that mean for my job in Montana, and the future I worked so hard for?

I want that future, but I also want to know what my life was like before.

I want to be Kataleya Prairie again and have all my memories back.

Not ready to go back inside yet, I head for the creek. There’s something incredibly calming about watching the water when your mind is in turmoil.

“Kitty cat?” Aren calls from the house.

I twist to face him. “I’m going to sit by the creek for a bit.”

He moves to follow me.

“I want to be alone.” Maybe it’s rude, but I have a lot to process.

Too much.

And I have to deal with this stupid need to cry because my dad left me.

I cannot be around anyone right now, and I can’t let Aren see me cry. I can’t letanyonesee me cry.

“I could?—”

“Don’t push.” I harden my voice, not in the mood for him to barge his way into my life the way he broke into my apartment and refused to leave.

“Okay, Kat. Whatever you need.”

I feel him watching me as I walk down to the creek and sit beside it, wrapping my arms around my raised legs. With my chin on my knees, I stare out across the water at the towering pine trees in the distance.

I should have gone for a run instead, taking advantage of all this green space while I have it before I return to the city and then visit Nebraska. With work starting soon, I won’t have nearly as much time with my newfound family as I’d like.

Lost in my thoughts, I startle and twist around when a soft weight lands on my shoulders.

“Don’t stay out too long. It gets cold at night here,” Aren says gruffly, and he walks back up to the house, leaving me staring after him with what smells like his coat draped over my shoulders.

I wait until he’s disappeared inside.

“The guy isn’t just a tool, he’s a grade A toolbox, Kat,” I whisper to myself. “He is not being nice for no reason. He wants something from you. Never forget that.”

I’ve had someone stab me in my back before. I don’t intend to let it happen again.

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