Page 83 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

Heisstill a stranger, after all.

“Mari told me you were trying to find a way to shake off the mate bond,” he says before I can ask him about the feelings I’m getting the distinct impression he would rather not have.

Melancholy hangs over him like a cape.

“Mari?” And then I remember. “Oh, her.”

“She’s not all bad.”

“When she’s not trying to hang people to death by their necks? Sure. I’ll take your word for it.” I turn to leave, not interested in being drawn into a conversation about Marisa.

“I love her,” he blurts.

Three words halt me on the spot. I twist around, face scrunched up in disbelief. “Her?”

He laughs and I wince when I realize how bitchy I sounded.

She nearly killed me, but she was surprisingly open about what mates meant. She didn’t have to be, even if it was guilt that was motivating her or maybe the threat of Aren punishing her by extending her time working in the kitchen. Silas, however, has never been cruel or mean to me. He doesn’t deserve my bitchiness.

“Sorry,” I apologize. “I didn’t mean?—”

“It’s okay. I can understand why you would think that.” His smile fades. “You wouldn’t be the only one. Mari doesn’t always make it easy for people to love or even like her.”

I frown. “She hasn’t tried to kill anyone else before, has she?”

Aren needs to watch her or put her in the cage if she’s a psycho. That behavior isnotokay.

He shakes his head. “That was something none of us thought she would ever do. She took things too far, even for her.”

Would be nice if she apologized for it, but she must be made of the same, ‘cannot in a hundred thousand years say those words aloud’stuff as Aren.

The new bed was nice. I understood why he did it, and I woke up in the middle of the night and considered sleeping on the pile of clothes he’d put beside me. Especially since the floors were cold, and it wasn’t the least bit comfortable, even with wolf fur to keep me warm. I would have swiped at Aren if he’d moved me himself.

But I don’t want a new bed.

I don’t even want a dead deer because it won’t impress me or my wolf. Okay, maybe it will atinybit if it’s a four hundred pound beast that Aren brings it down on his own.

I just want an apology for having nearly killed me. Is that really so much to ask?

I take a step back, ready to leave Silas to his feelings about a girl with murderous tendencies that he loves who I can’t see why he would.

He chuckles. “Funny, isn’t it? The girl I’ve always loved wants Aren, and you, his fated mate, want nothing to do with him.”

When I look at him, his eyes are bleak.

I don’t know where that chuckle came from, but it doesn’t look like it came from him.

“Have you told her how you feel?” I ask, feeling sorry for him.

“Would you tell a person you loved them when you know they loved someone else?”

When you put it like that…

I shrug. “Guess not.”

I tell myself to walk away, but it’s like channel surfing and stumbling into a TV show that’s a little messy, and youknowyou should change the channel and find something else to watch. But you don’t just watch the whole damn thing, you binge the entire season and you’re there promptly, the following evening, ready to binge some more.

Messy is interesting, and my entire life has been sedate and just a little boring. Not that I would ever say that out loud. No wonder my wolf was so excited when the Gregson Campus murders started happening and she thought we’d go hunting.

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