Page 8 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

He steps toward me, jaw hardening with determination. “You’re my mate, Kat.”

“That means nothing to me.”

“Mates are biologically attracted to each other. You can deny it all you want, but you are as attracted to me as I am to you. We belong together. Fate has willed it.”

"Attraction is only one aspect of liking a person, Aren.”

Shit.

His smile turns smug, probably because of my slip up.

A title keeps him at a distance. But using his name?

Not a good sign. A name is personal, and that isnotwhat I want.

He takes a step closer. "So youareattracted to me."

I take a step back. "Yes, I am attracted to you, but I don't like you, trust you, or even respect you." His smile fades as I continue. "Being hot is not good enough for you treating me like shit. I'm not going to bed thinking, ‘oh, he's so pretty I don't evencarethat he made me eat his scraps from the floor or nearly killed my wolf by sticking me in a silver cage.’ I'm going to bed wishing you were at the bottom of the sea."

Maybe that’s notallI’m thinking when I go to bed. But he doesn’t need to know about the very brief, very intense dream I had that means absolutely nothing.

"You're my mate, Kat. Mates have bonds that grow. Biology and the universe have tied us together.Permanently. There's no breaking that apart. Only death ends a mate bond."

"Then you had better hope I don't kill you because after the way you treated me, you deserve nothing less." I walk over to the front door and hold it open. “You are leaving through this door or the window. Pick one or I will choose for you.”

He gives me a long, inscrutable look and walks out.

I close the door behind him, lock it—though, god knows, that flimsy lock is hardly going to keep him out if he wanted to barge his way in—and cross over to my bed.

Exhausted, I flop face down onto my bed, yanking my hair tie out and running a hand through the dark brown strands. The relief of letting my hair down after having it tied back is incredible. But face down on the bed was a bad idea. The overwhelming scent of him doesn’t just tease my nostrils; it invades my senses, making me ache in a way I never have before.

And it reminds me of that stupid dream.

“What are you? A fifteen-year-old boy having a sex dream? You’re too old for this shit,” I mutter as I get up and start stripping the sheets, grateful that my aggressively beige apartment comes with an in-unit washer dryer, so I don’t have to go back in the prison-like elevator. I was going to throw a quick meal together, jump in the shower, brush my teeth, and crawl under my sheets.

The Wolf King ruined my plans.

Throwing a meal together feels like one more step than I can take today, but there’s no way I’m sleeping in a bed that I swear he purposely rubbed his scent all over for it to smell so strongly of him.

“He probably did it to stake his claim on my bed,” I mutter as I strip the sheets.

I’m exhausted, so it takes longer than it ordinarily would.

My window faces the guest parking lot. As the washing machine starts up, I wander over to the window to make sure he’s actually left and not staring up into my apartment like a crazed stalker.

3

AREN

Istand in the parking lot outside Kat’s building complex, staring up at her apartment, wishing I knew what she was doing right this moment.

Slipping out of her sexy black dress?

Putting her hair down?

Soaking in the bath?

I answer my ringing phone as my pants get tight. “Finan.”

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