Page 10 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

Growling, I stop eyeing the window with the lights on.

Tagge sitting in my chair isn’t the problem. It’s the intention behind the act. An intent to claim something that is not his.

Mypositionis in jeopardy.

If I don’t get back to Burning Wood, Tagge might try to take something even more important that belongs to me than my chair.

Like my pack.

“I’ll be back later tonight.”

“With Kat?”

I study the window again. Maybe it’s just in my head, but I swear the curtains have moved. “She’s more stubborn than I’d thought she’d be.”

I’m used to getting what I want, usually, with minimal effort. Especially when it comes to women. I’ve never had to work hard to convince a woman to trust, like, or sleep with me.

Until now.

“Have you tried apologizing?”

No, because that’s the last resort. The humbling path I’m desperatenotto take.

“I’m doing things my way,” I tell my beta confidently.

“Have you considered that might bewhyshe’s being stubborn?” Finan offers dryly.

Scowling, I hang up.

He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Kat is my mate, and no one knows her the way I do. The universe would not have matched us if we weren’t made for each other.

I’ll figure out this thing with Kat without having to apologize and without the begging she seems to require from me.

I don’t beg.

Not for anyone.

She’s attracted to me. And we’re mates. That is a bond she can’t ignore even if she wanted to. Now that she’s out of the silver cage, the invisible threads tying us together will strengthen. Distance won’t matter because we’ve found each other. We belong together. The universe has willed it so and there’s no going against what the universe wants.Shewill come crawling tomeonce she’s had time to reflect on everything I’m offering her.

Again my wolf chuffs in amusement.

“As if you know the first thing about women,” I mutter as I head to my car when I spot a woman—not Kat—peering down at me from their window, a phone pressed to their ear.

The last thing I need is to get arrested for being a peeping tom. Finan would die laughing.

Or maybe not. He’d sigh sadly, like I’d let him down as he got me booked out or whatever it is the regular humans do. All I know about being arrested is from movies and TV shows, and who knows how accurate they are? Probably not very.

Human law enforcement wasn’t a subject covered in shifter school, and my responsibility as pack leader meant that attending a human college wasn’t an option. The pack needed me.

But if I got myself arrested,Katwould die laughing and say it was poetic justice. A pang of guilt, an unfamiliar emotion, surprises me, and I rub the heel of my hand over my heart to get rid of the uncomfortable sensation. After locking her in a silver cage for nearly a week, maybe she’d be right to think I deserved for someone to lock me up and throw away the key.

My wolf growls, uncomfortable with my thoughts

No shifter handles being caged well. Our beast will always crave freedom, making being trapped a form of torture none of us can handle for long. He was never happy about what I did to Kat, though he understood I did it to protect the pack.

Pack has always come first.

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