Page 94 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

Not to party or to go look at butterflies.

So what the hell happened to my sense of urgency?

“Ah! There you are.” Joy jogs down the stairs from the house. “I was looking for you.”

“Me?” I eye the determined stamp on her face and start getting nervous. “Why?”

“The party. You need a dress.”

“I do?”

When she reaches me, she snags my hand and starts pulling toward the bunkhouse. “You do. Something short, bright, and guaranteed to blow Aren’s head off.”

I dig my heels, but Joy is stronger than her petite frame suggests. I keep on moving. “Wait just a?—”

“Do you know what happens when people disagree with me?” she interrupts sweetly.

She’s one of Aren’s enforcers—the sole female enforcer he has. From what my dad was telling me before he left, it’s more of a male role rather than a female one.

But Joy isn’t just a quiet, meek enforcer. She actively changed Aren’s mind about me being a feral by suggesting a test to prove I wasn’t. Aren is so stubborn that I struggle to believe he would listen to anyone. Yet, she convinced him to run the test.

That tells me what I’m up against here.

And the grip she has on my wrist as she leads me toward the bunkhouse for a makeover I’m not sure I want is downright painful.

I release a sigh. “I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say nothing good.”

She laughs as she flings the bunkhouse door open and pulls me inside. “Smart woman.”

25

AREN

“Have you seen Kat?” I grip Wes’s arm, halting him on his way to the table where all the food has been laid out for Emilio and Joy’s party.

He shakes his head, and I release him, giving the room another sweep. My fifth, or maybe sixth, since the party started.

Everyone is here.

Everyone except Kat.

Last I heard, Joy was dragging Kat into the bunkhouse. I asked Emilio when I saw him and he just shook his head and said to leave Joy to work her magic. Getting involved would be a mistake, whatever that meant.

I don’t know what Joy is whispering into Emilio’s ear because he has the look of a man who can’t quite believe what he’s hearing.

Tonight is about celebrating the new pup they’ll soon have, and I don’t want to interrupt them, but I need to know where Kat is. Maybe I’d be a little less stressed about what she was doing if I wasn’t so terrified of her leaving me.

I walk over to them beside the fireplace.

“You saw Kat last,” I say to Joy.

She stops whispering and turns to say to me, “Yeah, but that was hours ago.”

She returns to whispering.

“Joy,” I growl.

She flashes me a grin. “What?”

---