Page 98 of Pack Kasen: Part 2

And I punch the wall. When it doesn’t hurt enough, I punch it again.

“Why the fuck can’t I say those damn words?” I growl. “Why is it so hard?”

“Because it’s not meant to be easy,” Finan says, his approach so silent I hadn’t known he was beside me until he spoke. “Or it wouldn’t mean as much as it does.”

Only one thing keeps me from following her. She’s headed toward the creek, where she likes to think as much as I do.

If she had been leaving, I’d have gone after her and stopped her.

“Aren?” Finan says. “We don’t need you to be right. None of us ever required perfection from you. Only you expected that from yourself.”

He’s wrong.

I walk over to the drinks table, grab a bottle of beer, and lean against the closest wall.

Nothingis more important than being right.

Nothing.

26

KAT

Idon’t know why I don’t just leave.

Maybe it’s that stupid mate bond Aren told me about.

Maybe it’s this stupid place that my wolf and I fall a little more in love with each day.

“And maybe you are just stupid, Kat,” I whisper, a gust of wind blowing the words away from me.

I’m debating how stupid I must be not to have gotten into my car, put my foot down, and driven far away from here when the soft tread of approaching footsteps yanks my focus to my right.

A man is hovering.

He doesn’t look familiar until I remember the last time I saw him. “You’re the new prospect from Indiana, right?”

He nods. “Jasper. I was going to check out the creek while everyone was at the party. But?—”

“It’s okay,” I interrupt, standing up. “I was just going.”

“You don’t have to leave on my account,” he says, taking a seat on the grass.

“I wasn’t…” My voice trails off.

I wasn’t going because of him.

My bag is still upstairs in Aren’s room. I was going to pack my bags and return to my apartment in the city.

I want to go to Nebraska, but seeing my family terrifies me so much, and I’m not sure why.

My family is there—myrealfamily—yet the idea of seeing them again feels like someone is simultaneously squeezing my heart and punching me in the throat at the same time.

“He can be a bit much, huh?” Jasper says.

There’s no guessing who he’s talking about. “Aren. Yes.”

He aims a wry smile at me. “We all know the story of the Wolf King, but I hadn’t thought he would be exactly as people warned me.”

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