Page 21 of Wolf's Claimed Mate
Are you still not going to tell me what made you snap and trash Kato’s office?
Her reply came back curtly.What do you think?
Then another:Maybe if you ask me nicely, I’ll tell you.
An annoyed hiss passed my lips. She wanted a reaction out of me, and she wouldn’t get it. Something in that office had made her look wrecked when I’d finally come out to find her. I’d given her a while to cool off, collect her thoughts, and took advantage of her absence to root through the office.
Don’t forget she knew this pack. She’s got history with them. That had been Thalia’s advice before I’d set off that morning, armed with coffee. Something had spooked her. Something that had made her expression so vacant even I hadn’t been able to get through to her at one point.
She won’t ever talk to you about this. She won’t answer your questions. Not about the office, the rejection that night, or her ex-boyfriend. Nothing.
Sasha was a closed-off, proud woman. I wasn’t going to change that.
Maybe an alpha could, a nasty voice in my head taunted. But I shoved that thought down, clenching the steering wheel with one hand, considering just heading back and turning up early for my shift at the bar where I worked.
Sasha had clearly been betrayed by wolf shifters. Her past relationship had been with a wolf. She had no reason to trust me, and her getting involved in pack politics had clearly affected her life already. It was foolish of me to hope she’d risk that again for the sake of me proving my loyalty.
Instead of answering her, I keyed in the general area of Fayetteville.
After a second, I sighed.
I’m headed onto another lead. Come with me, I text her.
Sasha: Nope. Thanks, though xo.
I snarled and threw my phone aside, slamming the car back into drive. The tires screeched as I raced for Fayetteville. There was something there to do with Kato’s pack, and I’d figure that out alone if I had to, even if it meant defying Fenrys. Sasha would never get it, and I had to stop expecting her to.
***
“Aidan,” I said as a greeting when my phone rang. I’d asked him for what he’d had on sightings in Fayetteville. As I’d suspected, there had been activity here, but I needed to confirm it was Kato’s pack.
“Hey,” he said, all business now. I could always count on an alpha to be serious when it came to the safety of his pack. “So there’s a high school in the city, further south, past the center of, well, pretty much everything. At the back of the school, there’s a massive expanse of woods. That’s where a lot of the headlines have come from. There’s been general unrest, a few wolf sightings. I’d say that’s your best bet.”
“Thanks, A,” I said.
He didn’t say anything for a few long moments, the silence heavy. “Conall—” He cut himself off.
“What?” I snapped.
“Just be careful, yeah?”
I paused. “Yeah. ‘Course.”
“Fenrys told me what happened between the two of you.”
“Not talkin’ about that with you, A,” I muttered. “If you want me to have backup, then send me Declan. For now, this isn’t an approach. Just checking up a lead.”
Aidan barked a laugh. “Good fucking luck there.”
“Do you think he’ll talk to me, like, at all?”
“I’m not your go-between,” Aidan said. “I told you my thoughts, as I’ve told Declan. Fight it out, or just stop being little bitches.”
“Great talk. Thanks for the info.”
“Gotcha.”
He paused again.
