Page 13 of Pack Kasen, Part 1 (Caught #1)

12

AREN

“ Y ou seemed… tense during breakfast,” Finan says delicately.

I stop pretending to straighten the collar of my shirt and meet his gaze in my bedroom mirror. “You mean I needed more of an excuse to not savage Troy. He was being annoying.”

I dressed before breakfast. Yet here I am, back in my room, dressing again. All because I’d nearly killed the enforcer, and all for one seemingly innocent question.

“The feral… she’s quite beautiful, don’t you think?”

And that was that.

I ground his face in my bacon and eggs while he begged for his life, and my pack stared at me like I’d lost my goddamn mind.

For one brief moment I had. Because of her . But my beta doesn’t need to know that.

I didn’t just make a mess of Troy when I nearly killed him. I made a mess of myself and the rest of the enforcers during our morning meeting in my office.

There were eggs, orange juice, and coffee everywhere. I had to return to my room to change out of my T-shirt and sweatpants, only to find I have a severe lack of T-shirts because I keep leaving my clothes in the forest instead of bringing them back to the house. Just this button up I hate because of this stupid collar.

I stop fussing with my clothes. “She’s frustrating.”

“You seem to have a problem staying away from her.”

“It’s my duty to ensure the safety of my pack. She is a threat to that.”

“I could?—”

“ N o,” I blurt out.

Finan’s expression doesn’t change, but his gaze sharpens. “Have you considered if perhaps you might be developing feelings for?—”

I growl. “Finish that sentence and you’re going out of the window, Fin.”

He clears his throat. “Have you tried… talking to her?”

“She’s a feral. You don’t talk to ferals.” Why can’t I get this stupid collar to do what I need it to do? When I nearly choke myself, I give up. “You put them down before they lose control of their wolves and go on a rampage, killing everyone and everything within sight for no reason.”

His eyebrow rises.

I glare at him. “I was not like a rampaging animal at breakfast. Lower that eyebrow at once. I know control. I am controlled. She will not win this battle of wills. The Wolf King does not lose.”

My fucking God , this woman is driving me to talk about myself in the third person.

Finan’s eyes sparkle with amusement. “Of course not, Alpha.”

“Let’s go to this meeting you insist is so important.” Spinning around, I stalk toward the door.

One of my least favorite tasks as Alpha is to mediate disputes. I don’t mediate all of them, thank fuck. Just the ones that involve the most stubborn members of my pack. Finan is too understanding. A diplomat. Wolves don’t need diplomacy. They need someone to snarl at them to return them to order. Some people need to be made to listen.

In this case, Emilio and Joy have once again had a falling out which involved them nearly killing each other and destroying my home.

A soft throat clearing draws my gaze back to Finan, who hasn’t moved from where he was standing beside my bed. “What!”

His eyes dip. “Perhaps you might put on a pair of pants before your meeting.”

I look down and curse.

“My pants,” I snap, holding my hand out.

Finan picks up the black sweatpants I tossed on the bed and hands them to me.

I glare at him as I stuff them on, daring him to say one word. Just one damned word and I’ll launch him across this room.

“She is not getting under my skin. This is Troy irritating me with his stupid question that ruined my breakfast.”

“Of course, Alpha.”

“Stop humoring me,” I snarl.

“As you wish.”

His expression is blank. Too blank. My eyes narrow. “I give you too much free rein, don’t I?”

“Perhaps a touch,” he quietly concedes.

Still annoyed but reluctantly amused, I shake my head and lead the way to the meeting I suspect I’m already late for.

Emilio and Joy are waiting for me in my office.

Someone did a good job cleaning up the mess I made because while the room still smells faintly of breakfast, there’s no sign of the carnage from before. The window is open to air out the room, letting in a refreshing waft of pine and the wild freshness I love so much about our remote home.

Both stand in front of my walnut desk, hands folded behind their backs, spines stiff, and too busy glaring at each other to notice I’ve entered the room.

I slam the door shut.

Both jump and snap their heads forward.

I stalk toward my desk as the door swings open and Finan slips in to stand in his usual position with his back to the wall next to the door he gently closes.

“What started it this time?” I drop into my seat.

“She was doing that thing with the?—”

“He said that you told him to?—”

“ What . Started. It .” I press my palms flat on the surface of my desk and slide my gaze from one to the other. “ What is the operative word.”

Neither of them says a word. Their eyes are wary, so although they missed breakfast and what happened to Troy, they must realize I’m in no mood to be fucked with today.

Not by anyone.

“If one of you doesn’t start talking in the next two seconds, neither of you will be an enforcer for much longer.” I steeple my fingers together as I wait for an acceptable answer.

“She wanted to lead the search,” Emilio says, stepping forward.

Our property is large, about sixty acres. I send a pair of my enforcers out to check all our borders on a regular basis. Not just for signs of trouble, though I’m not expecting any, even if Finan keeps warning me about Tagge. For any encroaching hunters, especially during hunting season. One or two have a habit of chopping back hedges to point their rifles at deer and other wild animals that wander onto our property.

“And?” I prompt.

“There was a mule deer,” Emilio adds.

“So?”

“He didn’t think it was a good idea,” Joy says tightly.

“I’m getting bored of this shit. Someone tell me the whole thing. Now .”

Joy lifts her chin. “On our patrol, we came across a deer that was headed toward the house. We chased it back. It was stubborn. We argued about chasing it further away from the house.”

Mule deers, like most other prey, stay away from predators, and that is exactly what we are, whether we are in our human or wolf forms. But they are big, some weighing nearly four hundred pounds, and they can trample someone if they’re startled.

Since Joy has been the lead in one of the patrols—and more than once—not just with Emilio, I can’t see why he would suddenly have a problem with it. And I know Joy. If Emilio told her to get behind him, she absolutely would have been the one to shift first and start a wrestling match that punched a hole through one of the living room walls.

“Why was this a problem?” I ask Emilio.

He starts to explain but Joy talks over him. “He doesn’t think I’m capable of handling something if we run into trouble.”

Emilio jerks his head toward her. “You really think that?”

She glares at him. “Why else would you snarl at me to not put myself in a buck’s crosshairs?”

“You’re going to be the mother of my pup. I want to keep you safe .”

“Because you don’t think?—”

“ Because I love you more than life itself and if I failed to protect you or our pup, I would fall onto a million swords and I would still deserve to die a million times more.”

Joy lunges at him and he catches her as they forget I’m even in the room.

I sink back into my seat and massage my brow. “For fuck’s sake.”

They don’t seem to hear or even care. Joy is moaning and Emilio is literally groping her ass right in front of my face.

I get up from my chair, stepping around them on my way to the door.

I give Finan a pointed stare. “You see why I don’t like meetings. Better to just growl and everyone scatters.”

“If only they all ended as happily as this.” A hint of amusement warms his light green gaze. He walks out first, holding the door open for me.

Speaking of happy endings…

Stopping in the doorway, I angle my head back. “Don’t you fucking dare do anything on my desk.”

Emilio gives me a thumbs up but at no point does he stop kissing Joy.

I snort a laugh and leave them to it.

That they’re talking about pups means their fiery relationship is due to get even more volatile in the coming weeks and months.

It’s difficult for a female shifter to get pregnant. No one knows why. It’s also the reason why most shifters don’t have brothers or sisters. It can take years for a couple to have even one child. And it is why we value children so much. We don’t have as many of them as we would like.

A pregnant shifter is volatile at the best of times, and so is her partner, because all his instincts scream at him to keep the mother of his child safe.

I’m happy for them and their future family, but it is going to be hell on earth working alongside them.

And this , the losing your mind over a woman the way Emilio has lost his over Joy, is a large part of the reason I’ve been content having shallow, sex-driven relationships for the last few years.

I could have made more of an effort visiting other packs, searching for my fated mate in case she was among them. But I’m not sure I’m ready for a woman to destroy my sense of calm the way Joy destroys Emilio’s on a daily basis.

“When do you think they’ll announce it?” Finan quietly asks me.

Joy doesn’t smell different to me yet, but she soon will.

I shrug. “Not sure. Maybe I have time to build a cabin in the woods to stay in for the next nine months.”

He shakes his head. “You’re as happy for them as I am.”

“Yes. I will continue to be happy for them from afar. From where he won’t go for my throat if he thinks I’ve looked at Joy a second too long.”

Finan hasn’t told me why he prefers the single life, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he felt the same way I did.

Women are complicated and they are distracting. Two things no leader or his advisor need or want in a life when it can be complicated enough.

As we enter the living room, I pass a large hole in the wall. There have been many holes in the past, and I foresee many more in the future. I’ll have someone fill it, touch up the paint and no one will know there was ever a hole there.

My gaze snags on Troy, laughing with Cruz on the decking. He’s had more than his fair share of women in our pack and in others wanting to warm his bed. He didn’t say what he was doing near the feral early this morning, but I can guess.

As if he feels the weight of my stare, he glances over at me and his smile freezes.

A snarl rumbles from my chest and Finan says softly, warningly, “Aren…”

Before I can attempt to kill my enforcer for the second time this morning, I walk outside, jog down the decking and toward the forest.

“Aren. The feral?—”

“Not now, Finan,” I cut him off as I walk away.

I need to run off my frustration.

Hell, Finan was right before. I am abdicating my responsibilities for a few minutes of peace. So would anyone.