Page 12 of Pack Kasen, Part 3 (Caught #3)

AREN

S miling, more content than I have ever been before, I reach for Kat.

She isn’t there.

The sun is rising, and there’s no sign of Kat.

I thought last night changed things. She told me that she didn’t love me. Told me that she didn’t have feelings for me. I didn’t believe her. I didn’t want to believe her. Last night wasn’t just sex. It was incredible for me, and I thought for her too, but it was more than sex.

Shifting to my wolf form, I run to the house. I need to see her. I have to know exactly where we stand, and that she didn’t leave me here because she regretted what we did.

Our clothes are no longer on the grass near the creek where we both tossed them. Either an animal ran off with them, or Finan, who is an early riser, took them to the house and into the laundry room for someone to wash.

Silas calls out to me as I walk through the house naked, reminding me that he wanted to talk to me about something the other day, but it didn’t happen.

“Later,” I call back.

I don’t know what he wants to talk to me about, but it’s going to have to wait.

Everything has to wait until I’ve spoken to Kat.

I jog up the stairs, tracking Kat’s scent up them. It’s fresh. She didn’t come back to the house too long ago. But something made her get up and leave.

Regret?

Something her family had said?

The sound of running water grows louder as I approach my closed bedroom door.

I hover at the entrance. Hesitancy is not my usual behavior, but I gave Kat my room.

Do I walk right in or…

No, I have to know.

I need to know she doesn’t regret last night.

Pushing the door open, I walk in and close it behind me as I head to the bathroom.

Only to halt in the doorway.

She’s in the shower, head up, eyes closed. Water streams over her face, washing away tears?

She’s lost in her thoughts because she doesn’t react to me walking toward her.

Only when I push open the glass shower door and step in does her head snap toward me.

She watches me approach, and, to my surprise and relief, doesn’t order me out.

Closing the door, I bridge the distance between us, lifting my hands to cradle her face and lowering my forehead to hers. “Threaten to kill me, punch me in the gut, but please don’t tell me you were in here crying.”

She blinks. “What would you do if I were crying?”

“I don’t know.” It would hurt. That’s all I know.

“You don’t know?” Her eyebrow lifts.

I search her face, and I dip my head, pressing a kiss under each eye. “This. I would do this.”

I feel her hands flat on my lower belly as if she’d been getting ready to push me away.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Aren,” she whispers.

“Do what?”

“Let you in.”

“I won’t hurt you again.” I look deep into her eyes, willing her to believe it.

“I know that here.” She takes my hand and presses it to the side of her head. “But I don’t believe it here.” She moves the hand to her heart, and it guts me to know she thinks that.

“What can I do?”

She shakes her head. “There’s nothing you can do.”

I release a frustrated sigh, resting my forehead against hers as hot water streams over us both. “Gregor says I need to be patient.”

One corner of her mouth lifts in a half-smile. “I like Gregor.”

I growl. “He’s frustrating.”

“Because he said you should be patient?”

“Because he’s always right. I’m used to making things happen. I get things done. This being patient is… not easy.”

“You don’t have to be,” she says quietly, lifting her head and leaning it against the gray stone shower wall. “You could let me go. Find another girl who won’t fuck you and run away because…”

Her voice trails off.

“Because?” I swear my heart stops beating as I wait for her response.

Her eyes slide over my shoulder. “She’s confused.”

I step closer. “Confused about what?”

She shakes her head. “She doesn’t know.”

I slide my arms around her, lifting her, and automatically, her legs slip around my waist, bringing her pussy flush to my cock.

One roll and I’d have buried myself in her slick heat.

I take a breath and release it, ordering myself not to take this moment further when right now, it’s important that we talk.

“Does she… like me?”

Her lips twitch. “A little.”

I step into her, and her breath catches as my cock slides along her pussy. I swallow a groan, wanting to bury myself inside her.

“A little?” I arch my brow.

Her hands are on my shoulders, and her nipples are hard, nudging my chest and reminding me of how sweet they tasted.

Her legs are wrapped tight around me, and I know we need to talk, but suddenly all I can think about is fucking my mate hard and deep against this wall.

My lips are brushing hers when a knock sounds at my bedroom door.

Growling, I briefly shut my eyes. “Go away , Fin.”

“I can’t,” he calls back. “There’s been a report of a wild animal attack a few hours away.”

A feral.

I’m holding Kat’s gaze, so I see the same realization in her eyes. I know she’s thinking of me caging her when her expression turns blank.

Shutting me out.

She presses her palms against my belly, pushing me away. “I’d like to get back to my shower.”

“Kat…”

“Put me down,” she says, her voice cold.

I set her down when I want to hold her forever, and she turns off the faucet and moves to get out.

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I say into her ear. “Ferals are dangerous, Kat. Don’t shut me out because of what I have to do.”

“Then by all means go kill the thing.” She slips out from under me before I can stop her. By the time she’s at the bathroom doorway, leaving a trail of wet footsteps in her wake, she’s a wolf.

I hear wood scratching. A door snicks open, and Fin calls out, “She’s gone.”

I snag a towel on my way out of the bathroom, quickly drying off, in a foul mood after starting today happier than I’ve ever been.

Fin takes one look at my face and winces. “I should have waited, shouldn’t I?”

Shaking my head, I continue to the dresser. “I’m Wolf King, Fin. This is what I am, and it’s what I do.”

I wish I could go after Kat. I want to go after her, but my responsibilities have to come first. Right now, that means dealing with a feral.

“How many dead?” I ask him as I pull a pair of black jeans and a T-shirt from my dresser.

“Just one so far. A jogger. It was in a park a few hours south. I could…”

“No.” I step into my jeans. “I need to go.”

This is my job. This is the reason I fought in the Wolf King Trials.

And unless I can figure out another way to deal with ferals, this will forever and always be a bone of contention between Kat and me.

“I can try talking to her,” Finan offers.

“She won’t listen.”

“Then you could try taking her. Showing her that?—”

“I’m not putting my mate in danger, Fin.” Stuffing my shirt over my head, I walk past him, and he trails me. “Is everyone in my office?”

He nods.

“Then let’s go deal with this. I’ll speak to Kat when I come home.”