Page 7 of Pack Kasen, Part 3 (Caught #3)

KAT

S miles spread across the faces of Pack Kasen in the dining room. It’s lunchtime, and it looks like I timed my arrival just right.

Finan stopped by while Mom was trying to persuade Dad not to kill Aren, and he showed them to the guest cabin, tucked behind the bunkhouse, where they’ll stay for the next couple of days.

I dug out a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt from the dresser; neither were mine or even Aren’s, but they fit me, so I wore them. Then I came downstairs after showering and brushing my teeth, searching for food to quiet my rumbling belly.

There’s no sign of my parents or Carlie.

Finan must still be busy helping my family settle in. After my dad's comments about me leaving and Aren being undeserving of a mate, the situation has the potential to escalate if I don’t keep them apart.

Aren is the only one not smiling at me.

He’s sitting with a half-empty plate of food in front of him, and he doesn’t seem the least bit interested in eating anymore. He’s laser-focused on me, and there’s an empty seat beside him.

I can pretty much guess exactly where he intends me to sit.

He’s pushing himself up when I grunt as something smacks into my legs.

I stagger back a step, looking down as a woman calls out, “ Leo ! She is still healing.”

Arms wind around my legs, and I can’t help but smile at the seven-year-old shifter I saved from a rampaging deer.

“Hi, Kat!” He grins up at me, light brown eyes sparkling.

“Hi, Leo.” I look up at Dania, his mom, who called out a warning. “I’m a lot better now. He didn’t hurt me.”

Leo snags my hand and pulls me toward the serving table loaded down with dishes of food.

“You’re sitting with me. I told Mom I was glad someone didn’t kill you, and now that you’re awake, we can eat and go for a run and…

” He stops rambling to pass me an empty plate. “Here. Or do you want me to do it?”

Smiling, I take the plate from him. “That’s okay. I can do it.”

There’s a lot to choose from. Almost too much.

I hesitate over the sliced meats and cheeses and decide not to make myself a sandwich, opting instead for two chili dogs, potato salad, and two pieces of fried chicken.

My wolf growls in my head, and I quietly sigh in annoyance as I pick up two more pieces of chicken. Now that I’m healed, she likes to make her needs known, and my wolf is endlessly hungry.

If it’s not still-kicking bunny, then it’s chicken or some other kind of meat.

Anything but sushi.

A small hand grasps mine and tugs. “Come sit with me. I have water for you, and there’s a fork on the table already.”

I could almost laugh at the look on Aren’s face when Leo leads me right past him and to our own table. As I sit down, I peek over my shoulder.

Aren isn’t happy that Leo got to me before he could, but short of growling or snarling at a seven-year-old boy, there’s not much he can do.

“Did you rip his throat out?” Leo asks hopefully, eyes glittering with bloodthirsty intensity.

If I didn’t know he was a shifter, a comment like that would have confirmed it.

“Um, no,” I say after weighing up how much I should tell him.

He sags in disappointment. “Oh, maybe you will next time.”

“Maybe,” I concede with a smile, picking up my chili dog.

I must have been hungrier than I realized. As Leo chats away, telling me about all the runs he’s gone on and Joy and Emilio’s party, I dig into my lunch. It’s good, and there’s not a hint of anything green, which my wolf appreciates.

“Mom says I can’t run on my own, but it’s nice today. Can you run with me?” Leo asks.

“I—”

I feel Aren’s presence before he speaks. “She’s healing, pup. That means no runs for a while.”

Aren takes the seat directly across from me, puts his plate down, and gives me an unreadable look. He waits for my response, and he’s not the only one.

After the tense moment we had in the bedroom, interrupted by my family’s sudden arrival, Aren quickly got up from his knees just before the bedroom door flew open and they burst in.

He asked for my forgiveness—begged for it—and I don’t know if I can.

“I’m fine to go for a run with Leo if he wants that,” I say.

“I have some time,” Aren responds.

Forgetting about finishing my delicious lunch, I focus on the alpha currently digging into his stack of chili dogs and fries.

He looks innocent.

He’s not.

I’m getting the distinct impression that he’s not above using a seven-year-old boy’s eagerness to go for a run as an opportunity to insert himself into my life.

“No one invited you,” I tell him.

“Leo doesn’t mind if I tag along, do you, Leo?” he asks Leo.

“I don’t mind,” Leo says happily.

Of course he doesn’t. He’s getting a run out of it. I’m getting a six-foot-plus alpha I neither want nor need.

Aren smiles at me, pleased. “See.”

My eyes narrow. “Don’t you have stuff to do? I thought you were Alpha here.”

“Like I said, I have some time.”

I open my mouth, but he keeps talking.

“And if anything should happen, Finan can manage it. Or he can howl if he needs me.”

I’m suddenly conscious of how quiet the dining room is.

When I look around, everyone finds a reason to look away.

My eyes return to Aren.

I start to complain when he picks up my plate and stands up before I can tell him I wasn’t finished yet.

My complaint dies on my lips as I watch him walk to the serving table, load two more chili dogs, five pieces of chicken, and more potato salad onto my plate before putting it down in front of me.

He went to get me more food.

My stomach happily grumbles as I look from the chicken to him.

The woman in me wants to tell him that fried chicken will not convince me to forgive him. The wolf in me is on her back, practically kicking her feet.

“You said you liked fried chicken,” he says gruffly, head down and digging into his meal.

It was a mistake to tell Aren that fried chicken was my favorite food.

My wolf is happy he remembered we like meat. Me? I’m conscious that this man will employ all tricks necessary to win my forgiveness, and I need to be wary.

Extremely wary.

Then Leo starts telling me how his mom was washing his large stuffed lion, Rupert, in the washing machine, and Rupert got stuck.

His mission to free his friend makes me smile and exchange a look of sympathy with Aren when his story ends with him being soaked, Rupert not being clean enough, and Leo washing him in the creek, which is probably what Leo wanted all along: an excuse to jump in the creek.

It’s a surprisingly enjoyable lunch, even if I’m not sure I can forgive the man I’m having lunch with.

Outside, Leo yanks his clothes off so fast I don’t have a chance to stop him before a small gray wolf is running in circles around my legs and nearly tripping me.

There’s no containing my smile at his excitement. “He has better control of his wolf.”

Was I like that? Full of puppy enthusiasm? I wish I could ask my parents without reminding them that we didn’t have nearly enough time together before we lost each other.

“He’s smart, and it’s mostly instinctive,” Aren explains, dropping into a crouch. “Leo?”

Days ago, Leo would have knocked someone down with his puppy enthusiasm, or he would have run in the opposite direction to throw himself into the creek.

But he runs right over to Aren, licks his chin, and Aren smiles.

Aren scratches his neck. “There’s a short trail that Gregor sometimes takes the pups out on. It’s better for their short legs and even shorter attention spans.”

“How do you know about the trail?”

“I was a pup once, and sometimes I’ll go with them.” He flicks amber eyes up to me. “You’ve been down for a long time. Despite what you might think, you are still healing.”

“So this walk was so you could?—”

“Keep an eye on you, yes.” He gets to his feet, pulls off his shirt, and my treacherous hormones instantly betray me at the sight of washboard abs and rippling muscles. “And a run is always fun. Do you want to shift here or in the forest?”

I yank my eyes from his chest.

There’s not even a hint of male smugness on his face when he catches me staring.

He patiently waits for my response.

“I don’t want to shift,” I tell him, and start walking.

“Then we do this as humans.” Aren falls in beside me as we start our walk. Leo bolts off into the distance, circles a tree, and sprints back again like a big, fluffy yo-yo pinging back and forth.

I don’t trust my wolf. The last time I was around him, he smelled so good to me—to us—that I wanted to sniff him, and maybe rub myself against him.

He still smells good: wild forest and dewy snowdrops in the depths of winter.

Too good. That’s the problem.

I remember how much he hurt me, caging me in a silver cage that nearly killed me and my wolf when he believed I was a feral, an out-of-control wolf killing students on a college campus.

The part of me that came alive when he called me ‘mate’ is growing. That part feels things and has needs that only he can fill.

Those two parts are colliding.

There are times the hurt is so loud that it’s easy to hate him.

But times like when I woke up and saw his concern make me want to crawl into his lap, wrap my arms around him, and stay there forever.

I feel torn in two, and no one can give me unbiased advice. If I ask any of Pack Kasen what to do, they’ll convince me to stay with Aren. He’s their Alpha. Their loyalty lies with him. If I ask my family, they will suggest killing him and then going back to Nebraska.

No one can make this decision but me, and I don’t know what to do.

“Aren’t you going to put your shirt back on?” I ask the man currently walking shirtless beside me.

When I glance up at him, he’s staring into the distance, with a hint of a smile lifting one corner of his mouth. “No. I don’t think I will.”

“Because?”

“I think you know the answer to that, Kat. If you want me to say it…” His voice trails off.

I don’t respond.

He caught me staring at his chest before. He knows I like what I saw, and he's determined to keep that shirt off because he likes me looking at him.

“The bed is yours,” he says after we’ve been trampling through the forest for the last several minutes.

“Excuse me?”

I don’t know what he’s done with his shirt. He’s not wearing it or even holding it.

He looks at me. “The bed. It’s yours.”

“And where will you sleep?”

He shrugs. “The bunkhouse or by the creek.”

I eye him warily, not sure I should believe him. “I won’t find you sleeping under the bed, will I?”

“I prefer the creek.” He grunts and looks down. I do the same.

Leo is aiming a big, wolfy smile up at him.

“You ran into me,” Aren says mildly.

Leo whirls around and sprints off. Then stops and turns back.

“I think he wants you to play with him.” This slow walking we’re doing can’t be much fun for him when he thought we’d be going for a run.

“I’m walking with— Leo .” Aren glares at the wolf pup innocently peering up at him as laughter fills my head.

“Don’t go far, Leya. Stay where I can see you. Do you hear me?”

“Okay, Momma.” My feet slap across hardwood floors, and I barrel down worn porch steps, flipping my long, brown braid over my shoulder.

I leap the last two steps, land, and ? —

“Kat?” Aren is gripping the tops of my arms, and I’m leaning against him, breathing hard. He looks worried, and I don’t understand why.

“What is it?”

“You tipped over. I’m taking you back to the house.”

Leo is staring at me, tongue hanging out of his mouth, eyes concerned.

“I’m fine,” I tell him and turn back to Aren. “I, uh… I think I had a memory.”

Understanding flashes across his amber gaze. “Of your past?”

I swallow. “I didn’t think I would ever remember anything.”

Maybe meeting my mom and sister is triggering more memories, and I’ll eventually remember everything. I hope so. All my memories start when I was about five, and they’re about people I now know weren’t my parents at all.

He gives me a gentle squeeze. “You will. Was it a good memory?”

I nod. “It was so little, just me running down porch steps and my mom telling me to stay where she could see me. She called me Leya,” Leya for Kataleya Prairie. The girl I was before. I suddenly panic. “What if that’s all I remember?”

“You’ll remember more.” He rubs his hands up and down my bare arms in a move so distracting I wish he would stop. “Do you think someone took you?”

I shrug, retreating until his hands fall away. “I don’t know. Someone must have, but why would I go with strangers? Wouldn’t I have tried to go back to my family?”

He cocks his head, his expression thoughtful. “You would if you knew you had a family. If something happened and you forgot, then you might not know. Maybe you hit your head?”

“Maybe.” All I know is that a walk doesn’t seem like the best idea right now. I rub the pulse at the base of my head. “I’m getting a headache.”

And I never get headaches. I didn’t think shifters could get them with how fast we heal.

Two seconds later, I’m in Aren’s arms and he’s striding back toward the house, his forehead furrowed in concern.

“You don’t have to carry me.” Not gonna lie, it feels pretty damn good to be off my feet.

“Yes, I do.” He peers at my face. “You’re pale. Do you want me to take you to Gregor?”

I like Gregor, but I’d go stir crazy in his infirmary.

I shake my head. “I just need to lie down for a bit.”

I start to look for Leo, but he’s up ahead, leading the way to the house. I thought he would complain about the abrupt end of a run that we barely even started, and I feel bad, but I just want to lie down.

“I’m having an enforcer meeting in an hour,” Aren says as he walks us back to the house.

“So?”

“It’s about Cristofer. If you feel up to it, I’d like you to be there for it. If not, I can?—”

“I’ll be there. He’s a threat, and I want to be part of taking him down.”

One corner of his mouth lifts in a half smile, and I swear I glimpse relief in his eyes. “Thought you might say something like that.”

“Something like what?”

He sets me down inside the house, seeming not to notice the rest of the pack eyeing us curiously.

“You’re a hunter like me. It’s another thing we have in common.”

I’m too afraid to ask him what else we have in common. What I need are reasons to leave him, not reasons to stay.

“Right,” I say, though I’m not sure I believe him.

“You want me to carry you up?” he points his chin at the staircase up to his room.

I shake my head. “I can manage. And I’ll be at the meeting, so don’t start without me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” His salute almost makes me smile, and I hold my breath when he leans in and presses a kiss on my forehead. “Get some rest, Kitty cat. I’ll wait for you.”

But there’s a look in his eyes that makes me think he’s not talking about the meeting.