Page 9 of Pack Kasen, Part 3 (Caught #3)

“I think he was bitten,” she explains. “He didn’t seem to know much about shifters.

Not as much as someone would if he were born one.

He said he wasn’t sure the bite would work if I were unconscious, so he yanked the crossbow bolt out of me and wrapped a chain around my ankle so I wouldn’t heal before he could bite me.

I was in too much pain to ask him helpful questions, so that’s all I know. ”

I get up from my chair. She tenses slightly. I grasp her arm, yank her up from her chair, and haul her against my chest because I need this woman in my arms like I need to breathe.

“You promised this wasn’t going to turn into a caveman situation.” Her voice is muffled against my chest.

“I promised not to howl. I did not promise not to hug you.”

“Oh.”

Howling was always the perfect way to release my frustration into the sky.

Hugging my mate is an entirely new experience. One I crave.

“Is this hug going to end soon?” she asks. “You’re probably making your enforcers very uncomfortable.”

“We’re good,” Cruz says.

“That was a sign to intervene before your alpha squeezes the stuffing out of me,” she mutters.

I pull back to grin at her. “You could have just clawed me.”

“I can’t get to any of the organs that would kill you,” she says.

She might not have hugged me, but she did nothing to break it. She’s right, though. This meeting is important, and as much as I want to hug my mate for longer, we have things to talk about.

I release her to return to my seat, but I pull her onto my lap.

She stares at me.

I focus on Cruz. “What did you find out about him when you were at the college?”

“You mean when you had them watch me?” Kat wiggles.

I rest my hand on the base of her spine. The warmth of her skin filters through her cotton t-shirt to the palm of my hand. “Quit wiggling.”

It’s distracting me in more ways than one.

“Not much. He kept his distance. Likely knew what we were and was smart enough to stay away,” Cruz says.

“Aren,” she snaps. “You dragged me onto your lap like a caveman.”

Someone hurt my mate. Tried to take her. I need her in my arms.

Maybe a more civilized good man wouldn’t invade her space like this, but I’ve never been civilized, and I’ve never been particularly good.

“This is who I am. It’s who I will always be,” I tell her.

Possessive. Fierce. An Alpha.

She releases a sigh and mutters, “Pull my braid again and you die.”

Which is as close as I’m going to get to her accepting me pulling her onto my lap.

I’ll take it.

Smiling slightly, I focus on Finan. “Someone must know him. We need to find him. Get in touch with every pack.”

Kat stops the wiggling that was only making me hard. “He didn’t have a pack.”

I peer at her face, wondering how I missed the tiny freckle on the bridge of her nose. I want to kiss it, and I will. Later. “Why not?”

“He said he was alone. It’s why he wanted to bite me, I think.”

I frown at her as I think.

“So why did he wait?” I ask myself. “The moment you arrived on campus, he would have known what you were. Why did he wait to kill your exes and try to bite you?”

“Fear,” Emilio says simply.

We all look at him.

Emilio was once a new prospect, like Jasper. He traveled around a bit after leaving his pack in South America at eighteen. He fell for Joy when he flirted with her, and she threatened to kill him. They’ve been together for nine years now and are expecting their first pup.

“Fear?” I arch my eyebrow.

He takes Joy’s hand, threading their fingers together. “When I first came here, I knew I wanted Joy. There was no one else for me. She is mi vida .”

Joy isn’t the only one smiling at Emilio’s Spanish endearment for her.

His life.

I used to scoff at the endearment. I thought he was whipped, and the nickname was ridiculous. Now that I’ve found Kat, I get it.

“He pretended he wanted to be my friend,” Joy says, rolling her eyes at Kat.

“But I always wanted her.” Emilio tugs his mate under his arm.

“And the need I had for her was almost as bad as the fear she would reject me. If Cristofer believed he was alone, he would not want to mess things up with Kat by moving too fast. He would want to take his time, gain her trust, and then make his move.”

I nod as I study him. That doesn’t just sound right. It feels right.

“Maybe,” Kat says slowly. “Before my memories started to come back, I thought I was the only werewolf. I lost my memories, but if someone bit him, maybe he thought he was the only one alone as well?”

“Did he ask you anything about shifters in college?” Wes asks Kat.

Kat shakes her head. “After my ex-boyfriend made my senior year hell, I wasn’t interested in boys. That might have been why he tried to be my friend first.”

“He was trying to worm his way into your life, but someone else always kept getting between you,” Finan says thoughtfully.

“Until finally, he stopped trying to worm his way in and instead just wiped out the competition,” Silas adds.

“So, what do we do now?” Troy keeps his eyes on me. He wants to look at Kat, but after the last time he called Kat beautiful and I nearly drowned him in my breakfast, he knows not to let me catch him staring.

Kat is mine.

“We patrol, we watch, and we prepare. He will try again. We will get him before he can get to us,” I say.

“And Kat?” Finan asks softly, eyes on me.

If Cristofer bites Kat, it will permanently tie them together. I have no idea what it would mean for Kat and me as a fated mated pair. Would it break our mate bond?

If I bite Kat, Cristofer could never have her. He would have no reason to take her. She would be mine utterly and completely, which would make her safe from another abduction.

But that isn’t what Kat wants or needs.

Biting her when she’s not ready for it would be another form of caging her. I can’t do that to her. A bite would keep her physically safe, but it would destroy us.

“Meetings over,” I say, pulling my gaze from his.

If I bite Kat before she’s ready, she will never forgive me.

If I don’t bite her, Cristofer could grab her and bite her, and I would lose her.