Chapter 5 - Kaiden

My fingers itched with the desire to touch her again. Kit was in my fucking room, her smell mixing into every molecule of the air. She'd washed off, at least a bit, and that had shed any of the forest smells that might tamp down that lilac scent of hers.

And her hair was longer.

It was such a stupid thing to notice, but I couldn't stop myself from running my gaze down the wet chestnut brown locks, wishing to tangle my fingers in them. My wolf paced, anxious to break free, and I could hear the repeated word in my head clearer than ever.

Mate. She's your mate. Mate. Mate. Mate.

"Oh, goody. Well, it's not like I have much of a choice, now is it?" Kit responded, glaring all the harder.

I clenched my jaw, trying to ignore the fact that Kit's nipples were hard beneath the thin fabric of her t-shirt.

"You can sit." I gestured to the bed behind her, and my wolf growled happily in my head, wanting her there so fucking badly. "I'm not here to hurt you."

Kit just stared at me, her arms folded beneath her large breasts. The attitude was not helping me to focus. My dumb wolf just wanted to teach her a lesson, teach her how to…obey.

"Kit, please. You can't just stand there and glare at me. Just…sit."

"I am not a wolf, Alpha." Her hands went to her hips, and Kit cocked her head. "So you can try your bark on me all you want, but it won't do you any good. If you have something to say, just say it."

Frustration boiled in my blood. It swelled and swirled together with the innate claim I had wanted over Kit since the moment I'd seen her. I didn't know what it was then, and I'd pushed myself away from those strong emotions—from her.

With a sigh, I blinked slowly, working my jaw like I was trying to chew glass. "You'll be staying here, Kit. For a long while, so you may want to be just a tiny bit more cordial with me. You've been with the Williams. You have to know what they've been doing to my pack."

Kit rolled her eyes. "I assure you I don't. Not a lot of packs appreciate a human in their midst. I'd think you would have remembered that."

The words hit me like a gut punch, and I couldn't stop myself from actually reeling a little. Kit's personality was as warm as it ever was, and it was still so damn hard not to like her. She just had something in there that made you feel like you were standing in the sun.

But the harshness, the way she appeared to mistrust everything, was new, and I didn't like it.

My brow furrowed as I studied her, and as she glared back at me, I could feel my wolf chomping at the bit to break free. He believed with overwhelming certainty that he could make Kit submit to him. I was forced to hold back a partial shift, the edges of my vision going black and white as I stared at her.

"My pack has been suffering a great deal thanks to the drugs the Williamses are making."

Kit mirrored my expression, her brows knitting together. "Drugs? What are you talking about? Like...pot?"

A bark of laughter struck out from me like lightning. I didn't mean to, but the question was just so ridiculous, so na?ve.

"Hardly. It's a wolf-specific concoction. It's…" I remembered the young wolf I'd found in the tall underbrush near the edge of the tree line, frozen and motionless in a half-shifted state. "It's hurting them."

A glint touched Kit's eyes, and I could practically see the cogs working in her head. "I thought wolves had a strong constitution. They can take more."

"They usually can." I nodded, but it ended in another long exhale. "This is different. I haven't seen it in action. Just rumors. Word is that it gives you a jump-start, makes you stronger. But it's killing people. I've found too many dead young wolves just out of their first shift turning to fertilizer."

Kit's eyes widened, her mouth falling open slightly. As the silence stretched between us, me letting it so that we could both fucking think for a moment, she took a few steps backward, plopping down on my bed.

Fucking hell, this was so fucking bad.

I wanted to deny my desire to protect Kit from the Williamses, from everything that might go wrong. I wanted to believe that she was just another enemy, a human that knew too much about this world and was better off staying far, far away from it.

But I couldn't.

It wasn't exactly straightforward either, though. Trusting Kit could very well be an invitation for betrayal and pain. She was officially a member of the Williams pack now, and we were far from allies. Worse, Kit had been with them for twelve years. It was impossible not to believe that being with a group of assholes for that long wouldn't have changed her.

Eli had been resistant to every move to unite the packs that Jet made. He was absent at the last meeting with the others, and from all accounts that we had, several delivered by Cade—who was the least likely to exaggerate—Eli was up to some shady business.

He didn't speak with other packs, sure, but Eli also didn't parlay, ever, even during times of emergencies, and he was rumored to be demanding and cruel. I could hardly imagine what living with him had done to Kit.

"It's…killing them? God." Kit's brows were still pinched together in concern, and she absently reached up for the ends of her hair, comforting herself by playing with them.

"Yeah. So excuse me if I'm a little surprised that you just randomly showed up on my territory when we were just in the process of gathering information about Eli and his pack."

"I was running away, Kaiden. I…I wasn't exactly treated the best there, and I'd finally reached my last straw."

Her voice was tight, and I could smell the slight astringent burn to her lilac scent. Kit was agitated, but I couldn't tell what the cause was. Getting information from a wolf's scent was so much easier. Their emotions played out like a picture book in their smell, but with humans…dammit.

I cocked a brow, taking a step forward and folding my arms over my chest. "Running? Can you elaborate?"

"I'm a human, Kaiden. Is there really more to say? You weren't exactly kind and welcoming when I was living in Jet's pack."

My chest squeezed, and I bit back the need to grimace. Still, a tiny growl rumbled forward, and Kit noticed, her eyes flaring.

"Don't fucking growl at me!" She practically leaped off the bed. "Your fucking wolves took me prisoner."

Gods, both old and new, this woman was infuriating. I took two swift steps forward, jabbing a finger toward her.

"And why exactly did the Williamses take you in? If they dislike humans so much."

Kit cocked her head, narrowing her eyes at me as she chewed on her lip. There was so much fire and brimstone in that glare that even I was impressed—an alpha who'd killed to protect wolves. There certainly was a lot about Kit that had changed.

"They weren't happy about it. About as much as you are now. But they figured I could be useful. Menial labor was just beneath them, and maybe I could spread gossip about Jet's pack. So, I got in. As their fucking servant."

That bitter tinge to her scent was still there, but it hadn't changed. I had to guess that she was just angry—I mean, that would be clear enough, even if I had just been another human. There was more, however, behind the layers of bite that mingled with the lilac differently.

Warmer, richer.

That scent wasn't altogether unpleasant. In fact, it was…no, I did not have time for this. And besides, I still didn't know where she sat in relation to the Williamses. I couldn't just trust someone on their word. I'd been betrayed a bit too recently, and I wasn't about to allow that to happen again. Especially not now that I was the alpha of my own pack.

"You'll be staying in this room until I can sort all this out. Understood?"

"What?! You can't just keep me locked up in here. I'm not one of you."

I raised my brows at her. "That's precisely why you'll be staying."

"Ugh!" Kit threw up her hands, sitting down on the bed again with an exaggerated huff.

My wolf practically purred to see her there again, to see Kit's breasts shoved up by her arms. Knock it off.

Internally, I tried to remind my wolf that this wasn't about any of that. She wasn't my mate. Kit was a human, and this was not what mattered. We needed to stop the enemy pack, the Williamses. That was the priority.

Still, every instinct I had screamed at me to protect her, to get close to her, to mark her, to breed her. Fucking hell, this was worse than when I was a teenager.

And it was also a considerable risk to my pack and status as the alpha. If the few wolves here believed I was harboring an enemy, a human that couldn't be trusted and was being used to hurt us, I'd lose all respect. Many would probably cut and run altogether. That couldn't happen. There were too many that wouldn't survive on their own.

"Look, Kit," I stared down at her, lowering my voice as that alpha command funneled through my blood, "you can either get comfortable and enjoy being cooped up in here, or you can decide to be helpful and earn your way to freedom."

Kit just glared, but I could see the subtle bob of her throat as she swallowed.

"So, what's it going to be?"