5. Kate
What am I, stupid?
When it comes to Kane Orion, that’s exactly what I am: the stupidest bitch I know.
But in my defense, when he puts his hands on me, my brain malfunctions. When he goes all alpha, I’m torn between swooning with drool leaking from my mouth and wanting to bring him to his knees in front of me to prove which one of us has the bigger balls.
It’s him, obviously. I can usually hide the weak bitch that wants to swallow his dick, but right now, I’m finding it extremely hard not to attack him and take everything I’ve wanted from Kane for five long years. The heat surrounding me isn’t helping matters either.
“Baby, you’re toying with something you can’t handle.”
This motherfucker.
“I’ve handled bigger beasts than you. Don’t think for one second you know anything about what I can’t handle,” I lie through my teeth, praying he can’t see through my bullshit. The truth is, I’ve never met a shifter bigger than him, but that doesn’t mean I plan to let him know that small detail.
It’s music to my ears when he growls and snarls in front of me, telling me I hit my mark exactly where I’d aimed.
“There may be bigger men out there than me, Kate, but there is no one that can tear up a pussy the way I can and make you believe you’re experiencing both heaven and hell at the same time.”
I open my mouth, but a second piece of bacon is shoved inside before my brain forms the words to tell him to prove it.
“Eat. Now.”
His hand comes back to my waist, searing my flesh and making it feel like his touch is a thousand degrees. But the sustenance his eyes are forcing me to chew and swallow is having the weirdest effect on me that has my wolf rolling over onto her back, showing her belly and submitting to him.
Bitch, we don’t submit to anyone.
Kane shouldn’t be able to coerce me into obeying him, but I suppose I’ve allowed myself to weaken that much.
With his eyes on me, Kane’s hands slide from my bare waist and over the material covering my hips until they’re sliding down my thighs, only stopping when he’s wrapped his fingers around the back of my knees. Jerking me forward, he pulls my center flush with his hard abdominal wall. On reflex, my thighs clamp around his waist as my heart rate accelerates. My boots cross at the ankle, locking him between me.
“You smell good enough to eat,” he murmurs.
Leaning toward him, I lick my lips, savoring the taste of delicious, greasy pork from the bacon before saying, “Seems to me, you’re more talk than you are willing to eat someone, but so we’re clear, I’m always on the menu for you, Kane.”
Tilting my head until my nose is against the skin under his jaw, I inhale, pulling as much of him in through my nose as possible. With my neck exposed, he could take that as a sign of submission, but the yearning to sniff him is far greater than the need to assert my alpha side to another alpha.
He growls, but it’s so low and deep within his chest that only another supernatural creature like me can hear it, and it’s a joy to my soul.
“If you two are finally going to fuck, can we at least determine whether Trez is alive or dead first?” Jag rushes out, successfully ruining whatever ground I was covering with Kane. I unlock my legs and pull away, me nor the beast within liking it. Flicking my eyes over Kane’s shoulder, Jagger’s face is screwed up as if the sight of us makes him want to hurl everything sitting in his stomach. “And when that happens, give me a heads up so I can be miles away.”
Kane lets out an angered growl a heartbeat before he jerks away from me, effectively telling and showing me, yet again, that I’m not his mate and he’ll never be mine—not even for one night.
Thanks, Jagger.
What a fucking snatch blocker he is.
Way to piss all over my inner parade too because for a minute there, the anguish sitting on top of my chest was nonexistent. Now, it’s returned tenfold. But even that doesn’t tamper down the heat engulfing my body.
The front door flies open, and Ash walks back through, holding up the tiny screwdriver.
“Seriously, is the A/C not on? It’s like a sauna in here.” I hop down, pulling my loose top further away from my skin to get a breeze flowing up my shirt, but it doesn’t help cool me down even one degree. If anything, my body temperature increases as the minutes tick by, and not in a good way.
“Yes,” Kane answers and then turns away from me. “It stays on sixty-five year-round.”
“Well, it feels like a hundred.” I grab the urn as Ashleigh hands the tool over to Kane. Jag steps to the other side of the island and pulls out a stool.
“Maybe that’s all the alcohol you’re sweating out of your system,” Kane says, waiting for me to hand the remains over.
“No,” I argue while pushing it toward him. “That burned out over twenty-four hours ago. It’s your house. Maybe it knows I’m not part of your pack and doesn’t want me here.”
“It’s a house, Kate. It’s not a living, breathing entity,” Kane adds like I’ve lost my mind, but there is no way it’s the temperature he said it was in here unless I’m the only one that can feel the difference, and for that to be the case, magic would have to be in play.
“Maybe your witch spelled it then. Whatever it is, it clearly doesn’t like me.”
“The pack doesn’t use Storm like that. She isn’t my witch. This is her safe haven for as long as she wants to call it home. She didn’t spell shit,” Kane spits out like he can’t believe I’d think such a thing. But in my pack, that’s precisely what Dick does. He just tries to downplay their coven living on the outskirts of pack land.
“Can one of you just open the motherfucker already?” Jag issues a low rumble of a growl, not liking our back and forth, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Kane’s mate is Jagger’s little sister, though he’s never been bothered before, so I’m not sure what’s changed since I was here a few months back.
“Please open it, Kane,” I ask, but even to my ears, I hear the whine of a beg in my tone. “I need to know once and for all that I’m not losing my mind, that he isn’t gone.”
I swear, I’ve died a hundred deaths by the time Kane places the screws on the counter. It’s only by whatever strength my wolf possesses that I don’t give in to my broken heart over the fact that my brother may very well be dead.
Tonight, we’re due for a full moon, and if Trez were alive, he’d have spoken to me already. I’ve always been able to hear him, even when my body is in slumber. Waking me up before the crack of dawn on the day a full moon is scheduled is one of Trez’s favorite ways to annoy me.
Where the hell are you, Trez?I scream inside my head, hoping he can hear me if he’s out there. I’m here. Why aren’t you? Please don’t be dead. My words crack, but my brother is the only one who can hear my thoughts.
“It’s other,” Kane finally says, making my heart feel like it’s stopped beating. An audible gasp slips from my lips, and there’s nothing I can do to suppress it. Kane’s head whips toward me, his amber eyes darkening and demanding mine to lock with his. “The ashes aren’t from a wolf, Kate. It’s not Trez. It’s a witch.”
“Ah, thank fuck,” Jag breathes out a gush of air with his words, my heart echoing the same even though I shouldn’t be relieved that someone else is dead, supernatural or human.
“He’s not dead. It really was Trez in my head,” I admit, not thinking before the words rolled off my tongue.
“In your head?” Ash is the first to catch what I said. “What does that mean?”
“I’d like to know that answer too, but first, I need to get these remains to Storm. She may know who this is.” Kane’s head tilts while he’s looking at me, the wheels turning inside his skull. “A bigger question is, why did your father think this was Trez? Why did he want you and your pack to believe his son had been killed?”
“I’ll take the ashes to her,” Ashleigh offers. “She was at our cabin earlier, so she may still be at home. I overheard Maddy saying they were going out later tonight, but I doubt they’ll leave without me.”
“And we have to get going to make a perimeter run,” Jagger says to Kane.
“Fuck. I wasn’t thinking about the time,” Kane curses as he runs his fingers and palm through the loose, dirty-blond locks on top of his head.
“I can go with Jag to check the land after we drop the urn. I’ve done it a million times. You stay with Kate and figure shit out,” Ash offers.
“All right, but if there are any signs of that vampire’s scent we sniffed out last week, one of you call me immediately,” Kane instructs.
My wide eyes must give away my thoughts because Jag says, “There are all types of supernatural creatures, Kate. Doesn’t your pack know this?”
“I know there are witches and humans-turned-werewolves from a wolf shifter’s bite, but . . .” I trail off, not knowing what else to say and not really caring at the moment. If I think about it, vampires existing, or any other creature isn’t a stretch. If I hadn’t just been told there’s a good chance my brother isn’t dead, I’d take the time to learn more about other beings.
“Just another reason your pack sucks,” Jag comments. “We educate all our shifters. We don’t withhold shit or keep secrets.”
“Never claimed to like mine, did I?” I say back as my feet start to step away from Kane. Flicking my eyes to his as they track my every step, I swallow the saliva pooling in my mouth. “I need a minute alone.”
Turning, I quicken my pace until I’m down the hallway. The bathroom is to my left, so I dart inside and close the door. I flick the light and fan switch simultaneously, needing all the noise this small space has to offer. My breath catches in my throat a beat later. Dashing a long step toward the tub, I manage to turn on the shower a hair’s breadth before the first tear falls from my eyes, a sob following.
I stink after riding on a motorcycle for hours yesterday, not to mention the sweat that has been coating my skin since I woke up half an hour ago.
Pulling my feet out of my boots and ripping off every stitch of clothing from my body, I get in the tub, letting the spray of cold water soak every inch of my flesh. Lowering myself to the bottom, I sit and allow the tears to fall. I cry until I have nothing left in my system to give, and I pray the rush from the shower pouring out water is enough to cover the ugliness coming from my mouth.
You have twenty-four hours to get your ass here, or I’m coming back to find you. Even if that means taking down Dad and any other pack member that gets in my way. Goddammit, Trez, say something. Let me know you’re okay.
Please, just be alive.
I need you to be alive, brother.