Chapter Eight #2
Kimberly glanced toward her phone on the sofa cushion, and once more, thought about Shane.
It killed her every time she blew off his invites, but how could she possibly explain herself?
What would she say if they kissed and Shane accidentally triggered her again?
She had to reach a better breakthrough first. She had to know that she could go on another date with him like a normal person.
She hated that contradictory experience where Shane made her feel incredibly safe, and then in two seconds, that safety was gone because of what one bastard did to her.
Shane was the only one who could bleach out the stains left by that psychotic shifter, but she had to be ready for that bleaching first. She had to do her part, somehow.
Through her heavy breaths, she heard lazy footsteps scraping across the concrete ground of the breezeway, making their way to her door. The scent of something sweet, like cookies or juice, passed under her door a second before a firm knock.
Kimberly had a feeling she knew who it was, but she also knew she couldn’t get away with ignoring her visitor. Kaelyn would have been able to hear and smell her just as keenly, so pretending she wasn’t home wasn’t an option.
Kimberly steadied herself, wiped her brows, and opened the door.
Instead of wearing her daycare center uniform, Kaelyn was dressed in a pair of sweats and a beige, short-sleeved shirt. Her hair was up in a messy bun, but her lashes were still coated in mascara, suggesting she had fully wound down from a day of work.
Kaelyn took in Kimberly’s outfit and then her new hair as her stare trailed upwards. “Oh … wow.”
That was the general reaction she received from just about everyone since Saturday afternoon.
“Yeah.” Her tone was one bad impulse away from nasty, so Kimberly took a breath before replying with her generic excuse. “Just felt like a change. It’ll grow back, but I like it.” She punctuated with a forced smile.
Kaelyn blinked, clearly still thrown by her hair. “Your hair looks like Shirley MacLaine’s in The Apartment.”
“What?”
Kaelyn shook her head. “Never mind. I’m making some cookies for the kids at the daycare and I’m a little low on sugar. Can I borrow some from you?”
“Sure. How much?”
“Three cups if you’ve got it.”
“I think I do. Wait here.” Kimberly wanted to shut the door in the shifter’s face but kept up the politeness game and left it open.
Kaelyn would get a full view of the inside of her apartment. Given their history, she should have considered herself privileged, but Kimberly hoped it’d inspire guilt. This was where it all happened, where Kaelyn let it happen.
Kimberly pulled out a container and measured out three cups of sugar.
When she turned, Kaelyn was inside her apartment, by her counter, and gazing around.
Did she not hear the order to wait outside?
This was her territory, and she might have been a defective shifter, but the unspoken rules of etiquette should have applied.
When Kaelyn met her hard stare, there was no hiding the anger at being ignored and disrespected.
Her guest took on a hangdog look. “Okay, confession time. Don’t kill me.
” Kaelyn shut the front door as if Kimberly were ready to bolt.
“Gage called me. He’s been getting a ton of calls from around town, him and Dominic, about you.
Everyone’s worried. Gage didn’t give me a lot of details, but now I’m worried too.
When a girl cuts off all her hair or dyes it, it usually means she’s going through something. Believe me, I know. I’ve been there.”
“And Gage sent you? Of all people?”
The words came out biting, condemning, unfiltered.
Kaelyn winced. “He did. And … I know. I think it was more about proximity than anything. He also asked if I knew anything since we’re neighbors, and I had to tell him that I didn’t.
He expects me to report back and not let on that he sent me, but that feels really underhanded. It’s not fair to you.”
Kimberly’s hold on the plastic Tupperware loosened a little, so much that the sides of the open top stopped bowing inward. At least Kaelyn was honest.
“You want me to tell you what to tell him?”
Kaelyn gave her a halfway sad smile. “I’d hope we could talk if you want to, and whatever is going on, we could work it out. I’d hate to be so close and still unable to help … again.”
So, she was bringing it up? Was that a confession? Kimberly could do that. Clear the air. Get it all out.
“Unable or unwilling?” Again, it all sounded so harsh coming from her, but Kimberly didn’t care.
“Unable.” Kaelyn sucked in a breath after a second of thought. “Is this all about that night?”
“If it was, do you honestly think you could do anything about it?”
“Maybe … I can try. Maybe talking about it would help.”
“I already talked about it.” Kimberly nearly slammed down the container of sugar, spilling white granules across the black granite countertop.
“Gage knows what happened. Cole knows. Almost all of Tolstone, human or shifter, knows what happened. Pretty much all the women know because no one can stop them from gossiping. It’s old news.
It’s been resolved. Nathan’s dead, too, so what the fuck is there to talk about? ”
Kaelyn swallowed hard. “You didn’t tell them about my part in it. If you did, I doubt Dominic would have let me stay.”
“You ratted out Wyatt to Dominic. That’s why he let you stay instead of kicking you out with the rest of your old pack. Whatever I had to say wasn’t going to change his decision to show you mercy.”
“I doubt it. I only gave him information about Wyatt’s plan to try and take over Tolstone.
You were in danger. Nathan almost … and I didn’t help.
I know that you know I was across the hall.
I’m not oblivious to all that repressed hate.
Gage would have beaten me into the ground if he knew the truth, and Dominic would have definitely kicked me out, regardless of the information I gave him.
Hell, any other shifter in town would have probably murdered me by now, which is how I know you didn’t tell anyone … Why?”
She was right. Dominic and Gage were just as protective of Kimberly as any other alpha would be.
There was likely nothing Kaelyn could have done or said to redeem herself in their eyes.
She would have had Kaelyn’s blood on her hands if she told anyone that her neighbor refused to step out of her apartment the night Nathan attacked her.
Kimberly stayed quiet, not for Kaelyn’s sake, but for her own.
That kind of guilt would have eaten away at her.
But it was the look of total agony on Kaelyn’s face that made Kimberly rethink what she was going to say next, as well as the tone.
“You’re right. I knew you were in your apartment when it happened.
I know what Gage would have done to you.
That’s why I told them you weren’t home.
I’m not that petty or vindictive. You have your reasons, however shitty they may be, but I would never wish an alpha’s wrath on someone who didn’t really deserve it.
You came through in the end and probably helped to save Tolstone. That’s what matters.”
Kaelyn looked confused, and Kimberly couldn’t blame her. Yes, this shifter was not on her top list of favorite people, but she wouldn’t want Kaelyn six feet under in severed pieces.
Kimberly took a breath and spread her fingers across the cool granite.
“What I want to know is why you didn’t do something that night …
Any shifter would have come barreling over, but you didn’t.
I know you have some dominance, so it must have been contradictory to your instincts, right? You know I was defenseless, right?”
Kaelyn suddenly looked even more uncomfortable. “Yes, my wolf wanted to come and help you so bad, believe me … but that’s why I couldn’t leave my apartment.”
“I don’t get it.”
She paused as if summoning the courage to blurt out the truth. “I can’t control my shifts.”
Kimberly blinked. “What do you mean?” She knew every clarifying question was like rubbing salt into Kaelyn’s invisible wounds.
Kaelyn squeezed her eyes shut and flapped her hand toward her chest like she was trying to shake off some bad feeling.
“I can’t … it’s … I can shift just fine, but it’s never when I actually want to, and when I do, I’m not in charge.
The wolf takes over and I’m just watching all the havoc it brings to the situation.
It happens when I’m really pissed off or just super emotional.
I knew that if I tried to interfere, if I tried to stop Nathan, I’d definitely end up shifting, but I would be a danger to you and everyone in this building.
I couldn’t risk it or the exposure. That’s one of Dominic’s top rules, you know.
Don’t do anything that could expose us to the humans. ”
Kaelyn’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, and Kimberly felt the first stirrings of empathy.
A wolf who couldn’t control their shifts by their age was pretty rare, if not a downright anomaly.
Something must have been seriously wrong with Kaelyn’s wolf to make her that volatile.
What a pair they made. Kimberly couldn’t shift anymore, and Kaelyn couldn’t hold in her shift or manage her wolf.
They were like opposite sides of the same dysfunctional coin.
The confession melted some of the ice, but Kimberly was a long way from forgiving.
Kaelyn might have been lying, spinning some sob story just to turn her into the victim and take some of the pressure off.
Though if she was lying, Kaelyn was a brilliant actor.
Kimberly sensed no deception in her at all.
Kaelyn bounced impatiently. “Please, say something so I don’t feel like a total idiot?”