4. Kato
KATO
When Uncle Declan summons me early that morning, it immediately puts me in a foul mood.
I know—because he’s asking to see me alone—that he’s going to be up my ass about something, otherwise he never gives me the time of day.
I wonder if Nathan told him about the cigarettes.
I’m going to be a little hurt if he did; I thought we bonded somewhat over our new shared responsibility.
Although I’m ninety percent sure that he wants the new omega for himself.
Which is absolutely not going to happen. Not if I have a say.
And it’s sort of unfair, anyway, because Nathan’s never shown a solitary interest in any of the other omegas, so why does he have to care about this one?
Even though he claims he doesn’t, I know it’s bullshit.
Can tell by the way he infuriatingly tends to him, looks at him, touches him—even the way he smells around him.
He never melts like that for anyone else.
That tough, icy exterior thawed right out for Cas the way it never has for me.
(Maybe it hurts my feelings, a little. Because Nathan wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire.)
But whatever. I’ve got no babysitter following me around since Nathan’s at home with Cas, which means I’m largely left to my own devices.
So I head along to the human village to bum another smoke off Magda, even though she’s been told yet again not to give me any.
It’s not like she cares and besides, she’s my pal.
The only one I’ve got in the whole world, at this rate.
“Rolled it myself, hen,” she’s delighted to inform me. “Just for you. Knew you’d be coming by, had a feeling. Mum used to tell me she thought I was a bit psychic, y’know. Imagine!”
“You’re the best, Mags,” I say, tucking the cigarette behind my ear.
She snaps her gnarled fingers at me. “You come back tomorrow too, see if I can’t make another.”
“Dunno about that. My babysitter gets real cranky with me.”
“He’s gonna soften up on you one of these days, hen. Sooner than you think.”
I laugh. “I don’t think so. He hates my guts.”
I even get to finish the whole cigarette before I drag my sorry ass before my uncle, determined not to let this ruin my day because I’m planning on taking Cas around the village later, now that he’s feeling a bit better. The thought cheers me.
My uncle meets me at the door of his house, his face and demeanor as grim as always.
He’s not a bad-looking guy, I guess—a little younger than my father at the tender age of sixty and appearing a good decade or so younger because us shifters are a long-lived lot.
But he’s got this ruddy, weathered kind of air and hawkish face, deep frown lines engraved into his brow and steel-gray hair that recedes in a sharp widow’s peak.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him look happy about anything, but that might just be because he’s never happy with me.
“Come in,” he says. “We need to talk.”
I wonder what it is I’ve done this time. I can’t think of anything, though.
He leads me to the expansive living room.
His house is easily the biggest in the village, perched on a rocky ledge above the rest, which I suppose is fitting for his stature.
There’s a large window that looks down on it all, beyond which I see betas tending one of the fields.
I imagine them singing chain gang songs. “Where’s Eden?” I ask, off-handedly.
He doesn’t answer the question. “You smell like an ashtray.”
“Oh, well, that’s ’cause I visited Mag—”
My uncle snatches me up as I make to sit on the couch, hand fisted in the front of my shirt.
His lips peel back from sharp eyeteeth, breath hot on my face.
“I’m not stupid, Kato, nor am I as easily manipulated as your father.
And the more you continue to test me, the less inclined I am to ever send you back to him. ”
I stare into his hazel eyes—nearly identical to my own—and say nothing.
I am loath to give him throat, but after a painfully long moment I tilt my chin a scant inch.
It’s enough for him. He lets me go—shoves me, really—and I go sprawling onto the couch hard enough that the feet scrape the hardwood floor.
“In spite of your repeated slip-ups,” he informs me, “I have a task for you—which, if performed successfully, might actually earn you some goodwill with me for once. I assume you do want that? That your sole purpose in life is not to get on my last nerve?”
I fold my arms over my chest and stifle a sigh. He is so goddamn theatrical. “Of course.”
“Because again, if you ever want to go back home, you’d best start shaping up and fast—”
On and on he drones up on the soapbox he has permanently glued to his feet.
Something about how wretched a wolf I am—and also in general—and I wonder if Cas is awake yet.
He was fast asleep when I left and as cute as he looks asleep, he’s even more stunning in motion.
Maybe I could show him around the village later.
He might like that, a chance to get some fresh air after being cooped up in the cottage for a few days.
Or, well, maybe not. After that doozy of a panic attack he had, maybe indoors was all he wanted in life. One way to find out.
“Are you listening to me, Kato?”
I sit up straight and meet my uncle’s annoyed gaze. “Yup.”
He turns away from me and goes to the window, hands clasped behind his back like a B-movie villain as he surveys his tiny minions toiling below. “That omega,” he says, almost absently. “The one you found.”
“Cas? What about him?” My wolf’s hackles are already up. Oh, we don’t like it when Declan mentions him, not at all.
“I don’t trust him. He’s…suspicious.” Declan looks at me over his shoulder. “Don’t you agree?”
I try to keep my voice even, not let it give me away.
“What’s suspicious about him? He was hurt, alone…
completely defenseless.” And prone to panicking like a cornered animal, but I don’t mention that.
He does not strike me as dangerous, not even a little.
There is, in fact, a fierce need in me to protect him, and that’s sort of new.
“A packless omega shows up out of the blue? You have no curiosity about that whatsoever?”
“Well, sure, but not like…suspicion. He’s clearly a victim of something.”
“Kato.” There’s a thread of irritation in his voice. “I need you to keep an eye on him.”
“Easy,” I say immediately.
“Do you think you can do that?” He observes me impassively. “That’s not too daunting for you, is it?”
“Um.”
His nostrils flare. “This isn’t something I’m giving you a choice on. You nod and say ‘yes, Alpha.’”
The defiant wolf in me disagrees vehemently. I don’t mistake myself for dominant—I leave that to Nate—but bowing and scraping to my uncle is something like torture. I bite my lower lip. “Fine.”
“Sorry?” His voice has gone low and subtly dangerous. “I didn’t catch that.”
“Yes, Alpha,” I mutter.
Like that, I’m dismissed. He doesn’t have to say anything; the body language gives it away—the subtle turn of his head and a flick of the wrist, as if brushing away an obnoxious fly.
I stand and jam my hands in my pockets, waiting a beat or two, but he says nothing else, so I begin to trudge toward the front hall.
“Oh, Kato,” he calls out as my hand touches the door, and I freeze. “One more thing.”
Fuck. “Yeah?”
He reappears at the edge of my periphery, leaning one shoulder against the wall. “If you keep smoking, I’ll have to do something about it.”
“Um.” My hand closes over the doorknob. “Okay. So I’ll stop.”
“I mean it.” He’s examining his fingernails. “I won’t tolerate further disrespect on this score.”
Whatever. “Reading you loud and clear, Uncle.”
The moment I launch myself out of his house I take a deep gulp of air, then another, sucking down oxygen like I’ve been holding my breath this entire time.
There’s no fucking way I’m reporting in on the new omega. It’s such an absurd idea, anyway—that he poses any threat to us. He might be a little bit weird, but not in any way that’s dangerous. I don’t think. Nathan certainly doesn’t believe so, or he’d be a hell of a lot more wary leaving Cas alone.
That, or we’re both just blinded by whatever insane pheromones the omega’s been giving off since his arrival, unable to rationalize past it. Which is a possibility, I guess. Also terrifying. But not as terrifying as it should be? Christ, I’m already craving another cigarette.
(One might accuse me of trading one addiction for another, but I think of it as scaffolding. Get on smoking to get off drinking. Get on—what, vaping?—to get off smoking. And to get off vaping…eh. That’s a problem for later me.)
Either way, for the moment I resist. I go back to Nathan’s-slash-my house instead, and upon letting myself in I’m greeted by the sight of the omega in question.
He stands, a whopping five inches shorter than me, in the kitchen, wearing nothing but one of my oversized sweatshirts that practically swallows him whole.
His legs are slender and petite beneath the hem that falls halfway down his pale thighs.
And, of course, he smells incredible. My lips part as I breathe him in—whipped cream and almonds. He’s still nosing about in the pantry, apparently oblivious to my arrival. I clear my throat. “Looking for something in particular?”
He starts, whipping around and looking at me with wide, dark eyes contrasted by snowy lashes. In his hands he’s holding the tin of that breakfast tea Nate loves so much. “Oh,” he squeaks. “I didn’t even hear you come in.”
“No?” I say, amused. He’s so damn cute. “I wasn’t trying to be sneaky.”
He tosses his messy white curls out of his face. “I’m sure you weren’t. I was just…um, I wanted to make some tea. That’s all.”
I pull out one of the chairs at the small table. “Sit,” I say. “I can do it for you.”