by S. Young
“Fine. Let’s return to our work then, please.”
The class settled back down.
Then Caia heard the low murmur of Alexa’s voice near her ear. “You just made a huge mistake. Kicking my chair with the force of your strength in front of ‘them’. Lucien isn’t going to be happy.”
Caia narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t kick you. We both know that. Whatever games you’re playing, I suggest you stop.”
Her nostrils flared and she bared her teeth before hissing, “Oh, cut the innocent bull. Your ass is mine. You better keep me happy, or I will tell Lucien.”
“Girls,” their teacher snapped. “Back to work.”
Heart racing, Caia stared down at her notebook, adrenaline coursing through her body. It was hard enough trying to fit in. She didn’t need Alexa deliberately sabotaging her.
What Caia wanted to know … was why?
The incident with Alexa made it difficult for Caia to concentrate during her next few classes. Last night’s dinner had felt like a success but now it was overcast by Alexa’s manipulative and threatening behavior.
Lost in her thoughts as she walked a tray of food through the cafeteria, she only became aware of the whispering when she neared the pack. Human eyes followed her and her wolf ears caught snatches of conversation. They were discussing how weird the pack was and subsequently how weird Caia had to be.
Maybe they hypnotize pretty people, she heard a girl whisper almost enviously.
Caia almost laughed. It does look odd, she thought, approaching these gorgeous creatures. Mal didn’t even look like a teenager.
“Hey,” she greeted them as she slid in beside Jaeden. She avoided Alexa’s eyes.
“How’s your second day so far?” Jaeden chirped, biting into her sandwich with gusto.
Caia glanced at Alexa. She stared back at her with a blank expression on her stunning face.
“It was fine,” Caia said.
They talked among themselves but Caia struggled to pay attention. Her hypersensitive ears kept picking up human conversation. They seemed truly disconcerted by the pack.
“Don’t you hear them?” she suddenly asked and then wished she hadn’t when everyone at the table stopped talking to look at her.
“What?” Mal’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Them.” She subtly nodded her head, gesturing at the rest of the cafeteria.
“What about them?” Jaeden seemed concerned more than confused.
“They’re whispering about us.”
Dana shrugged. “So?”
“So, don’t you think separating ourselves from them makes us look more … conspicuous?”
Jaeden considered her. “Caia, weren’t you a bit of a loner at your old school?”
She nodded. So what?
“Loners are just as conspicuous, but no one really said anything, right?”
“That’s different. I mean, I just … listen to them. We unsettle them.”
Alexa flipped her long, thick hair over her shoulder. “They just see us as a bunch of really cool, hot kids who only like to play with other really cool, hot kids. They call us weird and whisper about us because that’s what jealous bitches do. And we’re not stupid. Lucien moved us into town gradually over five years. We didn’t all just appear here together. One family moved in, and then another, and we pretended to befriend each other, just like ordinary folks. So,” she gestured to the human students. “Not suspicious. Jealous. Normal, teen green envy. You should feel honored to be one of us … Cy.”
Caia wasn’t sure she was convinced. “Bu—”
“Why don’t you can the questions?” Alexa glared pointedly. “Remember, you don’t want to annoy me.”
What she really wanted was for her to go to Hades, but Caia worried Lucien would fall for Alexa’s manipulation. It was never a good time to cause trouble with the Pack Leader and Caia had no intention of doing it after a mere two days.
So Caia stayed quiet and Alexa preened like she’d won. Dana snickered at Alexa’s victory. It was a short-lived snicker, followed by an “ow.” Jaeden kicked her under the table before throwing Alexa a warning baring of her teeth. “Sheath your claws, Alex, or I’ll do it for you.”
“I hate that name,” Alexa spat.
“I know.”
“Ladies,” Mal huffed, “please. Take the bitch fight elsewhere. You’re spoiling my appetite.”
“I’ll spoil more than your appetite, Mal.” Jaeden stared at the them one after the other. “We’re pack. Let’s start acting like it.”
“That’s why you didn’t tell that spawn of the undead to drop dead again?” Jaeden mused as she drove Caia home. Caia had confessed what had happened between her and Alexa in class.
“Pretty much.”
“And you didn’t shove her chair?”
“I swear to Gaia I don’t know what happened in that classroom.”
“Just ignore her, then. You know Alexa’s unbalanced enough to have pushed her own damn chair away from you.”
“I suspect she did which is why it bothered me. I hate games.”
Caia was exhausted. She hoped every day with the pack wasn’t going to be as trying as today had been.
And she had been so stupidly optimistic this morning.
Jaeden pulled up to the house and Caia was surprised to see Lucien already home, an unfamiliar car parked beside his.
“Should I expect a lot of visitors?” she asked.
“He’s Pack Leader, so you’ll find the house pretty busy. You know, if you ever need space to breathe, you’re always welcome at my house.”
It must have been the exhaustion but Caia felt her eyes water at this girl’s kindness, her friendship like air to a trapped claustrophobic. Rapidly blinking to blot out the tears, she thanked her.
“Cy?” Jaeden stopped her as she was getting out of the Buick.
“Yeah?”
A deep frown creased her eyebrows. She seemed hesitant to speak of a sudden.
“Jaeden,” Caia prompted.
She leaned toward her. “I … just … I want you to tell me if Alexa bothers you. Okay?”
“You know, contrary to popular belief, I can take care of myself.”
“I know. But I’ve known her my whole life, and she’s manipulative.” Her blue eyes saddened. “Her brother Dermot … he died in the Lunarmorte against Lucien.”
Caia’s eyes widened at this new information. “He tried to take Lucien’s title?”
Jaeden nodded solemnly.
She considered this. It didn’t seem right to condemn someone for their family’s mistakes. Then again, Alexa was pretty scary. Ruthless was her middle name. But … nah … she shook her head. “That doesn’t mean Alexa is ambitious. Look at my grandfather. He tried to take Lucien’s dad’s title and my father was nothing like him.”
“Cy,” Jaeden said, her voice firm, “Alexa is beyond ambitious. She wants to be Lucien’s mate. She’ll stop at nothing to get him.”
“I’m not standing in her way.”
Her friend shrugged, starting the engine again. “Apparently, she thinks you are.”
Caia laughed humorlessly. “Are you all crazy?”
“Just promise if you need me, you’ll come to me?”
“I feel like I’ve landed in a bad Mafia movie.”
Jaeden snorted. “You’ve lived the life of a human too long. Pack politics are normal for us.”
“Yeah, well, Irini could have at least warned me about it.”
Expression abruptly deadly serious, she whispered, “Yeah, she should have.”
Caia raised a questioning eyebrow—these lykans confused the hell out of her. They were so blasé one minute and then the next, as grave as a funeral.
“See you tomorrow, Cy.”
She waved silently as Jaeden drove away. Then she looked up at the house. When she’d stood in the airport breathless with panic at the thought of returning to the pack, she hadn’t been afraid because she knew what was awaiting her. She’d been afraid be
cause she hadn’t known. If she had … well, she might have jumped on the next plane to anywhere else.
As she entered the house, she could hear Lucien talking to an unfamiliar female in the kitchen. What she really wanted to do was run upstairs to her bedroom, shut the door, and bury her head under her pillow.
But that would be rude.
She strolled cautiously into the kitchen. Lucien had obviously caught her scent because he was watching the doorway for her.
“Caia.” He looked happy to see her, which was a little disconcerting.
Cheeks a little hot under his perusal, she avoided his gaze, her attention on the attractive older blond seated at the table across from him.
“Hi.”
“Caia, this Yvana, Ryder and Aidan’s mother.”
Caia smiled at the older woman, seeing the resemblance now. She rounded the table to hold out her hand to the wolf.
Yvana stared up at her. Then freezing icicles crept into her eyes and she cringed away from Caia’s outstretched hand. “I hadn’t realized how much you look like your mother.”
Caia flinched. The venom in her voice was shocking.
First Alexa, now Yvana?
What was going on?
“Yvana …” Lucien snarled in warning. Caia had never heard him use that tone before, but she was still too shocked by Yvana’s reaction to look at him. She was caught in this woman’s bleak gaze. What had Caia done to her? Or more likely … what had Caia’s mom done to Yvana?
“Griffin died because of your parents … because of you.” Yvana stood, trembling with anger and grief.
Who was Griffin?
Lucien’s face mottled with anger, the muscles in his forearms taut as he rounded the table. “You can leave.”
“Lucien,” Yvana protested, “You must understand!”
“What’s going on?” Irini’s voice drifted toward them from the doorway.
“You can’t expect me not to be upset. That you would even expect me to be in the same room as that,” she spat toward Caia.
Caia recoiled as if she’d been hit. She staggered, her mind roiling with confusion. This woman really hated her. Not the petty teenage hatred of Alexa, but real, intense dislike. As if she had wronged her somehow. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She didn’t want to be here, where everything was unfamiliar and cold, where she was welcome but unwelcome, where secrets hung in every doorway and no one trusted her enough to confide them.
Instead of asking for an explanation, exhaustion defeating her, she marched out of the room, shoving past a worried Irini. She didn’t stop until she was inside her bedroom.
Tears threatened.
Tears she fought because these people didn’t deserve them.
But for all that she’d lost in her young life, Caia had never felt so lost as she did with the pack.
She let the tears loose and they scalded her cheeks as she stumbled past the bed and into the bathroom where she could lock the door behind her. Relieved, she crumpled onto the bathroom floor.
Maybe it was a bad idea coming back to the pack. Maybe she just wasn’t cut out for pack life.
And Caia was eighteen now, almost nineteen. Surely, she didn’t have to stay here if she didn’t want to.
A knock on the bathroom door brought made her heart thump.
“Caia?”
She tensed.
It was Lucien.
“Caia, open the door,” Lucien demanded.
“I’m okay.” She swiped frantically at her cheeks. He was the last person she wanted to be vulnerable around.
“I’ll just break it down,” he teased.
But there was a note of threat beneath his humor.
Sighing, she slid away from the door to the opposite wall. She must look a mess.
Oh well.
Stretching up, she flicked the latch on the door and then settled back against the wall with her knees pulled to her chest, her arms protectively around them.
“It’s open.”
Slowly, the door eased open and Lucien appeared. His hair brushed the top of the door frame as he stepped inside, his expression concerned. In fact, Caia could have sworn there was anguish in his eyes.
“Yvana’s gone,” he told her quietly.
“I’m not crying because of that.”
“Of course not.”
For a moment Lucien just stared down at her, and then somehow he managed to fold his huge body into a sitting position next to her, his entire left side pressed against her right.
His heat saturated her. Her cheeks flushed hot.
“So … why are you crying?” he persisted gently.
“Tired, I guess.”
“It’s been a long couple of days for you. But I thought … I don’t know … I got the impression last night that you enjoyed dinner.”
Caia peered up at him from under her lashes. His expression was strangely wary. “I did.”
“But today you don’t want to be here?”
Why else would she be crying on the bathroom floor?
Lucien exhaled heavily. “Yvana has her reasons. Not great ones. What she said, she never should have, but the rest of the pack wants you here. You belong with us.”
“Her reasons?”
“Griffin was her husband,” he explained, grief in his own voice. “He died alongside your father … I mean, your parents … protecting you.”
She blamed Caia. Blamed her, and her parents, for bringing the Hunter upon the pack. She guessed she could understand her rage. Most lykans when mated are mated for life. It was said that when a lykan’s mate died, a part of them died with them.
She let silence fall between them, relieved that it was a comfortable silence for once. He’d surprised her with his kindness and patience tonight.
“Why?” she croaked, verbalizing the confusion in her head. “Why does Yvana hate me, and Ryder and Aidan don’t?”
“She was his mate, Caia. She can’t see reason in this.”
“I’m sorry.” Frustratingly, more tears escaped before she could stop them. Lucien tsked under his breath and leaned over to wipe the tears from her face and abruptly the taps in the sink and shower blasted on.
Lucien cursed and jumped up to turn them off. He muttered under his breath and then stared down at her. She felt his attention, but she stared at the faucet in the sink. A sense of déjà vu washed over her. Three times in the last few days water had flown out of pipes unexpectedly.
“Is there something wrong with the plumbing in this town?” she asked.
“What?”
Seeing his confusion, she murmured an unintelligible “forget it” under her breath.
“Caia.” He crouched before her again, his hand brushing her hair back from her face. Just like that she forgot about strange plumbing issues. “You going to be okay?”
She nodded mutely. Her pulse leapt at his nearness, his touch. Goddess, she hoped he couldn’t hear it.
He gave her a coaxing smile. “Why don’t you come for a walk with me?”
Something about his appeasing tone irked. Caia quickly got to her feet. “I’m not five years old,” she said, brushing past him. A thought occurred to her. That she didn’t want to appear weak to anyone in the pack. Appearing weak to these wolves seemed like a pretty bad idea. Caia stopped at the door and turned back to Lucien so abruptly, he just narrowly avoiding crashing into her.
Her skin tingled with awareness but she ignored it. Lifting her stubborn chin, she met his gaze and told him, “Just so you know. I don’t usually cry. It’s been a long few days, that’s all. I can handle myself.”
Lucien’s lips quirked at the corner. “I believe you.”
It was quiet out here, just as he liked it. Being Pack Leader, he didn’t really have much time for himself and was always more appreciative of the quiet moments. Caia strolled a few feet ahead, stepping over bracken and rocks as they picked their way through the woods. Lucien let her have some space, knowing she probably needed to collect herself. She was emb
arrassed but she had no need to be. Lykans were passionate and consequently emotional.
Yet the sight of Caia on the bathroom floor, her big eyes brimming with sadness and confusion, had twisted his gut into knots. He never wanted to see her like that again.
Damn these unexpected feelings toward her. They made no sense.
She was too young, too naïve. Too everything.
“It’s heaven out here.” She drew to a stop to her tilt her head back and she inhaled deeply.
Lucien smiled, stalking toward her. “It’s why I chose the house.”
“I can see that.” She smiled gently back at him. Her eyes were greener than ever. He felt himself caught in her gaze and was disconcerted to find himself a little tongue-tied.
At the long silence, she quirked an eyebrow, amused. Suddenly she seemed older than eighteen, and as if she knew exactly what kind of power she could have over a man.
But then she frowned, uncertainty flashing across her countenance and he was reminded how little she really understood.
What on Gaia was going on with him?
Lucien cleared his throat.
“Uh—” He stared into the darkening forest, scrambling to think of something to say. “Uh … oh, did, ah … Irini tell you about our pack history?”
“No. Apparently Irini didn’t tell me much.”
Lucien thought he caught a note of annoyance in her voice. “Are you angry about that?”
“No.” She shrugged, weary. “I understand why she couldn’t talk about it. But it was difficult not knowing...”
Her response touched him. Lykans were such volatile beings, usually quick to anger and frustration. In this way, she seemed different too. Mature, kind and compassionate.
Not at all what he’d secretly feared.
Better than he could have hoped for.
She made it difficult to keep his guard up around her.
Shoving his hands in his pockets he strode ahead.
“Where are you going?”
“Into the story. Are you coming?” he threw back over his shoulder.
He heard her laugh and then she fell quickly into stride with him but huffed, “Remember to slow it down a little. My legs are like an entire foot shorter than yours.”