“I don’t think so,” the guy with the light blond hair said. Was his name Shane? No, that was the muscular guy. Kyle, his name was Kyle.
“Are you thinking of trying out?” Evan asked.
“I don’t think so,” I shook my head.
All seven of the guys’ jaws dropped. “Are you fucking crazy?” Riley asked. “You have to try out.”
“Yeah, definitely,” Shane nodded. “I think coach would let you on the boys team.”
I laughed. “The boys team?”
“Well, the way you took on your boyfriend you’d eat the other girl teams alive.”
“But you think the boys’ teams can handle me?” I quirked a brow.
“Oh yeah,” Cam said and flexed his arm muscles. “We can definitely handle you.”
Brody snorted. “Maybe if you’re on the team we’ll actually win a game.”
One of the guys pushed Brody.
“Come on,” said Kyle, “at tryout.”
“Maybe I will,” I rolled the ball back and forth. “But do you really think your coach would let a girl on the team?”
Riley snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. “He’d be a fucking idiot not to.”
“When are tryouts?” I asked.
“This coming Friday,” Cam said.
I turned around once more and this time saw Caeden. I breathed out a sigh of relief. I had started to worry that something had happened to him.
“Please, please, please, tryout,” Evan begged.
“Sure, why not?” I shrugged and bounced the ball on the end of my foot before catapulting it into the air and catching it.
“What happened to, ‘Caeden, I don’t want to play soccer anymore,’” Caeden mimicked from behind me.
I laughed and turned around, meeting his gaze. “I guess you showed me how much I missed it.”
“And do I get a thank you?” he grinned.
“Thank you,” I said and went to kiss his chin but he turned his head at the last second so I caught his lips instead.
“Why are the hot ones always taken,” one of the guys muttered.
“Uh- because they’re hot,” another piped in.
I laughed and turned to them. “So I guess I’ll see you guys at tryouts on Friday?”
“You bet,” Riley said.
I watched them head over to the adjoining soccer field. They pushed and mocked one another. They reminded me of our pack with their easy banter.
Caeden spread a checked blanket out on the field and sat down.
“This is just like a movie,” I whispered under my breath as I sat down beside him.
Caeden pulled some sandwiches out of the basket and held them up. “Except in a movie the guy usually makes some extravagant meal. I brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”
I laughed. “PB and J is good with me,” I took one from him.
“Phew,” he wiped his brow. “I was worried for nothing.”
I giggled again and bumped his shoulder. I took a bite of the sandwich. “Best PB and J I’ve ever had,” I assured him.
“Good,” he said and bit into his own sandwich.
Archie sat in front of me, licking his lips, and looking at my sandwich like he was two seconds away from snatching it from my hands.
“Here buddy,” I said and picked off a piece of bread with just peanut butter. He took it greedily.
“Hold up,” Caeden said and began to dig through the basket. He unwrapped a half a sandwich and a quarter of one. He tossed the half to Murphy and the quarter to Archie. Both dogs were obviously in doggy heaven.
“Thanks for today,” I said and wiped a dot of jelly off of Caeden’s arm. “It meant a lot to me.”
“Even though I drug you out of bed early on a Sunday morning?”
“Yep,” I said.
I finished my sandwich and tossed the trash in the basket. I wiggled around, trying to get comfortable, before lying on my back and watching the clouds. I instantly felt my heart rate drop. Something about watching clouds calmed me down. Caeden did the same, lacing his hand in mine.
“Do you think Logan’s okay?” I finally asked after staring at the sky for a good five minutes.
I heard Caeden’s sigh. “I don’t know.”
“Are you worried?” I asked.
He said nothing for quite a while so I figured he either chose not to answer or fell asleep. But finally he said, “Yes.”
My heart stopped for a second and my hand clenched his. “I don’t want anything to happen to him.”
“I can’t hear him,” Caeden whispered.
“What do you mean?” I rolled over.
“In my wolf form. I can’t hear him. It’s just… silence. Wherever he is, he’s in his human form or…”
“Or?” I prompted.
Caeden’s swallow was audible. “Or dead.”
I gasped and sat up. “Caeden! Why are we sitting here? We should be looking for him!”
“I did… all night.”
I began to study Caeden and realized I’d missed how tired he was. Gray circles framed his eyes and his movements had been sluggish.
“Caeden-”
“I think he’s dead,” Caeden said.
“No,” I shook my head.
Caeden continued like I hadn’t said anything. “And when I get my hands on Travis I’m going to make him suffer through every unimaginable thing before I kill him. And when I kill him I’m going to make sure he begs for mercy. He hurt you and if he’s hurt or killed another member of my pack, none of you will be able to stop me.”
“Caeden,” I said, tears in my eyes. I placed my hands on his cheeks, the stubble scratching my palms. “This isn’t you.”
He sat up. “Sophie, you don’t understand. If he’s not killed he’ll just keep killing. He has to be stopped and I’m the only one that can do it. I’m the Alpha,” he sighed and buried his head in his hands. He gripped the dark brown strands so tightly I was afraid he’d pull them out. “This is my responsibility.”
“It’s mine too,” I said, trying to calm him. “We’re a team Caeden! No, we’re a pack! Why do you act like you have to do everything by yourself?”
“Because,” he said, “I don’t want anything to happen to any of you.”
“And what about you? Is your life unimportant? Do you know what would happen to me if you got hurt or killed? I don’t want to even think about it,” the tears finally broke from my eyes and flowed down my face.
“Soph,” Caeden said, snapping back to reality. He wrapped his arms around me and held me to his chest. “Please don’t cry. I hate being the cause of your tears,” he wiped them with his thumb. “Sophie, please, you’re far to beautiful to cry.”
“I just hate it when you say things like that,” I sniffled. “You act as if your life means nothing when it means everything to me,” I gripped his shirt so tightly that my knuckles turned white.
“Babe,” Caeden rubbed my cheeks. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“But you mean it,” I breathed. “And I know you’ll do it if you have the chance. I can’t-” I swallowed and tried to calm myself down, “I can’t see you hurt again.” I shook my head and my hair rubbed against his shirt. “That night, when you came to Gram’s and Peter had hurt you, changed things for me Caeden.” I purposefully lifted his shirt up and over his head. “Look at this Caeden,” I rubbed the scars on this side. Caeden’s perfect tanned skin was marred by five pale white scars; all several inches long.
“But what about you?” he grabbed my arm and held it out so the light hit it. LIAR. “They hurt you too, don’t you want to do something?”
I clenched my teeth and then spat, “Of course I want to do something! But I don’t want to do something that’s just plain out suicidal!”
“I’m not being suicidal,” Caeden pulled away from me and brought his legs up to his chest where he then rested his arms. His muscles were tense and his jaw ticked.
I pulled at the emerald color grass. Bef
ore I shifted for the first time grass had always seemed bland. Now it shown with a kaleidoscope of colors.
Finally Caeden collapsed on his back and laughed. His laughter was contagious and I quickly joined him even though I had no idea what he was laughing at.
“What is it?” I finally asked.
“I’ve really ruined today. I wanted to take you to the park and have a date,” he laced his fingers through mine, and the sun made his blue eyes glow. “We never get to have dates anymore.”
“No, I guess we don’t,” I shrugged.
“And of course, I had to mess this one up. I hope you can forgive me?”
“Only if you promise not to go on a suicide mission of revenge. We’re a pack Caeden.”
“I promise,” he said.
“Good,” I said and wrapped my arms around his neck before kissing him senseless.
Thirteen.
After we left the park Caeden called the pack and told them to meet us at his house. We were going to find Logan.
I really hoped that Logan had simply left, needing time to think, and that Travis didn’t have a part in this. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to fight against another pack and I didn’t want to be a weak link. I want to be strong. I don’t want Caeden to worry about me. I want to be able to stand on my own.
Caeden reached over the middle console and laced his fingers with mine as if he sensed my inner turmoil.
We didn’t talk on the drive back to the house. Caeden occasionally received a call from one of the pack. “Bring Lucy,” he said into the phone.
When he hung up I asked, “Who’s Lucy?”
“Logan’s familiar,” he said.
“Oh right, I forgot.” Swallowing I said, “I don’t know if I can kill someone. I’m not as confident about that as you are.”
Caeden gently squeezed my hand and turned into his driveway. “I wouldn’t say I’m confident that I can kill someone but if he’s hurt another member of my pack,” he growled, “he’s not going to live to see the next day.”
Caeden parked the Jeep and we went over to greet Bentley and Bryce who were both sitting on the hood of Bentley’s black GMC truck.
Lucy, Logan’s chocolate lab familiar, paced nearby.
Caeden nodded towards the woods, “Let’s go find Logan.”
* * *
Power surged in my muscles as I ran. Nothing could touch me. Caeden’s silver form flickered in front of me. Bryce and Bentley flanked me. My wolf instincts could since a fight coming. Blood was in the air. Caeden stopped and through his head back, howling. His howl promised death. He took off again and I stretched my legs farther to better keep up with him.
Lucy barked somewhere up ahead. I knew we were deep in the woods, deeper than I had ever gone, and maybe even states away. Adrenaline spurned me forward. Bentley and Bryce struggled to keep up. My eyes narrowed in determination and I stuck my nose to the ground, smelling everything.
I really hope my little bit of training pays off. I said to no one in particular.
Don’t worry my she-wolf, Caeden said.
If I had been in my human form I would have smiled.
Suddenly, Caeden skidded to a stop, and dirt went flying. Lucy pawed at the earth and Caeden helped her.
With a shimmer he shifted to his human form. I couldn’t help my reaction to turn my head. The rest may be okay with nudity but I hadn’t grown up that way. Cautiously, I turned my head back. Caeden was covering his bottom half with a bloodied shirt. I sniffed. The scent of grass, water, and air hit my lungs. Mixed together it was a scent that was uniquely Logan’s.
The shirt dropped from Caeden’s hand as he shimmered once more and became a wolf.
He’s close, was all Caeden said.
The guys and I followed Caeden and Lucy.
Lucy came to a stop in front of what could only be described as a cave. But instead of being made of rock it was formed from dirt.
The five of us crept forward.
The smell of stale earth and blood assaulted my lungs and I gagged. As a wolf it sounded like I was trying to cough up a hairball.
I focused on picking out distinct scents to identify any shifters that may have been here.
Malice floated through the air, bearing the spicy sent that was Travis.
Flowers. Carnations to be exact belonged to Hannah.
I couldn’t pick up a scent belonging to Robert, but I hadn’t been around him enough to connect one with him, so I had to assume that three wolves were waiting for us.
The cave, if it could even be called that, widen out.
Logan! Caeden cried. He ran forward.
I stopped in my tracks at what I saw. If I had been a human I would have clapped a hand over my open mouth.
Logan was tied to the wall with metal chains that dug into his wrists and ankles. His shirt, obviously, was gone. His naked chest was crisscrossed with claws marks. In those marks something glittered and with renewed horror I realized what it was. Silver.
“Silver is deadly… to werewolves too, more so, than it is to us… For shifters it gives us an injury… that doesn’t heal fast… which can lead to death…” Caeden’s voice echoed through my head from that long ago day when he was bleeding on my couch.
With the injuries Logan had sustained and the amount of silver… I’d say he didn’t have much time left.
Caeden and Bentley shifted to their human forms and began to untie Logan.
Bryce suddenly whimpered and I turned my head towards him.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Travis clapped his hands as he entered the widened out portion of the cave. He was shirtless and his jeans hung low on his hips. His black eyes were void of any compassion. They were the eyes of a killer. A murderer. Robert and Hannah hovered behind him. “Come to rescue an impure? Tsk, tsk, Caeden. Don’t you know they’re not allowed to live?”
Caeden growled, despite being in his human form.
“You are the impure,” Caeden spat. They finished untying Logan and the blond boy slumped forward, passed out; completely unaware that rescue had come.
Bentley and Caeden gently helped Logan to the floor, careful not to hurt him, even though he was completely oblivious to the world.
“Travis,” Caeden’s teeth groaned together. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll run.”
“Oh, are we playing cat and mouse?” Travis grinned, showing elongated teeth. Hair began to sprout and he started to shimmer. “I love games. I choose cat,” his words were muffled around his teeth. He dropped to his paws and a blondish-white wolf stood before us with black eyes. Robert and Hannah shifted too. Robert’s color was ashy where Hannah’s was almost a peach color. Travis barked in warning. Run.
Caeden and Bentley shifted.
Sophie, stay here, Caeden instructed.
What? No! I protested.
Please, I need you to stay with Logan in case they come back for him. Please. He said all this with his eyes zeroed in on Travis.
Okay. I said.
Let’s go boys, Caeden said and the three large wolves rushed the smaller ones.
Travis and his pack took off like bullets out of the cave, after all there was no where else for them to go.
I padded over to Logan. His chest rose and fell painfully. His breaths gurgled and I worried he may have a punctured lung. Strips of skin hung off of him like a torn shirt. How did anyone do this to another human being?
Logan hadn’t always been nice, most of the time he was downright rude, but no one deserved this.
I switched to human form to inspect his wounds better. When I found that there was nothing I could do I switched back so I would be better prepared to defend if need be.
I heard a howl outside and my hackles rose. I knew Caeden was right, that I needed to stay with Logan, but I couldn’t help feeling like I needed to be out there. Four against three was better than three against three. I began to pace the perimeter of the cave for something to do. Logan obviously wouldn’t be waking up anytime
soon.
Another howl sounded close to the entrance. It was a howl of pain. Of distress and I knew it belonged to one of my own. Bryce.
With a quick look at Logan I sprinted from the cave and towards the howl. I saw Bentley straight ahead fighting Hannah. To my left, Caeden and Travis disappeared behind some trees; they were making the most noise. But immediately to my right Robert had Bryce down on the ground, his teeth seconds away from biting into Bryce’s neck and killing him. Bryce whimpered and that noise alone spurned me into action once more.
Insider (Outsider Series) Page 15