2. Five Long Years

~ Cain (KAYN) ~

I was walking across my new front yard when something hissed loudly then slapped at my back.

My wolf-instincts kicked in.

I whirled, throwing an arm wide to catch an attacker—only to be struck in the face by a spray of freezing water. I spluttered for a moment, still bracing for the attack, before I realized the lawn sprinklers had turned on and were soaking me.

With a muttered curse, I ran to the side of the house and pulled myself up the railing on the outside of the covered porch like a swimmer out of the pool, swinging my legs over and landing lightly on the boards—right in front of the wide-eyed neighbor who was standing at the door with a plastic box under one arm, and the other hand raised like she’d been about to knock, staring at me like I was a water god rising from the sea.

More like a wet-dog jumping out of a swamp. But she didn’t know that.

I straightened quickly from my crouch, shaking water off my arms and running one hand back and forth through my hair so it would stop dripping.

Her eyes trailed down from my face to my chest, and her jaw went slack.

I looked down. Well, shit.

Water had made the light-blue t-shirt I was wearing suck against me like a second skin, revealing every line and muscle.

I let my eyes snap back up to meet hers, hackles up. Most humans on the receiving end of that dark gaze would have fled. But she took a step closer? 

I wasn’t surprised by the obvious desire in her glazed eyes and open mouth. What I wasn’t used to was the heat that rose in my veins. I hadn’t felt desire for a female for five years. Not since my brother betrayed me and I was forced to flee the packs and hide in the human society.

It had been bad enough when I thought I had lost just my rank and pack. But later that night while I was still running away, the matebond shattered, tearing my soul. 

As I lay on the ground in terrible pain, struggling to breathe, I knew that could only mean that Laruen had died. And my brother was the one who’d killed her.

And afterwards, when I did survive… howling with grief and rage I had vowed revenge on Felix. My blood had run ice-cold ever since. I hadn’t even looked at another female in all that time.

Until this morning when this woman—no, this child stared at me through a window and something in my chest stretched—my wolf, turning over like a beast slowly awakening from a five-year slumber.

Now the fucking thing’s cock was twitching, too.

“Who the hell are you?” I growled, grabbing my wet t-shirt by the hem and yanking it up and over my head, then using the dry patch on one side to dry my arms and legs.

Little good it did since I wasn’t taking off my shorts while she was here, and they kept dripping water down my legs.

She didn’t respond. I glared at her, still trying to rub the water off my body.

“What do you want?”

“Cookies?” she blurted, then clapped a hand over her mouth.

“I’m sorry, what?”

She closed her eyes and dropped her hand, muttering to herself, “Get it together, Kelsie!”

Her name was Kelsie?

It meant fierce.

This kitten? I almost laughed.

Then she opened her eyes again, meeting my gaze without flinching as she raised her chin. And in response, my wolf howled.

“Sorry, I was… distracted,” she said, forcing a smile. Then she pulled the box out from under her arm and started towards me. “I’m Kelsie. I live next door. My mom wanted me to bring you cookies,” she said. “To welcome you to the neighborhood. And… and to see if you needed anything. Or if you have—”

The breeze that had flowed from the east all afternoon suddenly turned to rush from behind her, washing her scent over me, and dear God.  

The smell of spring grass when it’s rained, but the sun has come out, and something soft that dragged across my skin—I slammed my wolf-senses down like a steel door, because every hair on my human body was rising and my wolf was panting and—

“You need to leave,” I growled.

She blinked, but kept walking towards me. “I won’t stay. I just wanted to give you this.” 

She didn’t stop until she stood right at my toes holding out the plastic box that stank like most human-made products. Why these creatures wanted to surround themselves with those plastics that reeked like chemicals, I had no idea. But it was obvious she wasn’t going to leave me alone until I took her little gift.

Swallowing a growl, I reached for the box. But I was so busy watching her eyes, I missed my aim. My fingers closed over hers and an electric jolt crackled between us.

Mate.

The word sang in my soul, an echo from the Creator.

I flinched. Recoiled from the word as if she’d spat it at me, yanking the box out of her grip.

In the same moment, she swore quietly, jerking herself back, surprised and confused.

We were left standing there, gaping at each other. Her eyes were so wide the whites showed all the way around.

Kelsie… My mate…

No. No no no no no! I wasn’t taking another mate. Not now. Not ever! I loved Lauren, and she’d been taken from me. Five years… five years and I hadn’t even looked at another female—no!

“Get out,” I snarled, stepping right into her space, bristling, letting her see my teeth. “Get off my property. Now.”

She blinked rapidly a couple of times, her breath short and shallow. “Cain, I—”

Hearing my name in her voice cut through skin and muscle to slide between my ribs and bury itself in my heart. I grunted like I’d been struck, gasping for air. But she had no idea. No clue.

She was my mate. And she was human?!

Her wide-eyed shock turned to alarm as I clutched my chest and sucked at the air, trying to inhale, but only managing to wheeze.

“What happened? Are you having a heart attack? How old are you?!” she gasped.

“Get. Out.”

My wolf trembled, snapping, fighting to reach her in the same moment it snarled defiance. I shuddered. Holy shit, I was going to shift.

“Get out. Now.” My voice was deep, guttural, animalistic.

And poor Kelsie with her dull human senses was finally perceptive enough to understand the danger she was in.

She stumbled back one step, then another, raising her hands in front of her. “S-sorry. I’m sorry—”

“THEN LEAVE!”

She yelped like a puppy and scampered off the porch and down my stairs, sprinting down the path and across the driveway to jump the low fence between our properties, then dart back up the path on her side to her own front door. She shot a single, terrified glance back over her shoulder before she disappeared inside.

I stood there, shuddering, wrestling with my wolf, knowing if I didn’t keep that leash snapped firmly around its neck, I was going to shift and go after her, take her, make her mine, mark her—shit, no!

With a pathetic whine in my throat, I dove for the door into my house and threw myself inside, turning and locking it with shaking, human fingers that wanted to claw, wanted to curl, wanted to become a wolf’s paws.

No. No!

My entire body shuddered and I almost shifted. Swearing and praying, I raced around the house, locking every door and window because they would be much, much harder to open with a wolf’s teeth and claws. And then, when I’d made myself as caged as possible, I began to pace, working off as much of that excess energy as I could. Breathing deeply the way my mother had taught me as an adolescent wolf, when our urges and animalistic behaviors were so much harder to control.

I shook my head. I would not shift. I would not shift. I would not.

Mate.

No!

“I reject the bond! I reject it!” I hissed. My wolf flattened his ears and bared his teeth. “I am not taking another mate—I won’t!”

But even though the bond wavered, it didn’t disappear. I could still feel it there, like the line on the horizon when the sun was just about to rise, where the darkness was lifting, so slowly, you didn’t even notice at first.

“No… please. I can’t. I can’t go through that again,” I whispered.

I shook my head and continued to pace like a wolf in a cage. Which was exactly what I was. A wolf in a cage of grief. And determined to bite out the throat of the male that had fed it to me.

*****

Hours later, finally calm, I sat in my favorite chair in the TV room. The television was turned on, but I wasn’t watching or listening.

My eyes were on the picture that sat on the shelf next to the television. 

It was Lauren, my first mate and Alpha Female, her mouth wide and smiling, both hands up and curled around my forearm because I was holding her back against my chest.

My face was pressed against her neck. The camera couldn’t see the way I was tasting her mate-mark with my tongue. But she’d always been ticklish, so her head was tucked sideways into her shoulder as she tried to stop me reaching that sensitive skin.

We were both laughing. 

It was taken in the early days of me beating my brother for Alpha, when we were still finding our feet as leaders, but we’d had a happy pack and our lives ahead of us. Everything had seemed… near perfect.

Grief was a cold brick in my belly.

“I will avenge you,” I whispered. “I will make him pay for what he did. I swear it.”

Then I buried my face in my hands and wept.