by Cheree Alsop
“He’s had enough,” Sid said.
Torin continued to punch Alex’s chest, stomach, and face while his pack held the werewolf up.
“Seriously, Torin,” Justice protested. “You’ll kill him.”
“Maybe he deserves it,” Torin growled, but he stopped.
Sid and Justice let go and Alex slid to the ground. Torin kicked him in the side. Alex felt his ribs give.
“That’s for thinking you can take on an Alpha,” Torin spat.
Alex wanted to point out that the fight hadn’t exactly been just him against an Alpha. He wanted to call Torin out, to call him a coward for having his pack hold his victim defenseless. As the footsteps left the room, Alex realized he was just like the kitten.
The thought made him open his swollen eyes. Light pierced his vision with pain as he looked around for the creature. He spotted it huddled against the wall where Torin had forgotten about it.
Alex let out a slow breath through his split lips and held out a hand to the animal.
“Looks like you and I are in the same boat,” he said. Even talking was painful.
The kitten arched its back and hissed. Before Alex could pull away, it swiped his hand. Alex stared at the four claw marks filling up with blood
“Go figure,” Alex said. He let his head fall back to the floor and closed his eyes.
Chapter Seven
“Alex!”
Kalia’s voice pierced his muddled daze. Alex had no idea how much time had passed. He opened his eyes, and found them less swollen. He must have been in the combat room for most of the evening.
Kalia fell to her knees next to him.
“Oh my goodness,” she exclaimed. She lifted her hand as if she wanted to touch him to ensure that he was alright, but she couldn’t decide where. “Look at your face.” Her words came out tight as though she was holding back a sob.
“Is it an improvement?” Alex forced out. The words were painful as he tried to breathe with cracked ribs.
“Definitely not,” Kalia replied. “You’re too handsome for improvements.”
Alex stared at Kalia. A blush ran across her cheeks as if she hadn’t meant for the words to escape.
“Did you just say that?” Alex asked, unwilling to let it go.
Kalia shrugged. “I’m, uh, just trying to make you feel better.” She touched his cheek gently and winced for him. “It looks pretty painful.”
“It’s not that bad,” Alex lied.
“Why on earth did you challenge Torin?” Kalia asked. At Alex’s surprised look, she said, “I was finishing my dinner when he stopped by the table and mentioned that you might be on the floor in the combat room because you were stupid enough to think you could take on an Alpha.”
Alex rolled his eyes as he pushed painfully to a sitting position. A hiss sounded in the corner. Both of their eyes shifted to it.
“Is that a cat?” Kalia asked.
Alex nodded. “A kitten. That’s why I fought Torin. He was entertaining his pack by torturing it.”
“That’s horrible!” Kalia exclaimed.
She picked the kitten up. Instead of hissing or clawing, it curled against her chest. In a few moments, a purr rumbled from the little black form.
Alex tried to pet it like she was doing. Its fur immediately stood up and it hissed at him, showing bright white little teeth.
“I don’t think it likes werewolves,” Kalia said.
“I think you might be right,” Alex agreed.
A patch of early moonlight showed through the window. Alex scooted over to the rectangle it made on the floor. He let out a sigh of relief as it fell over his shoulders, soothing his aches.
“It’s all wrong.”
The words that came from Kalia were filled with heartache. She was bent over the little kitten. It purred loudly as though content to be held by her forever, yet Alex’s keen hearing picked up the sound of tears as they landed on the animal’s soft fur.
“What’s all wrong?” he asked.
Kalia looked at him. The expression on her face said more than any words. She took a shuddering breath. “This,” she said, lifting her arms to show him the kitten.
“So it likes you,” Alex replied. “What’s wrong with that?”
“You just agreed that it doesn’t like werewolves.”
Alex realized what was bothering her. “Maybe it just doesn’t like boys.”
Kalia shook her head. “My mom’s white Persian hates Boris with a passion, but Lucy will come to me without a problem. Our cook has two tabbies that eat the scraps he throws out. They’ll let me play with them all day, but if Boris sets a foot near them, they’re gone.” More tears fell. “If I’m not a werewolf, Alex, what am I? And what happens when Jaze decides I don’t fit in here? Where will I go? My parents are afraid of me, I’m not a human or a werewolf, and I don’t belong anywhere.”
Alex scooted over to her and put an arm around her shoulders. The movement hurt his healing ribs, but he ignored it. The little kitten looked up at him and hissed again.
“Oh, hush,” Alex told it. “I just saved your life. The least you could do is show some gratitude.”
Kalia gave a little watery smile. She lifted the kitten to her cheek. It rubbed its soft fur against her chin.
“You belong here,” Alex reassured her. “You’re a part of our pack, and you’re killer with a gun. I need you at my side when we go out.”
“Go out?” Kalia asked.
Her eyes were bottomless when she met his gaze. He felt lost in them, adrift. Suddenly, Alex realized what the words meant. A flood of emotions crowded his mind. He thought quickly, trying to clarify. “Uh, go out on missions. I need you there because you’re such a sharp shooter.”
Kalia nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Alex tried to erase the hurt in her voice. He knew what she had wanted to hear, but he wasn’t sure he was ready. After everything that had happened, he didn’t know what he felt anymore. The dangers he had survived made him question if he wanted anyone worrying about him. It would be easier to keep everyone at arm’s length than to think about their loss if anything happened to him. He searched for a change of topic.
“We should probably take this kitten to Jaze before Torin remembers why they were here in the first place.”
Kalia nodded. “You’re right. Are you sure you can stand?”
Alex pushed to his feet. He made the action look much less painful than it actually was. A werewolf’s instinct to not show weakness combined with his own want to appear strong to Kalia. He realized both lines of thought were completely ridiculous given his current state of bruising, but he forced himself to stand straight anyway.
“I’m good,” he said.
“You sure?” Kalia asked uncertainly. “You look like you just had the worst beating of your life.”
“You should have seen me an hour ago,” Alex replied. He tried to laugh, but it just came out as a wheezing wince that he attempted to change into a smile. The effect was no doubt grotesque given his mottled condition.
“I’ll lead the way,” Kalia said, opening the door. “I don’t want you to scare any small children the way you are.”
Alex followed Kalia and the kitten down the hall. The scent of the animal tickled his nose like a rabbit’s, begging to be chased. He wondered if the kitten smelled the scents of hundreds of werewolves and if it had the instinct to run away. It apparently hadn’t done so before Torin found it.
Kalia knocked on Jaze’s office door. No one answered.
“Let’s go to their quarters,” Alex suggested.
He led the way down the next hall where the professors’ rooms were located. Each one was huge compared to the students’ dorms and spaced so that they took up most of the wing.
Alex pushed the door open as he had done since he was eight. He tapped on it with his knuckles when it swung inward.
“Nikki, Jaze?”
“Back here,” Jaze called. “In the living room. Come on back, Alex.”
“I’ve brought Kalia, and a, um, friend,” Alex replied.
“They’re welcome, too,” Nikki said.
Alex led the way past the kitchen and dining room. A hallway branched away to the right with a staircase that led to bedrooms and a play room. Alex continued down the hall lined with pictures of Nikki, Jaze, Jaze’s mom, and the twins. New pictures of baby William occupied the center.
“He’s such a cutie,” Kalia said, pausing at a picture of William sitting on the grass wearing only a diaper. The baby’s blonde hair stuck up in every direction and his eyes were creased as he laughed at Rafe’s wolves that played around him.
“He’s a lot of fun,” Alex told her.
They continued down the hall and walked down the two steps to the living room. Jaze and Nikki sat on the floor while baby William toddled around them. He spotted Alex and said, “Aleh.”
Alex grinned. It was the closest the baby could get to his name, and it warmed his heart every time William said it.
“Alex, what happened to you?” Nikki exclaimed, reminding him of his condition.
“I, uh, got into a little fight,” Alex said. He began to reconsider his decision to talk with them before he’d had the chance to recover a bit more.
“A little fight?” Jaze repeated.
Nikki hurried past them into the kitchen, then came back with a bag of frozen peas.
“Put this over your eye,” she instructed. She shook her head as she surveyed him. “I think I need like fifty more of them.”
“I’m fine,” Alex reassured her. “It’ll heal. It’s already healing.”
Nikki gave Jaze a worried look. “Shouldn’t we do something about this?”
Jaze motioned for Alex to sit on the couch where the moonlight spilled in through the wide windows. Alex settled onto his back facing the window.
“What happened?” the dean asked, his tone fatherly. Jaze paused and his head tipped as a scent caught his nose. “What is that? A cat?” He looked up at Kalia as she entered the room.
The little kitten gave a tiny meow as if it realized it was the center of attention.
“Um, yes,” Kalia said. She was clearly uncomfortable intruding on their family space.
“It’s okay,” Alex reassured her. “Come sit down.”
She took a seat on the edge of the couch as if worried about damaging anything. “Alex saved it from Torin.”
Nikki ran a finger along the kitten’s head. It arched its back and a purr resounded with more volume than it looked like the tiny thing possessed.
Baby William toddled forward. He made a grab for the kitten. “Mow,” he said.
The kitten jumped back from his touch and hissed, swiping with outstretched claws at the little chubby hand. Luckily, Jaze grabbed his son just in time.
“No, no, Will. Don’t grab it. It might scratch you,” Jaze told the little boy.
William was content to be carried to another chair and sit on his father’s knee.
“So you rescued a kitten from Torin?” Jaze said, trying to work it out. “And he beat you up?”
Alex shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d call this beat up.”
“You’re beat up,” Nikki and Kalia said at the same time.
Alex rolled his eyes. “Fine. The census apparently agrees that I’m beat up. And yes, it happened because of the kitten.”
Jaze looked like he was trying to hold in a laugh.
“What?” Alex asked, at the end of his humor.
Jaze couldn’t keep back the smile. “I’ve never heard werewolves get into a fight over a kitten. This has got to be a first.”
Nikki and Kalia burst out laughing.
Alex shook his head. “I’m glad you can enjoy what I went through. It wasn’t exactly pleasant, I have to admit.”
“I’m sorry, Alex,” Nikki said. She leaned down and gave him a motherly kiss on the cheek. “I think it’s sweet that you fought for a kitten.”
“Tell it to the cat,” Alex replied. He held up his hand where the four little claw marks had almost healed. “It wasn’t very grateful.”
Kalia grabbed his hand and kissed the little marks. “I’m grateful even if the kitten isn’t.”
“Come on, Kalia. Let’s go see if we can find it a box. The poor thing’s probably exhausted.”
Alex listened to their footsteps fade down the hall. His heart gave a little sideways beat. “I’m so confused,” he said.
“You got beat to what looks like an inch of your life over a cat. I think I know where the confusion’s coming from,” Jaze replied.
Alex could still hear the smile in the dean’s voice, but it failed to chase away his sudden melancholy.
“It’s not that. It’s Kalia.”
Jaze fell silent. After a moment, Alex heard him scoot a chair closer to the couch. A glance back showed baby William playing on Jaze’s knee. The little boy had a ball in one hand and a plastic ring in the other. He bit one, then the other as if he couldn’t decide which one to chew on.
“Do you have feelings for her?” Jaze asked. All of the humor was gone from his voice. Fatherly concern took its place.
“I think so,” Alex replied.
Jaze let out a small breath. Alex kept his gaze carefully on the moonlight filtering through the window. Tiny flecks twirled within the white stream, catching the beauty and whirling in it as though bathing in the healing light. Alex wanted to lose himself in the light like the flecks, adrift in nothingness, a part of the world, yet away from it. He closed his eyes.
Jaze’s voice broke through Alex’s silence. “As a werewolf, you will know for sure when you fall in love.”
“I get so confused when I’m around Kalia,” Alex admitted. He sat up and leaned against the back of the couch. “It’s like my thoughts go out the window and I can’t remember what I was doing.”
Jaze nodded. “That could be love, or it could be infatuation. I had a few infatuations before I fell in love with Nikki. That was way back,” he winked. “But I remember the confusion, the need to be around them. But when I met Nikki, it was different.”
“How was it different?” Alex asked.
Jaze smiled and his gaze took on a distant cast. “I felt like there was a string tying us together, like no matter what happened to pull us apart, we were always drawn back to each other. I cared about her so deeply from the very beginning that it scared me to the point that I denied it. I tried to downplay my feelings and tell myself that I was wrong. We weren’t meant for each other.”
“She’s a human,” Alex said.
Jaze nodded. “Werewolves aren’t supposed to fall for humans. But I couldn’t change the way I felt. Fate kept drawing us back together. It was like that string was made of steel and refused to break no matter what either of us did.” Jaze met Alex’s gaze. “Do you feel that way about Kalia?”
“I don’t know,” Alex told him. He shook his head, then ran a hand through his black hair to push it back from his forehead. “I think she might be feeling that way. At least she’s happier when we’re together, and she has this special smile.”
Jaze nodded. “One thing I know for sure, is that if it’s meant to be, you will both feel it the same way. It might take some time, and circumstances can always change, but if it’s meant to be, if it’s true werewolf love, you won’t be able to be away from her for long. Once a werewolf finds that special someone, it’s a forever thing.”
“Even if they die?” Alex asked, thinking of Vance and the way the professor seemed so angry most of the time. He had heard about the death of Vance’s mate Nora during the genocide. Alex saw the loss in the professor’s gaze when he thought no one was looking.
“Even if they die,” Jaze repeated quietly. “Too many have gone through that.”
“We’ll keep it from happening again,” Alex told him.
Jaze looked down at baby William. “I just feel like there is so much more to do, Jet. There are so many others who need us.”
Alex froze at Jet’s na
me. It took Jaze a minute to realize he had said it. When he looked at Alex again, tears showed in the dean’s dark gaze.
“I’m sorry, Alex.” Jaze wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “Sometimes you remind me so much of him. Your mannerisms, the way you look. You have his eyes.”
Alex blinked back his own tears. “But it’s not possible. He’s not my brother.” He hated saying the words, hated the way the truth burned through his chest with fierce anger. Drogan had taken more from Alex than he realized the day he had been captured.
Jaze set a hand on Alex’s arm. “It is possible. You are so much like Jet there’s no denying it. Whether he’s your brother or cousin, it doesn’t matter. You’re walking in the shoes of a great person, the best. You share blood, and you share the same purpose.” Jaze gave a small smile. “I’ll bet Jet would have fought for that little cat, too.”
His words brought a smile to Alex’s face. “Maybe so,” Alex agreed.
Chapter Eight
“Alex, wake up!”
Alex opened his eyes to find Trent’s excited face inches from his own. Trent adjusted his glasses that made his eyes look huge. “You’ve got to hurry!” the scrawny werewolf said.
Alex pushed up to a sitting position and glanced out the window. Pale early dawn light showed through the curtains in his bedroom. “What time is it?” he asked, trying to get his thoughts to focus. He could barely remember making it to his bed in the first place.
“Around fifty-thirty,” Trent replied, shrugging as though it didn’t matter. “Get up!”
Alex obeyed because it appeared the werewolf wasn’t going to let him go back to sleep. He rose, grateful that the moonlight and sleep had chased away most of his aches. He grabbed a shirt from his drawer and pulled it on as he followed Trent into the hallway. Not surprising, the rest of Pack Jericho was still sleeping. Sounds of snoring came from both the girls’ hallway and the boys’; Alex wondered sleepily which of the girls snored.
“Hurry,” Trent urged him.
