Chapter Sixty-Three--

Chapter Sixty-Three--
 I walked alone.

In many ways, I had all along. Apart, different. The lone wolf—um, cat. Even while surrounded by the clan, they didn’t understand me, nor I, them. Not really.

At the spot where Quinn had appeared, my nostrils flared. East. Where he’d come from. No one had said a word when I’d left the house. They’d followed at a safe distance. Nature herself respected the unreliable turbulence of my mood.

I’d finally said it. what my subconscious had worried about since finding what would happen to Kalvyn, should something happen to me.

The end all, be all.

Why must you make everything so complicated? Question everything?

I growled. Cat, for real, shut it. I’m not in the mood.

I can tell, she replied.

At least she stopped speaking to me so formally. Like a head mistress of the wild.

The conversation caused me to backpedal three steps, and turn right. Tracking wasn’t a natural born skill for me. A ravine cut into the landscape, confused me.

You can jump that, no problem.

You can stuff it.

I eyed the branch above my head, then to the dying tree on the other side, roots partially uplifted from the leaf covered dirt. I jumped, swinging up onto the canopy. Walking along the branch, barefoot, I marveled how far I’d come in the past few weeks. My fear of heights evaporated, replaced with awe of my new agility and dexterity. The falls I’d taken that should’ve ended in broken bones barely phased me, short of dark bruises that healed by sunset.

I tossed myself through the air, catching the branch parallel to the opposite bank. The tree groaned as I swayed, releasing just as the trunk toppled into the ravine. My bare feet hit dirt, and I was off again.

The air stank of human sweat and gunpowder. The foliage was a mess to my right. Blood dotted evergreens to my left. I kept going. My clan didn’t make a noise, and I didn’t glance to see if they’d made it. Tension was high, particularly from one cat, whose burning gaze seared the back of my head.

He was pissed. So was I. Our first fight. And what a doozy it had become.

“Why are we following her?” Bianca hissed.

Ahh, of course she’d be the one to break the silence. No one answered.

Half fleeing, half hurrying, I jogged down the incline to a service road that cut off a mile south of here. A trail of dirt bisected the leaves, about the size of a body being dragged would make. More blood littered the soil. A smear on the pavement that abruptly ended.

I headed north.

Bianca jogged beside me. “They could’ve gone south.”

“They didn’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Shut up, Bianca, now.”

She hissed her frustration, and fell back. Syber took his turn next. His running shoes pounded the pavement under his massive weight as he fell into step. His confidence shrieked out of every pore.

“Don’t,” I snapped.

“Didn’t say a damned thing, Alpha.”

“Whatever.”

A breeze lifted my hair. The scent of rubber came shortly thereafter. They had indeed come this way, in a car. I surveyed every inch of forest on either side of the road, in case they decided to rough it.

We rounded a wide bend. A break in the trees showed Summit Lake about six miles out. The hunters had boated toward the nearest edge. If I remembered the area enough from my travels over the many years, the rented cabins would begin in two miles, beginning with hunting lodgings, then breaking way into the vacation homes, then lakeside houses.

If I had to guess—and I did—I assumed my mom and friends had chosen a hunting cabin, far from the lake proper, away from the tourists and open spaces. Something compact, defendable. Perhaps more than one.

My pace became breathtaking. Not quite running, for a cat, but more than a speed walk for a human. If I had a certain destination, I’d be faster than the wind. Damned formalities.

“You’re being unfair, you know,” Syber whispered.

“I said, don’t.”

Despite my brisk movements, he shouldered me in a big brother kind of way. “You can’t stick your head in the sand.”

“Watch me. I’m not dealing with any of this crap, until Carmen is at home, where she should be, the bad guys are dealt with, and I know Quinn is on the mend.”

“Sounds to me like you already know what you’re doing after that.”

I passed up the urge to glare, or hit him. “You don’t know me.”

“You learn an awful lot bout a person, if you hang around with them enough.”

“Why don’t you go dissect Lola, since you’re so interested in her, and stay out of my life. What I do is none of your concern.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Katrina. Every breath you take effects all of us, not just Kalvyn.”

“That isn’t my fault. I didn’t choose this, and neither did he.” I paused, studied a rut in the dirt, decided an animal made it, and moved on. The first set of cabins should be just ahead. “Now that we’ve had our little girl talk, beat it. I have more important shit to do, than worrying about personal crisis’s. Which, by the way, I am perfectly entitled to have, if I don’t allow it to effect this.”

“You’re running beside me,” he began. I startled to realize I was now very much running. From him. From Kalvyn. “And tell me this isn’t affecting the clan. Kalvyn’s a fucking mess right now. I have never seen him this wild before, yet he respects your space.” Too bad he wouldn’t follow example. “I get that you’re focused on your human limitations.” I snarled, and he rolled his eyes. “But this is how we live. Do you really think a born cat would’ve thought twice about the circumstances in which the two of you met? No. None of us would’ve.”

“Thanks for making me feel so very special, and alienated.” I sighed. Why couldn’t he drop it? Now I sounded like a bitch. “Let’s throw in guilty for good measure.” My head swiveled. Voices. Gruff Man and Hero boy. I stopped in my tracks. “Through the bushes,” I whispered.

“I don’t get why we can’t kill her,” Hero boy complained.

I jumped into a tree before Syber could stop me. I parted the golden leaves, looking down at the two guys leaning against a beat up grey Jeep. Through the trees was the first way of hunting cabins.

Gruff Man laughed. “Bait. The males will go crazy to know we nabbed a female. They will come. Where is Clara? She should’ve been back way before now.”

“She went into town to do some research. Didn’t say when she’d be back.” Mr. Quiet sat in the passenger seat puffing a smoke.

The clan melted into the shade of the underbrush and height of the branches. I smelled Kalvyn before his breath hit my ear. His arm banded around my stomach, holding me to his chest.

I steeled myself. He’d caught me when I couldn’t fight him, couldn’t tell him to take a long walk off a short peer.

“Do not think to outrun me, Katrina. I won’t allow it another moment,” he whispered.

“Not now.”

“Now is the perfect time, while Roman and Dorian search the area.”

“Kind of busy.”

“You will do nothing until I get a signal.”

“You don’t own me.”

“The mark on your shoulder says otherwise. The mark on mine tells a similar tale.”

“I was out of my mind. My cat bit you,” I said distractedly, as I tried to listen to the conversation below. I sneered, as they discussed what they planned to eat for dinner, as they waited their fourth partner. Were there more than four?

“You belittle what we have?”

“I’m pissed off.”

“So am I. You tore through everything I’ve done for you, for Lola, every moral I have, in one simple unfounded accusation.”

“Funny, you didn’t defend yourself. You didn’t say anything. Just let me walk off.”

“You’re being a child.”

Oh, no. He did not just go there. How hard was it for these males to understand there’s a time and place, and this was not it! “Nice talk. Fuck off.”

“Not on my life.”

“You can’t die, remember? Seriously, shut up, before I push you off this branch.”

“Try, Katrina. If by some miracle you manage to perform just a feat, I’ll take you with me.”

“Oh yeah, and that was totally mature.”

He growled low and dangerous. “You’re pushing it.”

“You’re pissing me off again.”

“You’re angry because I didn’t vocally defend myself.”

“Yes. Words, I like them. They mean something to me. A whole lot more than you looking offended, and doing nothing. Makes a girl think her accusations are true.”

“Haven’t you learned anything?” His muscles bunched, nearly suffocating me, though I doubted he was aware of that. “Lies are so easily spoken, but actions, they speak of a male’s worth. Have I not done everything possible to make you happy, Katrina? To make the transition the easiest possible? I handed Bianca and Sadie to you on a silver platter. For your conviction alone and never interfered, though my position demanded I do so? I’ve protected Lola with my best male, when I could’ve sent her away, or as my nature demanded. Killed her whether you liked it or not, for the fact that she split your attention from you duties as Alpha. Have I not ensured anything you asked of me was done before the request could finish leaving your mouth? Have I not lavished affection on you, given you the key to my kingdom, and as much freedom as my sanity can allow?”

I swallowed as tears swam in my eyes.

“What do you think that means, Katrina? Do I seem the type of man who would indulge anyone, for any reason, who I didn’t love, respect and cherish beyond measure? And ask for nothing in return? You think this is about me? My life? My comfort? If you can’t figure out who and what I am by now, there is nothing more I do to prove myself. If you’re still holding me accountable for being deeply hurt by your precious words, then you’re right. I should fuck off.”

And he was gone.