Caine

“What are you doing with him?” Adam asked me.

His voice was steady and he looked guarded.

I didn’t know how to explain myself, especially without giving too much away.

Caine was still holding onto my waist tightly. When Adam asked that question, Caine’s snapped his head in my direction.

“You know him?” Caine asked, his stare burning into me.

Before I could say anything, Adam spoke out for me.

“I’ll take Charlotte and we’ll leave your territory. No harm was done,” Adam said, not letting up his stance.

“Charlotte?” Caine asked Adam, but his glare towards him didn’t falter.

“Come on Charlotte, we’re leaving,” Adam motioned to me.

“Who is Charlotte?” Caine repeated, raising his voice.

“Uh…” I muttered.

“Her name is Martha,” Caine told Adam, and he pressed me closer to his side.

“Actually….” I had just said the word, when Caine maneuvered me to stand in front of him.

Both of his hands snaked around my waist, keeping me tightly in place.

“You’re name is Martha, right?” He asked me.

His tone made it seem like he wanted me to say that yes, my name was Martha.

“When your buddies were following me yesterday, they got my name wrong,” I replied.

He narrowed his eyes at me. If it was possible, his eyes grew darker than they already were.

“I’m not leaving without Charlotte,” Adam said from behind me.

Caine didn’t drop his gaze from mine. He stared at me for a long while, making me want to cower down to him.

“You trespassed and you’re a Rogue,” Caine said to Adam.

Even though his voice was low, there was a threat behind it. I was sure Adam heard it too.

“He’s my friend,” I told him, hoping that would mean something.

“You’re in trouble too,” Caine said to me.

For some reason, his words made something in me snap.

“Excuse me? Why am I in trouble?” I asked him.

When I pushed on his chest to get away from him, he didn’t budge. I didn’t even get him to take a step back.

“She’s a human,” Adam told Caine.

“I’m aware of that.”

“I’m taking her with me whether you want it or not,” Adam told him.

I was looking at Adam pleadingly, wanting him to keep his mouth shut.

“She’s mine,” Caine growled, finally letting me go.

Only, after he released me, he made his way to Adam. Although Adam was a pretty tall guy, Caine towered over him.

Caine didn’t give Adam a chance to say anything else before he threw a punch his way. Adam stumbled back, but he didn’t fall to the ground.

“She’s not yours,” Adam said when he steadied himself.

I tapped my forehead with my hand.

“Adam, stop!” I cried, really wanting him to shut up now.

Caine wasn’t taking any of his words lightly. The more Adam said the more riled up Caine was getting.

“She’s my mate,” Caine told Adam in a growl.

This time when Caine’s hand connected to Adam’s face, his claws were out.

Adam landed on the ground with a thud. It took just a moment for me to notice the side of his face had four long claw marks.

“Adam!” I yelled, trying to go to his side.

As soon as I passed by Caine, he wrapped his arm over my stomach and brought me to a halt.

“You’re not getting near him. Rogues are dangerous,” Caine told me.

His calm demeanor was getting to me. Adam was on the ground, moaning over the deep gashes Caine had just opened up in his face while Caine didn’t seem bothered by any of it.

“I told you Adam is my friend.”

He loosened his hold when I said that, but he didn’t let me go.

“Victor and Macon are coming to pick him up.”

“Who’s Victor? And why are they coming here? Adam isn’t going to hurt anyone. He just came here for me,” I said, desperately trying to get out of his arms.

“Why are you with him? He could hurt you.”

“Yeah well, I think I’ve gotten worse with the way you and your friends treated me,” I snapped at him.

My words were enough to have him fully release me.

“I told you I would kill them if you wanted me to,” he said.

“And what would you get for claiming me? Did you ever think that maybe I didn’t want to get claimed by a Wolf, an Alpha of all people?” I harshly asked him.

His eyes widened when I said that, before he scowled at me.

“You know?” He asked.

I had just leaned down next to Adam, who was sitting up on the ground. As soon as my hand touched Adam’s shoulder, Caine grabbed my elbow and picked me up from the ground.

“You knew what I was?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“I knew. That doesn’t make what any of you did right. So don’t try to get mad at me for knowing. Those dogs still hurt me,” I told him.

This time when I lowered myself to tend to Adam, Caine didn’t stop me.

“It’s healing, I’m fine,” Adam told me.

His voice sounded croaky. He was right- the claw marks were healing, but extremely slowly. Adam seemed to be in pain as the gashes healed themselves up.

“Caine,” someone said from behind us.

“Victor,” Caine nodded at one of the guys that were heading our way.

He’d been down at the cells earlier in the day. Macon, who I now knew was the third in command and who I probably owed my life to, was walking beside Victor.

I helped Adam stand up. I knew he must’ve been feeling weak, but he was useless and vulnerable if he was sitting down.

At least if he was standing up we had a shot at running. If anything, making a commotion and waking up other humans in the apartments would make Caine and his guys go away.

“Take him and lock him up,” Caine nodded towards Adam.

“I told you I know him. He was just here for me but he’ll be on his way,” I told Caine, as I stood in front of Adam.

“Come,” he said to me. Caine grabbed my arm and was trying to pull me away.

I interlaced my hand with Adam’s hand. When Caine moved me, I brought Adam along.

“Let him go,” Caine told me in a threatening tone.

He was looking at me intently, and the order behind his words didn’t go unnoticed. I so bad wanted to give in to him, but I didn’t.

“I will if you let Adam leave. He wouldn’t be here if Lesley and your guys hadn’t taken me.”

Victor and Macon were looking between Caine and me. It almost seemed like they were waiting for him to snap.

Caine held my stare. I was probably far from intimidating, but at least Caine wasn’t stepping forward.

Each second that passed by just made the air surrounding us feel thicker.

“Fine,” Caine said.

“Really?” I asked, surprised that he was actually giving in.

“You’re letting him go?” Victor asked, sounding completely shocked.

“Escort him far enough from our territory,” Caine ordered.

“You better not hurt him,” I added, looking between Victor and Macon.

They both nodded at me, while Caine looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re giving orders now?” He asked me.

I shrugged and turned back to Adam.

“I’m not leaving you here,” he told me when Victor and Macon approached us.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be. I’ll be fine,” I told him, giving him a push to make him start walking.

“You know I can’t leave you. If I do, I’m as good as dead anyway,” Adam said.

Liam.

I hadn’t thought how he would react to all of this.

“Don’t say anything about this yet,” I told Adam, giving him a pointed look.

If by any chance Adam talked to Liam and Liam found out about Caine, we would definitely have problems.

“I won’t, at least not yet,” Adam told me.

Caine wrapped his arm around my waist just then, stopping the conversation Adam and I were having.

“Please leave. I’ll be fine.” I smiled at Adam, trying to reassure him that I would be okay.

I didn’t think Caine would hurt me. He told me he wouldn’t, and for some reason, I believed him.

“There’s no way I could take you with them here,” Adam grumbled.

“You wouldn’t be able to take her. She’s my mate,” Caine told Adam.

As if to emphasize his words, he wrapped one of his arms around my lower back. He cupped my chin with his other hand, and made me look up at him.

“You’re mine,” he whispered to me, before crashing his lips against mine.

I was left stunned for a moment, but I felt myself responding to his kiss. His tongue moved swiftly against mine, his lips showing me his strength and possessiveness towards me.

When I put my hand on his chest to push him back, he let me.

I was breathless for a moment- feeling dazzled by the kiss and the way Caine was looking at me.

“Okay,” I said, still catching my breath.

While Victor and Macon were looking at Caine with their mouths dropped open, Adam was scowling at us.

“You ask me to leave and then you start doing that?” Adam asked, looking at me disapprovingly.

“You don’t have a choice. You leave or I’ll lock you up,” Caine replied for me.

“Um, in case you didn’t notice, he was the one who kissed me,” I told Adam, as I pointed at Caine.

“Charlotte, you aren’t allowed to date. You know that,” Adam told me sternly.

“You’re not?” Caine asked, looking at me with surprise.

“Not really,” I answered. “Please go. He’s letting you,” I turned back to Adam.

It wasn’t like Adam had much of a choice either way. The longer he stayed there, the higher the chances were that Caine wouldn’t let him go.

“How old are you?” Caine focused his attention on me when he asked that question.

For a moment, it seemed like he’d forgotten that Victor, Macon, and Adam were standing in front of us.

“17,” I replied with a shrug.

Caine closed his eyes after he heard my answer. With his thumb and his index finger he began pinching the bridge of his nose.

“You’re really young,” he muttered after a while.

“Yeah, she’s a little girl. And you’re taking advantage of her,” Adam added.

Does he ever know when to keep his mouth shut?

“I’m not a little girl.” At the same time I said that, Caine threw a punch in Adam’s direction.

It must’ve been carrying a lot of force, because Adam landed on the ground. It didn’t take long for his nose to start bleeding and his upper lip looked busted.

“You couldn’t just stay quiet,” I told Adam, shaking my head at him.

I would’ve leaned down to help him, but he had been asking for it. There was no way he could take on the Alpha, so why taunt him.

“Get the Rogue away from me before I kill him,” Caine said, turning to look at Victor.

“Come on Charlotte,” he told me, grabbing my hand in his.

“Who’s Charlotte?” Both Victor and Macon asked simultaneously.

“I’m Charlotte,” I told them.

Before either of them could make any comments, Caine began dragging me upstairs.

“Call me when they let you go!” I yelled at Adam, who was still sitting down on the ground.

It was worrying me that he was leaving with two members of the Locus pack, but there was not much else I could do. I had to trust that Caine wasn’t lying when he said he would let Adam go.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were 17?” Caine asked me as soon as he shut the door to my apartment.

It didn’t take much effort, because the door was broken and it didn’t close properly. I should’ve probably thanked his friends for doing that.

“You were about to get me killed a few hours ago. I wasn’t exactly ready to start gossiping and sharing secrets with you.”

Caine growled at me, and closed the distance between us.

“I don’t like getting disrespected!” He snapped, narrowing his eyes at me.

He was standing so close- I could feel his warm breath blowing against my skin. He had to lower his head in order to reach me, and I was looking up at him.

“Well we have one thing in common,” I replied.

He held my gaze for a moment longer, before taking a step away from me.

“Pack your things,” he told me, making his words sound like an order.

“Why?” I asked, frowning at him.

“I can keep you safe in my home.”

“I can keep myself safe here,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

“You obviously can’t. Haven’t you been reminding me how easy my pack was able to take you away? If they did it, others can do it as well. I’m not taking the risk.”

“I’m the one taking the risk here, not you. Now go away,” I told him, shooing him with my hands.

Caine didn’t respond too kindly to my behavior.

“Stop that,” he warned, grabbing both of my wrists in his hands.

“You’re not welcome in my apartment,” I told him when I got my voice back.

He kept doing that. Something about him, it felt dangerous. He had a dark aura surrounding him. It didn’t help that everything that came out of his mouth sounded like a threat.

“If you’re a human, how do you know about Werewolves and packs?” Caine asked, changing the subject.

His question made me go still. Caine had unintentionally hit a sore subject for me. I usually kept my former pack and my family tucked away in the back of my mind.

“I have friends,” I shrugged, trying to sound casual.

I couldn’t tell if the bitterness I felt had accidentally spilled into my voice when I spoke. Caine represented all that I hated in packs.

The Alpha, who with one wrongful decision, could destroy the life of someone like me.

“So now you’re mad that I know what you are?”

“That’s not what I meant,” he told me, as he ran his hand over my cheek.

“Why did they tell you? Telling humans our identity is dangerous. I would’ve told you, because you’re my mate. They had not business taking that attribution.”

“It’s done- whatever,” I told him, trying to change the subject.

Talking about this was like roaming around territory I wasn’t ready to discuss.

“Your door is broken,” he said, nodding at the door that no longer closed properly.

“You should send some of your guys to fix it. They were the ones who broke it.”

“I’ll do that. In the meantime, can you come and stay with me. It’s too late to have someone take care of that.”

“You’re the Alpha. All you need is to do is give an order. Actually, you should send Lesley to fix it. I bet you it was her who broke it,” I told him.

“Lesley’s unavailable for now.”

“Unavailable? What does that mean?”

Caine raised both his eyebrows at me, but he didn’t answer my question.

“Okay, I hated her guts but please tell me you didn’t beat her up. That’s not cool.”

“I don’t hit girls, but she did get punished,” Caine vaguely answered, as he began making his way upstairs.

“Hey, no one invited up there,” I told him, following after him.

His long strides and his quicker pace made it hard to keep up with him. It made me feel worse because he wasn’t trying to go faster, he was simply walking.

Way to boost up my ego.

“What are you taking home?” He asked me once he’d stepped inside my room.

I assumed he knew which one it was because it was the only room with a busted door.

“I told you I’m not leaving. I’m staying here, in my apartment,” I replied, stomping my foot.

He cocked an eyebrow when I did that, and it made my face warm up. So maybe stomping my foot had been childish. It didn’t even get my point across, because Caine started walking towards the closet.

My suitcases were to the side, and the little clothes I had were neatly hung on the left side of the walk-in closet.

“You didn’t bring a lot of things?” Caine asked me as he looked around.

Unlike him, I couldn’t see in the dark. I switched on the light and followed his gaze.

“It’s better than nothing,” I replied defensively.

“I meant that you didn’t travel with a lot. I expected you to have more. I can help you pack. We won’t take long,” Caine said.

He started taking things off the hangers and dumping them in one of the suitcases.

“Hey, don’t do that.” I tried stopping him, but my attempts to get him away were useless.

Not only did he look strange packing my things, he was messily dumping all of my clothes into the suitcase. Things were already getting folded and wrinkled.

“We’re leaving.” He stopped packing, only to turn and face me.

“I don’t want to leave. This is my apartment.”

“The door is falling apart. Anyone can come in here and harm you. I’m not taking that chance,” he said.

“So you think I’m safer with you and a pack of Wolves. Which by the way, I don’t think they are too fond of me,” I reminded him.

“You are safe with me, don’t question that. As for the pack, they follow rules- my rules, and now yours as well. You’re their Luna now,” he told me.

There was no humor in his voice and the way his eyes focused on me said he wasn’t joking.

“I’m a human.”

“You’re my mate,” Caine replied, taking a step closer to me.

“Yeah and just yesterday you were giving an order to have them kill me.”

He cringed at my words.

“I regret my words, but I can’t take back what I said yesterday. I do want to apologize for that,” he told me.

His gaze softened and the corners of his lips tugged up in a small smile, which was only noticeable if I paid close attention.

“I don’t like Lesley and those other guys that knocked me out,” I told him.

I could feel myself giving in to going with him. In a way, he did have a point. Who knew what kind of creeper could come into the apartment if the door wasn’t staying in place.

“They won’t be around you and I’ll warn them to stay away,” Caine quickly told me.

“Will someone come to fix my front door?”

“I’ll send someone tomorrow,” he said.

“What about the door to my room? They broke that one too.”

“I will tell them to fix this one too. Anything else?” Caine asked.

This time, the smile was more prominent on his lips.

I grinned when I thought of my next request.

She-Wolves were strong enough to hold a door, right? I thought to myself.

“Yes, I want Lesley to be the one you send to fix the damages,” I told him, before taking the suitcase from his hand and packing my things on my own.

It was already dawn when Caine and I were driving back to his home. He had put the door in place, enough to keep people out. I didn’t want anyone trying to steal Liam’s things. Of course, I left that small detail out from Caine.

Adam had sent me a text message telling me Chris had picked him up.

I was relieved for just a second, until his second text message came in.

‘I have news, and we both might be in trouble.’

I didn’t understand what it meant. When I asked him what he was talking about, he didn’t send me anything back.

When I called him, he didn’t pick up.

“You can sleep here,” Caine told me.

He had walked me to the room I had woken up in, which was his room.

“Where are you going to sleep?” I asked, giving him a suspicious look.

I didn’t want him to get any ideas just because I agreed to come back to his house.

“Right next door, unless you want me to stay here,” he said.

I felt my face heating up. I realized that even though I had that thought, it didn’t make me nervous until Caine said it out loud.

“I’m fine on my own. I can take the guest room though. I don’t need you to give me your room,” I told him.

He walked over to his closet, and set down the suitcases.

“I’m not going to touch you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I, I didn’t know you were this young,” he told me, sounding apologetic.

“I’m 17 for God’s sake. You make it sound like if I’m a little kid. And I’m turning 18 in less than three months.”

I didn’t know why I was trying to clear it up so much. It should’ve been good for me that he was respecting that I wasn’t of age yet. I just- I didn’t want him to look at me like a little girl.

“Good,” Caine said.

“Good? Good what?”

“You will be turning 18 soon.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, but didn’t say anything else.

“Whatever,” I muttered and went over to lie down on the bed.

“Did you need anything else?”

“I still don’t trust you,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow at my words, but didn’t make any comments about it.

“I will be next door if you need me. I can hear you, so you can call my name and I’ll be here,” he said.

Caine was about to leave out the door when he turned back to face me.

“What?” I asked him, because he wasn’t speaking.

“I like Charlotte better,” he told me, before walking out of the room.

His words made my heart stop for a moment. I was glad he had left the room, because my face grew warm once again and I could feel a blush taking over.

I was blushing and I felt stupid for the reactions my body had towards him.

‘Stupid Alpha!’ I thought to myself.

His bed was the biggest bed I had slept in. I was so tired when laid down. It had only taken me a few moments to drift off to sleep.

The last thoughts I had were about the text Adam had sent me. I wanted to know what he was going on about.

I woke up in the morning to my phone going off loudly on the bedside table where I had put it to charge the night before.

A number I didn’t recognize was blinking on the screen, so I let it go to voicemail. It was way too early to be answering unknown calls.

As soon as the call ended, and the time came up on the screen, I realized it was past midday.

It figured, since I had slept later than I was used to.

I jumped in surprise when my phone went off again with the same number from before. I groaned, and dumped the phone on the side of the bed.

I had just lied down, wanting to sleep a few more minutes, when the phone rang for a third time.

“Fine, I’ll answer you,” I said, glaring at my phone.

“Whoever you are, it better be good,” I snapped into the phone.

I was still lying down, and I waited for whoever was on the other side of the line to speak.

“Charlie?”

I sat up from the bed so quick, my head felt dizzy for a moment.

“Liam? Is that you?”

Now I knew what Adam meant with his text.