The Reluctant Mate

Amanda

I was told that Carrie and her boyfriend—or I guess mate was what these werewolves called them—had left. I spent my time swinging between wanting to ignore everything Carrie had said and trying to escape right away or staying put so I wouldn’t sabotage their assembly thing.

Although, would me leaving even really sabotage their chances? It wasn’t like I was going to go running around telling everyone that werewolves existed. People would just think I was crazy. Although, there were probably others out there, and they’d believe me. But would it even matter, considering that they were probably the strange ones on the internet and the fringes of society?

And, would I even really want to expose werewolves, if I could? The thought of betraying Carrie like that—and maybe even Porter—bothered me more than it should. While I didn’t want to harm her, I didn’t owe him anything, but a part of me kind of felt like I did. The foolish part.

There was a knock on the outside door and I went to open it. They’d started acting like this was my place, rather than just a cage, although I still couldn’t technically leave so it really hadn’t changed in status whatever they wanted to pretend.

I had discovered that before my captivity, Max, Porter, and Kain had occupied the three small rooms in here. Max was unaffected by my presence because he had apparently went off searching for his mate—something that I guess wolves sometimes did—taking Nash along with him. I was glad, because that wolf creeped me out and the further away he was from me, the better.

I didn’t care that Porter was displaced. This miserable situation was his fault as much as mine. He should have just told me the truth in the first place. I wasn’t being rational enough to admit that if he had told me he was a werewolf I would have probably run away faster.

I did feel a bit bad about Kain, though. There was something in the kid’s eyes that looked haunted the few times he had been around. I didn’t know what he had seen, but I didn’t like that he had been kicked out of his room for me, not that it was my fault at all. I was reminded of this when I saw him standing in the door, this time with a squirming child with him.

“Hey, Amanda, just need to grab something,” he said, and I stepped back to let him in. He glanced at me. “Can you hold her?”

I didn’t get a chance to respond before he thrust the baby at me. She had soft blond hair and wide blue eyes that looked purely innocent. Then she grabbed my hair and yanked hard enough it felt like she’d pull it out by the roots.

I yelped and reclaimed my hair from the little monster. Crap, this kid was strong! What were they feeding her?

Or maybe it was the werewolf genes. Nash hadn’t even flinched when I had thrown that plate at him, and the way Porter had restrained my wrists like solid iron when he had been enraged...

And the way he had moved me around like I weighed nothing when we had first met...

I brushed those problematic memories away. The point was, they were strong. Far stronger than I was. I couldn’t compete with these werewolves. And they were fast, too. Physically I was at a complete disadvantage. My best hope for getting out was Carrie’s promise. I didn’t like that, but I was pretty sure I could trust her.

Back when she had first started working with me, I had tried so hard to get past her defenses because she seemed like a lonely decent person and I had felt sorry for her, and I still thought that was true although that loneliness seemed to have disappeared since she found Jason. The fact that she was also a shapeshifting monster didn’t really change who she was inside, I decided.

And this little hair grabbing devil was pretty cute. She’d turned her attention to yanking on my shirt—well, Carrie’s shirt—and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with her, but then Kain came out with another bag slung over his shoulder and grabbed her from me.

I glanced at him. “You know, you can still stay in your room if you want. I won’t do anything to you.”

Kain’s eyes widened before he smirked.

“What?”

“I don’t think you could hurt me even if you tried,” he said with an almost pitying look.

I frowned at the skinny kid to cover my embarrassment.

“No offense,” he added. “You can’t help it, you’re just a weak human. And I’ve been training for half my life.”

Wow, the insult made me so much less offended. I ignored that and focused on what else he had said. Why would they be training a kid? “How old are you, anyway?”

“Almost fourteen.” He shrugged again. “My uncle and dad were big on training.”

He sounded sad underneath his nonchalance, so I let the topic go. I cleared my throat a bit and added, “Well, if you, you know, want to sleep in your own room again sometime I’m not scared of you either or anything.” His attempt at playing it cool—in spite of the fact he was carrying around a kid with him—was adorable.

He gave me a half-smile. “Okay. Later.”

Then he left, and I shut the door behind him, but there was a knock before I was even able to sit down. I went to it again thinking Kain had probably forgot something, but Porter was standing on the other side.

I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to state what he wanted.

“Would you be willing to talk to me?” He looked so hesitant and unsure of himself that my heart twinged with guilt, even though I had nothing to feel guilty about.

“About what?”

“About everything.”

I shrugged. “I guess.” I should have said no and sent him away again, but my curiosity—I assured myself it was only curiosity—wouldn’t let me.