XXVI | Ghosts

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Kaia had a little thorn stuck in her brain: Kaleb is a wolf. She couldn't dislodge that little stab of truth from her thoughts. It was hard at first to notice that it was there because her head had already been aching severely, what with being held captive by her mother's murderer. But with close enough introspection, she found that thorn, the little constant pain, unwelcome and invasive. Jack had put it there knowing how much it would bother her because, though she wished she could deny it, he knew what would hurt her most.

Of course, Kaia knew that. She wanted to ignore it on principle, but she couldn't forget how different Kaleb was from her. She hadn't thought about the fact that there might be a side to him that she didn't know, which was naïve because there most certainly was one, there must have been one. They...hadn't known each other for that long, had they?

It had all gone so quickly because of how she felt. They were mates so falling into a new reality, a comforting rhythm with Kaleb had just made sense. Maybe it had to do with destiny. She didn't know. She hadn't wanted to know. It had all felt so right, so comfortable that she hadn't tried to fight it. She wanted to believe that anything that felt so good couldn't be wrong. Kaia had to cling to that thought even as she heard the snap of Grayson's neck again and again.

She couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else. There was something darker, like a monster lurking beneath the thin ice. Only one realization, one crack in her perfect reality, and everything would change. It would come for her and her girlish dreams.

Kaia had the feeling you get when you're standing at the top of a cliff, and you imagine jumping. Not that you'd ever do it, but...what if?

A door opened, jerking Kaia from her thoughts of Kaleb. She'd been left in a room alone, what had been designated 'her bedroom' by Jack. The sparse, grizzly-looking members of Jack's Pack that Kaia had seen hadn't questioned why she was there; they seemed loyal to Jack. Kaia had wondered, when she'd first gotten here, how long Jack had been planning on her arrival.

"Are you finding everything satisfactory?" The invader was a man, or, Kaia realized, more of a boy. He looked younger than Kaia was, with bluish-black hair and coppery skin. He was handsome but in an immature way.

Kaia didn't say anything, which seemed to make him uncomfortable because his face started turning redder. It wasn't that Kaia hadn't found her room satisfactory. It was that this wasn't her room. The silk sheets, the princess bed, the soaring ceilings and ruby red décor...it wasn't her home. It was his. That fact clung to the walls and grew like toxic mold, making everything smell wrong.

"Where's Jack?" Kaia asked. She didn't want to spend any more time here than she had to. If she could get into Jack's head somehow, she might be able to make progress. And then she could get to Kaleb; Kaia had a feeling that just seeing him would calm the storm inside her, would ease her worries, would rid her of all the filth that was building up in her head and heart.

The boy looked confused by her question at first, but then his eyes widened. "You mean Alpha Jacob?" he asked, "He's the one who sent me here to check on you and ask if you needed anything. He said that he would come this afternoon."

"This afternoon?" Kaia demanded, standing up. She was almost as tall as this guy was, and no doubt stronger. He was like a compilation of twigs haphazardly sewn together without any regard to proportions. "And just what am I supposed to do in the meantime?"

The boy looked genuinely traumatized like he'd been called on in class seconds after he'd awoken from a desk nap. "I-I don't...here." He stepped forward and dropped a nicely folded heap of clothes on the bed next to Kaia, "They're for you."

Kaia sighed, flopping onto the bed, "Go tell Jack to come sooner. I'm not patient. If I'm not his prisoner, he'll treat me with respect."

"I can do that," he said, bowing his head and scurrying out the door like a fidgety carrier pigeon. Kaia sighed again and turned onto her back, staring up at the high ceiling above her. There was a chandelier there that reminded her of the one in the entrance hall of the Prowler Mansion, with its raindrop crystals.

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