Bitter Kisses

Chapter Eight

"Where am I?" I asked, my voice trembling. "What am I doing here? Who are you?" Questions kept firing from my mouth. I felt anxious and jumpy and especially nervous. I caught a whiff of the man's scent: werewolf. I knew I was in the same state, so what pack had I stumbled upon? There were three packs in our state; most states had two to five packs. Or were they rogue wolves?

The man scowled. "The question is, who are you? You were trespassing into Shadow Pack territory," he growled, stalking forward.

I backed up farther against the wall. The rage in his eyes reminded me of the man who shot me with the silver bullet. The man stopped as if surprised. He must have smelled the fear rolling in waves from my pores and seen my trembling.

Tears pricked my eyes. "I didn't mean to intrude, I-I swear. A man, h-he shot me with a silver bullet and I dragged myself into the forest. I didn't know it was already taken," I said with a sob.

"Are you a rogue?" he asked. There was a hint of curiosity in his voice, no doubt wondering what a girl as young as me was doing out on her own.

I shook my head, my lip trembling. "My pack...they exiled me," I whispered.

I heard an intake of breath and heard his foot shift. I looked up to see that he had a defensive stance and a wary expression on his face. "Why?" he asked.

"Because I'm no use to them. I'm weak and they have no need for me. They only kept me because the old alpha was good friends with my father, but he was recently killed. The new alpha...he exiled me," I whispered. My heart ached at the thought of Xavier, but then I shook it away. Xavier was nothing, but a distant memory now. He didn't matter.

He does matter. We love him, my wolf insisted.

Xavier will never love us, I snapped back. She instantly became silent. I'm sorry, I told her quietly.

She didn't answer, but the man interrupted my mental conversation. "Mhm." He seemed deep in thought, then looked at me with narrowed eyes. "Someone will bring you dinner soon, as you've been unconscious for three days. Our alpha will see to you tomorrow morning and then we'll decide what to do with you. Until then, I'm Gordon Hall, the Shadow Pack beta," he said. His voice was expressionless and so was his face, but I caught just the tiniest hint of confusion in his eyes.

"I'm Cadrian...Forrest," I said hesitantly. But then I realized that my family – or the people I used to call family – didn't want anything to do with me. Why should I keep living by their name? "I'm Cade," I quickly contradicted to my earlier answer. "Just Cade."

A faintest trace of a smirk quirked his lips. "Okay Cade," here he raised his eyebrow, "don't try anything while you're here. This room is heavily guarded," he cautioned, but afterwards shrugged. "Of course, you don't seem like you'd be able to escape anyway, but...," he trailed off, gave me another look and confidently strode from the room. My face flushed instantly. Even he thought I was weak and he didn't even know me.

Since I had nothing else to do, I just lay back down and stared blankly at the ceiling, wondering what my life had come to. I was a rogue, as Gordon Hall had assumed. I was a prisoner in the Shadow Pack territory, which I heard was one of the most ruthless pack in the United States. I had heard Xavier talking to his friends about how the Shadow Pack hardly ever socialized with the other packs and were always so closed off. They were also one of the strongest packs and had over I sighed and closed my eyes, intending to just rest for a bit, only to sink back into the awaiting darkness...

~

"Get up."

My eyelids fluttered at the voice, but I nodded off again, giving into the sleep that was pulling at my mind.