Kanin

I’m still struggling against the handcuffs long after Jax is gone. Tears blur my vision and my heart is hammering. I can’t believe this is happening. It shouldn’t be happening. I can’t bring myself to understand what Jax has just done, I don’t want to.

I’m very aware of Cade hovering in the kitchen, but I don’t care. It will do no good to plead with him to let me go. Jax ordered him not to touch me, and Cade can’t disobey his alpha. That’s probably why Cade hasn’t even looked at me since he stepped back into the house. He probably hates this just as much as I do.

I scream as the blood drips down my wrists and the handcuffs don’t budge. This is really happening. Jax really left me handcuffed here while he meets with Keera. He said he’d do anything to make sure I’d live, but this was too much. How many of his wolves would die tonight because they hadn’t given me up?

“Kanin, please, stop.” Cade begs from where he’s standing in the kitchen.

“I can’t believe you’d agree to this!” I yell at him.

“I know you don’t understand.”

“No, I don’t! I can’t!” I’m screaming, and Cade does nothing to stop me. “I’m one life, Cade! How many people are going to die now? I could have saved so many lives. Instead, you’ve doomed them all!”

He shakes his head, “You’re too important to Jax, to me. We couldn’t just let you sacrifice yourself!”

I scream at the top of my lungs again, unable to say the words that I want. I’m so angry that I can’t get him to understand. How can they think this is the right thing to do? How can they think my life is worth more than countless others? They’re delusional.

“Let me go, Cade!” I resort to pleading again. Too angry to realize that it won’t do any good. I’m frantic now. I know my wrists are bleeding, but I don’t feel the pain. My mind is reeling, trying to come up with options to get me out of this situation. “Please, please, let me out!”

“Kanin, you know I can’t!” He’s yelling as well; his eyes are filled with pain as he takes in the sight of me.

“What you’ve done is worse than what my father did to me!” It’s not exactly true, but I’ll say anything right now. I’m too past angry to be civil. “This is so much worse!”

Cade turns away from me, leaning against the counter. His lets out a ragged breath and his shoulders shake. I watch him grip the counter tight, so tight his fingers turn paper white.

“I hate you!” Apart of me hopes he knows I don’t mean it. I’d say it to anyone that was around.

His wolf’s claws suddenly appear and he scrapes them across the counter top, the sound of it pierces my ears. “Kanin, stop!” His voice is a growl and I know he’s on the edge of shifting.

I should stop, but I don’t. “Let me out! Now!”

I watch as his ears turn pointy. He growls. “Kanin!”

“I hate you!” I pull harder at the cuffs.

“STOP!” He spins around so fast that his movements blur. There is no longer a man standing before me, just a beast in human form. I’ve never seen Cade’s eyes so wide and red. He has his fangs on full display. He growls at me.

I slump in the seat, too afraid to move. I’ve only once been afraid of Cade, the first night on the road before I’d known he was the brown wolf. That was before I knew of his world, back when I thought I was human. Right now, I was terrified. I’d provoked a beast. I’d pushed him over the edge and I wasn’t sure he was coming back.

“Stop if you know what’s good for you!” He warns, trying to get a handle on his inner beast.

I numbly nod and slump back in my seat. I can suddenly feel the pain in my wrists and I wince. They’re throbbing in time to my frantic heart. I can feel the blood dripping down my skin. Tears crash against my collar bone, because I can’t reach up to wipe them away.

Cade stumbles back against the counter, his chest heaving, “I’m sorry.” He disappears, down the hall no doubt trying to gather his composure.

I hang my head and take a deep breath. I’m not getting out of this. There’s no way.

Then lights flicker overhead and I’m plunged into darkness. I sit upright, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the overwhelming darkness. “Cade?” I call through the house. There’s no answer. I start to panic. “Cade!”

Suddenly, Cade comes running down the hall. He’s no longer about to shift, but his eyes are still red. He looks frantic. He bolts for me. His fingers fumble in his pockets for something.

“Cade, what’s going on?” I plead, craning my neck to look at him. He says nothing. Something must be wrong. He’s not supposed to let me out of my handcuffs, that were his alpha’s orders.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A man’s voice calls through the house. I don’t recognize it. It’s heavy with an accent that I don’t have time to place.

Cade stops what he’s doing and moves around to my side. He’s breathing heavily and he looks utterly terrified. He places a hand on my shoulder protectively, but doesn’t look at me.

That’s when I see a figure cloaked in shadows. They stand in the corner where there’s no moon to light them up. The person is tall and muscular, that I can tell. “Step away from the girl, will you please.” The voice instructs in an even tone.

Cade instantly does what he’s told. His hand leaves my shoulder and he takes a step back. My vision snaps from the figure to my friend, pleading for him to tell me what’s going on. It must be one of Keera’s wolves. One that’s been sent here without Jax knowing to kill me. But what wolf has the power to scare Cade in submission like this?

“Who are you?” I ask, mustering all the strength I have left to sound strong.

The man laughs, one that oddly sounds familiar in a way. “No one you know, darling.”

“What are you doing here?” Cade’s voice shakes as he asks the man.

“I think you know the answer to that.” The figure’s eyes glow a bright red then. “Why is the girl handcuffed to a chair?”

Cade doesn’t answer, but his eyes flick to me for a moment.

“I will only ask one more time.” He warns. “Why is the girl handcuffed?”

“So, she won’t escape.” Cade answers.

“Yes, I can see that. Where would she escape to?”

“The alpha meeting.” Cade gulps.

“Is that so?” The man is silent for a moment. “That’s no place for a girl like you.”

“Like me?” Could he know what I really was?

“Someone of your blood.” So, he did know what I was. Who was this guy? “Why would you want to go to such a meeting anyway, darling?”

“Keera wants me dead.” I tell him.

He laughs again. “It would seem so.”

“Who are you?” I demand again.

That’s when he steps out of the shadows and my heart stops beating all together.

Dane.

The werewolf that my mother had once been in love with.

The ruthless alpha.

Jax’s father.

Dane stands before me now. He doesn’t look much different than the photo I saw him in. His dark hair is shorter now. I can see the striking resemblance between him and Jax. But this man standing before me is all cold emotion and exudes power.

“Do you know who I am, Kanin Abbott?” He asks me, stepping so close that I try to move away from him, but I’m stuck.

I nod, but can’t find my voice.

“Good.” His powerful eyes search my features. “You look so much like the women I loved.”

My mother. The women who’d left him for a human. He’d tried to exile my mother, but she’d ran instead. She hadn’t lasted long after that though. She was murdered by another werewolf when I was five.

He leans down close to my face and sniffs, “Looks like you inherited Corrine’s wolf as well.” I hated the way he said my mother’s name.

“Don’t talk about her.” I snapped.

“Why?” He asked. “I knew her long before you were born.”

“You need to leave, Dane.” Cade ordered.

“And who are you to give me orders, boy?” Dane laughed in my friends face like he was pathetic for suggesting that he could order him around. Dane had a point though. Dane had once been Cade’s alpha.

Cade lapsed into silence.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, terrified and shaking.

He leans down close to me again, placing one clawed hair on the back of my chair. “I came for my son.”

Jax.

I wondered if Dane had come to take back what was rightfully his: the pack.

Cade gulped.

“But I also came for you, half-breed.” He said.

“Me?”

He nods slowly, “Keera isn’t the only one that wants you dead.”

In a flash, Cade throws himself at the former alpha. Dane is knocked off his feet. The two hit the floor and keep rolling. I pull once again against my restraints, harder this time. For a moment, I think I feel them give some. I keep pulling.

“You’ve got some nerve, boy!” Dane yells as he slashes out with dangerous claws at the other werewolf.

I keep trying to break free. Dane can kill Cade easily; this I know to be true. If I stay locked to this chair, we’ll both be dead. I yell, throwing my body forward to try and break the wooden back of the chair. It does no good.

Suddenly, I hear bones cracking. I curse under my breath. In seconds, I’m no longer staring at two men fighting. Cade is the first to shift into his massive brown wolf. He growls as he stands before Dane. The former alpha laughs and then he follows suit. His shift is quicker and less of his bones seem to break.

Dane’s wolf resembles Jax’s a lot. But I’ve never see a wolf quite as big as Dane’s. The house and Cade look frightfully small around him. Dane bears his canine teeth and growls back at the younger wolf, both ignoring me for the moment. Maybe that was a good thing. It gave me time to break free.

I pulled harder against the restraints. If I could break my thumbs, I could get my hands through the cuffs. It was gruesome, but right now I didn’t care. I pulled and pulled, but nothing was working.

I watched the two wolfs tangle together on the floor and disappear down the hallway. I heard them crashing against the walls. The house rumbled and shook around us. There was a sudden howl and then everything went quiet.

I stopped moving and listened. I couldn’t pick up any heartbeats, only my own. “Cade?” I called, but there was no answer.

I heard a set of footsteps and Dane stepped back into the room. He shook out his hands and his claws disappeared. His red eyes melted away into a pair of empty blue ones. The corner of his mouth was bleeding. He reached up and wiped the thin trail of blood away. He cracked his neck and then brought a chair over in front of mine.

“Where’s Cade?” I whimpered.

Dane took a seat in front of me, “Don’t worry about him right now.”

My lip trembled and my eyes darted to the dark hallway.

“Look at me, half-breed.” The wolf demanded.

I did as he said, my body shaking as my eyes settled on him again. “Just kill me.”

“Don’t you want to know why I want to kill you in the first place?” He smiled.

“Does it matter?”

He laughed, “I guess it doesn’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Ready for this?” He cocked his head to the side and smiled. I couldn’t help but to notice how much his smile looked like Jax’s and it made me sick. ”I killed Corrine Abbott.”

I gasped and then started screaming. I lunged forward, trying to get to him, but the cuffs wouldn’t budge. Profanities came out of my mouth, but they didn’t affect the alpha at all. He laughed in my face.

“That’s it, half-breed, get angry!” He yelled back at me.

“How could you!” I screamed. “You loved her!” I could barely see the man sitting in front of me through my tears. The world seemed hazy around me. Everything was cold.

“Yes, yes, I did. I once loved Corrine with everything I had.” He sat back away from me. “Then she betrayed me. She decided to love a human!”

“So, you killed her?” I yelled.

“That wasn’t my intention at first, but yes, I killed her.” He explained. “I found her and tried to get her to come home with me. She had the audacity to refuse. Then I saw you.” He searched my face for something. Maybe he was finding all the traits of my mother. “A little half-breed scum. She had a child with that low-life human.” He shook his head and cursed. “That’s when I killed her.”

I couldn’t breathe. “Why didn’t you kill me, too?”

“It was an act of mercy for your mother. I had loved her once.” He informed me. “I thought your father would have some intelligence to keep you away from my kind though.”

“You’re a monster.” I spat.

He ignored me, “But then your father started killing werewolves out of revenge. Soon, he killed my Jamison.” He stopped and his eyes glowed red. “I was wrong not to kill you that night, Kanin Abbott, but I will. Once I kill you, I’ll deposit your body in front of your father. I’ll leave him alive though to live out the rest of his lonely days in misery. That’s the worst form of torture.”

“You monster!” I yell again through tears.

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” He stood to his feet then, pushing his chair away. He stepped behind me, moving my hair away from my neck. He leaned down and breathed me in.

I pulled away from him, “Don’t touch me!”

He stepped to where I could see him again. “How does it feel to finally know who killed your mother?”

I screamed at him. Suddenly, my eyes started burning. I shut them quickly to try and relieve the pain but it stayed. I blinked them open quickly and the pain was gone.

“Oh, what was that?” Dane said, excitedly. He had a bright smile playing at his lips. “Were those red eyes I just saw?”

Red?

Did my eyes just change?

No. They couldn’t have. Jax said they would have already because an alpha triggered a shift.

But Dane was the rightful alpha.

“Oh, you have no clue how powerful you really are, do you half-breed?” He chuckled.

I said nothing, my heart hammering.

He rounded me again. He leaned down close to my ear, “Tell my son I’ll see him soon.”

In a flash, my wrists were free from their restraints. I was at my feet in seconds. Once I was, Dane was gone.