Kanin

Everything started coming back to me in waves. First it was smell: lavender and almost something woodsy. Then it was hearing: the sound of my own heartbeat. Next it was the feeling of soft sheets underneath me. When my eyes peeled open, everything was a blur. I closed them again, sucking in a deep breath.

What happened?

I tried to open my eyes again, this time everything was slightly more in focus. I was in a small room. It was barren of any furniture besides the bed I was lying on and a small dresser in the corner. There was a window beside me, overlooking woods and nothing else.

This wasn’t my room. This wasn’t even my house.

Where was I?

I sat up quickly, too quickly. My head spun and for a moment I thought I would puke. I reached up and placed a hand on the wall to steady myself. I was suddenly very aware of my pain. My head was throbbing and so was my forearm.

“What the crap?” My voice sounded hoarse coming from my throat, like I hadn’t used it in a while.

How long had I been here?

I reached up to place a hand to my throbbing temple and noticed the gauze wrapped around my arm. So that’s where the pain was coming from. I drug myself to my feet, swaying as I did so. I held my injured arm to my chest and stepped away from the bed. The room hadn’t stopped spinning yet and my head throbbed worse with each movement. I finally reached the door knob. It was unlocked. Stepping into the hallway, my eyes skirted around quickly. I was on a balcony overlooking a living room. It was silent and empty.

Suddenly, I was no longer alone. I picked up on the sound of someone’s quiet footsteps behind me. I spun around quickly, my injured arm swung around to defend myself. Someone caught me lightly, as if they knew I was injured. I brought my leg up, kicking the person in the side. My vision was swimming from the sudden movement, so I couldn’t see anything.

“Hey!” An almost familiar voice yelled. “Calm down!”

I stopped attacking and let my vision clear. I was staring at a tall boy with bright blonde hair and pretty hazel eyes. He smiled, showing a chip in one of his pearly white teeth. “Feisty one, aren’t you?”

“Who are you?” I tried to pull myself away from him and he willingly let me go. I had to grip the banister to keep from falling over. Everything was still spinning like a top.

“I’m Cade. And you’re Kanin Abbott.” The stranger said before me, cautiously.

I narrowed my eyes at him, “how do you know who I am?”

“You’re very popular, Ms. Abbott.” He crossed his wide arms over his broad chest.

“Is that so?” I questioned.

He only nodded.

“Who am I popular amongst exactly?”

“A lot of the wrong people.”

“What do you mean by that?”

There was a moment of silence between the two of us. Cade didn’t offer me anything. I could tell I wasn’t getting any more out of him either.

“Where’s my father?” I demanded, forgetting for the moment about what he had just said.

“Don’t worry, he can’t find you here.” He said that as if I should feel relieved by it.

That made me angry. “I want him to find me!”

Cade looked at me strangely for a moment, almost in shock. “He won’t come here.”

“Yes, he will!”

“No, he won’t, Kanin.”

“Excuse me, but you don’t know him! He’d do anything to keep me safe!” I yelled, sudden tears welling in my eyes.

“He won’t come here, Kanin. Trust me.”

“Why would I trust you?”

He stepped close to me, as if challenging me. If I moved at all, parts of me would brush against parts of him. “You have no choice.”

I held firm, “I always have a choice.”

Cade chuckled. For a moment I caught myself thinking how nice the sound was, but I quickly shook it away. “Not this time, Princess.”

What did he mean by that?

Princess? I wasn’t a child.

“Don’t call me that.” I snapped.

A smile peeked from the corner of his lips, “whatever you say, Princess."

“Tell me what you want.”

"Blood for blood.” He said quietly.

Why it hadn’t occurred to me until then, I wasn’t sure. Suddenly, the memories came flooding back. A black wolf had jumped in front of my car. He’d tackled me to the ground. Then there was another wolf, a brown one. That one had wanted to kill me, but for some reason the black wolf had stopped him.

This probably couldn’t get any worse.

“Now do you understand why your father won’t come here?” Cade asked.

"Werewolves.” I let out a breath.

“That’s right, Princess. That’s why you have no choice.”

Crap.

“Are you going to kill me?” I whimpered. My grip tightened on the banister.

“Lucky for you, not right now.” He said with a smile, one that never seemed to leave his face. “Sorry for the arm, by the way.”

He was the brown wolf?

“You tried to kill me!” I yelled.

“Sorry about that, sometimes it’s tough to control the wolf. He wants what he wants.”

I didn’t ask questions, but I had so many. Why was he talking like he and the brown wolf weren’t one in the same? More importantly, why wasn’t I dead?

“What does that even mean? Blood for blood?” I questioned.

“You really don’t know anything, do you?” He crossed his arms over his chest once more, staring me down with those beautiful hazel eyes. I could see the wolfish glint in them standing this close, the monster he was trying to contain.

“I just found out about you a few days ago.” I told him. “Someone broke into my house and wanted to kill me.”

“They weren’t going to kill you.” He corrected.

“Um, yes, he wanted to kill me. You weren’t even there, how would you know?”

“He was one of us.” Cade tried to explain. “He wasn’t there to kill you.”

This just kept getting better and better.

“What do you mean ‘one of us’?”

He scoffed, “Geez, you really are oblivious.”

“How would I know anything about any of this?” I yelled.

He stared at me for a moment, his jaw clenched together. He wanted to say something, but was unsure of whether to open his mouth or not. I could see the gears turning in his head.

“Just let me go.” I pleaded.

“No can do, Princess.”

I wanted to punch him. My fist curled at my side. My eye twitched with anger. I couldn’t contain it any longer. I swung, taking him off guard. My first connected with his jaw. Once it hit, we both cursed. I held my fist against the pain. “What are you made of? Steel!”

Cade was holding his jaw, but a smile crossed his face. He laughed, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth, but there wasn’t any blood. “You’ve got a wicked right hook.”

“Cade, stop playing with our food.” Another voice rounded the corner. I spun around to look at a tall man. He was built like a truck, almost literally. His biceps were probably the size of my head. His chest was flat and broad. He had a shaved head and dark eyes. He was definitely scary.

Wait, food?

Cade must have noticed my face, because he quickly spoke. “Trent’s kidding.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better.” I was suddenly very claustrophobic. There were too many wolves around me. There shouldn’t have been any.

How had I gotten myself into this mess?

“Seriously, someone tell me why I’m here right now!” I insisted. I was about to cry. It wasn’t because of the fear, yes I was afraid but I wasn’t going to cry about it. I was so angry that tears threatened to spill over.

“There are a lot of reasons why you are here, Kanin.” The big guy, Trent, said to me. “But I don’t think it’s wise to tell you just yet.”

“Let me get this straight: you attacked me, kidnapped me, but won’t tell me why?” I scoffed. “Oh, that’s cool.”

“In time, you will understand.” Trent said cryptically.

I rolled my eyes, “I could call the cops!”

“But you won’t.” Cade laughed.

“Want to bet?” I crossed my arms over my chest firmly.

Cade stepped closer again, backing me against the banister. “You don’t want the police digging around into your past, or your family secrets. You won’t call them.”

“What are you even talking about?” I yelled. “I don’t have a family secret! And nothing happened in my past.” But then my mother’s face flashed through my mind. They couldn’t be talking about her, could they?

“Think about it, Princess. You might not think you know, but you do.” Cade looked back at Trent and then down to me again. I felt very small.

I said nothing, just sucked in a deep breath. I didn’t like where this was going. I didn’t like what they were insinuating. My mother had nothing to do with this.

She couldn’t.

“Are you ready for the grand tour?” Trent asked me, changing the subject quickly.

“Tour of what?”

“The house, dummy.” Cade pushed my shoulder playfully and then hooked his arm through mine. He led me down the wooden steps. We stepped now into a living room. It was lined in bay windows, overlooking the forest. There was a huge TV mounted on the far wall. A leather sofa sat on a dark rug. The whole place looked like it was straight out of a home magazine.

I was led through a long hallway, past a formal dining room, several closed doors, and into the kitchen. I wasn’t a cook by any means, but I instantly wanted to spend my time in this room. It was covered in dark wood, stainless steel, and granite counter tops. It was every chefs dream.

“Whose place is this?” I asked, impressed.

“Alpha’s.” Trent answered vaguely.

“Alpha? That’s like the leader of a wolf pack, right?” I questioned. “Your leader?”

Cade laughed, “he likes to think he is.”

Trent eyed Cade suspiciously, “he is our leader.”

Cade crossed his arms angrily, “whatever.”

“So who is this alpha guy anyway?” I ran my finger over the counter top. “He gives you orders right? So he must be the one who ordered you to take me.” Neither of them answered, but I knew I was right. “Take me to him. I want to know why you kidnapped me. Which is against the law, may I remind you.”

“Oh, we know. You won’t stop mentioning it.” Cade groaned.

“I think it’s time, Cade.” Trent said quietly.

Cade nodded and then motioned me to follow him. I was led back up the stairs and down the hallway. Their alpha had been here all along? Right down the hallway? Hadn’t he heard me before?

I didn’t say anything as we stopped before a door at the very end of the hallway. I couldn’t hear anything but the hammering of my heart in my chest. I was scared. If Trent was only a werewolf, I was afraid of what their alpha might look like.

Cade knocked once and then pulled open the door. I was pushed inside. My eyes skirted around. I noticed the bookshelves lining the left wall. There was a comfortable looking chair and a small table in front of the shelves.

I didn’t have time to take in anything else. All of a sudden a knife came hurtling towards me. I didn’t have time to scream, or react at all. It blew past my face, nicked my ear, and sunk into the wall mere centimeters from my face.