CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Scarlett
A couple of hours later, I went with Cade to check on Blake.
He looked much better, sitting on one of the beds in the medical room. He had sweats on but no shirt and a large bandage covering his stomach. The pale and pained face was gone and he looked a healthy color again. He smiled when he saw us approach.
“How are you feeling?” Cade asked him as he stopped beside the bed.
“Much better,” he answered. “Another day and I’ll be as good as new.”
It was hard to believe he had healed so dramatically in just a few hours.
“Next time you want your ass kicked, I’ll do it,” I offered in a teasing tone as I rocked on the balls of my feet with my hands shoved into the front pockets of my jeans.
He chuckled. Easygoing Blake was so different from Cade. It was sometimes hard to see him as an alpha of his own pack.
“As if,” he scoffed as he gave me a playful look.
The reality was he’d probably kick my butt. I needed to start training with Hank. The sooner I started, the sooner I’d be able to protect myself. I wasn’t going to be seen as a weak girl who couldn’t protect herself.
I wanted to be Cade’s equal. I wondered what type of training they did and how hectic it was; it was probably a lot more intense than anything I’d covered with Gary.
A sound behind me made me turn to see a young woman in a nurse’s outfit. The outfit looked a little tight, I observed, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she was dressed like that to help with the scenery in the sterile environment.
“Probably,” Cade confirmed with a grin when I pulled my gaze back to Blake.
Ah, crap!
I was still getting the hang of keeping my thoughts to myself. There were times when I wasn’t concentrating and some of my thoughts would be open for others to hear.
I playfully glared at Cade like it was his fault for invading my thoughts.
“Hey, it’s not my fault you can’t keep your thoughts to yourself,” he defended as he raised his hands to ward off my glare.
“Still endless entertainment,” commented Blake as he watched the two of us at it. I turned my glare to him as I put my hand on my hip.
He looked from me to Cade before he shook his head and grinned. Half an hour later, we left Blake so he could rest.
Cade and I were both unusually quiet as we walked back to the main house hand-in-hand. I think we were both too busy, still processing the events from the day to try and make small-talk.
By the time we made it back to the house, dinner was ready. When we entered the dining room, Gary, Jake, Hank and a few others were already seated at the table.
As soon as the food was on our plates and we were seated, I watched as Cade began to discuss the events of the day with our pack members. Gary listened intently as I did.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Jake muttered as he shook his head.
We were discussing the attack and trying to figure out how the rogues had worked together to attack us, since according to Cade this wasn’t normal behavior for rogues.
He’d said that rogues were normally loners, although they did sometimes meet up with other rogues. The most rogues he’d ever seen together had been a handful and nothing like the twenty-strong rogues that had attacked them earlier.
“Only twenty attacked us today, but what if there are more?” asked Hank with a grim look.
“We have no way of knowing if they have more than that,” said Cade as he put his knife and fork down and pushed his food away.
I tried to eat but the nervous knot in my stomach was making it difficult, so I did the same with my plate.
“We need to face the possibility that there might be more,” stated Jake as he ran a hand through his hair. He voiced what everyone was thinking but didn’t want to say out loud.
“What happens if there are more of them?” I asked Cade. I’d seen their training setup and I was impressed, but then again, I didn’t know a lot about werewolf fighting.
“We normally only get attacked by a couple of rogues at a time. Everyone is trained so they are able to defend themselves, but we have dedicated fighters who are trained to fight rogues. Rogues don’t normally work together because they don’t like authority. What we experienced today is worrying because we have no idea how someone was able to group together and organize the rogues that attacked us today.”
“Do we have any idea who it could be?” I asked. It was still puzzling why all of these rogues were hell-bent on trying to attack me. I couldn’t think of a single reason why anyone would want to hurt me.
“No,” Cade said as he reached for my hand. This new piece of information about the attack had made him nervous and he seemed to relax as his fingers covered mine. It was a comforting peacefulness that came over us when our skin connected.
The rest of dinner was spent trying to strategize a defense to a hypothetical attack by rogues with larger numbers.
“What about letting the girls fight?” I suggested. Conversation stopped mid-sentence and all eyes swung to me. All but Cade looked at me like I was talking a different language. Cade shook his head at me.
“No way,” he stated vehemently. His eyes warned me off the subject.
“You can’t expect us to just sit here and do nothing while you guys go to fight a battle you might lose because you’re outnumbered.”
I was arguing on behalf of all the girls in the pack, whether they wanted me to or not. Exasperation and anger entered my voice as I argued with them.
“There are other options,” was Cade’s stern reply.
“And what is that?” I asked as I glared at him. Trust him to come up with an alternative to letting girls from the pack fight.
“We could join packs with Blake,” he suggested as he scanned our pack members for their reaction.
Jake seemed to mull the idea over for a moment before he announced, “That could work.”
I was so angry that I’d just been dismissed so easily, I wanted to scream, but instead I said, “Are you guys for real?”
Silence descended as the pack members looked to Cade.
“Like I’ve told you before, it will never happen,” he stated. His eyes darkened with anger as he tightened his hold on my hand.
Trying to discuss it with Cade and our pack members was a waste of time and effort. I’d have to come up with another way to get them to consider it. There had to be a way.
“And like I told you before, I can’t let you go out to fight without me,” I reminded him as I held his angry gaze.
He was the first to pull his gaze away from me and then he began to discuss the effects of joining a pack. It was like he ignored everything I’d just said and carried on with their conversation.
Angry and annoyed, I pulled my hand from his and pushed my chair back. Cade’s eyes swung to mine. I gave him the angriest look I could muster before I turned and stalked out of the dining room before I did something I regretted, like slapping someone and the closest person to me had been Cade.
I’d slapped him once already that week.
On my way upstairs, I hesitated for a moment. I knew Cade would probably want me in his room tonight, but I was so angry I couldn’t be in the same room with him until I calmed down. Instead, I headed to the guest bedroom I’d previously used.
Once I entered the room, I slammed the door closed. There was a key in the door and I locked it. It would give Cade the clear message that he wasn’t welcome in my room.
With that thought, I leaned against the door and let out a frustrated sigh.
One thing that had been nagging me at the back of my mind was the fact that if I mated with Cade, then I would be able to shift and I’d be able to heal more quickly. It would make me stronger and I’d be in a better position to fight.
On one hand, I wanted to be ready before I took that step with him—I didn’t just want to do it just to be able to fight. It wasn’t like I wasn’t attracted to him, I was. He made my heart race and he made my knees weak with just a few kisses. I could just imagine what effect he would have on me with more.
I cared for him and I knew he cared for me. So I had to ask the question: What was keeping me from mating with Cade? Was it the fact that I didn’t want to be pushed into it by outside influences? That I wanted to make the decision on my own?
I let out a sigh when I thought about the whole fighting thing. As determined as I was, Cade seemed to be just as determined to stand his ground on the subject. It was like I was pushing against a brick wall.
If I put my mind to it, the only way he was going to be able to stop me was to keep me physically locked up and, knowing Cade, he wouldn’t hesitate to lock me up if it would keep me from fighting.
I wasn’t sure how long I was asleep for before the banging on the bedroom door vibrated through the room. I lifted my head and scanned the dark room, trying to figure out what was going on as I rubbed my eyes.
Then the banging was accompanied by yelling.
“Goddammit, Scar, open the fucking door!” Cade yelled from the other side of the locked door.
I sat up and glared at the door. I crossed my arms and remained in the bed, refusing to budge.
“If you don’t open the fucking door, I’m going to break it down,” he warned in a deadly tone.
For a few seconds, there was silence, and I got out of the bed and stood up. He wouldn’t really break the door down, would he?
I’d just completed the thought when—with a loud crash and bang—the door gave way and cracked into two, falling with a thud to the floor.
Fuck! He’d broken the door down.
Shocked that he’d actually broken the door down, my eyes met his and our gazes clashed. His eyes narrowed and he glared at me as his chest rose and fell with the anger coursing through him. I took a step backward. To say he was angry would have been the understatement of the year. He was livid.
As much as I wanted to take another step backward, I held my ground stubbornly. I wasn’t going to show him that he intimidated me. It was a good thing I’d remembered to block my thoughts from him, otherwise it would have been a waste of time.
He took a menacing step into the room, his eyes fixed on me as I watched him take another step toward me. Instinct told me to run, but I held firm. His hands clenched into fists at his sides.
“Why did you lock me out?” he asked angrily. I could see that he was trying to control his temper.
“Because you’re being a sexist ass,” I told him truthfully, but my response just seemed to ignite his anger again as he glared at me. He took the few remaining steps between us.
He grabbed my arms and even though he was still so angry with me, the hold around my arms was firm but not painful.
“What are you playing at?” he asked as he searched my face for answers.
“Nothing,” I replied as I tried to pull my arms from his grasp, but he wouldn’t let go. “I just don’t want to be around someone who believes I’m weak because I’m a girl.”
His anger wavered for a moment as his eyes softened.
“It’s not that I believe you’re weak, Scar,” he began to explain to me. “I’m just scared something will happen to you and I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on fighting if I had to worry about you in the fight as well. I just found you and I can’t afford to lose you.”
“And it never crossed your mind that maybe that’s how I feel about you? Maybe the reason I want to be able to fight alongside you is so I can try and protect you, too?”
He was surprised and he stilled for a moment before he pulled me into a hug and kissed my forehead. I relaxed against him despite my anger.
It was just one of those arguments that neither one of us was going to back down from. Arguing about it was only going to lead us around in circles, getting us nowhere.
I glanced down at the broken door lying on the floor. It was still hard to believe he’d actually broken the door.
“Did you have to break the door down?” I asked, feeling my anger begin to rise at the fact that he’d forced his way into the room.
“Well, I had to do something. You wouldn’t let me in,” he explained stiffly as he noticed the angry tone in my voice.
“You didn’t have to go all barbaric.”
“Enough fighting. I’m exhausted, I’ve had a rough day,” he said as he released me, his eyes softening for a moment. It was then that I noticed the visible signs of tiredness in his face.
“Next time don’t break down the door; instead, try apologizing for being an ass,” I suggested.
He let out a sigh and shook his head.
Before I knew what was happening, he had picked me up and carried me out of the room.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, hating the fact that he was manhandling me.
“To my room,” he informed me as he walked to his bedroom. There was no point in struggling because he was stronger than I was. Once he entered his room, he walked over to his bed and dropped me on it. I landed with a bounce and I made a move to climb back off.
“If you move one foot off the bed, I’ll tie you to it,” he threatened as he glared at me.
He’d broken down a door already and I had no doubt that if I tried to move off the bed he would tie me down, so I stayed where I was.
He gave me one last look before he disappeared into the bathroom. I slumped back against the pillows. It would be pointless to try and leave his room because I knew he would just find me and haul me back.
At times he could be so annoying.
He returned dressed in sweats and I glared at him even though the half-naked sight of him made my stomach flip. He ignored my glare and got in the bed on the opposite side.
He pulled me down and into his arms.
“Enough, Scar,” he whispered softly when I struggled against him.
As annoyed as I was, I couldn’t help feeling a little bad that I was fighting with him after everything that had happened earlier. As strong as he was, I could tell he’d taken strain.
So for the moment I decided to ease up and instead snuggled into his arms. He pressed a kiss to my forehead and held me close.
Despite the fact that I was angry with him, I couldn’t help being super aware of how his body molded to mine and I felt an awareness in my body that I’d never felt before.
Ah, crap!
I realized it was going to be harder to keep myself from succumbing to his kisses because my body had a mind of its own. It didn’t matter that I was still angry, because no matter what my mind said, my hormones reveled in the feel of him against me.
I was tired. Instead of sleeping, though, I lay beside him, listening to his steady breath while I fought with my body’s reaction to his. Every brush of skin against skin made me hold my breath.
It was only going to be a matter of time before I gave in to my female urges and had my way with him. I closed my eyes as an image of the two of us getting hot and heavy flashed into my mind. There was no doubt that he knew how to please a girl.
It must have been hours later that I finally drifted off to sleep. But I knew in the morning I’d have to face the problems I’d been wrestling with.
And tomorrow we could argue about the fighting thing again.