Star Cursed (Zodiac Wolves #2)(31)

“Looks like you’re stuck with me,” I said with a wry grin, as he started the car. This would be the first time we'd spent hours alone since… Well, since the previous full moon. It was hard to not think about what had happened then. “Just the two of us, and this time we have a long journey ahead of us."

"Don't remind me," Kaden said dryly.

"I guess you’ll have to let me drive now, whether you trust me or not.”

He glanced over at me with a raised eyebrow. “Do you even know how to drive?"

"Of course I do," I snapped, but then a wave of sadness washed over me. I looked away, my voice dropping to almost a whisper. "Wesley taught me."

Kaden was quiet after that, letting me sit with my ever-present grief. He understood it, of course. He'd lost his parents to the Leos too.

"You'll have to direct me to the Cancer pack lands," he eventually said, once we were back on the road. "I know they're north of Vancouver on the coast somewhere, but I've never been there myself."

I got the sense he was trying to distract me, but all it did was remind me that I was about to return to my first home, the one that had produced so many bad memories. There were some good memories too, of course, but many of those had been with Wesley, and driving down those same roads would only rub it in that he was gone. I squeezed my eyes shut, dreading what lay ahead of us. "Just drive."





Chapter Fourteen





Despite his earlier skepticism, Kaden stopped after a few hours and traded places with me. I hadn't driven in months, and truthfully hadn't done it much back home either, but it all came back to me once I was in the driver's seat.

It would be about a seven or eight hour drive from Spokane to Vancouver, and the closer we got, the more tightly strung I became. I never thought that once I’d escaped the Cancer pack, I’d want to go back. Everyone in the pack other than Mira and Wesley had made it clear that I'd never belonged there, yet here I was, determined to go back and try to win them over. What was I thinking? When we found them, if we found them, would they even listen to what I had to say? I might have been the alpha’s daughter, but I’d never been treated with respect. Dad had made sure of that. The beta had been just as bad, and he was likely the one running the pack now. Were we making a huge mistake?

"You're very quiet," Kaden said after night fell. He'd been dozing for the last hour, but now his gaze rested upon me and the intensity of it made it hard to focus on driving.

"You're one to talk," I said to the windshield, pointedly staring at the road. Outside, the car's headlights illuminated twisty mountain roads and tall trees. We'd decided to take a more scenic route to avoid Seattle, partly to stay under the radar in case the Leos were looking for us, and partly because I got the feeling Kaden didn't like big cities. "I just have a lot on my mind, okay?"

“Like what?”

I huffed out a breath. “I’m surprised you care.”

“Call it boredom if you want.” Kaden stretched his legs out in front of him, and I tried not to notice, even in my periphery. Even though his words sounded casual, as if he didn't care at all, there was something in his voice that made me think he really did care.

I sighed but found myself talking anyway. “I'm dreading going back to the Cancer pack lands and worried about what will happen once we get there. I was never popular among the pack. Okay, that's an understatement. I was the town pariah, the alpha’s mistake, nothing more, and no one ever let me forget that I was half human and an outcast.” I paused as I remembered what I'd learned during my time with the Leos. “Although I guess that's not even true. I know my mother was a Moon Witch now."

"I suspected as much. How do you know for sure?"

“When I was imprisoned by the Leos, the Sun Witches came to interrogate me. They cast this spell that made something come out of me, some sort of light that convinced them I was a Moon Witch. I guess they’d know, out of anyone.”

"I told you that weeks ago." A smirk crossed his handsome face. “It's nice to know I was right.”

“Like your ego needs any more boosting. I’m surprised it can fit in the fucking car.”

“What was that?” Kaden asked, tilting his head toward me, though I knew he’d heard me perfectly. “Surely you weren’t talking shit about your alpha.”

"Oh, so you admit I'm still in your pack then? Not a Leo?"

"Perhaps." He fell silent for some time, but then his eyes were upon me again—I felt their smolder even without looking. "Tell me what the Leos did to you."

His sudden change in topic surprised me, along with the darkness in his voice. I hesitated, not sure if I wanted to tell him everything that had happened to me. Hell, I wasn't sure I was ready to say it out loud. I would have preferred to talk to someone like Stella, but I wouldn’t be seeing her for who knew how long. Kaden would have to do, even though he gave about as much emotional comfort as a cactus.

"At first, they kept me locked up in a cell, much like you did. I was in there for longer though, and there were no windows, and two guards posted at all times. The only way I could tell time had passed was by noticing when my guards changed shifts." My lips were dry and I licked them before continuing, wondering where I'd put that lip gloss. "Jordan came to see me now and then. He told me he wanted me as his mate, that now that he was the alpha things would be different, and that he wanted me to be the queen to his king. I told him to go fuck himself."