Kit’s POV

It takes everything in me not to bang my head against the window that my forehead is leaning against in the front seat of the luxury SUV that I have spent the last four miserable hours inside of. Four, painfully awkward hours of Cami and Jody groping each other in the backseat, making gross wet noises while sucking faces.

Not helped by Colin, every once in a while, trying to initiate conversation to distract us from the make out session behind us.

Unsuccessfully, I might add.

Because I have nothing to talk to Colin Anderson about.

I have nothing that I want to talk about with anyone from the stupid High Peaks pack.

Damn them all.

Scrunching up my nose, I resist the urge to cover my ears as I hear Jody murmur, “you’re so hot”, to my sister for the millionth time.

This is hell.

“Oh, thank god, we’re here.”

Colin looks as relieved as I feel as he pulls into a long, circular driveway in front of the same packhouse that I used to spend hours a day cleaning.

Fuck. Am I going to have to clean it again?

Surely not?

With my sister being the Beta’s mate, won’t that be enough to earn my keep?

Not that I plan on staying here.

Especially not in the same house as…well…that one guy who I don’t even want to think his name.

“Get out of the damn car, you two! Go get a room already.”

Colin waves his arms at the two of them to exit and they untangle themselves from each other long enough to scoot out, then instantly reattach to each other.

Shaking my head, I shut the passenger door and lean my back against it to steady myself.

His scent is everywhere.

It’s strong.

And it still has the same stupid effect on me.

“Kit, are you okay?”

Cami turns her head against Jody’s chest to look at me, her eyes out of focus as his hands roam over her back, cupping her bottom as he nibbles on her ear.

“Fan-fucking-tastic.”

“Mmm…good.”

She closes her eyes and Jody literally sweeps her off her feet and practically runs with her in his arms inside of the house.

Don’t worry about me! I’m totally good.

Sighing, I catch Colin’s eye.

He makes an exaggerated grossed out face in the direction that Cami and Jody went, and I give a weak, reluctant laugh.

“Weird seeing him like that. He’s usually really reserved.”

“Yeah, Cami’s never been one for PDA either.”

“Apparently that’s what the mate bond does to you, I wouldn’t know.”

He shrugs, then makes a horrified face.

“Oh shit! I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine.”

I push off the car and wrap my arms around myself.

The only thing worse than getting rejected, is everyone pitying me over it.

Well…maybe that’s not so much worse, just a really, really sucky bonus.

Tucking my loose hairs behind my ears, I lift my shoulders.

“Now what?”

“Um…let me show you to your room.”

Colin points at the pack house, but I shake my head.

“Yeah, I’m not staying in there.”

Colin frowns.

“But Alpha Tate…”

A shiver runs down my spine.

“I mean…don’t you want to be with your sister?”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Because she’ll be in a room with me.”

Colin picks up on my sarcasm and scratches his neck.

“Well, the problem is, that we really don’t have an extra space for you anywhere else. We’re expanding, but the only place where you could have your own space would be in the packhouse. For now, anyway.”

I turn in a circle, as if trying to find some random bed that I can point to and claim as mine.

“Is there a nearby hotel?”

Colin grins and shakes his head.

“Nah. I think you just have to stay here. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. It’s a nice place and you’ll have a big room in the Beta wing.”

“I’m familiar with the place.”

I mumble as I begrudgingly follow Colin up the front porch steps. Noticing as I do that the handrails look freshly painted.

Colin notices me looking at it.

“We’ve been doing some renovations since Alpha Tate took over and our pack expanded. How long has it been since you left?”

“Seven years.”

“A lot has changed since then.”

I make a non-committal grunt at this.

Colin steps in front of me, his hand on the doorknob.

“It’s true. For one, I’m not as big of an obnoxious asshole as I was in high school.”

I can’t resist grinning guiltily at this.

“Yeah, I know that’s what you’ve been thinking. You wouldn’t be the first person to have called me out for it.”

He winks and pushes the door open.

When I step through, my hands fall to my side as I look around.

It doesn’t even look like the same place.

“Like I said, we have done a lot of renovations. You couldn’t tell from the front, but we even expanded the back out quite a bit.”

Colin gestures in front of him and I look in the direction of the long hallway in front of us.

“Nice.”

“I even stay in here now. I became a healer like my dad.”

I nod.

Of course, he did.

“Since we renovated, the Beta Hall is on the second floor now.”

The moment my foot lands on the bottom stair, a wave of nausea almost makes me fall over.

His scent is so heavy right now.

As if he was just here.

Colin stops on the stairs above me and looks at me in concern.

“You alright down there?”

I nod and clutch my stomach, still feeling sick.

Colin hurries back down the stairs and reaches out his hand, hesitating slightly, moving his hand up and down as if uncertain where to put it, before wrapping it decisively around my elbow.

“Come on. I think I know what’s happening to you. Once you get to your room, it won’t be so bad. He never goes down that hall.”

Giving him a tight smile of appreciation, I let him help me up the stairs and we turn left, the painful scent fading the further we move down the hallway.

“See. Better?”

I nod as I remove my arm from around my stomach, his own hand dropping from my elbow as I do.

Feeling embarrassed, I tuck my hair behind my ears again and look around before continuing down the hall.

“This looks great. Like what they’ve done with the place.”

Colin follows my gaze.

“Yeah. It was Sarah’s doing. She really took to interior design.”

My step falters and I massage my suddenly thick throat at the mention of her name.

Sarah.

The other name I never want to say, hear, or even think.

The blonde who Tate picked over me, his own mate.

Colin looks guilty again.

“Oh, fuck. Sorry…I keep putting my foot in my mouth.”

“It’s fine. Seriously. No worries.”

Colin looks unsure as he leans against a door.

“Still…sorry. Anyway, here’s your room.”

He pats the door behind him and steps aside.

“I’ll give you some space. Um, you got a phone on you?”

I eye him suspiciously.

“Yes…”

He grins.

“I was going to put my number in there in case you needed anything. Or you know, didn’t want to be alone.”

Raising my eyebrows at him, I still feel suspicious as I pull my phone out of the front pocket of my old, frayed jean shorts and hand it to him.

He puts his number in it, and hands it back to me.

“I texted myself so I would have yours as well.”

“Okay.”

I take it back and pull it close, not sure what to say.

“Someone should have your stuff here by tonight. In the meantime, someone has already stocked your room with some essentials. Training is twice a day-”

“Wait. Training? I’m not staying. So, I don’t think I should be a part of training.”

And I haven’t trained in seven years.

I mean, Cami dragged me to all her stupid kick-boxing classes, spin, and pilates to keep in shape after we left, but there is no way I am up to the werewolf training standard.

And I am not about to embarrass myself in front of all these people who watched me get rejected by their Alpha in such a painful public fashion.

“Oh. Well. Okay. I will…let Alpha Tate know. Normally Jody would deal with that, but he’s going to be pretty distracted for a while, I’m thinking.”

He grins and I force a half grin back, eager to get inside my room and be alone.

“Great. Thanks, Colin.”

I reach for the doorknob and start to push the door open.

“Oh, one more thing that you might want to know.”

I look over at Colin who is wearing this forced casual expression.

“Sarah left. A year ago. Mated with a human, an accountant I think, and moved to the city with him.”

With that information bomb, Colin lifts his hand in a wave before putting it in his jeans pocket and striding down the hall while I stare at his back, an odd numbness creeping over me.