Forever in the Past and Forever in the Future
Chapter 61

Kas's POV

Coffee and dark chocolate. Mochaccino. I smell it before I open my eyes. Bronx. My mate. He came home. He asked me not to leave. I have a pounding headache from crying but I feel myself being calmed by his scent. I clutch his shirt tight and pull it closer to my nose breathing in deeply. I feel his hand gently rubbing my back.

"You awake, Baby?" I hear his rough voice from outside the cocoon he has me wrapped in. Inod my head and he opens up his large arms, so he can look at me.

"You ready to talk?" He asks gently, as he brushes my bangs out of my eyes.

"I don't know," I tell him honestly, "I don't want to cry anymore."

Bronx sighs deeply and shakes his head like he's not sure what to say. He rubs his hands on his face before he continues, "Kas, I-I have some confessions to make and I'm sure you're going to be mad but I need to tell you."

"Confessions?" I squeak out.

"Oh my Goddess, is he seriously about to say he has been cheating on us?!" Lex starts to growl, "How did we not smell another she wolf on him?!"

I feel myself stiffen at Lex's revelation, bracing myself for whatever Bronx is about to Say.

"Kas, I intentionally distanced myself from you in hopes you would get upset," he flicks his eye up from the ground to look at me. "What?" No, like seriously, what the fuck? I think I would have rather he told me he was cheating on me, "W-why would you do that, Bronx?"

He doesn't answer my question. His eye darts around, avoiding my glare, as he gulps hard and continues to speak.

"I also ordered the pack members to exclude you from helping around the packhouse," his voice cracks and he clears his throat, "except for Delilah. She has been keeping an eye on you for me."

I slowly stand at the admission. He did this on purpose. He hurt me on purpose. He manipulated the people around me. He

wanted me to feel this way. Hopelessness turns into disbelief turns into pure rage. Lex's and mine combined. That's all I feel. I pull away from Bronx as he desperately tries to hold on to me. Lex is seconds away from taking over and I'm not going to stop her if she does.

"Kas, I can explain. I-" he pleads.

"Explain?! EXPLAIN?!" I shriek. Lex has had enough. She grabs me and roughly yanks me to the back of our mind.

"How dare you, Bronx Mason?" Lex roars in her deep ethereal tone, "HOW DARE YOU HURT MY KAS!" The windows rattle and the floor shakes as her voice booms. Our heart is drumming out of our chest.

"Elexis, please, I-," He suddenly looks very small and very afraid. We shifted without me even realizing it. Lex's voice was now just snarls and barks.

"No Lex, if you hurt Bronx, you hurt Saint too! Please don't hurt our mate!" I plead with her, trying to pull on her consciousness, "just leave. Please, just leave. That is what we planned to do anyway."

I hear the door to the apartment crash open and James comes running in to see what the commotion is. He stops in his tracks when he sees Lex, nearly feral, towering over Bronx. Lex doesn't answer me, she just howls and charges full speed out the bay window. Breaking it into a million pieces as she crashes through. She lands easily from the third story, running without a break in her stride, straight into the woods. I can hear the thundering paws of Saint behind us, along with at least two or three others, presumably James and Marco right behind him. Lex is bigger and stronger than all of them and she hasn't been allowed out in weeks, so she has energy to burn. The further we run, the farther back the chasing paws sound until I can't hear them at all.

The snow is falling heavily now. I'm glad we are in wolf form because Lex's fur is the only thing keeping us warm. She is deep into the woods and night is quickly falling and so is the temperature.

"Lex, if you're not going back, you need to at least replace shelter. It's going to be subzero temperatures soon. Your paws will get frostbite," I tried to reason with her.

She still won't answer me. I can feel she's in full primal mode. I'm not sure she could answer me if she wanted to right now, but she does slow to a walk to get her bearings. Her breath visible even in the darkness. The woods are thick in this part of the territory. We can hear Blood River in the distance, off to the right. Other than that, no familiar sights or scents can be found. We can't hear any wolves around us either, which seems to be satisfactory to her. There's a path off to the left, she sniffs then follows it up a hill. At the top, there is a little cabin. She sniffs the air again. It seems to be abandoned.

Lex throws her body against the flimsy door and easily knocks it down. The crashing sound quickly fades in the silence of the night. We walk inside and look around. The inside of the cabin is a big open room. A thick layer of dust covers everything. No one has been here in a long time. There's a small bed in the corner, covered in quilts and sheepskins. She stands in front of the bed and finally lets us shift back into my human form. Which is great and all, but it is negative degrees outside and I'm freaking naked. I rummage through a trunk next to the bed and replace mens pants and sweaters. I layer on clothes that are way too big on me and crawl under the bedding.

I'm finally starting to get some warmth in my body when I hear rustling from outside. I smell a familiar wolf's scent. It can't be. It just can't. I have to see with my own eyes. I quietly creep out from under the covers and peek out the corner of the window to see if I can see the owner of the scent. As soon as I see the cold grey eyes of the gray wolf, I know instantly. It's Dagger. Ryan's wolf. I drop down and cover my mouth as gasp, but it's too late. He must have followed my scent, that's the only way he could know I'm here. How did he get on pack territory undetected?

Shit.

"Lex, we need to shift," I start peeling off layers of clothes until I'm only wearing a flannel button-up shirt.

No answer. I can feel her, but I think she is still coming down from whatever anger- fueled high that drove her to run in the first place. Looks like there's no shifting right now. Okay. Think, Kas.

I weigh my options. It's too dangerous to try to let him get close enough to burn him. I can't stop time without Lex's help. It's just me right now. I need to protect myself, the way James and Marco taught me at the coven. 'Anything can be a weapon,' James' words ring in my mind. Looking around, the only thing I see I can use as a weapon is a frying pan. It will have to do. I sprint to the kitchen and grab it. I turn around to see Dagger stalking slowly through the door with a low growl. His head is lowered and eyes honed in on me. I hold the pan like a tennis racket with both hands in front of me. Finally, I feel the itchiness of fur starting to sprout.

"Come on you son of a bitch. I'm not the weak wolf you once knew," I scream as he circles around me, "COME AT ME,

ASSHOLE!" I scream, challenging him again. I don't have to ask again. I have kicked the hornet's nest that is Dagger. He lunges his huge body at me. I swing the frying pan with all my might. I feel the pan connect with the side of his face. There is a hard metal thud as the pan vibrates from the contact, knocking his momentum to the side. It's just enough to give me a chance to run past him out of the front door. As I run, Lex finally shifts, shredding the flannel shirt I was wearing and we are back in her form. She isn't in full control though, I'm leading her which is an odd sensation.

I'm not as sure footed as she is, as we scramble recklessly down the hill backtracking in her original path. When we get to the point where the path ends, she trips, tumbling toward the sound of the water. She catches her footing and looks back. Dagger is charging down the hill toward us. I get that deja vu feeling again as I urge her to run away from him with everything we have. She stumbles and starts running blindly toward the edge of the ravine. I can feel Dagger snapping at our ankles but we're just out of his reach. °

I realize after a moment he is not directly behind me, I look around and see him running off to the left. I look forward and realize we're about to either hit a tree or fall off the cliff. We skid to a stop and face Dagger. I have to try to reason with him, it's my only chance of survival. I shift back into human form to try to plead with him.

"Dagger, Ryan. Please shift. We can talk this through. Please," I beg the giant gray wolf. He puts his head to the ground and a large lasso slides off his neck. I look down to see i tisn't a lasso at all. It's his father's whip. The one he tortured me with for so many years and the one Ryan's perverted ass said he wanted to beat me with. I can still smell the concentrated wolfsbane coming from it. If I don't die on this mountain tonight, I will live the rest of my life being tortured in a dungeon and I have no one to blame but my self.