Hell Hound

Chapter Ten

Chapter ten.

Nick was angry, his wolf was angry. His fist slammed into the punching bag. Thoughts of Kiara flooding his mind. Juvenile, she had said. That’s right. Kiara wasn’t even considered a full adult yet. He was ten years her senior and high up in the Scarlett River hierarchy. While she was only just finding hers, at the bottom of Rising Moon. But Nick had seen her face. He knew it was more than that. Kiara didn’t think she was good enough. He had seen the way her pack mates had treated her. There was something seriously wrong inside the Rising Moon pack. His fist struck out again and the bag swung wildly. And Nick was determined to get to the bottom of it.

To Kiara’s utter disappointment Nick was the trainer taking her group Monday afternoon. To make things even worse they were with the twins’ group too. Kiara felt a stab in her chest every time she looked at Nick. Her wolf was furious with her. It wanted to march right up to him and claim him. But she couldn’t. Kiara just hoped no one else could smell his scent on her. She had tried to wash it away, twice, and her hair was out so it would cover the bite mark on her shoulder. Nick hadn’t bothered to cover her own mark on his skin. It was right there, peaking out of his tank for all to see. He was still angry. She could see it in the tension of his jaw and the narrowing of his eyes. She got the impression that Nick hadn’t experienced rejection very often. Kiara wished she could be anywhere but there.

“What’s wrong?” Lilly asked. Noticing Kiara’s dark mood.

“It’s nothing.” Kiara didn’t feel like talking about it. Especially with Sienna, Helena and Dash within earshot.

“Listen up!” Nick began. “This afternoon we’re going to be running the forest. No games, no objective. Just a free run.” A confused murmur went through the group of juveniles. “Tomorrow is the full moon, and we know all of you would like to run. So today we’re giving your animals a chance to familiarise themselves with the environment. Scarlett River had set up clearly marked boundaries. I suggest you sniff them out and learn them. No one from another pack will be permitted to cross. If you do, your safety can’t be guaranteed. Do you understand?” He waited for nods and murmurs of agreement before continuing. “Okay. Change form, all of you, and off you go.” Everyone but Kiara and Terra stood up and started removing their clothes.

“I’d rather not.” Terra said. “Spiders don’t run on full moons. We build webs and nest for the night.” Nick’s eyebrows shot up. He did not know that.

“What about you?” He asked Kiara. “Aren’t you going to run tomorrow.”

“No.” She said. “I won’t be shifting.”

“Bull shit.” It came out harsher than he Had intended. “I don’t know how things are done in Rising Moon, but here, everyone gets to run.” Kiara rose to her feet, squaring off with him. Everyone had paused to watch the sudden confrontation.

“I’m. Not. Running.”

“She’s latent!” Connor called. Choosing the worst possible time to open his mouth, as usual. People laughed. Kiara broke eye contact with Nick. Not wanting him to see the wolf that was shining in her eyes. Or the humiliated blush colouring her cheeks.

“Or a bear.” Sienna shrugged.

“She’s not a bear.” Lilly rolled her eyes. She would know if Kiara smelled like a bear. The juveniles who still had human mouths continued to whisper. Nick stared at Kiara waiting for her to tell him that it wasn’t true. Latent? Was that the reason she was treated so poorly by her pack? And why she had tried to push him away? Kiara is wolf was raging to get out. She couldn’t stay there any longer. She wrapped her arms around her to hide the claws that had started pushing through her fingertips, and walked away from the group quickly. Kiara was used to the whispers and the teasing. But the look on Nick’s face was what did it. Shock and confusion. It just highlighted why she couldn’t see him anymore. Kiara wouldn’t, no couldn’t, tell him the truth about herself. Nick watched Kiara jogging away. He wanted to go after her. But he honestly didn’t know what to say and he had a bunch of juveniles to punish.

“That’s enough!” He snapped, silencing them all. Anger colouring his words. “Having a trapped animal is nothing to snicker at. Imagine if it was you? Could any one of you handle something like that?” Ashamed faces refused to look at him. Latency was rare. It referred to shifters that couldn’t shift. Their animals were trapped inside their human skin slowly being driven mad. Animals needed to run. No one knew why it happened. Or how to cure it. It was just another in a long line of curses that plagued their kind. “I want fifty laps of this field from each of you before you even step foot inside that forest.” Some groaned. “I can make it a hundred.” As they started their laps Nick noticed one of the Blake twins hanging back. “You too.” Helena hadn’t laughed at Kiara. But she also hadn’t spoken up to defend her.

“Kiara’s not latent.” She said when the others were all out of ear shot. “A few days before we came here, my dad took her out to the edge of our territory to run.” She paused, unsure of how much she should say. But Helena had seen the bites. She knew her cousin’s scent and she had picked up another barely clinging to Kiara’s skin. Helena wasn’t stupid. She could tell something had happened between them. It was obvious in the way Kiara had reacted to him. “I snuck out to meet up with my boyfriend Luca who was running patrols. I heard Kiara howl.” She admitted. “Only a wolf howls like that.” Helena could see the confusion on Nicks face. “There are rumours that her father wasn’t a wolf. That he was some other kind of shifter. I think that maybe the reason none of us have ever seen her wolf is because something is wrong with her.” The others were starting to come back, having completed their first lap. Helena joined them, leaving Nick to think over what she had just told him. There was an old superstition that when two different species of shifter mated, the cubs would be born deformed. Nick had never believed it was true. Just left-over prejudice from the old days. But after what Helena had said, he was starting to wonder. He needed to find Kiara.

Kiara jogged through the hotel. Her eyes and hands were back to normal, but her emotions were still a raging storm inside of her. She had never felt so humiliated. Kiara needed comfort. Normally when she was like this she would go to Silver, but her uncle was back home at the den. So, Kiara went and found the next best thing. Malachi. She tracked him to the gym. All the juveniles were heading out to run and he was taking advantage of the empty space. He was sparing with a woman Kiara didn’t recognise. But when an upset Kiara threw herself at Mal, Jules stepped back. She stepped away gracefully, leaving him to deal with the tearful juvenile. “What happened?” He asked the girl with her arms around his middle. Kiara shook her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. She just wanted physical contact with someone she trusted. And oddly enough, she really did trust Mal. No matter how scary his glare could be. “You get thirty seconds.” He told her. Thirty seconds to cry before she needed to pull herself together. Kiara’s sobs came loud and ragged.

When Nick found Kiara again, she was in the arms of another man. Sobs shook her body as Mal held her. A streak of jealousy stung him. Nick wanted to be the one Kiara came to for comfort. He was fighting his wolf not to go to her when Mal said something to Kiara. He stroked her hair and she looked up at him nodding. The sobbing had stopped. Kiara wiped away her tears and stepped out of his hold. Nick watched Kiara leave the room. Mal had seen him and was waiting for the questions to come. If anyone could answer Nick’s questions, it would be him.

“Her wolf…?” Nick began.

“I can’t tell you.” Mal interrupted. Piercing Nick with his icy blue stare. “But I can tell you to leave that girl alone.” He hadn’t missed the faint smell of Nick on her. “Kiara has enough to deal with in her life without you showing up to confuse her.” Fight him, Nick’s wolf urged.

“I think she can make her own decisions.” Nick argued.

“Not in this. Kiara is still a cub, and you need to back off.”

“A cub that’s alienated and bullied by her peers. Is that how Rising Moon treat those who are different?”

“As opposed to Scarlett River?” Malachi asked. “Your father kills what he doesn’t like. He would have killed Kiara the second, she was born. He still might.” Nick’s anger faulted. Malachi was right. Marcus was cruel and vicious. He had killed members of their pack for simply disagreeing with him. He definitely wouldn’t tolerate a deformed wolf.

“I’m not my father.” He growled.