Pack Gems by Kuro Kusai, WhiteWolf Aura (free ereaders TXT) 📖

the very wall that had trapped her.

"What are you doing?" Mason's voice was muffled as he spoke against a pillow.

"Sleeping."

"Get on this bed now," He raised his head to peer at her through the darkness.

"No." She replied back, her tone hysterical; after what happened he was lucky she was staying in the same room as him. And that was mostly because if she ran out of the room with her tail between her legs she would need to explain…and she wasn't about to go into specifics.

"If you don't get in here in the next five seconds I'm coming after you."

"Ooo, I'm so scared."

And actually, she was.

The springs of the bed creaked as he sat up, "Five."

"Don't even try it."Her voice was wary as he used her own technique against her.

"Four."

"I'm comfortable here." She tried to make her voice a little more soothing, pleading.

It didn't help as his stoic voice counted, "Three."

"No!" she whispered furiously "After what you just did?? I'm staying here."

"Two, and I'm not going to try anything in bed. I promise."

She heard the smile in his voice."Hell no!"

Hearing the bed dip, she took that as her cue to run.Scrambling on all fours to the door, or anything she could grab really, she heard it.

"One."With that utterance he caught and pulled her right ankle, yanking her towards him and giving her quite the rug burn in the process.

"Shit!" she still managed to whisper as her panicked self thrashed against his hold.

Landing a few hits, she only managed to get a small whoosh of breath out of him.It didn't slow him down.

He proceeded to take the blanket on the bed and wrap it around her body and tie it in a big knot at the end.

"Are you serious?!"

She was answered only by his chuckle as her picked up her swaddled body and placed it on the bed.

He grabbed the other blanket at the foot of the bed and covered them both with it.

"Night," he was trying to hold back laughter.He placed one arm around her middle, halting her struggle to rip the blanket by sheer force.

"…Why me?" Taylor whimpered to no one in particular.

Mason pulled her tighter to him, "Because I'm tired of all those other wolves sniffing around you. You're mine."

What???

It was sheer fear that kept her silent the rest of the night.

Chapter 23: Love from the Left Field Part 1

.::. Kaden's POV.::.

Kaden's eyes snapped open, her vision blurry, lips dry from lack of moisture.

She tried to move but she was tightly strapped against the bed, like a psychotic person in an asylum.

Her eyesight was slowly going back to normal, and as she looked down her body she saw that it was secured to the bed by thick leather bands.

She lay in cross form, with her arms extended all the way out to form a "T" shape. As Kaden tugged at restraints, they made faint stretching noises.

Her body pulsed with pain and she didn't know why until she heard a soft beeping that went in synch to her heart.

"What the hell's going on?" She asked herself softly as she turned her head to the right and spotted a contraption about the size of a night stand with a large glass bubble protruding from its left side and another from its right side. One bubble was filled with blood while the other was filled with a substance that looked like silver. The tubes on the machine carried blood through one end and pumped it out the other.

As she followed where the tubes were headed, Kaden realized there were needles attached to her.

Needles!

They were attached in crook of her elbow, which was how the machine was getting her contaminated blood and putting pure blood back in. It had taken less than a second after seeing the needles for the panic set in like a brick in her stomach.

She renewed her tugging at the straps—now more desperate, but even if she had been energized and uninjured, she couldn't have ripped the long, thick straps of leather.

The machine picked up its beeping along with her increased heartbeat.

"Fuck," She whispered to herself as she tried to think of ways to free herself.

The crazy idea of Changing came to mind, but as scared as she was, Kaden wasn't that stupid. The needles would wind up snapping inside of her and probably killing her.

She, unwisely, looked down at her right arm, where yet another needle entered her vein. It was purple and bulging because that was where the blood was coming back into her body.

She instantly regretted looking at it, grimacing as she tried in vain to put her emotions into place.

Abandoning calm, she pulled more violently at the straps and that's when a face appeared before her.

Kaden hadn't heard Axel come into the room. He looked weary, but alert as he grabbed her face in his hands, "Kaden, it's okay."

When she thrashed even more violently he turned her head to him, forcing their eyes to meet.

"Kaden!" He spoke more sternly.

"Get me the fuck out of here!" her eyes were reduced to angry slits, "Right now."

"It's almost done ok?"

"Done with wh-"

And that's when she remembered last night's events.This machine was a creation made to remove a Wolf's infected blood and extract the silver from it. It hadn't occurred to Kaden that to do so, she would have to be attached to needles.

Damn alcohol. Thanks to it, she had been happily blissful. She might have made a run for it had she known it would end like this.

After having made the tour through Axels' house, Andie, the pack doctor, had taken her to the room to get started on the silver extraction. Axel hadn't let Taylor in and the pair had argued until Kaden had told Taylor she'd be okay—which Kaden would have never done had she known what would happen.

"What the hell am I? Some feral bitch? Get. Me. OUT!" she yelled, straining at the straps again.

Axel looked down at her, regret clouding his eyes, "I can't."

"The hell you can't! You have two hands, put them to use." She gritted her teeth.

Her arms, despite her tan complexion, had grown dark red with the effort of trying to break free from the bonds and they were starting to go numb.

"It's almost done. We have to extract every trace of silver, or overtime it will end up killing you."

"I don't give a shit, get me out!" Angry tears streamed down her cheeks, and flashes of her first two months as a wolf pranced through her mind.

Before Taylor had found her, she'd been experimented on.

When Kaden had been found, she'd been like a rabid animal and it took Taylor months to help Kaden with her fevers.

Remembering the casualties during that time made her guilty, but that was for another time, right now she wanted to get away from the room.

"Just one more minute. One. And I promise it will all be over." He spoke soothingly as he stroked her hair.

In reply, Kaden snarled and all logic went out the window.

Her eyes were quickly changing from brown to bright honey, her canines grew and her body shook.

"Oh shit. Taylor!"

Taylor rushed in at Axel's call and took hold of Kaden's shoulders as her back arched, trying to fight the Change, "Take control!"

Kaden whined as she fought her Wolf's demand for control of her body. The Wolf felt Kaden wasn't keeping them out of danger, and had decided to take the reins.

She barely resisted the call; the battle so harsh that Kaden felt like she was ripping her soul in half.

The machine gave three quick consecutive beeps before shutting down, signaling the end of the silver extraction.

Taylor and Axel moved quickly to remove the needles and leather straps and as soon as they were done Kaden let her wolf spring out.

Night black fur covered most of her body, except for her white underbelly.

Her body changed legs first, torso, then head. She stood on the bed, making it creak, and stretched out, her rump in the air as she let out a yawn.

Her eyes, though gold now, still had brown speckles in them.

So the wolf had only won the physical change.

 She jumped down from the bed and nudged Taylor's open hand with her head, while she bumped Axel with her rear—a sign of gratitude.

"You're still evil. A lot has gone down." Taylor retorted drily, tipping Kaden off that something had happened.

Kaden's response was to give her a low whine which prompted Axel to give them a quizzical look.

"Later," Was all Taylor supplied, letting Kaden know she didn't want to discuss it in front of Axel.

Kaden snorted and trotted out the open door with Axel and Taylor close behind.She overheard Taylor's laugh as she turned to Axel to say, "Bet you she's headed for the kitchen."

Kaden turned a glare on Taylor as she continued her light run to…the kitchen.

She barked a greeting over at Akira, who sat on a stool in the kitchen.

"Hey Kaden. how ya feeling?" Akira asked, getting up to approach her and slapping a hand on her back.

Her rumbling stomach answered his question.

Akira laughed but she was all but ignoring him now.She had spotted his chicken on the counter, but being that it was out of mouths reach she jumped up on the counter to further eye the delicious food.

Just as she was about to clasp her jaws around it, the chicken disappeared.

 With a sad whine, she looked up to see a woman with red hair holding the plate.Her eyes were so light it was freakish.

It was like they had no pupil or iris, just white.

Kaden growled at her, demanding the food back.

"This isn't yours to eat. Our Alpha hasn't given you permission," Her voice feigned innocence.

Kaden got ready to pounce, but Axel blocked her target.

"Kaden, it's okay," He spoke to her, oblivious of the redhead's smirk from behind him, "We're going out to dinner anyways."

Kaden saw the girl's face lose it's smugness as she looked at Axel in disbelief.

Kaden snorted, jumped down from the counter and left the room. She came back as a human wrapped in a dark blue sheet she'd found stuffed in a closet.

"Out to dinner?" She asked incredulously, "What do you think we are—a couple??"

"No, but I do recall you saying it'd be nice to go on a date with me," He replied with a smile.

"I…don't recall ever saying that." She snapped, noting that the girl had grabbed a hold of Axel's arm possessively.

Oh?

"Plus, I owe you for not protecting you." He explained as he approached Kaden, trying to shake off the parasite on his arm.

"Look your deb--"But Kaden was cut off by the redhead.

"You can't leave!" Red pleaded to Axel, "I…we need you."

Kaden raised an eyebrow at her correction.Looked like the red head was a little infatuated with Axel.

"Gaby, it's not up to you. Plus, she can be a fine addition to the pack."

"She can't do anything. She's bad. She's broken." Gaby replied scathingly.

Taylor, knowing the girl was treading close to tender territory, laughed, "My, aren't you a glass half full."

Kaden snorted, "Of what? Poison?"

The Kansas City pack snickered as the woman continued her sputtering ranting,"B-buuut Alpha, you're finally back to protect us. You can't leave again. Especially with that filthy street bitch!"Gaby then proceeded to shoot Kaden a pointed glare.

The smirk fell away from Kaden's face and it