Page 8 of Kept
The boy had come straight into his house. Crawled into his bed. His scent was all over the sheets now, mixing with Kade's own. Creating something new. Something that made Kade's wolf pace restlessly.
The kid's shirt was torn at the shoulder. Just a little rip, but Kade's eyes caught on it, on the glimpse of pale skin beneath. There was a bruise forming on his collarbone—no, bruises. Fresh over the bone, then purple-green at the edges.
New on top of old.
Kade's hands flexed at his sides. "Who the fuck are you?"
"Please," the kid said. His voice cracked halfway through the word, and something in Kade's chest clenched. "I'm Eli."
Like his name was an offering. Like it might buy him safety.
"Kade." His voice came out lower than he meant. Almost a growl. "You planning to get eaten, Eli?” The words came out rough, scraped raw by the effort of not moving closer.
The boy flinched, shoulders jerking, but didn't look away. Brave little thing. Or maybe just too tired to run anymore. Kade could see him swallow, throat working. Could hear his heartbeat, rabbit-quick but steadying.
"My family threw me out tonight," Eli continued, and his voice got smaller. "I know I shouldn't be here."
That part struck something deep. Kade didn't show it, kept his face neutral, but inside his wolf snarled.
Thrown out. Tonight?
His so-calledfamilyhad literally thrown him to the wolves.
Eli kept going, words tumbling out faster now, like he had to get them all out before Kade threw him out, too. "Please don't make me go back outside. The others are out. I could hear them. They've been near the neighborhood and I—I didn't know where else to go. Your house was the only one that was…” He stopped, swallowed again. "Safe."
That landed heavier than anything else.
The others. Fuck. Probably packlings out on the annual run. Young wolves, drunk on moonlight and instinct. Idiots with more hormones than sense, half-shifted and hunting for anything that smelled like fear. Some of them, barely trained, couldn't be trusted to tell the difference between the participants who wanted to be chased and caught, and the ones who were just trying to survive the night.
Kade had warned them every year: stick to the boundaries, keep it in the woods, don't interfere with humans who weren't looking to play. The run had rules. Had always had rules.
But some of them didn't listen. They chased what wasn't theirs. Got off on making someone run. On the power of being the thing in the dark that made hearts race.
This boy wasn't running from them, though. He was hiding.
Smart.
Smarter than most humans would be. He'd found the one house that belonged to something scarier than the young wolves outside. Whether he knew it or not, whether instinct or accident had driven him here, he'd walked into the apex predator's den and thrown himself on its mercy.
Eli's eyes flicked past Kade toward the window, then back. Quick, nervous. Checking for movement in the dark. He wasn't lying about the danger. His scent, that bone-deep fear mixed with exhaustion, said everything Kade needed to know.
Eli was scared, yes, but more than that—he was at the end of his rope.
Letting him go out there would mean throwing him out as bait. Worse.
The boy was watching him with those wide eyes, still bracing for rejection. For Kade to be just another person who wouldn't help.
His family had thrown him out—tonight, but probably in smaller ways before that, too. That was how a family produced people who knew how to make themselves small, who flinched at shadows, who climbed through strangers' windows because eventhatwas safer than home.
Kade took a step forward. Not much. Just enough to test what Eli would do. To see if he'd scramble back, if he'd run.
Nothing.
Not a flinch. Just a breath drawn too sharp, chest rising and falling faster. His eyes tracked Kade's movement, but his body stayed still. Trusting or frozen, Kade couldn't tell. Maybe both.
Another step. The floorboards creaked under Kade's weight. Eli's gaze dropped to Kade's bare feet, traveled up his legs, caught on the obvious bulge in his gym shorts. His eyes widened slightly, then jumped away, and his cheeks flushed darker.
Interesting.
