Page 14 of The Enforcers: KANE

“He’s trying to be friends by making an idiot out of me in front of the whole pack?” he asked. “Awesome. Is that how he won you over?”

“Nah.” She smiled at him. “I mostly made fun of him.”

“Note to self,” Kane said. “Don’t make fun of Rafe, or he’ll think I like him and he’ll never leave me alone.”

“He probably won’t anyway,” Terin said.

“Not as long as you keep telling him to be nice to me,” Kane said. “So you can stop. I don’t need your pity.”

“I know that.” She looked down at the ground. “We all have our broken parts. Even Rafe, though he laughs it off.” She bit her lip. “The pack bond is important to everybody, but sometimes I think Rafe needs it more than anyone else.” Raising her eyes to his, she added, “Except maybe you.”

Kane didn’t know what to say to that. He did need the pack, though he never told them. The stronger his feelings were, the less he could talk about them. There was no way he was going to spill his feelings all over the place, the way Rafe seemed to.

But then, from what Terin was saying, maybe Rafe kept things inside, too. He’d never really thought about it.

Terin’s gaze wandered back down to the fire pit, where Rafe was trying to make his zebra stand up. To his surprise, he saw that her eyes contained not just love, but respect and admiration.

He suddenly wished a woman would look at him that way. He pushed the thought aside.

“It wasn’t my idea for him to be friends with you,” Terin said. “He just says that so he doesn’t have to show he cares when you push him away.”

Kane looked away, uncomfortable. “He doesn’t care,” he said.

Terin didn’t answer that. “You know,” she said, “I’m an outsider, too. It’s still hard for me to handle everyone wanting to be so affectionate and…pack-like…all the time.” She smiled. “But it feels kind of nice, too. Letting them care. Maybe you should try it.”

She handed him the coffee mug. “I didn’t make this,” she said. “Rafe did.”

She gave him one of her brief smiles and ran back down to the fire pit. Rafe turned and caught her in his arms, swinging her around, his face lighting up.

Then he glanced up to where Kane was standing, and his expression grew serious for a moment before he turned back to Terin. He brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her on the nose.

Kane watched them, feeling the empty place in his heart where a mate should have been. He expected Wolf to claw his way out from his chest, but Wolf just sat there, watching his pack mates, a feeling of wistfulness rising up from him.

Kane gripped the coffee mug, warm against his hand. Fucking Rafe.

Chapter 6

When Rachelle arrived before her show the night after she met Hunter, Manny the bartender stopped her on her way in.

“You okay?” he asked.

She frowned at him. “Yeah,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

He shrugged. “That guy who’s always in here watching you? Kane? He told me somebody assaulted you in the parking lot last night.”

Wait, what? The guy sitting at the corner table every night was Kane? And he’d supposedly come after her last night?

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks,” she said, her mind racing. “It was just a drunk. He ran off when that Kane guy chased him.”

Manny nodded. “That’s what he said. But he said you took off too, so he came in here to get your home number and address, make sure you were okay. I guess he got hold of you?” He left the implication dangling.

“Uh, no,” she said. “I wasn’t picking up my phone.”

And Kane hadn’t called, anyway. But that feeling she’d had, of being watched. Had that been Kane? Had he been lurking in the shadows by her house?

And if he knew who she was, why wouldn’t he knock on the door?

Manny was watching her speculatively. “And I guess he didn’t come by, either.”