Hunted (War of the Covens 1)

After everyone had finished dinner, Caia offered to help Ella clean up. Magnus yawned and took his leave. Irini and Aidan, on the other hand, watched each other with obvious heat in their eyes.

Huh. He hadn’t seen that coming.

“Uh, Irini, you want to go for a run … with me?” Aidan glanced warily at Lucien.

His sister beamed at Aidan and nodded, jumping up from her seat in the same motion. She hadn’t even asked Lucien for permission, which was expected no matter what age she was.

Ryder laughed under his breath as the two disappeared out the back door and into the yard.

“I’m invisible,” Lucien grumbled.

Ryder stood up from the table. “Leave ’em be. I haven’t seen my brother so happy in ages. He’s been talking constantly about Irini since you announced she was coming home.”

Lucien was confused. “I can’t even remember them having a thing together before she left.”

“You were gone at the time.”

Right.

As he followed Ryder up from the table, Lucien’s attention was drawn to Caia. She tucked a lock of pale hair behind her ear before she picked up their now empty plates, her long eyelashes fanning her cheeks. He sighed softly. Something about her awoke every protective instinct he had. He couldn’t explain it.

“Let me help,” he offered.

Caia’s eyes flew to him and he was struck dumb for a second. She really had the most beautiful goddamn eyes.

“We’ve got this.” Ella broke the moment. She gestured for him to back away from the table, teasing, “You’re better out of the way. You know you stack the dishwasher all wrong.”

He sighed at her teasing and Ryder clamped a hand on his shoulder. His friend guided him from the room and Lucien forced himself not to look back at Caia.

They walked out of the house onto the porch, and Ryder leaned against the porch frame. There was incredulous laughter in his voice as he asked, “Were you jealous in there?”

“What?” He scoffed, more than irritated that he’d been that obvious. “No.”

“You were certainly something.”

He leaned against the porch railing and stared unseeing at the tops of the trees that edged the circular driveway. “Well, you were a little …”

“A little what?”

“You were flirting.”

Ryder guffawed. “I was not flirting.”

“‘I think I’m in love’?”

“It was a figure of speech.”

“It was flirting.”

“I wasn’t flirting with Caia. I was trying to make her feel at ease. She’s had this pained look on her face since she arrived.”

Guilt took the edge off his irritation.

Ryder was right.

The move back to the pack had to be overwhelming for Caia. He just didn’t know how to handle the whole situation. And this unexpected attraction to her wasn’t helping matters.

Lucien ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “I’m sorry. I’m just … It’s just … I don’t know how I’m supposed to do this.”

“You’re a born leader and you’ll do this because you have to. Just try to keep your head on straight.”

“By that, you mean?”

His friend glanced back inside the house, a sarcastic tilt to his mouth. “You can start by not getting all dreamy-eyed around her.”

“Dreamy-eyed?” He hissed defensively, lowering his voice to continue, “She’s eighteen and sheltered. I may only be six years older than her, but the shit I’ve seen and done … There might as well be a century between us. I don’t get dreamy-eyed around high school girls. For Gaia’s sake.”

“Eighteen and sheltered, yes. But that doesn’t make her any less beautiful. Or unique to this pack. And unique can be fascinating.”

“The only thing I’m fascinated with is her interaction with my pack. I’m keeping an eye on her, not eyeing her up.”

Ryder laughed, obviously unconvinced. “Man, whatever you say.”

Lucien leaned against the doorframe of Caia’s bedroom. He could hear her moving about in her bathroom, the water running. The laptop he’d bought her was open on the desk, what looked like a word document, homework, on the screen. Her bed was neatly made, and there were no clothes scattered about it like most teenagers’ rooms. Yet she’d placed her belongings throughout the space to claim it and that pleased him. When he’d checked this morning, her suitcases were, worryingly, still at the bottom of the bed, unopened.

“Oh.” Her startled voice ripped him from his thoughts.

He looked at her, noting how wary she seemed with him and not liking that at all. “Just checking you have everything you need.”

She looked pointedly around the room. “More than.”

“Good.” He jammed his hands into his jeans, trying to think of something else to say. But then she moved from behind the bed to shove something in her laundry basket, and he stopped thinking entirely.

She was wearing girl boxers and a vest. For a lykan who was shorter than most, her legs certainly seemed to go on forever.

Caia cleared her throat, bringing his attention back to her face. She’d scrubbed it clean, patches of her skin flushed from it. It made her look young and innocent.