Chapter 41

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*Kaden*

Time seemed to pass slowly as I sat on the edge of my bed, alone in the room Jayden and I shared. His bed had been empty when I woke up and had stayed that way for the following few hours.

There was some noise downstairs that signalled that some of the others had woken up. It smelled like they were making eggs for breakfast. My eyes studied the lines on the wooden floor until the door clicking open drew my eyes to Jayden as he walked into our room.

"You look like shit," he joked as his eyes landed on me while the door shut behind him. His smile fell when I just stared back at him. "Are you okay?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, staring at him seriously.

His face dropped before he began to absent-mindedly chew on his lower lip like he always did when he was nervous. "T-Tell you what?" he stuttered.

I glanced at the door behind him, the noise from downstairs still seeping into the room despite it being shut, and linked to him instead of speaking out loud. 'I heard you talking to Corey last night. Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell Layla? Why didn't you tell Bentley – or Joe – or anybody?! Why didn't you tell us, Jayden?' I asked, trying to keep myself calm but failing. I was not mad at him, just upset that I had not noticed. Upset because I should have noticed.

I watched as he inhaled deeply, leaning back against the wall.

"You... listened?" he spoke.

"I'm sorry... I woke up and heard talking, I was going to ignore it but then... I-I heard," I said, "Jayden... Why didn't you tell anyone?"

He swallowed avoiding my eyes and instead staring at the floor as I had been doing earlier.

'I don't know... I guess besides the fact that he said he'd kill me if I did... I... didn't want anyone to think of me as... I didn't want you to look at me differently...' he drifted.

I felt my heart pick up, seeing that he was beginning to struggle to breathe, his hands clasped together. I did not want him to be upset again; it sounded like the crying that morning was hard enough for him. There was one thing I needed to know, though.

'Who is it?' I asked, slowly.

He shook his head. "No one," he replied out loud before linking to me, 'It doesn't matter. It stopped a while ago.'

'A while – I don't fucking care if it stopped, Jayden! Tell me who he is! Is he still in the pack?! Don't you realise I would never look at you any differently? I've never thought you were weak, Jay. I protect you because that's what I need to do, for my friends and for our pack. It's my responsibility to make sure everyone's alright. I didn't even notice you weren't – and you're my best friend! What kind of an Alpha does that make me?! What kind of friend does that make me?'

He looked at me a little surprised and I sighed.

"Tell me who he is so I can fix it..."

His face softened as he watched me.

"You were a child too... It's not your responsibility. You don't have to –"

"Yes, I do!" I cut him off.

'And if he isn't in the pack anymore?' Jayden asked.

'We'll find him,' I stated. "I have an entire army at my disposal, Jayden."

He gave a chuckle. "The army is for bigger things, Kade," he said.

"The army is for our pack, Jay," I replied.

He shook his head before sighing through his nose.

"He uh... It –" he was cut off by the door slamming open and I couldn't have been more pissed at Finn than at that moment. "Finn!" Jayden's reaction was the polar opposite of my own as he grinned happily at Finn.

"Jayden," I snarled at him.

"Kaden!" I couldn't help but laugh at how enthusiastically Finn said my name.

"Why?" I asked.

"I thought we were saying names." He shrugged as he dove onto Jayden's bed.

'We're not done talking,' I linked to Jayden, but he pretended not to hear me and turned to Finn.

"So, what's up with Kyle and Hayley?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes, looking at Finn.

"Oh, Kyle's a little... obsessed with her – don't tell him I said that. He gets annoyed when I use that word to describe it," he said, and I chuckled.

Of course, it wouldn't make sense to Finn and even to Kyle himself; the feelings he had for Hayley must have been so new to him. Werewolf feelings were amplified, love as well and meeting a mate just made everything so much more intense – or so my mother told me. I wouldn't know, not having found mine yet.

As a human, Kyle must have skipped the lifelong amplified feelings part and just gone straight through to intense, obsessive attraction when he met Hayley. Of course, being human, he had no idea why he felt that way toward her, it must have hit him like a truck and he was probably freaking out about it.

"We leave at ten!" I heard Corey shout.

"What the fuck, man? Shut up!" Trent snapped back.

"You both need to stop," Sean groaned from outside our room's door as he walked by.

I chuckled, happy the door was closed and their shouting didn't affect my ears much.

"Ten? That's in an hour," Jayden said.

"Do that math all by yourself, Einstein?" Jayden rolled his eyes hearing Corey's sarcastic question, but his lips tugged into a smile.

It made me frown. Shouldn't he have been nicer to his mate after what Jayden had told him that morning? Why was Jayden happy about the sarcasm?

"You guys coming?" I looked at Finn.

"Yeah, my parents say they're cool with it because we're both on break right now, and Kyle managed to get off work a week early so we're good to go," he said.

"You should probably explain the situation then, Kade," Jayden said to me.

"I will." Eventually.

What? They would think I was insane if I said, 'Hey, we're Werewolves and Kyle, you're going to have to marry Hayley or she will most likely spiral into a serious state of depression that will probably end in suicide.'

Therefore, I was going to tell them when we got home and then I would shift to prove it. They would go nuts but would be forced to calm down and then they would think it was cool... or not.

Worst case scenario: We would have to compel them to make them forget ever meeting us. Kyle would leave Hayley and take his brother, and we would never see either of them again. That would be unfortunate for Hayley and Jayden. Our priority then would have to be trying to prevent Hayley from going rogue or worse.

"What situation?" Finn sat up.

"Tell you later. We have to go now," I said.

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