Afflicted (2 page)

              It was funny that she ended here of all places. In the passing months Mark and Hannah’s affair meant nothing and the pain slowly disappeared but not completely. As far as she was truly concerned Mark and Hannah deserved to be with each other and to be horribly miserable. Just because she had one guy, who was a cheating jackass, Victoria wasn’t going to let that stop her from finding love agai
n
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Chapter Two

K
aden used his foot to close the door behind him.

“Mom, I’m back,” Kaden said, walking into the kitchen with the bag of groceries he stopped by the store to pick up on his way back to her house. He almost forgot she’d asked and the list she gave him. His thoughts were on Victoria.
His sexy librarian
, that’s what he’d secretly dubbed her.  Kaden was still trying to fight the idea that she was his mate. He merely settled on something different. Kaden believed it was just a sexual attraction and the wolf part of him was wrong about her being his mate. A quick go in the sheets should show his wolf that it was nothing more than sex and that’s where the connection ended. Kaden felt like a weight had been lifted after he settled on an agreeable resolution when it came to Victoria. .  He’d got a whiff her arousal and it smelled so god damn magnificent. The urge to please her was overwhelming. And he’d heard her call him an asshole. Kaden exited the bank swiftly and gulped in fresh air. Even now her scent was stuck in his nose. It was inerasable.

Of all the damned things that had to happen to me and this is what I have to deal with.

“You got everything,” Kellie said as she walked into the kitchen.

“Yep,” Kaden said, as he grabbed a beer, and placed the rest of the pack into the fridge.

Taking a seat at the table, Kaden silently watched his mother put the groceries up. At fifty one years of age Kellie looked not a day over at least thirty five. Long black curls stopped at the middle of her back, she had the same identical eyes as Kaden but that’s all where the resemblance stopped. Kaden had taken on a majority of his father’s features.

“So did you get what you needed to do in town done?”

Okay, she isn’t going to like the shit that I am about to say, but she is the one that isn’t being honest.

              He had to confront her about those houses. Didn’t she know the risk if a human was able to get their hands on one of those homes? Of course she knew. For whatever her reasons were for ignoring the debt, it still had to be paid. She was the wife of an alpha and had to act accordingly. The safety of the pack was at stake. All of the land in their hands was private property and needed to stay that way.  There wasn’t time to beat around the bush about it. Kaden had no choice but to reveal what he knew and the real reason he was in town today. He took a long good sip of the beer before finally answering his mother.

“Not really. Actually I found out about some auction taking place this weekend.”

Kellie whirled around to look at him, a bewildered expression on her face. She’d told him something completely different than what he found out at the bank from Victoria.

“Kaden, you said you were going to leave it be!”

“Yeah, you said that I should do that, but I thought I could do you a solid after talking to Rick, who was going on about fixing what Morgan’s done. Regardless I can’t believe you would let something like that happen. You know what the risk is.”

He was the next in line after Morgan’s death to run the pack. In the end all responsibility shifted in his direction no matter what. Kaden was not going to let it be.

“I told you not to worry about anything your father did. So what if those homes are up for auction. Ask yourself what have they done for you and me? Did they step in when your good for nothing father beat us until we hopefully passed out? Did any one of them think to stop him from taking that god awful whip to your back that day?”

Kaden remember that day. How could he forget? He’d been seven at the time. And Morgan thought it was time Kaden learned his place. Only a monster could do that to a kid. Kaden couldn’t fathom treating his child that way if he ever had any.    

“No, just because of how things were for us that doesn’t mean we have to do shitty things to other people. Well at least I don’t agree with that.”  

“Honey, they deserve it and anything else bad to come their way. You should have been here to see how they reacted to your father and me allowing that girl, Victoria Lane, who works up there at the bank, move into one of the log cabins.”

Kaden choked on the alcohol he’d been in the process of swallowing.

“You allowed a human to move into one of the cabins? Are you crazy?”

“She is a nice young lady, who needed a place to stay. Besides she always pays her rent on time and keeps to herself. It’s a damn shame how she has been treated.”

“Treated like how,” Kaden partially growled. He didn’t mean to jump into protective mode. The wolf didn’t like the idea of Victoria being treated like crap.

“Well, you know some folks are mad about what your father did, and she is just in the crossfire is all. All that was done to her was some young ones went and tp’d the cabin she is staying at.”

Fuck me. This can’t be happening.              

Kaden hadn’t been in town for more than a day and shit was just haywire. Not only that, but Victoria was catching heat for something that wasn’t even her fault. He intended to find out the names of those who’d decided it was cool to toss toilet paper over her cabin. The pack was clearly in need of a leader. It wasn’t going to be him, it was his place, but he had the option to find a suitable replacement. He wasn’t going to be in this for the long haul. Kaden was going to hand over his title.

“Which one is she staying at?”

Kellie told Kaden the location. Against his better judgment Kaden decided he would go for a run tonight and make a pit stop by the cabin Victoria was staying at.

“You know you should just be focused on picking someone who can take your place since you have no plans to stay. Just pick someone, be done with it, and spend the summer with your mom.”

“Yeah, but first order has to be in place, before I do that, and you aren’t doing a good job of helping.”

“Kaden” she screeched.

“What? You seem to have this vendetta that is misplaced. No one in the pack is to blame for Morgan’s shit. We suffered and they suffered right along with us. I’m going to clean this damned pack up whether or not you agree.”

“You are out of your mind.”

I have to do what Morgan was incapable of doing.

“Yeah and I’m going to make some changes around here. And first thing tomorrow morning you are going to make a stop by the bank. You are going to do what needs to be done.”

“No, I will not. I’m not doing a damned thing Kaden.”

“Mom,” Kaden yelled. Kellie ignored him as she ran up the stairs. “What the fuck?”

Kaden rolled his eyes and grabbed his beer off the table. He downed the rest of it. Kellie slammed the door to her bedroom and Kaden heard the lock to the door click, Kaden shrugged his shoulders, he wasn’t going to follow her plot to make the pack worse than it already was.

It was clear she had a bone to pick with members of the pack. Kaden loved his mother but if she wanted to be mad at someone it should be herself. There were countless times when help had been offered. Kaden remembered going into town and the woman in charge of the battered women’s shelter would always ask his mom if she wanted out. Kellie could have taken the help then, freedom was right there, no matter where it came from. Instead of peace of mind she chose to deal with a man who was deadly abusive to her and her only child.  It took Kaden a long time to get over the fear to leave. Mostly he was afraid to be away from the pack and on his own out there in the open among the humans. Leaving was the best decision he ever made. There was no telling what type of person Kaden would have evolved into if he’d stayed and kept dealing with Morgan’s bullshit.

***

Now she really needed that bubble bath and to top it off a massage. Victoria had returned home after work to find graffiti on the front door of the cabin she was renting. Some asshole thought it would be a good idea to spray paint the word bitch on the door in red. To top it off it took someone from the police department over three hours to finally make it over. She had to keep in mind that only five people worked at the C.P.D. but it still just pissed her off to have to wait that long. A report was made, pictures of her door were taken, then Victoria told the officer she had a clue why it was done, and yet she had no idea who exactly it was that vandalized the cabin door. She was certain this was connected to the darn auction.

“I am so tired of this,” Victoria grumbled. She mindlessly tapped her fingers on the countertop as she waited for the Thai chicken from last night to finish reheating in the microwave. Everything was a go for the auction to take place. Victoria didn’t have one lick of remorse now. And so far she’d been nice and ignored all the stuff that was done. How far did it have to go before lines were crossed to the point of no return? Technically, a line had already been crossed at least several times. If there was a motel in town she would just pack up all her stuff and move. For some strange reason Victoria got the feeling no one would dare try that stuff in town in the open. Maybe it was a big fat sign telling her she needed to go back to North Carolina.

After retrieving her heated food, Victoria headed to the bedroom, and sat down in the middle of the bed. She grabbed her laptop off the nightstand, flipped it open, and powered it up. There was one luxury that actually existed in this place and it was internet— slow dialup internet but at least she had some way to surf the net. So she wasn’t completely cut off from civilization.

As soon as her laptop powered up Victoria pulled up her email. It was a good thing no one had her personal email address. No doubt about it Victoria would have an inbox full of messages about this auction. It was out of her hands. Soon it would be over, hopefully.

“I don’t believe this,” Victoria said with a spoon full of food in her mouth. Her inbox contained five emails from her ex Mark. Without taking the time to read what he might have typed in his emails to her Victoria deleted the messages. He wasn’t worth her time. Even if there was a heartfelt apology she didn’t care to read it at the moment. She didn’t even care why he even decided to message her after all this time that had passed. Her cell number had stayed the same.

Don’t even think about that dickhead Vic.

“What else is in here today?”

Victoria scanned over email after email reporting all the ones that were spam. Her eyes lit up as she ran across an email update from the company she’d purchased her replacement vibrator. Victoria clapped happily as she discovered it was an updated tracking of her package.

“Oh it’s here,” Victoria squealed as she got of the bed and headed for the front door. She stepped outside to be greeted by a sky that was darkening. Victoria walked barefooted over to the mailbox. Inside of the mailbox she found junk mail along with a brown discreet package.

“Yay, it’s about time my new toy got here, hopefully this one won’t blow out on me.”

Can’t beat the real thing but it still gets the job done. And that’s all that matters.

As Victoria stepped back onto the porch, she felt as if she was being watched. Turning around Victoria looked out into the dimly light forest. There was nothing to indicate there was someone out there. Then again if she had walked over to the edge of the woods and searched the area she’d have found the person who was watching. She was miles away from her nearest neighbor. Being alone, in the middle of nowhere was never a problem for her, and it certainly wasn’t until now with her door having been spray painted.

Fear worked its way into her heart. She’d never really given it much thought to what lengths might be taken against her. Perhaps she’d been naïve in the situation. Victoria hurried back into the cabin, locked the door behind her, and set the alarm even though she didn’t see anyone. Suddenly she didn’t want to stay another night in this cabin, on top of being so far away town, and out of reach from the local police department. She wanted to feel safe.

Oh I wish I knew who did this to the fucking door! The last thing I want to be right now is scared.

Who knew what this person would do next? Victoria instantly got mad. This was the Wrights felt. Mrs. Wright has a son willing to pay the money that was owed on the properties. There was no point for this drama. All Kellie had to do was come into the bank, take the steps to get the account in order, and the only thing Kaden had to do was hand over the cash. Victoria’s life wasn’t worth losing over bullshit that wasn’t even caused by her but Morgan Wright. Victoria was having second thoughts about the woman that was kind enough to allow her to rent out this cabin. Victoria liked living in the small town, adored the seclusion, but it wasn’t enjoyable if people were going to be a wild indecorous bunch.

Victoria walked back into the bedroom. She tossed her mail on to the bed. After retrieving her cell phone from her purse Victoria immediately scrolled down to Kellie Wright’s cell phone number.

Keep it nice and short Vic.

I’m moving out and breaking Lease. T.T.Y.L.
Victoria didn’t haste to press the send button. Less than a minute later Victoria got a reply back to her text message.

Call in the morning so we can talk. What is T.T.Y.L?

Victoria typed back a reply.

Sorry its text slang and it means talk to you later.