VII | Snapshots

The world was frozen. The only sounds were air rushing in and out of lungs and hearts beating steadily, one faster than the other but both quicker than usual.

Kaia didn't know why her words had been so shocking to Kaleb. Mate. The word seemed little to Kaia. It could have so many different meanings, so many different implications. But would it change anything? Kaia didn't know.

He knew something that she didn't. Maybe this was the reason Kaia had found herself acting strange lately.

"How did..." Kaleb started, but he didn't finish. His hand had closed around Kaia's fingers, eclipsing hers completely; he'd pulled her hand down to his chest so that she could feel his heart beating rapidly. He pulled her barely closer to him, staring at her. What was it that was so fascinating? That made his eyes spark to life like that? "Did you feel it, too?" Kaleb asked, his voice raw like it was coming from the deepest parts of him, the places that hadn't seen the light. Maybe it was no coincidence, then, that his voice was also full of hope.

"Did I feel...what?" Kaia asked, slightly confused. She'd felt a lot of things in the past couple of days, not a lot of which made much sense at all. She should by all means currently be freaking out, right? Kaia was sitting on a bed, holding hands with a gorgeous lycanthrope. She didn't know where she was and her dad and Cole must have been out of their minds with worry. She didn't know if she should even believe anything Kaleb was telling her. Except...something inside of her--the same unnamable something that kept possessing Kaia's body and making her heart beat double time--was telling her to stop, to listen to Kaleb.

She should trust him, should stay close to him, should... "You'd know if you felt it," Kaleb said, his eyes darkening. His shoulders slightly fell. Was he losing his hope? The thought made Kaia's throat close up a bit. So Kaia scanned her blurry, adrenaline-filled memories. Surely there was something she could say, something she'd felt that stood out. She didn't want his hope to disappear; basically, all she knew about Kaleb was that she wanted to see that hope stay alive.

"I should be terrified right now," Kaia said, her voice steady. She met Kaleb's eyes, willing him to understand just what it was that she was trying to impart to him. "You're a stranger. I've been abducted. My rib is broken. And you're telling me that there are werewo...lycanthrope in the woods that want to kill me."

Kaia took a deep breath like she was sucking in bravery from the air around her, letting it fill her up and make her lungs burst. She looked down to where Kaleb was still clutching her hand, his skin surprisingly dark against hers, and wove her fingers together with his. Kaia wanted to cry. It felt like, just maybe, Kaia's fingers were made to fit perfectly between Kaleb's. The sense of completion that washed over her made her entire body warmer.

Maybe the universe was finally repaying her for everything she'd endured.

"I should be terrified..." Kaia repeated, looking up at Kaleb's eyes again. He was staring at their joined hands in fascination, intrigued; it was like he'd never held a hand before and such a thing seemed like a gesture from another planet, foreign and magical. "...but I'm the calmest I've ever been. I feel..." Kaia struggled for words. How did she feel? So she decided to use the only one that would come to her. "Right. For the first time in a long time, I'm listening to my heart."

Kaleb's eyes slowly lifted to hers, his eyelashes fluttering slightly for a moment. The beauty of such a small thing caught Kaia off guard, and she smiled a little just seeing it. It was a tiny movement, and yet... "Right," Kaleb echoed quietly before tilting his head towards Kaia, this time, his voice louder, "How did you know that you were my mate?"

Kaia blinked. She wasn't sure how to answer that question, much less what such a label meant. But she summoned her best efforts for Kaleb's sake. "Snapshots," Kaia answered, "They've been...happening. I see them when I touch you. What you see. How you feel. What you're thinking. I didn't trust them at first, but now I'm starting to think they're real."

Kaleb's frustrated look was back, this time laced with a stubborn uncertainty that drew his eyebrows together. His lips pressed together, and something in Kaia lurched again, whispering to her like a devil on her shoulder. Reach out. Touch him. Taste him.

Kaleb's thumb absently glided over Kaia's knuckles as he lost himself in his thoughts. Kaia stared at his eyes; if they were indeed the windows to the soul, maybe she could get a glimpse of what curious thoughts were stirring inside of him.

There was comfortable silence as Kaleb kept thinking and Kaia kept trying to understand just what it was that he was thinking. And then, "Do you believe in destiny?"

Kaia didn't hesitate. She knew her answer. "Yes and no," Kaia whispered, "I'd like to think that some things happen for a reason. But I also know that some things happen without reason."

A bitter memory frosted the tips of her fingers, making her shiver slightly. She'd been so young when it had happened. Her dad had suddenly lost the light in his eyes. He'd set down his phone; now that she thought about it, he was always on the phone. He'd slowly pulled his black-rimmed glasses from his face and hidden his eyes from Kaia. Then he'd told his children that their mother was gone, just like that. So simple, so quiet, and so painful.

Some things happen without reason.

"Well," said Kaleb, pulling Kaia from her thick, suffocating memories with ease, "Lycanthrope are born with a destiny."

"Born with one? That seems improbable."

There was a flash of anger again, and Kaia stiffened. She wasn't sure how she felt about the fire in his eyes, whether the slight trembling it incited from her meant she was thrilled or intimidated. But it faded just as quickly as it had appeared.

"That's what a mate is, Kaia. A person who, the second you smell her, when you see her, hear her, touch her...in that moment, you know for some unexplainable, senseless reason that she is exactly what you've spent your life helplessly waiting for."

Kaia couldn't quite breathe correctly. Well, it wasn't that she couldn't but that suddenly there was something in front of her that, for just a couple seconds, seemed more important than breath.

Kaleb's eyes were on her again, flying over her skin, making her sit up straighter. They were suddenly brighter, overwhelming. "You were made for me, Kaia. And me for you."

Was she? She didn't know if she was what Kaleb needed. She could tell at a touch that he lived his life with the world on his shoulders, that something was out of place inside of Kaleb. There were too few keys on his piano; the songs he played could never be perfect. Perhaps she was his missing ivory.

Before Kaia could respond, the door across from her bed drifted open with a creak. The sound told Kaia that the house was much older than she was. A man with raincloud gray hair stood in the frame, his silvery eyes grave and his hulking build blocking the light that streamed in from the hallway. Kaleb immediately stood, his muscles taut again and his arms over his chest.

"I've heard enough," said the man, his ragged voice making him seem older than he was. "The Prowlers won't stand for this...this..." His eyes were flicking between Kaleb and Kaia as if he couldn't decide which was more revolting. Kaia wasn't sure what they'd done to deserve such a look of pure distaste; it was like this stranger had swallowed a bug or like someone had forced something on him.

"It's rude to eavesdrop, Grayson," Kaleb said, his voice low, steady. His eyes were trained on Grayson, gauging his every action. It was fascinating to watch. "Especially on your Alpha."

Alpha? Kaia wasn't an idiot. She knew what that word meant. She didn't, however, know what such a title spelled for her future.

Grayson's voice came again, a growl now, "You are not my Alpha, and you never will be, boy." Then Grayson turned to stare directly at Kaia, his eyes furious. It was like a dam had broken inside of him, and suddenly all the frustration he'd been holding back rushed towards Kaia full force. "And when the rest of your Pack finds out that your mate is a human..." He might as well have said 'mosquito.' "...you won't be their Alpha, either."

Kaia shrunk back under Grayson's glare, her back pressing into the bed frame; it started Kaleb growling, stepping forward as if, should Kaia ask it, he would launch himself towards Grayson to would protect her.

Never before had she felt someone else's disdain for her being human. She didn't know what to call the feeling that welled up inside of her, pooling in her chest and rising until she could barely breathe. Mated to a human. At first, she felt like he was right; she was a human and undoubtedly such a thing was...but then she thought better. She was a human, not a lycanthrope. All that meant was that she would have to try harder, be braver, get stronger.

Kaia stopped cowering and instead straightened, leaning forward. She didn't understand the situation in full, but she did understand one thing. "Prejudice is the child of ignorance, Grayson." She might as well have said 'gnat.'

Grayson looked horrified. It was as though he hadn't expected the human to speak, hadn't even known that it could, much less that it would burn his skin with its tongue. Kaleb sharply exhaled. A laugh. When Kaia looked back at him, tearing her eyes from the stunned Grayson, Kaleb was shaking his head, a smile on his lips. "What a wonder..." he breathed, then lifted his head and looked back to Grayson.

"You will not tell the Pack until I have officially announced Kaia's presence here. It is my responsibility as Alpha," Kaleb said, his voice harsh. He was reminding Grayson of the power he held. A growl rumbled through Grayson, tension buzzing in the air between two terrifying glares before the door slammed shut again. Kaia stared at it, wondering if everything that had just happened had been real or if this was a dream and she'd wake up staring at the white ceiling of her hospital room in a moment.

"You're bold." Kaia looked at Kaleb, who was staring down at her. It was unmistakably admiration in his eyes this time.

Kaia exhaled. "Not usually." And it was true. She wasn't usually this brave. Typically, she would have lowered her head and accepted the insult. But something about Kaleb being there made her feel like she could stand up for herself, had to stand up for herself.

"He could kill you easily."

"No, he can't. You wouldn't let him." She wasn't sure where those words came from, but they came. And she knew they were true. Maybe it made no sense, but she trusted Kaleb. What a mysterious world she'd found.

Kaleb knew she'd spoken the truth, too. "I'd die first."

Kaia looked up at him, rubbing her hands over her arms. At that moment, she knew that he was honest. Kaleb would die before he let anyone hurt her.

Even if werewolves were hungering for her flesh, she had never felt safer, not since she'd fallen asleep in her mom's arms to the Scooby Doo theme song.