Shattered

Chapter 43: Paranoid

Kaden's POV:

"You'll never be alone, I'll be with you from dusk 'til dawn, baby I'm right here."- Zayn and Sia

People mentioned jealousy to me before. Xander got jealous. Tess did too, pretty much everyone did. Wolves were territorial and we didn't like it when people tried to encroach on that territory. It was in our blood to be on the defense, ready to defend our pack, our loved ones, everything we had, especially our romantic relationships. Except I never had that problem. I was never jealous of anyone or anything. The only thing that I came close to being jealous of was Xander's relationship with his parents. They loved him and he loved them and they were the family I always wanted to have. Xander used to comment to me the reason I didn't get jealous in relationships is because I didn't let myself get attached enough to care. I always told him to fuck off but... If I was being honest, he wasn't totally wrong. That was until now.

Cass's potion had me speeding down the road to where I felt my mate and it wasn't just that I was jealous, it was that I knew nothing about Chase except the brief glimpses I saw and I did not care for what I saw. The first time was when he threw knives at her. She said she knew he wouldn't hurt her but I couldn't understand how she could believe that when he was throwing knives at her. The next time I saw him with her was when he put a gun to her head. Then the multiple times I caught him checking her out, making flirtatious comments at her, constantly telling her she had to do things it seemed she really didn't want to do. So while part of it was definitely jealousy, the other part was that I did not trust that fucker with my mate, especially not if he was being honest when he said she was passed out. In his lap.

In the lap of the guy she left you to go off with. The guy she's met in the middle of the night a number of times. The guy she calls when she's scared like that night after we passed the strip club. The guy who knows all the secrets she doesn't want to tell you.

All right, jealousy might've had a strong part too but it was also very true that I didn't trust him with my mate while she was as out of it as she was. I didn't really trust any of her friends that much. The only one I had any amount of faith in was Alek and I doubted he was at that party. Which meant Violet was there with Chase, possibly Chase's sister who also wanted her and also threatened her...

I floored the gas pedal and was thankful for my fast reflexes as I drove at criminal speeds until I was in a neighborhood with more houses boarded up or broken down than ones left standing. I wouldn't have needed the help, but the large group of cars parked in front of one house confirmed what Cass's brew did. Violet was in that house.

I parked the car and took quick strides up to the door that was just left open, scenting her immediately and weaving through the crowds to find her. Clouds of smoke filled every room, making it difficult to see. There were people snorting and smoking all over the place, people passed out, people that really needed to go find a room. I passed through all of it and stopped, looking through an open doorway and seeing her laying on a couch, eyes shut, breathing slow, and a hoodie that smelled suspiciously like Chase draped over her.

Another one of her friends, I couldn't remember his name, approached her sleeping form slowly and reached down towards her. I was ready to smack his hand away but someone else did.

"The fuck are you doing?" Chase asked, shoving the guy back. "What are you doing, Lance?"

"Nothing, I was just checking on her, Jesus," Lance said, throwing his hands up in surrender. "She took a lot of shit, aren't you worried she's not going to wake up?"

"She's fine, it's nothing we haven't done before," Chase said, flicking the ashes of his cigarette towards Lance. "Now stay the fuck away from her, got it?"