“You wanna play dirty, kitty-cat? I can do that.”

As Aric pushed to his feet, Kalen half-expected him to shift into his wolf form. He wasn’t prepared for the other man to fling his hand out, answering Kalen’s challenge with a plume of fire that rocketed toward his face. A shriek echoed in the hallway that he identified as Mac’s frightened voice just as he brought up his hand and pushed his power at the fire, driving it back at his nemesis.

The wolf switched tactics, and the fire vanished. Before Kalen could react, he felt his body rise, feet leaving the floor. The fucker was using his gift of telekinesis to fight back, and quite effectively. Kalen’s body spun around to face away from the wolf, making it almost impossible to throw a spell at him. Then he was body-slammed into the wall, his entire right side taking the hit. Pain shot through his head and arm, and he both heard and felt a sickening snap.

“Ahhg!” Agony swept him, and he was slammed again.

“Like that, kitty?” Aric sneered. “How does that feel?”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Nick’s voice bellowed. “Savage, put him the fuck down!”

“You’re the boss.”

Kalen was unceremoniously dropped. He crumpled to the floor, trying to breathe through the terrible pain. And, as his head slowly cleared of Malik’s coercion, shame. What had he done?

Hands rolled him carefully to his back and he found himself blinking at Nick’s worried face. The commander’s gaze went to Kalen’s right arm.

“Can you lift it? Wiggle your fingers?”

He tried, and a bolt of white-hot fire shot through his arm as a cry escaped his lips. “No.”

Nick glared at Aric, who was standing off to the side, jaw clenched. “You broke his arm. You’d better have a good goddamned reason for attacking one of your own brothers.”

“First, he ain’t my brother. The others, yeah. But not that freak,” he said with undisguised contempt.

This time, the agony hit Kalen in a completely different place, and he struggled not to let it show as the man went on.

“Second, I do have a good reason. He attacked me first.”

Nick’s gaze returned to Kalen. “Is this true?”

Apparently the PreCog couldn’t “see” everything. Kalen swallowed hard. “Yes.”

A small crowd had gathered, some of the other guys muttering, one giving a low whistle. To his mortification, Mac stood with the others, looking at him in horror. Obviously she’d witnessed the whole thing.

“Why?” the commander bit off.

Such a simple question.

“Because he wouldn’t take his hands off me.” Such a sad answer.

Immediately, Nick understood and the anger began to drain from his face. “Flashback?”

“Yeah,” he whispered. The awful memories threatened to overtake him again. “All I felt was his hands and he wouldn’t let me go and I remembered . . .” He couldn’t finish. But he didn’t have to.

Finally catching on, Aric swore. To Nick, he said, “I thought he was just being a dick, especially after how he’d just talked to Mac. I didn’t know.”

Whatever Nick might’ve said was forgotten for the moment as Zander Cole, the Pack’s Healer, knelt beside Nick, forcing him to make room. “Damn, that’s a bad break. Lucky for you, I can fix it right up.” He sent Kalen an encouraging smile, which Kalen couldn’t quite return.

“If you say so.”

“I do. The bad news is I’ve got to realign the bone first or you’re going to be all crooked. Ready?”

“Do your worst.”

Lifting Kalen’s arm, Zan gave him an apologetic look. Working quickly, he pulled the injured limb with all his strength, popping the severed ends back into place. Kalen yelled, dark spots dancing in front of his eyes. Nausea pushed bile into his throat and he nearly passed out. How he kept from either throwing up or losing consciousness was sheer luck.

When Zan’s fingers wrapped over the place where the bone had broken the skin, Kalen panted, sweat trickling down his temples into his hair. Then warmth enveloped the point of the break, and the horrible, stabbing burn gradually lessened. The heat felt good, and soon the pain was gone. Checking out his arm, he saw that his skin was covered in drying blood from the break, but the arm was as good as new.

“Thanks, Z-man,” he said, giving the guy a wan smile.

“No problem. Here.” Pushing to his feet, he offered Kalen a hand up.

He took it and stood awkwardly, not making eye contact with anyone as he waited for Nick to deliver his judgment. It came swiftly.

“I get what happened here,” the commander said in a low, stern tone. “It’s no secret that you two, in addition to your own problems, have had issues with each other from day one. But I’m not a fucking kindergarten teacher and this isn’t a playground for you two to beat the shit out of each other while you work out those issues. Is that clear?”

Kalen winced. “Yes, sir.”

“Yeah,” Aric drawled, earning him a hard stare from Nick. He cleared his throat. “I mean, yes, sir.”

“Find some common ground and do it on your own time. I’ve got a Pack to run. I don’t have time for this bullshit and neither does anyone else. If this happens again, you’re both suspended. Indefinitely.”

“What!” Aric shouted. “It wasn’t my fault! He—”

“And now you know why,” Nick enunciated. He was fast losing his trademark patience. “You know how to read your teammate’s signals better than that, Aric. I know you do. You should have stopped and read his body language, and if you had, you’d have known something was wrong. Then you would have let him go like he asked and diffused the situation with a bit of compassion. You’re a better Pack mate and brother than this.”

Aric glanced to Rowan, found her lips tight with disapproval. His high cheekbones colored and he hung his head in shame. “You’re right, Nicky. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not me you owe the apology.”

He didn’t want to speak to Kalen at all. Anyone could see that. It hurt more than Kalen wanted to admit. But the man closed the distance and nodded.

“I’m sorry, Sorcerer. I fucked up.”

“Kalen.”

“What?” Aric’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“You’re always calling me Goth-boy, kitty, pretty boy, whatever. My name is Kalen,” he said quietly.

“Right.” Aric laughed without real humor. “Sure, Kalen, whatever.”

Nick shook his head. “All right, everyone, show’s over. Let’s call it a day.”

Kalen had never heard a better suggestion. As the group broke up, some of the guys clapped him on the back or gave him an encouraging word or two in a show of support. But none, he noted, actually stopped to really talk to him. To reach out.

Nobody ever had before. Why should now be any different?

Even Mac had left without speaking to him further. No reason she should’ve stayed after the way he’d spoken to her. Aric had been right and Kalen had been too angry to listen.

Now he was alone in the empty corridor, longing for companionship. He’d give almost anything for the joy of the easy friendships these guys shared. Not to mention a beautiful mate like Jax and Aric had found. It seemed those dreams were to remain forever out of his reach.

“Don’t you have anything to say about that?” he asked Malik bitterly.

The bastard didn’t respond, though. At that moment, he would’ve given anything for companionship, even the slimy Unseelie’s, because then he wouldn’t be so alone.

Which was, no doubt, exactly what Malik had planned.

And that was the most frightening thought of all.

Kalen tossed in his bed, twisting in tangled sheets.

The night was too hot, the room stifling. He’d lowered the thermostat in his quarters, but it hadn’t helped. The cotton sheets clung to his overheated skin, sticky and miserable. For hours he’d fought for oblivion, but it remained elusive. He was restless.

So alone.