Kallen＇s Atonement
Chapter One
Kallen sat alone in the sill of a large window at the back of the compound and looked out. He really didn’t have much of a view. Just the freeway that banked the back of the building, but it sure as hell beat going out and facing the others in the coalition.
At least in this place, he had some peace. He didn’t have to face the sneers or hear the names that were thrown his way. He didn’t have to smell the hate that came rolling off the others or feel their hostility. Most of all he didn’t have to see the looks of disgust on their faces as they looked down their noses at the dirty Hyena.
It didn’t matter that he was half Hawk also, all they cared about was the fact that when he shifted, it was into Hyena form. So to them he might as well be a full-out Hyena. Whereas his brother, Gage, was part Hyena, but since he transformed into a Hawk, they still treated him like one of their own.
Kallen wanted to hate his brother for that. It might be rotten of him to admit that, but he did and in the end he loved his brother too much for that. Gage had taken him in and given Kallen something that his mother and father had never been capable of, a caring hand and a good home.
“Hey, what are you doing out here by yourself?” Ash asked as he sat down next to Kallen.
A Hawk and one of Kallen’s few friends, Ash always had a smile on his face and a mouth that never stopped talking. Or at least he did now that he was mated and healed from his injuries.
“I’m trying to hide out,” Kallen admitted.
“I thought you usually did that on the roof?”
“I did, but the other Hawks found out and started to fly over and throw rocks down on me,” Kallen said, a heat coming over his face.
Outrage showed on Ash’s usually easygoing face. “Are you kidding me? Did you tell anybody?”
Kallen shook his head, his brown shaggy hair falling into his face. “No. It’s too embarrassing.”
“Bullshit! You can’t let them get away with treating you like that. You should at least tell your brother.”
“He already gets into enough fights over me as it is.”
“Then tell Colin or Daniel.”
“I don’t want to bother them. They have enough problems as it is without having to worry about me.”
Ash threw his hands up into the air. “Well, how about Riley? He’s good at making the Hawks behave.”
“Riley has enough on his plate at the moment.”
What Kallen couldn’t divulge is that Riley was in the infirmary the night before because he’d hit a bump in the road with his battle against bi-polar. They’d had to pump him full of thorazine to calm him down it had been so bad. So the last one Kallen could go to was Riley.
“Well, how about Jayce? He’s your boss, isn’t he?”
Kallen gave Ash a sideways look. “He’s also a feline. I don’t think the Hawks will listen to him.”
Ash tilted his head to the side. “You have a point there. You could always go to Shane. He could scare them into being nice to you.”
Kallen shivered. “No, thank you. That guy terrifies me. I’m afraid to be in the same room as him, let alone tell him that I’m being picked on and to please help me. It makes me sound like a little kid going to the big bully in the playground and asking for help.”
“I guess you’re right about that one. I wouldn’t be able to go to him on that one either, and he actually seems to like me.”
Kallen let out a deep sigh. “So it looks like I’m stuck with this being my new thinking spot.”
Ash looked out the window. “It’s not that bad. You have a great view of I-75.”
Kallen laughed. Leave it to Ash to find the positive, no matter how sucky the situation might be. “Yeah, who could ask for more? It even has a sign for Hooters, boobs and all. Too bad I don’t like cleavage. Now if it were a sign for a male gay bar, I’d be all set.”
They fell silent for a moment before Ash asked, “How are things going between you and Gage?”
“Okay, I guess, considering the start we got off to. You know, with me trying to blackmail him and all. He seems to have gotten over that. Or at least I hope he will get over it soon.”
“I think he knows it wasn’t your fault. You were pretty desperate at the time.”
“Yeah, I just can’t help but think that it still stands between us, though. Sometimes when he doesn’t think I’m looking, he gives me these funny stares like he doesn’t know whether to trust me or not.”
“I heard they let all your buddies go. That has to say something.”
“They were nothing more than harmless strays anyway, so that’s no big deal. They would never harm anybody. The reason why they were kicked out of their packs in the first place was because they refused to prey on humans,” Kallen pointed out.