Captured (Wolf in Exile Part 1): Werewolf Shifter/Vampire Paranormal Romance by Ambrielle Kirk, Amber Ella Monroe Page A

the shelter and slipped outside. Only a small piece of daylight shined inside before he let it close.
    Feelings of dismay rose within her and she questioned how she could ever trust a convicted murderer.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    T rue to his word , Thane came back to the hut in what seemed like no time. Kalena had already begun the process of unwrapping the fish when he shifted the boulder and came inside. Now they sat around the fire pit, discarding the inedible remnants of the fish in the hole.
    She folded her legs and waited as he poked at the pile of logs with a long piece of metal. The fire cracked as Thane laid another piece of wood on top of the others.
    “You didn’t kill your parents, did you?” Kalena asked.
    “No, I didn’t.”
    “What happened?”
    He didn’t immediately answer.
    Kalena realized that she was probably prying too much on the matter. His parents were dead. Murdered. He was wrongfully accused, sent here by his own brother, and he somehow believed that there was no escape for him. What else was there to know?
    “My parents were assassinated in their home. Shot dead while they slept. In order to get what they wanted, someone needed them out of the equation. I was the first one on the scene…after the shooting happened.”
    “Oh…” Kalena couldn’t imagine the pain of losing either parent. Her parents still preferred the warmer weather and had decided to stay in Florida, even after discussing moving to a state with milder, less humid weather. They loved to travel and that kept them out of Kalena’s affairs most of the time. However, given her current state, now was not a good time to have her parents on a two-week cruise and excursion to Greece.
    “As time passes, wounds tend to heal themselves, but the memories never go away." His voice was laced with sadness.
    “I’m sorry. I wish I knew how to help you.”
    “You're the strongest link that me or my pack brothers have when it comes to gaining access codes to the financial system and the backdoor database you mentioned,” he said. “You don't ever have to step foot on Silex properties again, but if you relay whatever you know to my pack brothers, they may be able to replicate it and retrieve the data files.”
    She sighed. “It's the least I can do for you when I get out of here. If I get out of here…”
    “You will.”
    Kalena wrung her hands together. “How cruel can a person get to hold innocent people against their will in a place like this without ever verifying anything?”
    “Cruelty has little to do with it. Our Pack laws dictate everything, even our punishment for crimes we have committed. The shifter community is far different than a human’s,” Thane said. “The truth is that we are animals, and we're treated by humans as such, despite our dual nature. There are a lot of customs and rituals belonging to us that humans won’t understand, but as long as we uphold the peace treaty written years ago, your government swore to turn a blind eye on our practices.”
    “What practices?”
    “Practices such as the rules governing us, and the laws within our Packs which have been in existence for hundreds of years. In the shifter world, we still fight for dominance, and in some cases, we fight to the death.”
    “Like when you fought and killed the wolves in the cage.”
    He swallowed visibly. “Yes, but we don’t fight and kill for no reason at all. There has to be something at stake, something we want badly.”
    “Like power. Politicians argue all the time over power in our government,” she offered.
    He nodded. “Yes, like power. And territory. Among other things.”
    “What exactly was at stake last night?” She just couldn’t accept that a man would immerse himself in so much violence to take a drugged woman back to a prison hut for three nights.
    “I share every part of my being with my wolf. Whatever he wants, I want. Of course, we don’t always agree. While the man might be more coerced into satisfying physical