The Last She

Chapter Three - Ara

I woke to a man shaking my shoulder and barely managed not to scream. Kaden stood above me.

"Rise and shine, princess. We're going shopping." He held out a hand, and I didn't move, the whole of yesterday rushing back in. I hadn't meant to sleep. Why the hell had I slept? I'd meant to escape . . . but the bed, the full belly, the bath, the clean clothes . . . damn. He stood there waiting, hand extended, so I took it and let him haul me off the bed, stepping away from him immediately after. I realized too late I'd let the princess nickname slide, but it suddenly felt like I had much bigger problems. The room was cold, the fire from last night long dead.

"Sam, Jeb, and Issac went scouting. It's just us today," he said, answering my question.

My stomach clenched. "Any food?"

Kaden smiled. "You read my mind."

After he untied my hands, we ate a meal of some sort of dried meat and apples, and then Kaden led us from the storeroom back into the heart of the mall. The sun was already high in the sky, which meant Kaden had let me sleep in, a fact that embarrassed me, and put me on the defensive; why was he being nice to me? In the daylight, the mysterious, haunted feel of the place was replaced by a sad emptiness. I tried to remember the times when I'd gone shopping with friends, where I'd laughed and strolled down bright, clean corridors, but couldn't. That carefree girl was gone.

I watched Kaden from the corner of my eye as we walked, blushing when he caught me looking and winked. I wasn't checking him out—at least not that way. I had a theory, and a plan. Every so often he reached his right hand back to touch the lower part of his back. My father sometimes made the same subconscious movement when he wore a concealed weapon. If I was right, and he had some sort of weapon hidden there, I needed to steal it before I escaped.

Maybe I could ask him to—what, take off his shirt again? The wide shoulders and hard muscles of last night hadn't been hard to look at, but even I wasn't sure how to sell that request. I stored the problem away, deciding if I was going to spend time with the enemy, I might as well understand them.

The stupidest part of this whole thing—the part I would have never admitted out loud or to my father—was that I no longer viewed Kaden as an enemy. I believed him when he said he wouldn't hurt me. Not that I forgave him for taking me captive, or wanted to go to this clan, but of Kaden himself, intuition told me I didn't have to be afraid. Wary, yes. But not afraid.

"You come here a lot?" I said into the silence of our footsteps.

"When we're on foot we always stop here, because it's Sam's favorite and it's within our clan's territory." How like men to set up territories to fight over.

"You aren't usually on foot?" I kept my voice light.

"Our team is usually on horseback. Covers more ground."

This surprised me. "You have horses at the clan?"

"Thirty-two. I'm in charge of the stables." There was pride in his voice, but I felt cold. Thirty-two horses. How organized did you have to be to have thirty-two horses? And if they had horses, what else did they have? Dogs? Could they track me? Maybe I should just take my chances and run now.

Kaden interrupted my thoughts. "Let's start at REI, they've got some sturdy women's clothes no one's touched." Right. Supplies first, then escape. Even if I couldn't find a way to steal his weapon, I needed supplies to make it back home, especially with winter approaching. Might as well let him help me collect everything I needed.

Kaden led me through the aisles of REI. The glass displays were coated in dust, and the once-white floors held tracks of different rodents that I didn't bother to examine. Some of the rows looked untouched, others like a bulldozer had run through them. Together we pushed through piles of debris to find hidden treasures. I found a large backpack and a sleeping bag that, when compressed, could fit into a shoebox. I picked out hiking boots, tennis shoes, jeans, shirts, and a flannel top. I'd never enjoyed shopping, but it was fun taking things for free, almost thrilling—like I was stealing them. I even snuck a few things in when Kaden wasn't watching: a pocketknife, a journal, and a compass. Above everything else, I needed to find my way home.