20. Emily
I gulped as I was led up the stairs and through another beautiful building. However, I felt like I wasn’t able to appreciate it like I had Bella Donna’s. My nerves were really starting to build up, the night was going in a direction I wasn’t sure I liked, and Gavin was still hurrying me along, his grip on my arm feeling much more insistent.
I swore he was practically vibrating as we checked in. All the while, I wanted to sink into the floor. I felt like everyone who saw us knew what we were about to do.
Yet, I also told myself there was nothing wrong with them knowing, because no one actually cared. It was completely normal for me to consummate my relationship with my loving boyfriend of over a year.
So why were alarm bells ringing in my head?
I didn’t know, but I did my best to ignore them. I was done with letting fear rule me.
But what if it wasn’t fear ruling me?
The thought threw far too much of a spanner in the works, so I did my best to beat it into submission and hide it somewhere in the deepest parts of my psyche.
I wasn’t sure if I was successful or not, because I was being hauled around again, herded towards the elevator, then hurried in.
“Gavin, we can take our time, you know,” I said gently. I didn’t want to discourage him in any way, but God, I needed a fucking second. I wanted romance, not a tryst in a hotel room we’d never be in again. If I had to spell it out, I would, but I was hoping my boyfriend, who I’d thought knew me so well, would take the goddamned hint.
“I know, baby, I know,” he said, crowding me against the wall and placing a kiss on one cheek, then the other. As nervous as I was, I felt my body respond to the soft press of his lips. I flushed with more warmth and felt my heartbeat pick up. “It’s just, well, look at you. You look like a dream come true. My thick, gorgeous girlfriend.”
Ugh, that word. Thick. I knew it was meant as a compliment, but for years, I’d been told I was too fat to be “thick,” and now that society deemed me an acceptable weight, the word didn’t feel like it was meant for my body. I was mid-sized, sure, with an hourglass figure. I didn’t need to co-opt language that wasn’t really for me.
I let that go, too.
“Babe,” I said, placing my hands on his chest to try to get some space between us. “There are cameras in here.”
“Let them see. I want them to know how incredibly hot my girlfriend is, and that she’s all mine.”
All his? Something in me railed against that—violently. I pushed him back harder, and this time, he did back up, but he looked more wryly amused than apologetic.
It was fine, it’s all fine. I just need to clear my head.
Hopefully, there’d be some balcony in our hotel room so I could go outside for a few minutes and clear my head. I wasn’t chickening out. I just needed… time. I needed time.
But almost the second we were in the room, Gavin urged me deeper into it. The next thing I knew, he was kissing me again, and hard.
Dear Lord, my transfer-proof lipstick was going to be put to the test. I tried to relax and melt into the kiss, but I just couldn’t get my wits about me.
Suddenly, Gavin broke the kiss and headed towards the phone. He picked it up.
“Hello,” he said after a pause. “Could you have room service deliver a bottle of champagne and strawberries in about an hour?”
Oh, geez, he was pulling out all the stops, wasn’t he? I smiled at that, even if I wasn’t so fond of getting more alcohol. I really didn’t want a dry mouth for our festivities.
Strawberries and champagne in an hour did mean he wasn’t expecting us to do anything until after that time, which took a huge amount of pressure off me. Okay, so he was eager to be alone and be romantic. I couldn’t really blame him for that.
Once Gavin hung up, he turned to look at me expectantly, and I shot back a small smile. But I realized I didn’t know what to do next.
“Um, should we take a shower?” I suggested. No, it wasn’t the same as Gavin slowly peeling my clothes off and gently laying me down on the bed to make love. Nevertheless, it’d be nice to get naked with each other, us lathering our bodies together, just enjoying the heat, the steam, and the intimate touch. Then we could lounge around in fluffy robes until the champagne and strawberries arrived, then indulge in those until we were ready to keep going.
Yeah, I could see that as a great way of giving Gavin my first time. It was sweet. Soft. So much what I’d dreamed of.
“No need.”
Oh.
“All I need is to kiss you.”
Before I could say anything one way or the other, Gavin pulled me to him. This time, he was patient, pressing his lips to mine slowly, then increasing the pressure until I was nearly dizzy with sensation.
Somehow, he managed to turn my body without so much as breaking our lip lock while sitting me down on the bed. One of his hands cupped my face while the other gripped my hip. Firm, but not as much as my body craved.
Despite the nerves and irritation, a hunger was rising in me, combining with the fever radiating through my limbs almost the entire night. As the seconds ticked on, I found it easier and easier to melt into what Gavin was doing and go with the flow.
“God, you’re beautiful,” Gavin breathed, sounding more lost in the sauce than I’d ever imagined. I wasn’t going to lie—it was flattering.
But then the kiss grew more demanding, and his breathing more ragged as he pressed into me like he was trying to coax me flat onto the mattress. Did he want to have sex before the strawberries and champagne? That seemed awfully fast…
As much as I’d been getting into it, I was now entirely out. I went from being in the game to not even being in the stadium stands. No, in fact, I was waiting in the three-mile line to the ladies’ bathroom.
Come on, Emily. Don’t get in your head now!
It felt like a good part of me was still eager for sex, but the rest of me was quickly shriveling up and moving away from the idea. No, no, no! Could my anxiety give me a break for once? Was that too much to ask?!
“I’ve been waiting for this forever,” Gavin groaned into my mouth, and that didn’t sit right, either. I knew that I’d made him wait far longer than most would, and I’d always praised him for having the patience of a saint, but... it felt gross. Like sex was what he’d been holding out for and nothing else.
I was looking at it from a negative lens—there was nothing wrong with looking forward to sex—but that pessimistic, unforgiving take spawned a new thought. What if the issue wasn’t that my human side, with all her anxiety, was getting in the way? What if the part of me that was interested in sex, that felt turned on and almost ready to pant for it, was my wolf, and the hesitant part of me was the side that’d always been there?
Oh.
Oh, shit.
My wolf was only just coming into being and didn’t understand all the complexities of the world. She was all instinct and raw power. I would’ve been surprised if she knew anything beyond the four Fs: fighting, fleeing, feeding, and fucking.
But what did that mean? Was I not pulling myself towards some personal victory? I mean, if my wolf was wild and uncontrolled enough to be at risk of killing and eating my family, perhaps... perhaps I shouldn’t let her decide when to take a huge step forward in my sex life.
Gavin groaned again, deepening the kiss, and his fingers bit into me. Things were escalating, but I just wasn’t keeping up.
“Gavin,” I muttered, putting my hands between us and pushing on his chest like I had in the elevator. “Gavin, please…”
“Fuck, I love the way you say my name.” He kissed my face, his teeth scraping at my chin.
I was done. I was so done.
“Gavin, seriously, stop. I-I…”
But he kept pushing, trying to pin me to the bed, and it was like the entire world changed. I was no longer in an uncomfortable situation with my boyfriend. I was in an awful situation with someone I thought I could trust.
I twisted away, or tried to, and then the two of us tumbled to the floor. I cried out an apology on instinct, thinking Gavin hadn’t realized I was trying to get away and I’d hurt him again.
“Dammit, Emily!” he spat before I could get a word out. “Why do you have to make everything so difficult?”
I gasped, still wiggling away from him, and then he reached out and grabbed my necklace. The very same beautiful necklace that both my parents gave to me, a representation of how much I was loved.
That was a line he shouldn’t have crossed.
“Let go! ” I said, grabbing for the handbag I’d left on the bed and slamming it into his face. That threw him through a loop, enough for me to get out from underneath him.
“What the hell, Emily?!”
“What do you mean, ‘what the hell?’ I said stop!”
“I thought you were just playing hard to get.”
“Hard to get?” I was so angry that it was bubbling outward. “Hard to get isn’t withdrawing consent, you asshole!”
I moved a step past him, but he caught my arm and pushed me back. It was the most forceful he’d ever been, and honestly, it knocked the words right out of me.
It was so strange. I’d known Gavin for two years, and we’d been dating for over a year. If I’d ever thought he was capable of such a thing, I’d have ended things right then and there. Because I threw sex into the mix, he’d become some wild animal? No, it was worse than that: I was the one with a wolf inside me, and I’d never try to force someone into bed.
“Emily, are you really trying to walk out right now?”
“Of course I am! The night’s been completely ruined, and frankly, I’m not in the mood. I wanted to have something special with you, Gavin, but you turned this into something awful.”
“Are you kidding me?” he hissed. “You’ve made me wait for months and months and months, and now you wanna quit at the last second again? I told you I won’t stand being teased. This is shit, and you know it.”
I could feel that he was still trying to corral me back to the bed, and I had the overwhelming urge to sink my teeth into his neck and pull. Thankfully, I resisted it, just darted to the side to move past him once again.
Then the fucker tried to cut me off.
Oh no. I was done. I was so thoroughly done, he was lucky I wasn’t really trying to hurt him, but I also knew he was bigger than me. Stronger. I’d always trusted him with that fact, but now I didn’t at all. I ducked into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, grateful that it was still standard for every hotel to have a lock on the door.
I flipped that bitch as soon as I could and positioned myself against the wall on the far side of the room. With no weapon within reach, I grabbed the hair dryer connected to the wall. If he tried to claim that I wanted anything, he’d have a hard time explaining to the judge why I’d pressed the grate into his face until it burned.
“What the hell, Emily! Let me in! You’re being ridiculous!” Oh, yes, I was the one being ridiculous, sure. “Look, I know you’re scared about having sex for the first time, but this dramatic thing isn’t you. I’ve always been good to you, you know I’ll make it good for you, and you can’t blame me for being excited. Come on? Don’t you want to make me feel good? You know you want this. This whole thing was your idea.”
When I didn’t answer, he banged on the door. Once. Twice. Then in rapid succession. I could only blink and stare at the door reverberating in its frame. Was this really happening? For the past two weeks, it felt like my entire life had inverted itself. Never in a million years would I have thought suggesting me and my boyfriend make love would result in me hiding in the bathroom, paralyzed in utter terror of the man I loved. Or thought I loved.
It was when he stopped banging and started yelling at me again, then started reasoning, that I was able to move. I pulled my phone from my purse, grateful I’d managed not to drop it after hitting Gavin in the face with it. My screen was too blurry to make anything out. Had something glitched? After a beat, I realized no, my eyes were merely so full of tears that my vision was practically swimming. I quickly wiped them away and called each of my friends, one by one.
Per usual, none of them answered. I shouldn’t have been surprised. It was Friday, and they were likely all out at the club or celebrating with their own hookups. Besides, whenever I messaged them, it was usually for school or homework, so it made sense if they wanted to back-burner me during their weekends.
But this wasn’t a question of notes or a reminder to study for our tests. I felt like I was in real danger. Should I call my father? I suppose that was a perfectly valid thing to do, but I imagined the shame when he found me huddled and tear-stained in the bathroom, dressed in sexy clothes. I knew it was completely normal for a twenty-one-year-old woman to have sex; it just seemed mortifying for my father to know.
So what, then? The police? Would they even do anything? What if Gavin was somehow being influenced by my shift? I didn’t think that was possible, but everything was so up in the air and confusing lately, I couldn’t say for sure.
What options were left then? Did I just resign myself to my fate?
There was one person I could still call for help. One person who was sworn to protect me, apparently since the day I was born.
With hands trembling so hard I was worried I’d drop my phone entirely, I called Caleb’s newly created contact. Of course, he picked up immediately, because he always did. The truth was, I could rely on him.
“Emily, what’s going on?” he asked. “Are you okay? Do you think you’re close to shifting?” I appreciated how concerned he sounded, and it gave me the bravery I needed to get the words out.
“I’m not shifting, no, but I need someone to pick me up.”
I expected a demand for an explanation or an exasperated sigh, but no, Caleb skipped all that. “Where are you?”
“Oh, uh... you don’t want to know why?”
“You can tell me when I get you. I figured if you’re calling me for a ride, you really need one.”
I told him about the hotel I was at, and I could already hear him moving, keys jingling vaguely in the background. “Shit, I’m on the other side of town.”
Ah, I should have known better that I’d be so lucky. At least he’d been willing at first.
“I see. Don’t worry, then?—”
But he kept on talking. “According to the GPS, the route is almost half an hour.” The honk of a car told me he was on the street. “But I think I can cut that down to twenty. Are you in danger? Can you hold on for that long?”
“I can hold on, yeah.” With perfect timing, Gavin banged on the door several times, saying that he was done arguing and just needed to pee.
Of course, Caleb heard. “Is that who I think it is?”
I thought about lying, but what was the point? I knew what he’d heard.
“You tell that fuckface he has approximately five minutes to adjust his attitude and get the hell out of there before I make him regret having a tongue.”
Goodness.
I should’ve been horrified, but I wasn’t. I felt my temperature spike, and something deep within responded with interest. It liked that Caleb was mad, that he believed me and was ready to be there at the drop of a hat. He wasn’t trying to excuse Gavin, didn’t even ask me why he was yelling. He just knew it was wrong.
Why couldn’t I have that belief in myself?
“Where are you, Emily?”
“I said, the?—”
“No, I mean in the room.”
“I locked myself in the bathroom.”
“Good girl. Very good girl.” His words make my cheeks color more. I’d never known I was into that. What a time to learn. “Is there a towel rack in there?”
“No. They’re all hung up on a bar built into the wall.”
“Fuck, okay. Is the handle to the door a regular knob or more of a loop?”
“Uh, a loop!” I didn’t know why he was asking me, but having something to think about besides the thumping at the door really was helping.
“Very good, Emily. You’re doing great.” I nearly swooned, but got halfway distracted by hearing a vehicle start that didn’t sound like a motorcycle. “Is there a plunger?”
“Yeah, a heavy-duty one.”
“Perfect. I’m going to give you some directions, and I want you to follow them to the letter, okay?”
“Yeah, I can do that.”
“I want you to take all the towels and tie them end to end as quickly as you can. Put the plunger through the door handle diagonally, so it makes it hard to turn, then tie one end of the towels to just below the head of the plunger.”
“Um, okay.” That was a lot, but it didn’t seem too complicated. I started hurrying to grab everything I needed.
“Once you do that, I want you to loop it around the base of the toilet, as low as you can go, then tie it to the other side of the plunger, tight. Get all the slack out of it. It won’t keep him out forever, but even if he manages to pop the lock by force, it’ll stop him from being able to turn the knob enough to get in. You should be able to throw yourself at the door and buy yourself more time that way.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Just something I picked up along the way. Alright, I’m going to hang up now to use my maps, but I’ll be there soon. Call me again if anything else happens.”
“O-okay.” I wanted to ask him to stay on the line, but he also needed to arrive in one piece.
“Hang in there. Just hold on, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart? I knew a lot of men who used that term, and it always came across as condescending, yet there wasn’t an ounce of that in Caleb’s tone. No, it was earnest. Comforting. He was getting me through a situation no girl ever wanted to be in.
It made me feel braver, and I used every ounce of that courage to finish the mini-contraption he had described to me. At first, I wasn’t sure how it would work, but as I went through the steps and got the plunger wedged just so , I saw how it’d buy me a couple of minutes.
Hopefully, those were enough.
I went back to standing against the far wall, pressing myself into it like I wanted as much distance as possible. Gavin’s yelling was tapering off, and the slams were winding down, but I still didn’t trust him.
How’d the night gone so bad? Had Gavin always been so unhinged? I’d heard of partners being kind and nurturing until they were able to isolate and control their victim, but this seemed nothing like that… right? Had he always been waiting until I gave him what he wanted to show his true face?
“Look, Emily,” he said. “I’m not some monster. I was just angry, okay? I felt tricked. I was so looking forward to this night, and it felt like you were playing a prank on me, so I got heated. Just come out so we can talk, okay?”
There he was. That was the Gavin I knew and had fallen in love with. But I didn’t say anything. Even though I could hear the voice that’d helped me through some pretty horrible times, all I could picture was his snarl when I’d tried to get away, his hands pushing me onto the floor, the burn on the back of my neck where he’d made my parents’ necklace bite into the sensitive skin there.
Luckily, Gavin seemed to walk away after that, his steps slow and defeated. I didn’t know if it was a trick, but I took the opportunity to slide down the wall and huddle on the floor, my knees pressed inwards.
I sat there in silence, heart still beating in my chest. As the minutes passed, it seemed Gavin had really stopped trying to get in, but I didn’t know how long that would last. At any moment, he could be right back to beating the door within an inch of its life, and I certainly wasn’t going to come out. I was well and truly trapped… well, sequestered was a less terrifying way of putting it.
The bathroom I’d sequestered myself in was a little haven in a world that was so confusing, so dangerous. There was no way I was going to abandon it, especially since I’d put so much work into the device Caleb had instructed me to make.
I would stay rooted in my spot until I was sure I was safe.
That paranoid, frightened feeling was only exacerbated when a knock sounded on the hotel door and I let out a sharp scream. I hated how high-strung I sounded, how terrified the sound was. Had Gavin called in reinforcements? I knew he had all kinds of connections, but I’d never been so afraid of them before.
I took a minute to think as the person rapped yet again. The knock wasn’t frantic, nor were their footsteps thundering backwards to charge the entrance.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I crouched next to the bathroom door to listen to who it could possibly be. Perhaps someone coming to save the day? No, who could possibly know where I was and what situation I was in besides Caleb? Twenty minutes hadn’t even passed.
“Room service!”
I shouldn’t have been able to hear it, but I knew without a doubt that was exactly what the person in the hall said.
What was going on with me? Was this the enhancement of my senses Caleb mentioned?
I waited to hear Gavin’s footsteps move past before cracking open the bathroom door. It was risky, but I had to get a lay of the land and see if I could use the room service distraction to extricate myself.
The room looked completely normal, which was crazy, given the trauma surrounding me. It was when I was observing my surroundings that a cry came from Gavin.
“ You !”
There was a clatter, and the next thing I knew, strawberries were flying everywhere. I was able to swing my head over to the door and see exactly what was happening. Gavin staggered back, his nose bleeding, a bent gold platter rolling right past him.
It was none other than Caleb who fully stepped into the room, shoving Gavin right in the chest so he fell back onto the bed. It was the reverse of Gavin trying to force me onto the bed, and I couldn’t help my own satisfaction. How did he like it? It didn’t feel good, did it?
But I didn’t gloat. Instead, I watched as Gavin tried to get up, only for Caleb to throw him back down all over again. For some reason, I got the impression my guardian really could’ve ripped my boyfriend limb from limb, with the dark, animalistic aura radiating from him. If I were Gavin, I would’ve just stayed on the bed and appeased the bigger, stronger, and furious man in front of him.
“What the hell are you doing here? Are you stalking us?” Gavin spat through the blood trailing from his nose.
Caleb didn’t answer. Instead, he shoved Gavin down for a third time as he tried to rise up, then switched to wrapping his hand around my boyfriend’s throat.
My eyes widened, and my heart went right back to pounding in my chest. For a moment, I was worried I’d have to rush out and actually save my asshole of a partner, especially when Caleb bared his surprisingly sharp teeth.
“Listen here, you little weasel-faced, limp-dicked, sorry excuse for a man,” Caleb snarled, his voice guttural. “You will never touch Emily again. Not without her permission. It’s only by her grace that I’m not ripping out your tongue right now and force-feeding it to you. Do you understand?”
It was violent, and I knew it should’ve horrified me, but I found my body responding yet again. I tried to tell myself it was just me reacting to another shifter being close by, but secretly, I knew it was more than that. I loved how viscerally Caleb defended me. There were no shades of gray, no dismissals about being dramatic. He just believed me. It was that simple.
Gavin wheezed in response, and that sound was also more satisfying than it should’ve been. Was I a bad person? No. Gavin had done something truly awful to me, or had tried to. He deserved what he got. He probably didn’t even deserve the mercy Caleb was offering.
At the same time, I didn’t really want to see the young man I’d thought I was in love with get beaten to a pulp, so I stood up and cleared my throat. At that, both their heads snapped in my direction, and Caleb hurried over to me.
He didn’t touch me, though. He just stood at a respectable distance, a worried look on his face.
“Are you alright?” Goodness, there was so much genuine concern in his tone that it made me want to cry. But I didn’t. Gavin didn’t deserve any more of my tears.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, though I really wasn’t. Nevertheless, I was going to live, and the situation had ended a lot better than it could’ve.
Caleb’s hands hovered over my arms like he wanted to pull me into a hug, but he stepped back. I almost found myself leaning into him, yearning for his touch—an insane thing to think, given how the last person who touched me had tried to violate me.
That singular thought felt like a slap in the face. It was true, but it felt like a lie. How could Gavin do that to me? I’d thought he loved me.
I knew love didn’t work that way.
“Do you have all your things? Are you ready to leave?” Caleb asked.
I nodded, not sure I could trust my words.
“Alright, then, let’s go.”
It was simple as that, but as we turned, Gavin called after me. I’d never thought of him as stubborn or stupid, but at the moment, he was proving to be both.
“Are you really leaving with that disgusting criminal?” he spat with all the venom he could muster. “You really wanna end up trafficked, don’t you? I didn’t take you for an idiot!”
Caleb bristled, and I just shook my head. It wasn’t worth it. However, Gavin didn’t know how to let sleeping dogs lie.
“You think you can just get away with this! I’ll report you to the police. You’ve been stalking and harassing the both of us! Now you’ve broken into my hotel room! Who do you think they’re gonna believe, me or you?”
I looked over my shoulder and affixed my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend with the iciest glare possible. “You do that, and I’ll tell them you assaulted me, then testify against you. I’ll report you to the college and get you removed. Even with all your money, it’ll be hard to find another school that’ll accept you. I’ll do everything I can to turn you into another Brock Turner. Your face will end up in a textbook.”
I took satisfaction in the way Gavin’s face drained of color. “You wouldn’t.”
“You can be wrong about people. I never thought you’d lay your hands on me, and look where we ended up. Goodbye, Gavin. Don’t try to follow me, or you’ll find that Caleb’s treatment of you has been a mercy.”
I didn’t know where I’d found this steel within me, but I was proud, and I let that pride carry me out alongside Caleb. Thankfully, Gavin didn’t continue screaming after us, but I still stuck close to my guardian’s side as we went to the elevator, then exited the hotel.
What a mess.
Still, I was incredibly grateful for Caleb: grateful that he’d shown up to help, how he’d validated my story, and even how he walked close by while making sure not to touch me. I was caught somewhere between needing a hug and never wanting to feel any contact ever again.
Neither of us said anything as we headed into the parking lot, though I was startled when Caleb led me to a truck.
“This yours?” I asked as Caleb opened the door for me and offered a hand to help me in. I hesitated for just a moment before taking it, but the fact that it was offered and not forced made all the difference. Besides, my shorter legs needed help getting into the massive vehicle.
“Nah, belongs to a friend of mine. My bike would’ve gotten me here faster, but I figured that wasn’t exactly the nicest getaway ride, so I made the call.”
He’d thought of me in that way? That was so... so... sweet.
“Where do you want me to take you?” Caleb asked once we were both safely seated in the truck
Not for the first time, I just blinked at him owlishly. For some reason, I’d just assumed he’d take me home. But since he asked, I realized I didn’t want to be alone in my dorm, didn’t want to face my parents, who’d know that something was wrong with me and no doubt ask. I could already see the worry and horror on their faces when they saw the tear tracks down my cheeks.
No, neither of those scenarios sounded appealing at all. I could try calling one of my friends again, but they were always so busy on the weekend. They already had so little room for me in their lives. How could I expect any of them to carve out time to deal with what I was going through?
What was supposed to be a magical night had turned into a nightmare. No matter who I told, it was going to derail everything they were doing.
No, I couldn’t be that selfish.
But what, then? The only thing I could think of was the first option: just sitting alone in my dorm and crying to my heart’s content.
I didn’t get a chance to say that, because Caleb gently cleared his throat. “You could always come to my place, you know,” he said.
His tone was so tentative. Cautious. As if he was afraid the wrong word would send me bounding out the window like a deer. I could understand why. I’d just been attacked by a man I thought I could trust, so going to another man’s home didn’t exactly sound like the wisest idea.
But compared to all my other options, it sure sounded like the best one.
“Are you sure?” I asked, equally uncertain. “I don’t want to put you out.”
“You wouldn’t.” The way he said it, I believed him. “I live outside of Boulder, though, you should know. About a half hour away—I like my space. I have a guest room you can crash in, then I could take you back to your dorm in the morning.” He reached out again, but his hand stopped short of resting over mine. It hovered there before he withdrew it. “Things will be less scary in the daylight. I promise.”
I wanted to ask him how he knew, but he spoke with such authority. I still wondered why, after how violent he’d been in the room, I was so comfortable with him. Just a week earlier, I’d been terrified of his very shadow. How quickly things had changed. Before, I never would’ve imagined agreeing to go with Caleb to an even more secluded location half an hour outside the city.
“I’d like that,” I said softly.
Maybe it was because he was a shifter, or I was just insane. Who knew? Adrenaline, fear, and everything else going on within was a pretty intense chemical cocktail, and I needed a place where I could feel safe and unwind. Caleb’s home, wherever it was, wasn’t anywhere Gavin could find me. It sounded pretty damn perfect.
“Alright,” Caleb. “Buckle up, then, please. Let’s go home.”