Chapter 11
THORNE
I’d trapped myself in the Seventh Circle of Hell.
Because not only was Calder standing in front of me, but I was also stuck in a room that smelled very much like him. And not just the lite version of him like at my condo or in the forest, where the mix of pine and dirt had helped drown him out.
No, this was pure saturation. The concentrated, high-proof, industrial-strength version of his scent. He slept here. His clothes were here. The very air seemed to vibrate with his fragrance. And my wolf, the disloyal fur-brain, immediately lost her damn mind.
The second the door clicked shut, she surged forward, heat blooming under my skin in a slow, possessive wave.
My lungs kept pulling in more air than I needed, like my body was greedy for his scent.
My pulse kicked up. My senses sharpened.
The world narrowed until it was him—his soap, his skin, his clothes, the faint edge of leather that always clung to him like a second shadow.
It all screamed alpha male loud enough to rattle my bones—and my ovaries.
My wolf paced circles in my chest and head. She wanted me to bridge the gap between us. Wanted to tackle him onto the duvet and roll around with him until we carried his scent for everyone in town to notice.
If you don’t settle down, I hissed at her mentally, I swear, no steak treats for a month. I will turn us into vegetarians. We will eat nothing but tofu and zoodles.
She let out a low, mournful whine in the back of my head.
I mean it, I warned her. Kale only. Don’t test me.
She huffed, curling up in a sulky ball, but she stopped trying to hijack my motor functions to tackle Calder. Small victories.
I drew in a sharp breath—big mistake, now I could taste him too—then marched to the far side of the room, where I grabbed the window frame and pushed it open. I practically gulped down a lungful of fresh air before facing him again.
Calder stood across the room from me, his stance loose but his gaze locked on me.
It pissed me off that he was so calm right now while I was a horrifically hot mess.
And even worse, he could smell all my emotions right now.
That was the biggest downfall to being a werewolf.
Nothing was secret. Nothing was private.
Everyone knew everyone else’s emotional state.
Just like I could scent his too—fear and guilt laced with a hint of hope.
I needed to calm down, so I pulled in a slow breath of fresh air trickling in through the window and dragged my brain back to the actual reason I was here. I came for answers. Not to torture myself.
“Drink?” Calder asked.
I bit my lip to keep from growling. He was stalling and we both knew it. “Water’s fine,” I bit out.
He walked to a small table resting against the wall furthest from me. Two empty glasses sat next to a pile of untouched creamers and sugar packets. He poured us each a glass of water, then crossed the room and handed me mine.
I broke away from the window to take it, happier now with a breeze passing through.
He lifted his own glass to his lips, and my damn eyes tracked the movement like a hunter tracking prey.
His throat moved when he swallowed, and I had to practically tear my gaze away from him.
Lifting my own glass, I guzzled the water in three swallows, hoping it hydrated my suddenly parched throat.
When it was clear he had no intention of speaking, I jumped right in and started asking the questions I’d always wondered.
“Why did you leave? Was it my fault? Did I bore you? I know you live for excitement and the thrill of tracking artifacts, but I thought we were…”
I trailed off with a sigh and placed the empty glass on the table, then slowly walked back to the window. I stared outside, noting everyone who walked by. I couldn’t help but imagine how simple their lives must be compared to mine.
“You thought we were happy,” Calder murmured.
“Well, weren’t we?” I shot him a glance over my shoulder. “I spent years trying to figure out what I did wrong.” A second later, I clamped my mouth shut. That was too raw. I hadn’t meant to say that.
Pain flashed across Calder’s face. “We were. I didn’t leave because I was bored, Thorne. I could never get bored of you. I left because…” He drew a breath, then squared his shoulders and stared at me. “I left because I wasn’t given any choice. I was forced to leave.”
“What? What does that mean? Forced? By whom?”
He rubbed his forehead, his brow furrowed. “Give me a sec. I’m trying to figure out how much I can tell you—”
“How much?” I whirled around and glared at him.
“You’re going to tell me everything. Because I deserve to know.
You can’t just fuck around with my life like this.
You can’t marry me, tell me you love me, that I complete you, then vanish without a trace only to return years later without any answers. ”
“I know, I know,” he said. He gripped the edge of the table then, as though steadying himself.
My eyes immediately zeroed in on his forearms—specifically the muscles as they bunched and flexed.
God, forearms were my kryptonite. And his were particularly lethal.
Focus, I hissed at myself. Stop looking at the muscles. Look at the jerk attached to them.
I dragged my gaze up to his face. He was still staring at the table, jaw locked tight, looking for all the world like a brooding anti-hero on the cover of a romantic suspense novel.
Without looking at me, he said, “I left because I was blackmailed.”
I froze, not entirely sure I’d heard him right.
“What?”
He finally lifted his gaze to mine. “I was blackmailed, Thorne. That’s why I left.”
Blackmailed? Of all the scenarios I’d imagined, this one had never factored in. Who would be stupid enough to blackmail Calder? And why? And with what? Blackmail entailed they had something dangerous on him. Something that could ruin him.
“Who blackmailed you?” I demanded. “And what did they have on you? What was so bad they could force you to leave your wife?”
“It had nothing to do with me,” he said. “It was about you.”
My spine straightened. “What about me?” I scoffed, forcing a laugh that sounded a little too high-pitched, even to my own ears. “I’m a delight. I pay my taxes. I recycle. I even return my library books on time—mostly. What could anyone possibly have on me?”
Calder didn’t smile. He didn’t blink. He just stared at me with that heavy, unyielding gaze that made my skin itch.
“Not just you, Thorne,” he said, his voice dropping to a gravelly rumble. “Your whole family.”
“Okay,” I hedged. “That makes more sense. My brothers have annoyed half the supernatural community on the Eastern Seaboard. So, what did they do this time?”
My mind immediately began flipping through the Rolodex of enemies my family had acquired over the years. I started mentally leafing through and picking out the most likely offenders.
“Was it the Southern Pack?” I guessed. “They’re still salty about that territory dispute in ‘19. Or the Vampires of the Veil? Oh, was it that pixie gang that sells counterfeit fairy dust? I told Felix we should have broken their kneecaps when we had the chance, but no, he wanted to be diplomatic.”
“Thorne,” Calder bit out my name. “This is serious.”
I closed my mouth.
“The who doesn’t matter right now,” Calder said.
“All that matters is they had enough proof of your family’s illicit activities—the blood dens, the underground shifting rings your brothers ran out of the basement of the old mill, and the massive, unsanctioned gambling ring where they used precognition to bankrupt three casinos in Vegas. ”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry.
“Okay, in our defense, those casinos were rigged to begin with. Felix simply un-rigged them. Aggressively. It was practically charity work.”
“It was grand larceny, Thorne,” Calder corrected, his tone flat.
“And this person has the ledgers. Names, dates, amounts won. He has photos of Ricky in the pit. He has audio recordings of your father authorizing the money laundering through the bakery. Pictures of you engaging in the fighting pits.”
He took a step closer, the air in the room compressing until it felt like a physical weight on my chest.
“He has enough evidence to put every single member of your family in a hole so deep the sun wouldn’t find you for a century.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. I’d always known my family’s illicit activities would bite us in the asses one day, but I hadn’t expected it to happen like this.
“So, you left to protect our reputation? Seriously?”
“No.” He took another step closer. “I left to protect your life.”
“What?” I breathed, confusion widening my eyes.
“The blackmailer didn’t just threaten to ruin your family or promise to hand over everything he’d collected to the police.
He also threatened to expose you, your family, and all of Eternity Falls to the federal government.
And I think we can both imagine how eager they’d be to get their hands on proof of the supernatural—along with a few live specimens. ”
I blinked. “The government?” I stared at him for a beat before a laugh bubbled up my throat.
“The feds? That was the threat?” I threw my hands into the air, stepping away from him.
“Seriously, Calder? Have you seen the human government lately? They can’t even agree on a budget, let alone organize a raid on a town that doesn’t exist on any map. They’re incompetent.”
I shook my head, pacing the small rug. “Not to mention, humans can’t enter Eternity Falls. Our wards are impenetrable. There’s no way they would even find us.”
“Normally, yes. But this guy…” Calder sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Thorne, he has a witch on his payroll. One capable of tearing down every last ward that protects this place.”