Chapter 2 - Caleb
The jeep engine rumbles quietly as the Briarwood forest races by us, and that distinct scent of salt and pine carries with the low breeze. Without hesitation, it strikes me right in the chest, flooding me with an onslaught of memories I kept stored away the whole time I was gone.
The island still smells the same, just as I hoped it would.
Even though I’ve been away for several years, it still feels like home. Feels like it, too.
“You sure this is the one-of-a-kind birthplace you talked about?” Dominic asks, glancing at me from the back seat while the wind tousles his loose curls. He leans back in his seat casually while we keep the top down.
Before I can say anything from behind the wheel, Zane scoffs and glances at him in the rearview mirror. “Coming from the mainlander. You just don’t have the Willow taste yet.”
“‘Island taste’ doesn’t evoke an appealing mental image,” he murmurs before returning his gaze to the road just up ahead.
“Don’t knock it until you try it,” I return with a small grin, bracing my hands against the wheel as the familiar warmth of nostalgia grips me.
Dominic sighs. “I just figured the future Alphas got something more… civilized out here.”
Zane snorts. “Says the guy who ate expired MREs as a midnight snack.”
“It tasted better than the smell of swampy wolf shit.”
“Watch it,” he mutters. “You’re the only one not from the island… and we’re guests here for now. Get your complaints out of your system before you piss off the locals.”
I give Dominic a pointed look in the mirror. “And don’t mention anything about shifters around the humans.”
“Right, right,” he mumbles, putting his hands up in surrender. “The locals don’t know anything about the supernatural goings-on. No need to remind me.”
“Apparently, you do need reminding,” Zane murmurs, always teetering on the edge of irritation regardless of the circumstances.
As Dominic tries to rebuke the claims, I tune out the details of their back and forth, but I chuckle at how easily we fall into that usual situation.
With a glance in my side mirror, I catch as Luke and Hunter follow behind in another vehicle, both relaxed while they take in the views around us.
I’ve known the four of them since I enlisted, and after training, we landed ourselves in the same squad.
We carried out missions together, and as our service came to an end, we decided to travel to spread our wings a bit.
For the first few days, we crossed on the ferry and hit Coldreach and Pine Ridge, visiting Hunter and Luke’s stomping grounds before finally reaching Briarwood.
After days of being on the road, it’s a relief to see the familiar sights and all the parts I’ve missed.
I was born and raised on the island, and while I had to leave it for my own sake, it feels incredible to be back.
“Feeling sentimental?” Dominic asks after a moment, breaking my stupor once again. “You look like you could cry.”
I throw him a flat look through the mirror. “Cry? I’m just glad to not be sharing a bunk with you.”
He smirks at me, amused at the thought. “Right. Let me guess, there’s something in your eyes too?”
“Shut up.”
Zane ignores Dominic’s chuckle and glances over at me. “How long has it been since you were last home?”
“Four years.”
Their stares both intensify on me, clearly in disbelief.
“The entire duration of your service?” Dominic asks, sounding like I had just said the most outrageous thing. “You never even took leave?”
“Of course not. I didn’t have to,” I say, but even to my own ears, it isn’t a sound reason. “You should know that already. You were there with me.”
“I wasn’t exactly keeping tabs on your every move,” he murmurs, continuing with both veiled teasing and subtle concern, “You sure your pack hasn’t replaced you with someone more… available?”
I scoff at that, but in truth, he has a point, and I won’t deny that the thought has crossed my mind.
Just like everyone else, I should’ve taken leave to check in. But every time I thought about coming back, something in me didn’t want to face it yet. At least, not until I had to.
There was too much left up in the air, and a part of myself I still want to forget. But there’s nothing I can do to avoid it now.
“Varic, the current Alpha, has been holding down the fort. He’s a good man, and he wouldn’t give that title up for anyone else,” I answer, more so to reassure myself. “Besides, my buddy Jack wouldn’t let that happen either. They understood what I had to do.”
“I suppose we’ll see if that’s true,” Zane hums, sounding not entirely convinced.
As irritating as it is, he isn’t wrong. It’s been a while, and things can change within four years.
“So then, Alpha-to-be, what’s our first stop?” Dominic asks, leaning forward between the front seats. “Your packhouse? A bar? A brothel? Tell me this godforsaken island has one of those.”
Before I can even roll my eyes, Zane does it first. “One-track mind…”
“We’re checking in with Varic and the others first. After that, do whatever you idiots want.”
He grins. “Brothel—or the closest thing to one—it is.”
“Good luck finding a brothel on a remote island,” Zane utters, unimpressed with the thought.
“When there’s a will, there’s a way, my friend.”
While I continue to drive, those memories roll in unbidden, both good and less so. I spent my youth in these woods, training, learning, and preparing for the day I become Alpha. Ever since Varic saw promise in me, he showed me what was expected of me and how I could best serve the pack.
For the most part, I believe I’ve managed to live up to it, but some of those unsavory memories beg to differ. All the ones I’d rather bury, and all before the military, the discipline, and the purpose that came from it.
I was a different man before. I had been arrogant, reckless, and popular, sure. I was definitely desired, and I took advantage of it, sometimes to my detriment, but mostly theirs. I didn’t think twice about the decisions I made, and it still makes me wince inwardly.
Before, I hurt people. I used them and forgot them the moment the sun came up.
I wasn’t exactly Alpha behaviour, and now, I can say that without hesitation.
After a time, Dominic sighs. “What would you do for fun anyway?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Zane murmurs.
“I wasn’t asking you. I imagine you spent all your time brooding, or burning things, or something.”
Before Zane can retort anything more, something moves through the air surrounding us, hitting harder with the top down. It’s light and warm, and it carries something I haven’t smelled in years.
Not pausing to think it over, I hit the brakes and come to an abrupt stop.
I catch in my peripheral as Zane lurches forward, gripping the door hard. Dominic groans. From behind us, Hunter slams on the horn, forced to react with lightning-fast reflexes to keep from rear-ending us.
Still, I don’t keep driving.
The horn sounds again behind us, and Hunter holds up an arm in question. He yells over the short distance, “What the fuck, man?”
But Zane’s eyes burn into me intensely enough to catch my attention first. “What’s going on?”
Blinking, I process that smell. One I know all too well.
“I know that scent.”
Both of them pause, filling the space between us with confusion and near disbelief. Then Dominic asks, “Whose is it?”
Lila.
Her name hits me like a punch to the gut, lashing at my mind like she was back in search of revenge. But in truth, she never left it, even after four years.
She’s the girl I wasn’t supposed to want. Just an outsider I was expected to reject, and a mistake to never revisit.
The woman who claimed there was something binding us even from a young age, but I refused to acknowledge it. Even after that night… I refused her. I refused the very idea of her.
Not just because of the weight of expectations, but because I had to go. I had already enlisted.
But even now, her scent haunts me. Beckons me, somehow.
Clenching my jaw, I barely register the tight grip I keep on the steering wheel.
“Caleb, you’re freaking us out,” Dominic says, trying to break through my stupor. “What the hell is happening?”
As tempting as it is to get lost in the strange comfort her scent brings me despite everything, there’s a different note to it. Something almost painful and acrid that tangles within that softness.
“Something’s wrong,” I say, hit with absolute certainty despite how crazy I must sound. I glance at Zane. “I don’t know what, but something’s happening.”
His brows furrow. “With who?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just something in the air.”
The longer I smell it, the more prepared I am to lose my mind completely. Those sharp instincts of mine flare so strongly that I have to brace myself against the frame of the jeep.
As much as I want to explain what’s going on, I can’t. It’s a feeling so raw that I can’t ignore it.
It’s a tightness in my chest, a pull in my gut, and a whispering something that refuses to quiet.
Lila’s here. Close, even. And something is wrong.
“I have to check,” I mutter, not elaborating as I suddenly veer the jeep to the side of the road and kill the engine before jumping out.
“Caleb!” I hear Luke shout at me from the other vehicle, along with the others’ protests, but I don’t stop.
Moving across the road, I break into a run through the trees, following that fear I can’t help but scent.
Regardless of how vague I had been, it didn’t stop the guys from following. I sense them closing in behind me, not pushing to question me. I’m sure they have numerous things they want to ask, but they don’t.
They know better.
As they follow, the tension between us grows heavier, but my determination doesn’t slow, and neither do I.
The forest thickens, and while the smell of home grows stronger, I ignore it for now. My sole focus is on the wind and that scent. On the woman I haven’t seen in four years.
I told her I didn’t feel anything and that I didn’t need her. I denied her and myself. I convinced us both she wasn’t my mate.
But now, aware that something isn’t right, a new, protective instinct makes my heart race with the need to be released.
Lila’s in trouble, and whether I like it or not, I’m going to find her.