Chapter 3 - Lila
Morning came with the kind of fog that always fills my head when I don’t sleep well. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t shake what happened yesterday, and today, my nerves feel scraped raw.
Astrid plays quietly with her carved wooden animals on the floor, humming to herself without a care in the world. She’s completely unaware of the consequences of her raw magic slipping out yesterday, and while that’s a good thing, I feel the full weight of it on my shoulders.
Pulling in a breath, I press a hand to my forehead and try to centre myself. To think despite how clouded my mind feels.
I love her more than anything, and I always will.
But she’s growing fast, and her magic is growing even faster to the point of stretching my already weak abilities thin. I can try to suppress it all I want, but I know it won’t be enough for long. I won’t be able to hide it forever.
Glancing out the window, that paranoia nips at my heels, making me question every shadow and shape I see out there.
That man, likely from Wraith Peak, saw us, and he saw Astrid. He didn’t have to say anything for me to know that much. It was in the way he watched us, and how he vanished right after. Even thinking about it makes my skin prickle.
The ghost of his presence is like a cold hand against my neck, and I know this is all spiraling out of control.
I tried so hard to keep my daughter away from all the others. To safeguard her from scrutiny and pack politics that hurt me so deeply growing up, but now, it feels like it’s falling apart. The cabin doesn’t seem like the safe haven it had been.
As much as I want to pretend like we’re fine out here, I can’t risk another surge from Astrid, and I can’t risk anyone else detecting her magic. My pack would lose their minds if they knew she carried these abilities, and the Wraith Peak wolves would do far worse.
Without their support, or that of Caleb, there’s only one person left who might be able to help.
After spending most of the day deliberating with myself, I’ve had enough of it. I have to do something.
“Sweetheart,” I say softly as I crouch next to Astrid, lightly brushing back her dark hair. “We’re going to see Nana.”
She brightens up immediately. “Now?”
I nod and smile, regardless of how the edges of it falter only slightly. “Yes. But we can’t use any magic this time, okay? I need you to stay close.”
Undeterred by the conditions, she nods and stands. “No magic. Promise.”
With a quick kiss to her forehead, I help her up, and we both head for the door.
My mom is the only other person in our pack I’ve stayed in contact with, and luckily, her house is close enough to reach on foot without drawing attention from anyone else.
I would call, but I don’t want any possible records of what I have to discuss with her.
This kind of thing is so delicate that it has to be said in person.
She’s the only one I trust with it, and she’s the only one who doesn’t judge.
We head out together, and I guide Astrid down the usual path through the woods. My heart thuds in my ears all the while, despite trying to stay calm, even while warm sunlight pours in between the branches to ease the bitterness of the cool evening air.
After my dad disappeared when I was younger, Mom moved us both deeper into the woods, given how the others started to suspect she was using magic.
They weren’t wrong, but given her human status, they left her alone.
Ever since, her abilities have lingered like a warning, quiet but ancient.
Even if my dad was the shifter, the other wolves respect her—fear her, even.
Mom was the only one I told about my pregnancy, and she’s the only other person in Astrid’s life.
It’s an isolated existence, but important for her safety.
Astrid holds my hand, skipping in an uneven pattern as we go. With the light bird chatter overhead, the world feels normal for a short while. But it still isn’t enough to shake away the dread in my system.
“Mama, you’re squeezing my hand.”
Blinking through my stupor, I loosen my grip immediately. “Sorry, honey. I’m just… thinking.”
“About the man in the trees?”
Even hearing her mention it, acknowledging what we both saw, makes everything inside me tense up.
As much as I want to try and convince her it isn’t real, I have to be honest. I can’t lie to her, not when I’m one of the only people she has.
I swallow and nod. “Yes. The man.”
“He scared me,” she murmurs, almost like a quiet confession as she kicks a pebble off the path. “He felt cold.”
She has been perceptive since day one, and I know that won’t change anytime soon.
A chill moves through me, but I pause and crouch in front of her until we’re eye-level. “Astrid… if you ever see someone like that again, I want you to hide or find me immediately. Understand?”
Despite seeming a bit confused, she gives me a small, obedient nod. Even so, she doesn’t understand the threat. She’s innocent and pure, and she has no idea about the true danger beneath it all.
And I intend to keep her that way for as long as I possibly can.
We continue through the trees until we reach a fork in the path, then turn right. Just as we reach a big oak tree, the breeze blows by us, and something in it makes me stop. Another unfamiliar scent.
Astrid stiffens too, sensing the same thing I do. At once, the woods fall completely still.
Feeling eyes on us, I ease her behind me and glance around. “Stay close.”
To my left, a branch cracks. Then another.
Back to back, more scents hit me, all icy and bitter somehow. Goosebumps rise along my skin, and my blood runs cold.
Wraith Peak.
As one figure steps out from within the trees, more appear, some as men and others as shifted wolves. They come out at once, making me glance from side to side as my pulse roars in my ears. Immediately, we’re surrounded.
My throat tightens while I keep a tight grip on Astrid, not knowing where to look. My back is exposed, and it makes me feel utterly cornered.
“Stay back,” I snap, instincts flaring beneath my skin.
A man straight ahead of me steps forward and chuckles. His shoulders are broad, and he carries himself with a special kind of arrogance that can only come from someone who has never been told no before.
From a quick glance, he looks young, but built like someone who has trained for years. His eyes linger on us, dark and cold.
“What do we have here? The little witchling and her mother...”
Astrid clutches my hand nervously. “Mama—”
“It’s okay,” I whisper to her, pulling her in front of me while I protect her back, sheltering her. “I’ve got you.”
The apparent leader tilts his head with an easy grin. “You’ve been hiding something, haven’t you? Something your precious pack can’t know about.”
My stomach lurches, but I force myself to stand my ground. “Leave us alone.”
“Sorry, can’t. Alpha’s orders,” he muses, crossing his arms while gesturing vaguely towards us. “And after what we learned yesterday, it wouldn’t be right not to secure both assets.”
Assets.
The word hits me with molten disgust, and my whole body goes hot with rage.
“Touch her, and I’ll tear your throat out myself.”
He looks almost surprised by the direct threat, but he laughs. Then, so do the rest of them.
Mocking and cruel, they sound so sure that I’m not a threat, and while I don’t have the same strength most wolves do, it’s a different story when my daughter is involved.
With another chuckle, the man takes another step forward, and that gleam in his eyes hardens. “Funny… but we’re taking you both. You can either come quietly, or—”
From somewhere behind me, a low growl rips through the space so viciously that everyone stops. The Wraith Peak wolves freeze, not moving a single muscle between them.
A new scent surrounds me, and my breath almost catches. I know it. Briarwood wolves.
My pack.
Something stirs in my chest at the recognition, and hope sparks to life.
They came. Does that mean they do care?
Glancing over my shoulder, I watch as shapes emerge from the trees. Two wolves jump out in a blur of dark fur, both flanking either side of me and forcing the others back. One slams another wolf down, eliciting a yelp before it squirms and darts back.
The leader braces himself, taking stock of the situation just as three others appear, but they haven’t shifted.
All three figures move with precision and unwavering conviction, almost like they’re unshakable. There’s something disciplined in how they keep the Wraith Peak wolves at bay.
Then, one of their faces registers, and I freeze.
No. There’s no way.
Caleb steps out, overwhelming me with his scent as he comes up beside me. His eyes land on me, unyielding and immediately assessing. His attention drops down to Astrid, expression unreadable.
For a moment, my heart clenches, wondering if he senses either her magic or the fact that she is his daughter… but he keeps going until we’re behind him. The sight of him alone steals the breath from my lungs.
He’s bigger than I remember. Broader and harder, as if shaped by his time away and sculpted into his prime. His dark hair is cropped and just barely growing longer on the top. The confidence in his form screams that he’s every ounce the leader he set out to become.
Four years. Four years of nothing but silence and the pain he left behind.
And now he’s standing there like a nightmare I thought I managed to shake.
“Caleb Graves,” the temporary leader says, schooling his expression with a smirk as if he hadn’t just been shaken by the sight of him. “Alpha-to-be. Long time no see.”
“Hayes Voss,” Caleb mutters, giving him a near-scathing look. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Why not? We’re close to our border, are we not?” Hayes, apparently, says, sounding far too smug. “Surely you don’t mind us taking the weak one off your hands. You and all the others have forgotten her all the way out here.”
I feel the shift in Caleb’s demeanor, and the aura coming off him is frigid. “You aren’t taking anyone.”
Hayes laughs, but he’s lacking the same confidence he once had. He’s maintaining it as well as he can in Caleb’s presence. “And you think you can stop us? You’re surrounded.”
Caleb squares his shoulders, voice leaving him in a low, murderous tone. “Touch either of them and your father will find your remains on his doorstep.”
That makes him pause, if only for a moment. “You’re threatening an Alpha’s son.”
“An Alpha I don’t answer to,” Caleb returns, completely firm in his stance. “But you will answer for trespassing and threatening a child.”
The air is so thick with tension that the weight of it is far more oppressive than I thought possible, and more than anything, I just want it to be over. I want to get my daughter away from there.
Hayes lifts his chin. “If you suddenly care about them, then why are they living on the outskirts of your pack’s territory?”
“It doesn’t matter. You are on Briarwood grounds, and you’ve threatened members of my pack. I don’t take that lightly.”
“Your pack?” Hayes questions with a stifled laugh. “You’re not the Alpha yet.”
“No, but I will be soon enough. That’s why I’m here,” Caleb utters, taking a step closer and forcing Hayes back. His jaw clenches. “Lay a hand on my bride, and you won’t walk away from this.”
The world tilts immediately, and brutal silence falls over the clearing.
Bride?
I feel everyone’s eyes on me at once, all sharing in that same confusion.
Then Hayes scoffs, glancing at me briefly. “You’re claiming her?”
“I am,” Caleb says. “So step back.”
My mouth opens to speak, but no sound comes out.
He’s talking about me. Me, of all people.
He called me his bride, and I have no idea why.