Chapter Fifteen
HE KNEW THE MOMENT she was gone. Everyone felt the loss, the entire pack, the man in him, the wolf. Everything inside him, his very soul felt it. He didn’t understand why she had to go. Not exactly. Maybe she couldn’t move on without tying up loose ends?
He’d give her as much time as he could, but he couldn’t stay away.
As her maker, as her lover, as her mate, he’d follow her to the ends of the Earth.
It was what made him like his father, but unlike his father, he’d never hurt her.
He’d serve up his own heart on a platter if that was what she wanted.
When Penny called his cell, he answered numbly, staring at the falling snow from the warmth of his window.
The same window Cait used to stand in front of.
“Hey.”
“Hey. There’s a televised event at the Governor’s mansion today. The last one before the holidays. I wonder if she’ll show up.”
He couldn’t help his chuckle. “Just like Caitlin. She’s going to show up like a ghost. Announce to the cameras that she lived through the change, that Governor Montgomery now has a shifter daughter, and steal his thunder. Then disappear from his life.”
Penny laughed too. “That’s her in a nutshell. You want some company to watch? Noah and I can be there in an hour.”
“If you like. Don’t feel like you have to drag yourself out in the snow.”
“Well, you do have the biggest place if we get snowed in,” she teased.
He appreciated her. He knew they wanted to lend their support so he wouldn’t break down at seeing his mate’s beautiful face again.
It wasn’t just Noah and Penny who showed up. It seemed the rest of the pack had the same idea as they wandered into his living room one by one, hanging coats and scarves in the mudroom, stomping around taking boots off and breaking the silence he’d grown accustomed to.
It was Misty who made popcorn for the show. They all sat around the TV, eager for a glimpse of Cait, their little runaway wolf.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if she didn’t even bother to show? And we all gathered in the house of gloom for nothing?” Amos asked.
Noah smacked him upside the head. “Have some respect. This gloomy castle is your alpha’s pride and joy.”
“Here it is,” Joaquin said, turning up the volume.
“Thanks, Scott,” the news anchor said. “Veronica Lane here for the update from the mansion. Governor Montgomery himself will speak briefly today in response to the backlash of the Turn Limitations Law. Protests have been gathering at the Capitol, and rallies are scheduled—” Veronica looked blank for a moment.
“Okay, Scott, I just got breaking news that his youngest daughter is here, Caitlin Montgomery.”
Isaac leaned forward, eager to catch a glimpse of her.
“That’s right, Caitlin Jane Montgomery is alive and well.
As you all know, her sister Penelope filmed her change from human to shifter and last we heard, no one was sure if Caitlin was going to make it.
But apparently, she did, she’s here today—” Veronica’s voice cut out as the cameras switched to Caitlin, walking up the aisle to where her father stood waiting for his own interview.
And a very different Caitlin she was from the images of the well-put together young woman she’d presented in the past.
As soon as her father’s gaze fell on her, his face went colorless. His jaw dropped for several seconds before he snapped his mouth closed.
“Caitlin.”
“Dad.” She lifted her shoulders up in a careless shrug. “Just here to tell you I lived.”
His mouth tightened. “If you don’t mind, this is probably a family meeting we should have in private.”
She shook her head, her eyes hollow. “That’s why I’m here. I’m no longer family, or your daughter. I’m here because of Turn Limitations.” Cameras clicked, lighting up her face. Her eyes looked sunken with the dark shadows around them, and her skin was pale from weeks in bed.
Her father wouldn’t give up though. “You could have returned my calls at any point to tell me you lived. Your sister could have too. Apparently that Montgomery blood was strong enough to have survived this.” He said it proudly, like he’d done something personally to guarantee her survival.
But then his tone turned to a sneer. “But the two of you kept it from me so you could spring it out on camera.”
She shook her head. “That’s not it at all.
I’m here because I have nowhere else to be.
I can’t go to your house. I’m not human.
Don’t you see my eyes?” she sneered. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll eat you and Mom?
Isn’t that the real fear humans tell their children?
Ban the wolves because they’ll eat us?” She sighed when her father didn’t answer.
“Look, I’m no longer a Montgomery. You cut me off, locked my bank account, froze my credit cards.
I don’t even have all my clothes, just a week’s worth I’d packed to visit Penny.
And I’m not a member of the wolf pack. They didn’t choose to turn me.
I begged them to because I didn’t want the other wolf to take over.
And while it was kind of Isaac to do that, I know I don’t belong.
Not like Penny does. She was chosen and the sad part?
They could lose her by turning her because of this law.
” She turned directly to the cameras. “Let’s get real.
The primary goal of Turn Limitations was to keep interspecies relationships down.
No person wants to date a shifter if they know they’ll be outed and forced to change.
That’s a death sentence. It’s Russian roulette.
But it doesn’t stop relationships because love is love.
Sometimes we can’t help who we love. Penny didn’t pick a shifter.
Noah didn’t pick a human. It just happened and it’s magical and sweet and they’re made for each other.
Why should that sweetness be tainted with death?
You’re not ripping apart one life. You’re ripping apart hers, his, and the entire pack.
They will all feel the loss when one dies.
They will all feel the pain that Noah goes through.
And it’s not just Penny. It’s relationships all over the state.
But apparently the only one her death won’t affect is my parents. ”
“Caitlin—”
“I have nowhere to go, Dad. I don’t fit in anywhere.
Not with humans. Not with my sister’s pack.
So, in this case, this law ruined my life.
You can keep my bank account. My clothes.
My cards. Everything you have of mine, but please don’t take my sister.
I’ll start fresh, I’ll get a job somewhere.
Start over, just like Penny. She was the strong one in the family, not me.
I just got lucky and didn’t die.” She took a deep breath.
“I’m here to beg you. Beg you, beg the lawmakers, beg the people who side with this.
Stop killing humans. Stop forcing them to get turned.
A forced change is horrific. It’s painful, it’s debilitating.
And when it’s done? It’s still not over.
It’ll never be over. I was bitten, not born.
I don’t fit on either side. I’m standing before you, broken.
I don’t care for me. What’s done is done.
I’m just begging you to stop doing this to others.
I’m begging you not to kill my sister. You’re supposed to protect the public. Your own child. You failed.”
And with that, Caitlin turned, ignored the cameras and the questions being shouted out at her, and walked out of the building.
Penny and Misty were sobbing. His wolves were somber.
“Fuck. She felt like that the whole time?” Joaquin asked.
“How did we miss that?” Amos asked.
“Are we going to get her?” Noah growled.
“No. I’m going to get her. I need to make her understand that she does belong. I failed her if she doesn’t get it. I was trying so hard not to be my dad—taking her choices away and forcing her to stay with me—but I failed her. I should have listened to what she wanted, what she needed.”
He raised his hand at Noah’s protest.
“I’m not doing this without you all. I just need the rest of you for something else. I have a plan and you all need to carry out part of it while I go get our runaway wolf.”
Well, this was about as low as she could go.
She’d stolen money from Isaac. Oh, he didn’t consider it stealing.
He’d put pre-paid Visa cards in the kitchen junk drawer for her to use for gas after she’d refused to allow him to add her to his bank account.
She’d refused to touch them. But she had nothing, so she took the cards.
Now she sat in the parking lot of a closed diner, on the outskirts of town, wondering which direction to go.
She had to start over, but she didn’t have enough funds to rent an apartment.
And while she’d managed to be in a room full of humans, could she guarantee that she wouldn’t flip out if she was around them constantly?
She had to find a job, but that took time, and what would she do in the meantime?
Driving west toward the mountains meant more snow, especially the week before Christmas, and she could get stuck anywhere. Alone.
Dilemmas.
A soft rap sounded on the frosted window. Gah, some super-wolf she’d turned out to be. She had no idea anyone was out here, despite the sensitive hearing.
When she rolled down the window, she had the shock of her life.
“I see you wanted nothing left from your Montgomery family. I guess that includes this car?” Isaac’s handsome face looked down at her.
Sonofabitch, she hadn’t thought of that. She didn’t even outright own this car.
“How did you find me?” she asked dumbly. He couldn’t have tracked her phone. She hadn’t turned it on since the day Penny’s broadcast aired. In fact, she didn’t even know where the damn thing was. Probably somewhere in his house?