31. Calder
Calder
After a long night of fucking Ethan, I was sleeping like the dead until a knock at the front door pulled me from my sleep.
I grumbled, extricating myself from Ethan’s arms without disturbing him.
He made a cute noise and rolled over, hugging his pillow to his chest. The blanket shifted aside, revealing his perfectly round ass caught by the early morning light.
I quickly covered it up, already feeling the stirrings of lust once more.
The knock came again, more insistent this time.
Slipping on a pair of pajama pants, I crossed the house wondering who could be bothering me at such an early hour.
I didn’t even have to glance out the window to know who it was.
I knew my pack Beta’s smell from a mile away.
But what was he doing here? “Trevor?” I asked groggily as I opened the door and saw him standing there.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the shop?”
Trevor's expression was grim as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. "We need to talk. Now." His nostrils flared slightly, and I caught the moment he scented Ethan on me. His jaw tightened. He knew exactly what I’d been up to all night. "Inside. This can't wait."
I stepped back reluctantly, letting him enter. Trevor had never come to my house uninvited before, and the tension radiating from him set my wolf on edge. He wasn’t the type to just show up and force his way in without a reason. "What's going on?" I asked, closing the door behind him.
"The Council sent me." His voice was low, careful. "There's been another attack. Last night, while you were..." He gestured vaguely toward the bedroom. I couldn’t tell if he disapproved or not, but he definitely didn’t seem excited about it.
My blood ran cold. "Where? Who?"
"A couple from out of state. They were found this morning at that same cider mill you went to yesterday." Trevor's brown eyes were hard as they met mine. "Hearts missing. Same signature."
The room seemed to tilt sideways. We'd been there.
We'd felt something hunting us in that maze, and I'd dismissed it as mostly paranoia. The scent was there, but I was sure the rogue had taken off, scared by the crowds. However, it seemed the reason he’d left was because he’d found another victim.
Two this time. "Shit," I breathed, running both hands through my hair. "Any witnesses?"
"Not according to the police that found them. Ageratum didn’t seem to think anyone had seen it either. But Calder..." Trevor stepped closer, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. "The Council knows you were there. They know about your human."
"His name is Ethan," I growled, my wolf bristling at Trevor's dismissive tone. “And they know I’m protecting him. They assigned me to him.”
"I don't care what his name is." Trevor's patience was clearly wearing thin. "What I care about is that my Alpha is putting himself in real danger.” He gestured toward the bedroom. “In more ways than one.”
The accusation hit like a physical blow. "That's not—"
"Oh please." Trevor interrupted. "You think I can’t smell it on you? I know exactly what you two have been doing all night. This whole house stinks of it.”
I wanted to argue, but the words stuck in my throat. Because he was right. However, that didn’t stop me from being angry. I just wasn’t sure if I was angry at him for pointing it out or angry at myself for being too cowardly to admit the truth to my most trusted friend.
"He's my mate," I finally said, the words hanging in the air between us, heavy with unspoken consequences. "I can't help it, Trevor."
Trevor's eyes widened, genuine shock replacing his anger. He took a step back, as if my words had physically pushed him. "Your mate? A human? Are you absolutely certain?"
"Do you think I'd risk everything if I wasn't?" I kept my voice low, aware of Ethan sleeping just down the hall. "I've never felt anything like this. The pull to him is... overwhelming."
Trevor ran a hand over his face, exhaling slowly. "Fuck, Calder. The Council will have your head for this. You know the laws. He… He’s not approved!”
"I know them better than most," I replied bitterly. "But I didn't choose this. It just... happened."
"Does he know? About you? About us?" Trevor's gaze darted toward the bedroom.
I shook my head. "Not yet. I'm trying to find the right time, but with everything happening..."
"There's never going to be a right time to tell someone you're a werewolf," Trevor said flatly. "Especially not when there's a rogue killing humans all over town. What do you think he’s going to do the first time you shift in front of him? Huh? He’s gonna have a fucking heart attack!"
The sound of movement from the bedroom made us both freeze.
I could hear Ethan stirring, the soft rustle of sheets as he reached for me and found empty space instead.
But then he went quiet once more. “Keep your voice down,” I growled.
“And believe me, I know how fucked up this all is. But what do you want me to do? You know a wolf can’t resist a mate bond.
And we… we’re already fully bonded so… there’s nothing the Council can do about it. ”
“They can take him away,” Trevor retorted. “Or make you disappear. Whichever is easier. They’ve done it before.”
My wolf snarled at the threat, the sound rumbling low in my chest before I could stop it. Trevor's eyes flashed gold in response, his own wolf recognizing the challenge. "They won't touch him," I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "I'll die before I let them hurt Ethan."
"And that's exactly what they're counting on," Trevor shot back. "Don't you see? You're compromised, Calder. Your judgment is clouded by the mate bond. The Council is already questioning whether you can handle this situation objectively."
"I can handle it," I insisted, but even as I said it, doubt crept in. Had I been so focused on protecting Ethan that I'd missed signs of the rogue's presence? Had my need to be near my mate put innocent people in danger?
"Can you?" Trevor crossed his arms, his expression skeptical.
"Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you're so busy playing house with your human that you let a killer slip right past you.
Two more people are dead, Calder. While you were fucking your mate, that thing was ripping hearts out of someone else's chest."
The words hit like a physical blow, and I had to grip the back of the couch to steady myself.
The guilt I'd been trying to suppress came rushing back in full force.
I should have trusted my instincts at the cider mill.
I should have investigated further instead of letting myself be distracted by Ethan's fear and my own need to comfort him.
"You think I don't know that?" I snarled.
"You think I'm not tearing myself apart over it? "
"Good," Trevor said harshly. "Because I was sent here with a message for you from the Council.” He paused for a moment, his eyes full of regret.
“If you continue to shirk your duties, the Elder Council is going to find a permanent solution to this problem, even if it means tying your human to a stake in the woods to draw the rogue out. Our world is on the brink of exposure and if that happens… Well, a murderous rogue wolf is going to be the least of our worries.”
My vision went red at Trevor's words, my wolf surging forward with a violence that made the air around me shimmer. The scent of my rage filled the room, sharp and dangerous. "They wouldn't dare," I growled, my voice barely human. "If they so much as think about using Ethan as bait—"
"They would and they will," Trevor interrupted, though I could see him fighting his own wolf's instinct to submit to my alpha dominance. "Unless you get your head out of your ass and remember what's at stake here."
A soft sound from the hallway made us both freeze.
Ethan stood in the doorway, wearing nothing but my t-shirt from the night before, his blonde hair tousled from sleep.
His green eyes were wide as they took in the tension crackling between Trevor and me.
"Sorry," he said quietly, his gaze darting between us.
"I heard voices and thought... is everything okay? "
Trevor's nostrils flared again as Ethan's scent hit him full force, unmarked by cologne or soap, just pure human mixed with my own scent from hours of lovemaking. I saw the exact moment my Beta realized I truly hadn’t been lying about being mated to Ethan. Trevor’s expression shifted from anger to something approaching pity.
He knew as much as I did that there was no way out of a mate bond.
"Everything's fine, pup," I said, forcing my voice to gentleness despite the rage still coursing through me. "Trevor was just leaving."
But Ethan's reporter instincts were too sharp to be fooled. His eyes narrowed as he looked between us again. "This is about those murders, isn't it? The couple at the cider mill?"
Trevor's head snapped toward me, accusation blazing in his eyes. Of course Ethan would already know about the attack. He was a journalist, after all. "How did you—" I started.
"Jake texted me twenty minutes ago," Ethan said, pulling his phone from the pocket of my shirt.
"The police found them this morning. Same MO as the other attacks.
" His voice was steady, but I could smell the fear spiking beneath his calm exterior.
"We were there yesterday, Calder. That thing was hunting while we were in the maze. You… You were right.”
The guilt hit me like a physical blow. My mate was putting the pieces together, and each realization was another weight on my already crushing sense of failure. "Ethan," I began, but he held up a hand. “It’s not your fault.”
"Don't." His green eyes were full of shame. “Don’t lie to make me feel better. You know it was after me and those people… they’re dead because I ran.”
The silence was so thick it could’ve been cut with a knife. Trevor stepped forward, his hand outstretched in an attempt to break the tension. "You must be Ethan," he said softly. "I'm Trevor, Calder's head mechanic."
"Nice to meet you," Ethan replied quietly. “Calder didn’t tell me you knew about the monsters too.”
My heart sank as I realized my slip-up. “We’ve been friends since grade school,” I said quickly, filling my oncoming lie with as much truth as I could. “We’ve had a lot of the same interests and he’s heard me talk about it.”
“Yeah,” Trevor nodded, trying to sound convincing. “We’ve… chatted about… stuff.”
God he was a terrible liar.
“So how many people know about this?” Ethan asked, his brows furrowed. “Because up until a few days ago, I thought I was all alone in the world. That I was the only one that knew monsters were… real.”
I exchanged a glance with Trevor, both of us walking a dangerous line. How much could we reveal without exposing the supernatural world that existed parallel to Ethan's human one?
"More than you'd think," I said carefully. "There are... communities of people who study these things. Share information."
"Like a support group?" Ethan's voice held a note of desperate hope that made my chest ache. "For people who've encountered things they can't explain?"
Trevor nodded, warming to the deception. "Something like that. People who've seen things, experienced attacks, lost family members." His voice softened as he looked at Ethan. "People like… us."
I could see some of the isolation melting from Ethan's features, replaced by something I hadn't seen before.
Finally there was a possibility that he wasn't alone in his knowledge.
It broke my heart that I couldn't tell him the full truth, that there was an entire world of supernatural beings living alongside humans, protecting the balance between both worlds, and that this rogue was a rare and disgusting aberration of our kind.
"How long have you known about this particular creature?" Ethan asked, his questioning nature kicking in. "The one that's been killing people here?"
"A few weeks," I said, which was technically true. "We've been tracking similar attacks across the region."
"We?" Ethan's eyes sharpened. "Who else is involved?"
Trevor shot me a warning look. We were venturing into dangerous territory.
"Just a loose network of people who share information," I said. "Nothing formal. But Ethan, you can't write about this. You can't publish anything about what we've told you."
"Why not?" He looked almost betrayed. "If there are people out there studying this, if there's evidence of these attacks—"
"Because exposure gets people killed," Trevor interrupted, his voice hard. "You think the authorities would believe any of this? You think they'd protect witnesses instead of locking them up in psychiatric wards?"
Ethan flinched at the reference to his own hospitalization, and I shot Trevor a sharp look.
"What Trevor means," I said more gently, "is that going public would only make you more of a target.”
"Then what is going to help?" Ethan's voice cracked slightly. "More people are dying because of me. Because I survived when my father didn't. How many more have to die before this all ends?"
The pain in his voice made my wolf whine.
I wanted to tell him everything, that we had an entire pack hunting the rogue, that the supernatural community was mobilizing to stop the killings, that he wasn't responsible for any of the deaths.
But revealing too much would sign his death warrant with the Council.
"We're going to stop it," I said firmly, moving closer to him. "I promise you that."
"How can you be so sure?" Ethan looked between Trevor and me.
“Because…” I paused for a moment, swallowing hard. “Because I love you. And I will protect you no matter what.”