30. Caleb
“ W ell, shit.”
I nodded at Keller’s succinct statement.
“Pretty much,” I replied, doing my best to sound contrite without too much self-pity. I didn’t want to make this situation about me, especially since I was the one apologizing. I hated it when people did that. They knew they did something wrong, and they made themselves out to be some pitiful victim rather than facing responsibility for their actions.
I’d had enough of running away from accountability.
“Well, at least Gray is off your back, and you’re not skirting Zach’s rule about Black Hawk Pack business. It’s all progress, right?”
Keller really was too good of a friend to me. “Yeah, I suppose,” I said.
“Plus, Emily doesn’t know you stole from her, right? The broker said he’d keep the goods for thirty days before he put it up for sale. That means you have time to get her things back.”
I hadn’t expected my best friend to be so hopeful, and I’d have been lying if it didn’t bring me immense relief. It was so disappointing to be in my thirties but somehow keep consistently fucking up. Wasn’t I supposed to be an adult now?
But Keller, being Keller, kept right on going. “Worst-case scenario, you can come clean with Emily after she’s had her big shift. She’s got so much on her plate right now that you’d be a huge asshole to spring this on her before then.”
“Asshole is the key word,” I grunted, trying not to sink into the puddle of self-loathing rapidly expanding beneath me. “Because I’m a giant one.”
“Yeah, you are,” Keller said, and hey, fair play, he was right. Honest and right, and that’s what I needed in a friend: someone to hold me accountable when I fucked up.
I didn’t quite know what to say back, but I was saved from having to when my phone rang. When the name on the screen was none other than Emily’s, I knew I had to answer. It was time for her first shift, the big moment her body had been ramping up to for over a month.
And because life could never give me a break, I heard several sets of footsteps approaching our door. They knocked as my thumb hovered over the phone screen.
“Don’t worry, I got it,” Keller said, giving me an assuring nod.
“Thanks.”
I hurriedly answered the call, and it was exactly what I feared. Emily’s voice was frantic on the other end, desperate and full of a feral energy with which I was all too familiar.
“Caleb! Are you in the city?”
I stood up instantly, my heart pounding in my chest. “I am. I was returning Keller’s truck. What’s going on?”
“I think it’s happening, Caleb! I totally freaked out on my friends, and right now it’s like I can’t even think , and the only thing in my head is that I should just fucking rip Lisbeta’s throat out!”
That... didn’t sound good, but I couldn’t afford to sound panicked. The fact that Emily still had her wits about her enough to call me was huge. She likely had at least an hour.
Hopefully.
If we were lucky, maybe she’d have a few. Either way, I needed to get her to safety. Shifting in the middle of the city was just about the worst-case scenario.
“Hi, can I help you?” I heard Keller say.
I was so homed in on what was happening on the phone that I completely forgot about our visitors at the door until I heard the most cop-like voice ever speaking through the barrier.
“We’re looking for a Caleb Mason. We have reason to believe that he’s been staying at this residence.”
Cops! That was the absolute last thing I needed. Why the hell were they even here? My legal troubles were all well behind me, and it wasn’t like they were from Emily. She likely didn’t even realize her necklace was missing, and likely wouldn’t before I returned them. Or at least I hoped as much.
Was it Gray playing some weird game, sabotaging my efforts to pay him off? No, that didn’t make sense. But I also couldn’t really focus when I heard Emily’s breathing pick up on the phone, going from quickened to outright racing.
“Caleb, it hurts ,” she groaned . “I know you said it would, but it feels like my entire body is gonna pop like a balloon.”
My hands automatically went to where Keller had left his keys on the table. Then I was reminded yet again that I couldn’t exactly walk out the door, as my best friend was standing on one side of it while at least one police officer stood on the other.
“Uh,” Keller said. “Don’t know where you got that information, but you’re welcome to come in and look for him if you’ve got a warrant.”
“Sir, you don’t need to make this complicated,” one of the officers warned.
“Oh, I’m not. I’m just aware of my rights and don’t really want to neglect them. I’m sure you understand.”
Keller glanced over at me, his eyes moving from the phone to my face. He knew something was up, and he likely already had a good idea of what. But it wasn’t like either of us could verbalize it. The officers were probably human and wouldn’t be able to hear us communicate as wolves, but there was no guarantee.
“Do you know the location of Caleb Mason?” they asked, clearly trying a different approach. Once more, I had to tuck them out of my mind and pay attention to Emily, then find a way to get to her.
“I know it hurts,” I said. “Just breathe through it if you can. Can you send me your location? I’ll get right to you, I promise.”
“Caleb, why do I want to hurt everyone? It... it feels like they’re all so dangerous. All of their eyes on me.”
Fuck, her shift was descending more rapidly than I’d hoped. She may not even have that full hour. I just had to pray—and likely break a lot of speed limits on my way over. That would certainly help the situation.
“That’s perfectly normal, I promise,” I said. “It’s gonna be okay. I won’t let you hurt anyone. What you have to do is focus on your breathing. Focus, and try to find somewhere you can cool down. Even a degree or two will help slow the change.”
“Slow… breathe… yeah, I can do that.”
I paced around Keller’s living room as I tried to figure out what to do. Every second counted, and I couldn’t afford to get caught up with the law. What if they wanted to take me down to the station or just “check in” on me? That would end up taking a whole day, and I didn’t have much time.
So what, then? What were my options?
“I’m afraid not,” Keller said, cutting into my thoughts. “Have you tried the rez, though? Thought I saw him at a rager a month ago.”
“You from the reservation, sir?” I heard the derision in the officer’s voice. Many cops tended not to like us for a litany of reasons. Some things never changed.
“I was born and raised on the rez , if that’s what you’re asking,” Keller said. “Now, if y’all don’t have a warrant, I’d greatly appreciate if you could clear out before my date arrives. Don’t think she’d be too keen on seeing ya around. Not exactly conducive to the mood, ya know?”
“Of course, sir. We’ll just make sure to leave Officer Pytcello and Kalvin here just in case Mr. Mason wants to show up.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Oh, I think we do.”
Shit, shit, shit! Why did everything have to be so complicated? It couldn’t be enough that Emily was shifting only a day after I’d dropped her off at home. There had to be police officers knocking on the door at the same time.
“Wait, who is that?” Emily asked, and if my mind wasn’t already torn in multiple directions, I’d have produced a half-convincing lie. But nothing of the sort came from my mouth. Instead, I sputtered something incomprehensible.
But if Emily’s hearing was already enhanced enough for her to pick up a conversation through a door while on the phone, then she was going through one of the most rapid transformations I’d ever heard of. If I didn’t reach her soon, she’d end up shifting on her own, right in the middle of the city.
That was a really good way to end up being put down.
“Caleb, who is that? ”
“It’s nobody, Emily. Just send me your location, okay?”
“Of course. Our officers will be more than happy to return to the station if you have an idea where Mr. Mason might be.”
“Oh my God,” she wailed. “Are those cops? ”
Everything was happening too quickly, too many variables building up on top of each other, worlds colliding in ways they shouldn’t. I’d told Emily about my past, but that didn’t mean I wanted her present for another run-in. I hadn’t even done anything—well, anything they knew about.
This was karma. It had to be. I never should’ve gone into Emily’s bag. I should’ve found a way. I’d let fear rule me in a way I swore I never would again, and I’d gotten myself right back into another mess.
I was ashamed, but I couldn’t take the time to deal with that because I had to save Emily. I was her guardian for God’s sake! I couldn’t fail her a second time. If I ever did something right with my life, this was it.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told her as calmly as I could. “It’s nothing, I promise.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but her breathing picked up even further, and for a moment, I just heard noise? Was she running somewhere? Was she in danger?
“T-t-they... they were right about you, weren’t they?” she asked.
“What? Who was right about what, Emily?”
The revulsion in her tone stung, yet I wanted to keep her talking—speaking was a decidedly human act. The longer I kept her doing that, the longer we could stave off the shift.
That was the thing, the real heart of the matter. While there were certain things that could delay a shift, fighting it for too long was hazardous. In fact, it could be downright lethal.
The biggest part about being a shifter was balance. We weren’t human, and we weren’t wolves. Instead, we were a blend of the two, something greater than the whole. If a new shifter fought off that first transition for too long, it threatened to break everything.
I’d heard of different ways fighting a shift affected people, from complete and total mental breakdowns to going fully feral. The latter sounded bad enough, but it was extra horrifying when one considered that it was permanent.
No one ever came back from a feral state. The mind break that caused full separation between the two halves was irreparable, and the only solution was to put whatever was left of the wolf down. The world was too small nowadays to allow a giant creature that was scared and full of bloodlust to roam around. Feral shifters wouldn’t merely hunt for food, wouldn’t just exist like a natural animal—their entire world was pain and aberration, which they’d spread to everyone around them.
I couldn’t let that happen to Emily.
“Y-y-you... I can’t... they said you, you... criminal. ”
“Emily, I don’t know who you’re talking about, but I swear, whatever it is doesn’t matter. I will help you. I’m only here to protect you.” I was raising my voice, and I knew that was the last thing I should do, but I couldn’t help it. The entire world was crumbling around me at a breakneck pace.
“Who was that?” The officer on the other side of the door had clearly heard me.
“Just the TV,” Keller said, sending me a death glare over his shoulder.
“N-n-no!” Emily practically shrieked. “I can’t trust... I... I don’t wanna be an animal like you!”
“Emily!”
Then the line went dead.
If I could’ve screamed, I would have. It sounded like she was resisting her shift, which she couldn’t do, but I’d never really explained that to her, either.
I’d failed her so much already.
“Keller, I have to go,” I said.
My best friend took a deep breath, in and out, before nodding. I had to hand it to him, he was certainly one hell of a right-hand man.
“Out the window,” he whispered quietly. “Make sure you have your keys and phone. I’ll delay them as much as I can.”
“What was that, sir?”
“I was saying it’s your lucky day! My lady friend cancelled on me, so let me get some pants on and you can come right in, search to your heart’s content for this… what was his name again?”
“Caleb Mason,” the officer said, sounding like he didn’t buy the act at all.
“Yeah, that chucklefuck.”
That was my cue, and opening the window, I leapt out of it, tumbling to the ground two floors below. I landed hard, but I tucked myself into a roll and popped back up right into a full sprint. From there, I made quick work of going around the front of the house to the driveway, pausing by the side to make sure the officers weren’t still on the porch. Sure enough, I caught the back of the last one as he headed in while Keller’s voice drifted down to me.
God bless that man. Once everything was settled, I really, really owed him a solid.
I waited until the front door was fully closed before I rushed towards Keller’s truck and hopped in. Then I realized just how fast I’d need to be to get to Emily on time.
If they’d already come looking for me, surely they had all the information on my bike. Taking Keller’s truck would not only be easier, but it’d be much more realistic for me to be able to shove a soon-to-be shifting, confused, and agitated new wolf into it.
However, the truck wasn’t exactly the best for evading the law, and even though Keller was stalling the officers, he could only buy me so much time.
The bike or the truck? The choice spun through my mind like a tornado, with my subconscious acutely aware of every second that passed. What do I do? What do I do?
“Fuck it,” I hissed to myself before sprinting right to my bike.
I knew it was going to be loud as fuck when I started it up, which would likely tip off the officers inside, but I’d hopefully peel out so fast, they wouldn’t be able to catch up with me. Figuring I’d need Keller’s help, I hurriedly grabbed my Bluetooth earbuds and jammed them in before putting my helmet on. I usually liked to ride without it, but I figured every single ounce of anonymity would be of use right then.
“Hold on, Emily,” I muttered. “I’m coming.”
With that, I peeled out, pushing my bike to the absolute limit. Even if it burned out by the time I managed to find Emily, I’d just hijack another car. Nothing mattered except her safety. Come hell or high water, I’d make sure that she got through her first shift safe and sound.
Thank God I was at Keller’s place to return his truck, not my own. Emily wouldn’t have made it if I’d driven all the way from my cabin. I’d also been in town because I’d taken that beautiful necklace of hers to the pawn shop, but I wasn’t touching that matter with a ten-foot pole.
I had far too much else to worry about.
Time lost all meaning as I continued to go full throttle on my bike. I was sure I was going faster than ever before, but it didn’t seem like enough. Even when I was on the highway, flying and weaving between cars, it felt like I was moving through molasses.
Dammit! Can’t this go any faster?
It didn’t seem so. I was maxed out, even with my enhanced shifter reflexes, but that didn’t matter. The only thing that filled my mind was thoughts of Emily: replaying how she’d sounded on that call, worrying about what’d happen if she fought her shift, worrying about what would happen if she didn’t fight her shift and terrorized the city.
That worry didn’t exactly decrease when I got off the exit I usually took for her college, only to see three police cruisers with flashing lights already waiting for me.
Not exactly the best development.
I didn’t let up, however. Instead, I leaned into it, charging them down like I was a bull instead of a wolf. To their credit, the cops held steady. No doubt they were expecting me to slam into the side of their vehicle and turn myself into a fine paste. Luckily, I had a trick or two up my sleeve.
One of the benefits of the life I’d led was knowing how to get out of sticky situations, especially if I had the proper motivation. And in this instance, I truly did.
I waited until the last possible moment, when I was about to be viscera smeared across the road, before jerking my bike exactly right .
It was a relatively difficult thing to go from moving forward at breakneck speed to going into a jump without a ramp. I’d crashed many times while attempting it. But this time, I managed exactly right, sailing over the hoods of the cop cars.
At least something was going right.
But I wasn’t out of the woods yet. I heard more sirens, which meant more cars converging on me from different directions. I had to be faster. I had to be better.
Naturally, that was when Keller chose to call. Normally, I wouldn’t answer the phone during such a high-stakes chase, but I figured I’d need help, and he was the best source to get it from. I could trust Keller with my life, and apparently Emily’s, too.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Is she going through the full change?”
“I’m not sure, but she didn’t sound good on the phone. Delirious. Shaking. You remember what it’s like.”
“Yeah, I do. First shifts are never easy.”
I glanced behind me and still saw the cadre of police vehicles, their lights flashing, their sirens on. It was hell on my enhanced senses, but I put it out of mind.
Emily needed me.
“I hate to say this,” Keller said, “but if she’s already got the spasms, she could shift as soon as the next hour.”
I fought down the bile rising in my throat. “I’m aware.”
“If she’s in the middle of downtown Denver, she’s liable to get herself killed. If she somehow escapes all those tasty humans walking around, with their little designer dogs, she’ll be put down for possibly exposing all of us.”
“I know, I know . I’ve been a shifter just as long as you have.” My bike groaned as I pushed it harder. I was running out of time and running out of it fast. I needed to get to Emily. I had to. “That’s why I’m going to find her before she does.”
“How, mate? You’re up to your neck in shit, if you haven’t noticed!”
“ I don’t care! ” It wasn’t like me to snarl at Keller, but it was the truth. I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that Emily needed help. She needed pack.
She needed me. Even if she was mad at me, even if she hated me and never talked to me again, I wasn’t going to fail her again.
I whipped my bike to the side, down a narrower service road I knew would dump out into a construction site. I could cut through it to end up closer to the middle of the city and possibly lose my police tail. I’d likely have to trash my bike now, but it was worth it.
“Okay, look,” Keller said. “I get it, the girl you thought was dead isn’t, and you feel you owe her a life debt, but let’s be reasonable. How are you going to find her?”
“She’s going to have one of the strongest scents in this city,” I replied. “I’ll use that. I know I’ll find her.”
“It won’t have a miles-wide range, so you’ll need to be close. At least within a few blocks.”
But Keller, smart as he was, underestimated just how much Emily called to me, how that cool, soothing scent of hers beckoned. I didn’t answer, instead concentrating on dodging larger rocks in the road and pushing my bike to the absolute limit.
“Fuck, all right, jeez,” Keller said, exasperated. “I can tell you’re determined. I’ll call Zach and try to do damage control. Just... don’t lose your head, okay? You’re already so deep in it, I’m not sure even an excavator will get you out.”
“I know,” I said. “And thank you, Keller.”
“Thank me if the two of you get out of this with your asses intact.”
“Deal.”
Then he hung up, and just in time. I gathered my focus and jumped my bike over the glistening fence on the outer barrier of the construction site. The real meat-and-potatoes of the operation was further in under an enforced, larger wall, but I remembered a pile of girders I’d use as a ramp to get enough air for another jump.
Adrenaline poured through me as I went, my police entourage a rather hectic background to my feats, but I ignored them as best I could, putting every one of my senses towards finding Emily.
I landed hard, and from there, it was easy to find a dark, rundown alley to whip into. I’d bought some time, though not much. Skidding to a stop, I jumped off my bike and gave it one last appreciative pat before throwing it in the nearest dumpster.
It hurt, it did, but Emily was worth ten million bikes and more.
With that in mind, I shifted and let my wolf take over. I was going to find her. I was going to save her.
No matter what happened.
To Be Continued…