Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
JESSE
Caleb’s panic hit me the second I pulled down the street. The sour, urgent emotion intensified as I parked in the garage and rushed inside.
He’d given me the basics over the phone, so I knew he was physically okay. But my wolf wouldn’t settle until I saw it for myself.
I sensed him in the bedroom, and I took the stairs two at a time and charged down the hall.
He stood over the bed, jamming clothes into his duffel bag. I stopped in the doorway, my attention falling on a bath towel spread over the carpet. Pieces of shiny metal covered the surface. A hammer lay next to it.
“I crushed the AirTag,” he said. “With a hammer from the garage. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to—”
“It’s okay,” I said, crossing the room and gripping his shoulders. “Did you shift? Did they see it?”
Misery descended over his face. “No, but they saw my knuckles heal. They’re going to call the cops. Aiden Cross has it out for me. He won’t let this go.”
Anger tightened my chest. I released him and headed for the closet. “We can’t stay here.”
He followed me. “Where will we go? Albany?”
The anger flared higher, carrying a heaping dose of self-loathing with it.
None of this was Caleb’s fault. It was mine.
I’d been a coward. Worse, I’d been selfish, convincing myself I needed to wait for a better time to tell him the truth.
But there was never going to be a better time, and I’d always known it.
“Jesse?” Caleb prompted.
I swung around, and he was right on my heels. “Pack light,” I said, hearing the growl in my voice.
He stayed put, a frown creasing his forehead. “If we go to Albany, my parents could still—”
“We’re not going to Albany,” I snapped. “We have to leave the country.”
He blinked. Then he gave a short, disbelieving laugh. “I can’t do that. I have to finish school.”
The anger boiled over. I gripped his shoulder and pushed him backward—not quite a shove, but close. I was too angry to be touching him right now, and I quickly dropped my hand and put several feet of space between us.
“You have bigger things to worry about than your degree,” I said, my voice well below human range. “We need to leave the country, and we can’t come back for a while.”
He’d gone pale under his tan. “How long?”
“Fifty years. Maybe forty.”
His jaw dropped. “What?” He stepped toward me, a stubborn glint in his eyes. “That’s crazy. I can’t—”
“You can’t earn your bachelor’s degree if you’re dead, Caleb. And that’s exactly what you’ll be if the elders find out you’ve exposed us.”
He looked like I’d slapped him. “Elders?” he asked after a second. Before I could respond, a faint noise hit my ears.
Sirens. Distant but getting closer. Coming from the south.
Caleb stiffened. He’d heard them, too.
And I couldn’t run from the truth anymore. I had to make him understand, and I had to hope it wouldn’t break him. Or us.
“The Council of Elders has authority over every werewolf in the world,” I said. “They make our laws and punish wolves who break them. I’m one of their enforcers. Except I didn’t do my job this time.”
He went very, very still. “What are you saying?”
“I’m a wolfseeker,” I said. “Teaching is just one small facet of my gift. I can sense another werewolf hundreds of miles away. I can track better than almost any wolf alive. When a werewolf struggles with controlling their beast, I can help them reconnect.” I took a breath, and it was like a knife twisting between my ribs.
“But my main purpose is hunting rogues…and the wolves they sire.”
Caleb’s gaze sharpened. “The wolves they sire?” he asked, a dangerous note in his tone. He was smart. It was no surprise he’d immediately zeroed in on the most damning part of my confession.
“Yes.” The sirens were louder. Maybe two miles away.
“When rogues bite someone, they pass on their corrupted version of the lycanthropy virus—and nothing else. No gift. No control. Their offspring are always rogues. When Ulfrik turned you, he created you as a rogue. You shouldn’t be able to shift on command or control your wolf.
I’ve never heard of someone like you existing. ”
Something raced through Caleb’s eyes. He shook his head. “This is crazy. I’m nothing like Ulfrik.”
The sirens grew louder. “No, you’re not,” I said.
“Ordinarily, I would have known what you were the moment I found you. Rogues have a distinctive scent, like something is rotting inside them. It comes from the mind, not the body, and it takes a wolfseeker to detect it. You don’t have it, Caleb.
Something in you resisted it. I think it’s the mate bond.
Your wolf chose me before you’d even shifted once. That connection stabilized you.”
He lifted his chin. “You said you didn’t do your job this time. What job?”
I exhaled, then let the truth spill forth at last. “To kill you.”
Betrayal flashed across his face. Then the scent of burnt rubber hit me.
Fear. He was afraid.
Of me.
The knife found my heart.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said. My wolf whined in my head, desperate to go to him, but he spoke again, his voice low and hard despite his fear.
“This Council of Elders sent you to kill me?”
“No,” I said quickly, willing him to believe me.
“I found you on my own. The Council had reports of a rogue on the East Coast. There are only a handful of wolfseekers in the world. Everything I told you about my connection to Hale Valley is true. It made sense for me to come here. The Council doesn’t know about you, and they won’t. I promise.”
The sirens were close now, maybe half a mile away. We had minutes at most.
“We have to go,” I said.
He took a swift step backward, defiance in every line of his body. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
The sirens swelled, their wails rising and falling. My wolf paced anxiously. I let it roar to the surface, its authority radiating from me in a hot wave.
“Yes, you are,” I said, and a crack formed on the wall next to us. “Get your duffel bag and do what I say.”
Caleb jerked his head down. A thin line of blood trickled from his nose. He swiped at it, then stared at the red smear on his hand, a choked, surprised sound emerging from his throat.
I stepped toward him. “Caleb—”
“Don’t touch me.” Movements jerky, he turned and obeyed, grabbing his duffel from the bed and shrugging it over his shoulder.
Then he waited, head down, his fingers tight on the strap.
He was back to the hard, defensive Caleb he’d been when I’d found him, all his sharp, irreverent cockiness buried under a protective shell.
I’d done that. I’d forced him to retreat.
Something tore in my chest. “You’re my mate,” I rasped, aching to go to him. Desperate to fall at his feet and beg forgiveness I didn’t deserve. “I love—”
“Don’t,” he snarled. He stared at the carpet with enough anger and resentment to set the fibers ablaze. “I can’t stop you from bossing me around. But don’t make it worse by saying shit like that.”
The sirens were close now. We had minutes.
I turned and rushed into the closet, where I pulled a rucksack from the top shelf.
Black and worn, it held everything I needed for a hasty relocation.
I checked the false bottom, confirming the papers, money, and burner phones were where I’d left them.
I grabbed two canvas jackets, a wool hat, and gloves from the shelf and a pair of hiking boots from the floor.
Then I hoisted the rucksack and returned to the bedroom.
Caleb still stood beside the bed with his head down and his fingers locked on the strap of his bag.
I dropped one jacket, the boots, and the hat and gloves in front of him. “Put these on. Fast.” I shrugged into the other jacket as he reached for the boots.
“I’ll explain everything when we’re safe,” I said.
He didn’t look up. Didn’t even acknowledge me.
I’d fix everything later. Because if I couldn’t—
I shoved that thought away. I’d fix things. I’d fix everything.
“We’ll go on foot,” I told Caleb. “Stay close.”