Chapter 4 - Caleb
I know I’m not being fair. Not to her, and certainly not after all the time that passed.
But I stand there, surrounded by Wraith Peak wolves, trying to gauge my next move and how to de-escalate. Right now, fairness doesn’t seem to matter.
And the moment my eyes land on Lila and the way she holds her daughter protectively in front of her, I feel that old, invisible thread pulling tightly between us. The one I wanted to ignore before, and the one she tried to tell me about.
I convinced myself that whatever she felt for me was one-sided, a mistake, and one she would eventually forget about when I was gone.
But standing there, facing the threat of our enemies closing in around her, makes something in me rage.
It’s like a whisper demanding that I act, protect, and claim what’s mine.
I hate that word most of all: mine.
Despite how long I spent trying to deny it, it comes to me so easily, like it’s as natural as breathing.
Still, I won’t let anything happen to either of them.
The tension is near-suffocating, but despite it, I lean into my training and everything drilled into me from day one. I’ve seen worse chances than this.
Even as Zane shifts his footing beside me and Dominic grins subtly to himself with cocky amusement, I know we’re outnumbered.
There are five of us and many of them, but we’re technically on home soil still, bound by treaty limits.
Starting a fight here would ignite the war we’ve been trying to avoid for years.
But there’s no chance in hell I’ll let them touch Lila.
Hayes gives me a measured look, then his gaze flicks to the girl. “We’re taking them both. Your Alpha can come visit us once he stops being a coward.”
Anger pulses in me at the insinuation. Despite my preparation for the role, Varic is still technically my Alpha, and any insult shouldn’t be taken lightly.
I feel as Lila stiffens behind me, but her heartbeat is more like a punch to my chest, as if her end of that invisible tether is screaming at me to do something, whether she knows it or not.
Everything about her right now is a siren call to my wolf, and as much as she tries to hide it, that fear wafts from her anyway.
Not fear for her safety, but for her child’s.
“That’s not happening,” I utter, trying to wrangle back that protective heat tearing through me.
Hayes chuckles. “You don’t get to decide that.”
His amusement falters as I take a step forward, cutting more of that space between us. Good.
“This has nothing to do with decisions. She’s my mate, and if you think you’re going to take her away from me, then you’re already dead.”
If the forest had been quiet before, then it’s deafening now. Even the wind stops moving, and the birds vanish.
I feel the confusion coming from Zane and Dominic, but Lila’s is even stronger. Disbelief and a touch of anger mix in with it, like she’s completely blindsided by the claim. But hell, even I wasn’t expecting those words to come from my mouth.
A small, rational part of me knows I’m pulling that card to force Hayes into rethinking his odds, almost like using a sacred bond as a shield. But the rest of me knows I’m not lying. It isn’t a ploy in the slightest.
Hayes doesn’t say anything. He just stands there, looking like he’s at a loss but doesn’t want to admit it.
“Allow me to reiterate,” I begin, eyes hard and cold on him as I step even closer, bringing us near enough that his pulse gives him away. “If any of your wolves lay a finger on her, this won’t just be a border skirmish. It’ll be a fucking war.”
Unease ripples through the other shifters, clearly not expecting such a bold declaration. Surely they expected me to posture or sling a few threats at most, but certainly no escalation.
Nobody, not even my buddies, expected the soon-to-be-Alpha of Briarwood to publicly invoke a mate bond or to wage conflict.
But here I am, standing my ground.
Regardless of beliefs or pack customs, a mate bond is sacred. Harming one’s mate, let alone abducting them, is grounds for a fight to the death.
Hayes hesitates, but doesn’t pull his eyes from mine. “You wouldn’t risk it.”
“Try me.”
He closes his mouth and doesn’t let whatever he wants to say escape him. He knows full well he wouldn’t be breathing if he did.
Dominic chuckles. “We’d love it if you did.”
Zane doesn’t say anything, but an amused, almost testing hum comes from him. Hunter and Luke both snarl in their wolf forms, making the others flinch.
For a long moment of consideration, Hayes doesn’t say anything. Instead, he takes a step back, then another until he’s slowly retreating without making a statement out of it. Then, with a touch of resignation, he gestures with his chin, signalling for the others to pull back.
His dark eyes settle on me again, mouth twisted in a scowl. “This isn’t over.”
“No, it isn’t.”
That tension lingers for another moment, as does his defiant stare, then Hayes turns away and glides back into the trees with the others.
I wait until their scents slowly dissolve in the air, and only silence settles around us.
A subtle yet honest satisfaction moves through me at the thought of knowing I got them to back off. I managed to keep Lila and her daughter safe, and that’s what matters.
But I’m not naive. Wraith Peak keeps their word, and they don’t bluff. Out of all the packs on the island, they have the least amount of inhibitions.
Which means I need to get the two of them out of here before Hayes and his father’s pack change their minds, regroup, or decide to twist the encounter to justify an attack.
I can’t let her stay anywhere near their territory.
I turn toward Lila, and I immediately catch just how tightly she has her arms wrapped around her daughter, shielding her from me now, despite everything that just unfolded.
With the chance to fully look at them now, something burns in my chest in a way I don’t expect.
Seeing her again is one thing, but the little one with her is another. The evidence of her being with another in my absence.
It shouldn’t sting as it does, but it’s too sharp to ignore, as much as I want to.
The girl is small and trembling, yet still bright-eyed. She’s definitely young, and something about that has my stomach in knots.
Lila having a child with someone else isn’t a shock to me.
She’s beautiful regardless of what the others might think about her strength.
She was always gentle and sweet in ways she didn’t think anyone noticed.
Someone else was bound to want her, and someone would want to claim her just as my inner wolf is screaming at me to do now.
Something ugly forms in my chest, but I refuse to let it blind me.
It doesn’t matter who the father is, or where he might be. It doesn’t matter that a small, instinctive part of me recoils at the thought of anyone having what I suddenly want so badly.
Not while they’re both still in danger.
Lila’s confusion and disbelief are palpable, and she has every right to them.
I rejected her once, as harshly and stupidly as I could, just to get her to forget about me, and out of fear of something I couldn’t understand.
I made myself the last person she should ever trust, yet I made one of the biggest declarations I ever could in front of a rival pack.
I blindsided her, and really, she should hate me.
But none of it seems to matter while that annoying, persistent thing inside me feels so alive with a mind of its own, screaming a simple truth to me again and again in the back of my mind.
She’s mine.
Even if she despises me, and even if I have to fight another man just to make her mine.
I know I don’t deserve to claim a damn thing after all that time, but I can’t ignore the agony I feel at the thought of her having someone else’s child. Of being seen and accepted in the way I should’ve made her feel years ago.
But I force the thought away again. I can’t focus on that now. Not here or now.
First, I need to make sure they’re safe, and maybe I’ll finally stop pretending that Lila isn’t already in my blood.