Chapter 27 Evan
EVAN
It’s Sunday, and there isn’t much going on at the pack house. Jaxon is out with Kayden, and a few others, leaving us to have some downtime. It’s been a few days since I’ve seen Caleb at the children’s home. He hasn’t been back the rest of the week, but I understand he’s got a pack to run.
“Evan?”
“Huh?” I snap myself out of my thoughts as I stare out of the kitchen window.
Ava makes up food for Aurora as she looks at me. “You busy daydreaming about Caleb?”
“What? No.” I scowl, and she raises her brows at me.
“When are you seeing him next?”
I shrug. “Don’t know. It’s not easy when he needs to hide it from his father.”
Ava’s lips tilt downwards. “We could go over there?” she suggests.
I twist towards her and shake my head. “We can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s weird, and I don’t want to look like a stalker.”
Ava’s eyes soften. “Well…we could go over there to see Zara. It doesn’t have to come across like you’re doing it for Caleb.”
My heart spikes at the thought. “And why will we be seeing Zara?”
She waggles her brows at me. “Bringing her a cake and Aurora. A friendly drop-by. Get us out of the house. We can do whatever we want today.”
I chew on my lip. “I don’t want to come across as needy.”
“Then don’t,” she says as she hands Aurora her sandwich. “We’re not going to see Caleb, remember?”
My chest tightens. “Okay.”
“Want to help me make the cake?”
“If you want it to be poisoned, sure.”
Ava releases a soft laugh. “Come on, I’ll teach you.”
Three hours later, we’re standing outside Caleb’s pack house with the cake in my hands and Aurora on Ava’s hip. Zara greets us with the brightest smile and brings Ava into an embrace.
“To what do I owe this lovely surprise?” she says with excitement.
“Thought we’d drop by.” Ava grins as Zara turns towards me and gives me a hug.
I clear my throat. “We brought you a cake,” I say as I thrust the plastic box in her direction.
Zara stares down at the lemon drizzle we whipped up in record time. “Oh my.” She beams. “Thank you. Come in.”
We step inside their house, and the air is charged with Caleb’s scent. Ava and I follow Zara to the empty kitchen with no sign of Caleb. I sigh to myself that he’s the first thing I think about.
Of course he is. It’s why you’re here.
“Quiet here today, too?” Ava asks, voicing my thoughts.
Zara turns towards her with a nod. “Yeah, very quiet. Caleb’s busy working, and everyone else is allowed to go and visit family members, have the day off.”
“How has Caleb been settling into his new pack?”
I study Zara as she takes a moment to answer. “It’s taken time for him to build trust, and it’s definitely not going to come easily. But he’s been making an incredible effort. I think they’re starting to realise that he’s nothing like his father. That was their biggest worry.”
Ava hums. “Which is completely understandable. So, is Caleb working here today?”
“Yeah,” Zara says as she points towards the hall. “Working in his office, catching up on things. He never stops, barely gets any sleep. I don’t know how he functions.”
Zara holds Aurora as Ava starts to slice up the cake. They fall into light conversation, but all I can think about is the fact that Caleb is probably only a few rooms away. I’m weak for him, but at least I’m not in denial about it.
“Can I use your bathroom?” I interrupt their conversation.
“Of course. Just down the hall.” Zara points.
I slip away as they continue talking amongst themselves. I glance over my shoulder as I enter the hall, but neither of them pay attention to me.
Without hesitation I follow my senses, wherever Caleb’s scent is the strongest. I’ve already trespassed in his bedroom, and he did not seem to like that. But this is different; I’ve learnt to knock first.
When I settle outside what I believe to be his office, I suck in a breath and raise my knuckles to the wooden door.
“Come in.” His voice is deep and demanding.
It makes me shudder because he’s definitely in focus mode.
I hesitate before pressing my palm to the handle and pushing it open. My eyes flick over Caleb as he sits behind his desk wearing a dark grey quarter-zip jumper, his biceps protruding out of the fabric.
My mouth pops open at the sight of him, and I have to check if I’m drooling.
He blinks at me in surprise, unsure if I’m real or not. “Evan?”
“Hi.” I clear my throat. “I came over with Ava.”
Caleb stands from his seat and loops around his desk before heading straight towards me. I gulp. Did I push some boundaries? Maybe I shouldn’t have shown up unannounced. I’m wasting his time.
“Sorry,” I exhale. “I shouldn’t be here. This was a mistake.”
Before I can turn around to leave, he reaches for my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. My chest heaves with uncertainty.
“It’s never a mistake to see you, pups,” he says slowly, his finger running along the inside of my wrist tenderly.
I shiver at the contact and how intimate it feels, despite what we did through our mindlink a few days ago. I try to push that to the back of my mind because it’s something incredibly out of character for me to do, but at the same time, I felt so unleashed.
“I don’t want to disrupt you,” I murmur.
His lips twitch into a smile. “You’ve already done that.”
My face flushes with heat. “Sorry.”
“I could do with a break,” he says with honest eyes. “I’ve been working since five this morning.”
I frown. “Five?”
“Up since four.”
“Why?”
He shrugs as if it’s nothing out of the ordinary. “Sleeping can be dangerous for me.”
“How?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Tell me.”
Caleb’s green eyes flick between mine slowly. “Come with me.”
He slips his hand into mine and gives it a squeeze before leaving his office and heading upstairs. We enter his bedroom a few moments later, and I’m covered in goosebumps at his scent that hits me.
As we walk towards his desk, where his drawings lie over the chipped wood, I instinctively reach for them and flick through his incredible talent. There are drawings of Felix and Zara, his father, and people from his pack.
I slip out the last drawing to find one of myself. For a moment, I’m so stunned I can’t speak. Caleb doesn’t say anything either.
It’s in black and white, all but my eyes, which are almost identical to the actual colour. I take it between my fingers and draw it up to my face for better inspection. The first thing I notice is that I look happy, alive, and bright.
Caleb’s chest brushes my back as I stare in awe. The details are incredible. I had no idea a pencil could make art look this realistic.
“When did you do this?” I whisper.
“A few weeks after meeting you,” he confesses.
My heart aches because that’s when I was convinced he hated me.
“This must have taken you ages.” I brush my fingers over the page and the blue eyes that lock onto mine.
Caleb shrugs. “I’ve drawn more.”
I frown as I glance at him. “Of me?”
“Yes.”
My brows raise. “Can I see?”
He leans over to grab a sketchbook in which he flicks through pages and pages of my face. “Holy shit,” I mumble. “And I thought I was the stalker.”
“Watch it.” He nudges me playfully.
“What’s this got to do with sleeping?”
Caleb sighs as he takes the sketchbook from my hands and places it back down on his desk. I turn to look at him as his green eyes move between mine. He looks particularly tired today, and it doesn’t sit well with me.
“I have dreams,” he starts. “Precognitive dreams. I learnt from a young age that they weren’t just dreams, they’d eventually come true if I didn’t do anything to stop them.”
I freeze as I listen.
“I’ve dreamt about my father, my mother, my brother…you. Drawing helps me to visualise how I’d like things to go differently, how I’m going to make a difference by projecting my energy into it.”
“What sort of dreams do you have about me?”
Caleb’s teeth sink into his bottom lip, as if he’d rather eat glass than tell me.
“Bad?” I whisper.
All he does is nod. My blood runs cold.
“How do you stop them from becoming a reality?”
He strokes back my curls tenderly, and I keep in the shudder that wants to travel through me. “By being a better person. By not becoming like my father.”
“But you’re not like your father.” I shake my head.
Caleb attempts a smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “We’ve come a long way, huh?”
“I’ve heard the speculation,” I say. “And I know you wouldn’t dream of being that evil.”
“No,” he rasps. “I wouldn’t. But a lot of people think I could.”
Guilt swarms me because I thought the same when I first met him.
“The reputation I hold because I’m his son,” he grits. “I hate it.”
“I’m sorry.”
Caleb’s eyes lower. “I’m used to it.”
“Doesn’t mean you should be.” I glance down at the drawings again. “You’re very talented. I meant what I said the first time I saw them. They’re incredible.”
“Thank you.”
My hands clasp together in front of me as I tilt my head to look up at him.
“How have you been?” he asks.
“Surviving.”
Caleb frowns. “Just surviving?”
“I guess,” I sigh.
“I want you to be living.” He tenderly tucks a curl behind my ear.
“I think I stopped living a long time ago.”
Something flashes in Caleb’s eyes that looks a lot like hurt. “How can I make it better?” he whispers.
“I’m not sure,” I admit.
They’re my personal battles. Not his.
I turn back to his desk, unable to stand the emotion in his eyes. But I don’t get far, not before he wraps his arms around me from behind. He tugs my back against my chest and lowers his face down into the crook of my neck. I close my eyes as his lips drag over my pulse point.
“I don’t want you to be suffering alone.”
“I have most of my life.”
Caleb shudders around me, making my skin prickle. “When will you tell me about it?”
I tighten. “Not yet.”
“Okay,” he murmurs, and I’m grateful that he’s not pushing for it.
I’m not ready to pour out my deepest, darkest secrets.
He kisses my throat once more, and I relax into his arms. “Do you need me to go?”
Caleb shakes his head. “No. I have all the time in the world for you.”
My throat clogs with emotion because I don’t think anyone has ever really made time for me. Ava and Jaxon let me into their home, sure, but not like this.
Not in a romantic way.
I might have hated him at the start, but this feels different. Something has changed, and I’m grasping onto it.