Page 83 of Wolf's Fate

I didn’t have an answer for that either.

Moving my head slightly, I saw him sitting across from me, his gaze fixed on something in the distance, maybe the next trail or maybe, more likely, the memories that he’d finally shared. I did note that he seemed completely at ease. In fact, my eyes narrowed as I observed him. He lookedrelaxed.Had telling me about his past shed the weight thathecarried?

I wanted to be happy that there was no more mystery between us, but now, knowing the truth, how did I go on like nothing had changed? His past wassodark. I understood his need for isolation and solitude. I could never know what it felt like to go through what he did, but would I have reacted the same? I doubted it. Maybe it was the humanity in me that had me stumbling over the damage to his soul. Maybe shifters dealt with it differentlybecausethey weren’t fully human.

But they were. Human with just a little more magic in them.

Ugh, what a mess. I may never understand his actions, but I knew one thing, I was tied to him.

I still didn’t know how, or why.

Caleb’s head moved slightly, and I knew that he knew I was awake. “It’s good that you slept.”

“I had a snugglebuddy that kept me cozy.”What the hell was wrong with me?

“Snugglebuddy?” His voice was tinged with amusement, and I nodded as I sat up. “Still freaking out?”

“I think I will be for a while,” I admitted, brushing the hair off my face, feeling like I was lying because Ihadaccepted this so quickly, and I didn’t know why I did. It felt wrong that I had. “It’s…it’s a lot.”

“I guess it is.”

A part of me wondered why I wasn’t reacting differently. Was I freaking out? I wasn’t sure. I should have been angry, scared, or even overwhelmed by the enormity of what he’d told me, but mostly I felt confused. Confused that I didn’t feel any of those things. I wasn’t even sure if I felt numb. I still had questions. I needed to know why I was connected to him and what the danger was that we could be facing, but I think it was clear he had even less of a clue than I did.

“It’s still you and me,” I reminded him softly, a reminder more for myself than him, I thought.

Caleb nodded, his eyes narrowed in focus as he returned his attention to the mountain. “Wewillfigure this out. No matter what, Willow.”

It was the determination in his voice that I clung to. After everything that happened, the truth was one I couldn’t get away from, and that was that I trusted him. I trusted him to protect me. I trusted him to be by my side until this insanity was over.

Caleb stood, looking as fresh and healthy as much as I was sure I looked drained and spent. “You ready?”

Scrambling out of the sleeping bag, I took his hand as he pulled me to my feet. His grip was strong and steady, and I felt something—familiar, grounding. The same connection from the moment we met, but now, with the intimacy of yesterday and the truth laid out between us, it seemed to bemore intense. My blood felt like it was humming under my skin.

Caleb’s eyes flared, deep chocolate turning almost purple, and I blinked several times, sure I had imagined it.

“Yeah, I’m ready, I just need to go to the little girl’s room,” I tried to joke.

After I put my boots back on, he pointed me in the direction he wanted me to use, handing me a pack of tissues, and while I went and took care of business, he tidied up my sleeping bag. When I came back, the all-too-familiar bottle of hand sanitizer waited for me, with my refilled bottle of water and a granola bar.

“Breakfast of champions,” I murmured as I started to chew. When I was done, I used some of my water to rinse my mouth after brushing my teeth.

“Okay,nowI’m ready.”

We started at a steady pace, and my body felt rested, which was weird, as I’d been scared of the repercussions of yesterday’s activities. My mind kept going back to Caleb’s fear that he drained me, which maybe he had at one point, but had I become immune to him? To shifters? I never felt drained with Ned or Doc.

“Do you think I got cured of being around shifters?”

Caleb glanced at me, and if he had asked me for more context, I wouldn’t have been surprised. But I think he was accustomed to me now.

“I don’t get drained like you thought you were doing. My ME has been quite good,” I told him as we walked. “In fact, this morning, I feel…energized.” When he didn’t say anything, I was slightly put out. “Hey! Me and the wordenergizedhaven’tbelonged in the same sentence since I was sixteen. This is a big deal for me.”

That earned me a smile. “Or it could be you ate well yesterday, you have fresh air in your lungs, and you got a decent night’s sleep with no midnight sketches.”

Which was also true. My sketchbook had been packed away with no new drawings in it. “Hermit in the mountains? That’s my future?” I asked him with a grin, then remembered where we were, why we were here, and the fact he had pretty much lived like a hermit. “Or something,” I hastily added.

“Beats murdered in the mountains,” he quipped, and when I stopped short, he kept on walking, despite the fact my mouth was hanging open.

“Too soon!” I mumbled as I hurried to catch up with him.