Page 89 of Wolf's Fate
He gave me a look of pity. “It’s not the mountain itself,” he explained, reining in his anger. “It’s thecontrol—the power.You look at us and you see what? Superhumans? We think we’ve evolved, that we’re civilized…” He grunted. “But the truth is, Luna graced us with the essence of the wolf, and we’ve never evolved from a pack mentality. It doesn’t go away. Our shes go into heat. Our males fight the aggression that comes with maturity. An alpha needs a mate. We fight for territory and dominance. And it’s the same old story.”
I was almost too scared to ask. “What’s the same old story?”
He blew out a breath, his hands slipping into his pockets. “Whoever controls the packlands controls the region.”
He looked at me then, his gaze sharp and piercing. “When I left, while Igrieved, they saw weakness. They saw an opportunity to take what ismine. And now I’m back…”
“You think they want to take it from you?” My mind was racing. “But…if they wanted to take it from you, wouldn’t they have done so ten years ago?”
“Too obvious.”
Right. “And how do I fit in?” I was genuinely curious. I mean, obviously, the altitude had gone to his head, or he was completely mad, and I refused to accept the latter.
His jaw was clenching, and he spoke through gritted teeth. “They’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I don’t stand in their way.”
The weight of his words settled between us. Did he hearhimself? This wasn’t just about the packlands or the mountain, it was abouthim. They’d told me if he was alone too much, he would let the madness in. Was this what this was? The reason he didn’t trust his own kind? I knew why he’d become a loner, isolating himself; he was grieving. But this…I didn’t have an answer for this.
“I’m human,” I reminded him gently. “Your Council can’t do anything to me, Caleb. There’s no reason for them to know about me. I’m just a human.”
“I know,” he admitted. “But it doesn’t make sense, Willow. This.” He grabbed my hand. “Can you feel it? It’s every day. Every waking moment, I’m aware of you, where you are, the need to touch you. It’s not natural.”
Wow.“Not pulling the punches this morning on the crazy train, huh?”
He ignored me. “And when I’m here. I can feel it—like eyes on my back. Waiting. Watching. They want me to leave.”
“The mountain wants you to leave?”
“No. The mountain wants me here.Theywant me gone. They’re not getting my mountain.”
His paranoia wasn’t completely unfounded—it had to be rooted in something deeper. Something I didn’t understand. Not yet. But watching him become this unhingedthing, I could see what the shaman, and Cannon, and the others had been warning me about. The isolation. It had worn him down. The constant vigilance of thinking someone was coming for his mountain. He was tense and suspicious of everyone and everything. Did it include me?
“What about me?” I asked him, already dreading the answer. “Am I trusted?”
Caleb paused for a moment, and I thought I saw softness for just a second before the hardness fell over his eyes again. “I’m trying,” he told me quietly. “You’re so pure and innocent. I don’t know how they got to you, but we’ll figure it out. You’re linked to me. I don’t understand it, but we can’t ignore it. It may be the only lead we have.”
It was scary to see how far he’d gone off the deep end.
I nodded, even though I wanted to scream. I tried to understand the weight of his words, and I tried to convince myself that he was just trying to protect me, but it was more likely that he was protecting himself. His past was dark and horrifying, and he’d committed atrocities that I still hadn’t accepted, but the uncertainty of broken trust and betrayal had bedded deep down in his soul, and I feared returning here, to this mountain, had been his undoing.
I didn’t know what to do. Leaving him here wasn’t an option. He would never leave me, and I refused to leave him.
Standing in this clearing had brought a change over him, one so sudden that I wasn’t sure how to proceed.
“Caleb,” I spoke softly, gently. Holding out my hand, I stepped closer to him. “We’re in this together. I’m not going anywhere. We can figure this out,together.”
He looked at me with a wariness that tore at my heart, and as I watched him, I saw them. The shadows that surrounded him. Here, in this place, they manifested into something almost corporeal.
“I won’t lose this place,” he whispered, his eyes flicking away, settling on a cluster of shadows that I was sure was moving.
“You won’t.” My eyes focused on the darkness, and I spokedirectly to them. “I’m right here, by your side. You are not alone. Not this time.”
He nodded, his eyes still searching the trees. “I’ll protect you,” he told me. “We’ll sever this link, and you can be free.”
Tears welled in my eyes as we stood there, and I listened to his ramblings as he told me how he thought they were trying to trick him.
He’d been fine. He’d been good.
Confessions of mass murder aside, he had beennormal. Until he’d stepped over those rocks onto this land, and it was like a switch had been flipped.