Page 90 of Wolf's Fate

There were no answers for us on this mountain, I realized. All there was, was Caleb’s madness and my desire to set him free.

I just didn’t know how I was going to do it.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Willow

Standingin the shadow of the hall was intimidating. We’d climbed Shadowridge Peak, and while I thought I would get answers here, I just had more questions.

It was so cold the air felt frigid against my cheeks. I knew I had no sleeping bag, and I was reluctant to ask Caleb where he thought he was going to put me that didn’t end up with me freezing to death. While I stood in the recess of the hall, I knew with absolute certainty I wasn’t stepping in there.

I knew it was where he killed all those people, and while I would never describe myself as overly sensitive, willingly walking into a place that had seen so much death, I didn’t think I dared to do it.

I watched Caleb carefully, each movement he made, each flicker of emotion that crossed his face. He was normally so stoic, but here, with those shadows lingering, I wondered if he knew how he looked. He was at the edge of the clearing, near the jagged entrance, his posture rigid as he stared out at…nothing.

What was there to see? The view was beautiful—I couldn’t deny that—but there was nothing that he needed to stand guard against.

The night was falling and so was the temperature, and as the shadows crept along the ground, I was no longer sure what was the effect of the dying light and what was the spirits that lay around him like a cloak.

Despite everything that had happened in the last few months, I wouldn’t have called myself psychic, but it was so very hard to deny that there wassomethingotherworldly clinging to him. Something was so wrong here.Hewas so wrong here. Edgy. Paranoid. I could see it in the way he moved, in the way he barely seemed to remember that I was here.

And I was beginning to doubt that my being here mattered. Between his confession, his erratic behavior, and the madness that seemed to have enveloped him, Caleb was unraveling at the edges. It kind of made sense, but it was also so baffling that I was lost.

And still, I felt that there was more. Something even deeper. Was it only the spirits that crept around the edges of my awareness, shadows in the night that didn’t belong? Or was there someone—something—influencing him? Something that twisted his thoughts and was pushing him to the brink of something dangerous?

He told me he was strong. They’d explained Will to me. But to hold people still in a room, many, many people, to hold them and one by one kill them, that was more than strong. An alpha had Will; could Cannon match his strength? I had no idea. And I wasn’t sure if we’d need to find out, becauseright now, to me, an outsider, it looked like Caleb was being manipulated.

I just didn’t know by who or why.

But we needed to know. I had to find a way to reach him, to make him realize that his actions were so out of character for him, before whatever pulled at him also dragged him under.

A blast of wind caught my hood, blowing it over my face, and when I pushed it back enough to see, he was gone.

“Caleb?” My voice sounded so small in the clearing.

Movement caught my eye, and I saw the wolf coming out of the trees. I’d felt it beside me while I slept, and last night, I’d been awake when he settled down beside me. This was the first time that I was seeing the gray wolf properly.

I knew little of wolves, but I was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be so big. Not stupidly big—they weren’t pony-sized—but he definitely wasn’tnormal. The gray was dark but not dark enough to be mistaken for black. Had I been painting, I would have called it dark slate, not quite charcoal, but close. His fur was short. He had no other color on his coat, but it was his eyes that held my attention. They were a deep and beautiful blue.

Why I was so hung up on the fact his eye color changed whenhehad changed from a man to a wolf was probably stupid, but one of Caleb’s best features that I loved about him was his deep chocolate brown eyes, and for them to change when he “changed” threw me for a loop.

The wolf approached me.Calebapproached me. Its head was held high with a majesty I had never experienced before. His gaze was so sure, so steady, and I met its highly intelligent look with my own, knowing how unsure I was.

I had no idea how to act. What if the wolf was more primal and it bit me? Ate me? Is that why he didn’t care if I had a sleeping bag? He was going to munch on my bones for dinner.

Will you get a grip?My inner voice sounded exasperated with my out-of-control panicking spiral.

“Caleb?”

The wolf watched me, and then, with a jerk of its head, it started to walk away. I had no choice but to follow it. He paused, moving around me, shielding me from the wind with his body. I appreciated the gesture, but still, the courtesy didn’t make me feel any less tense.

“Some warning that you’re going to turn into a wolf would be nice.” If he heard me, he ignored me. “Coming out of the trees as a giant wolf is kind of freaky, you know. You should warn a girl.”

A blue eye fixed on me, and I decided it would be best if I stopped talking.

I hadn’t been paying attention to where he was leading me until I was at a small, compact cabin. This one didn’t look as desolate as the others, and when Caleb pushed at the door, it swung open with no resistance. He stepped back and looked at me, and I looked between him and the half-open door.

“You want me to go in there?” The wolf’s head dipped. “But you’re not coming in?” The wolf took a step back. “Right.” I looked at the open door again. “Why can’t you ask me to go in there as a man? Why change to the wolf?”