My thumb found the pin and with a screech the metal teeth entrapping me released. I yanked my foot free, scrambling backwards on my butt as white fur flashed, a beacon in the gathering darkness.
My back hit a tree and I considered shifting into my wolf form, but my leg was broken and without setting it first, I risked permanent damage.
I inhaled, trying to get something, anything, on whatever was circling me, but not a single trace drifted on the still air, nothing but the coppery scent of my own blood.
You should have run when you had the chance.
The light voice almost sang, chiding me, and I blinked. It was a human voice, spinning merrily on a nonexistent wind, and only I seemed to hear it as a black and white wolf lunged from the deepening shadows, teeth gleaming as they locked onto my throat in a death grip.
Chapter Two
Caleb
“It’s time to come home.” My shoulders curved as Dom’s words settled over me heavily. It wasn’t a command….yet. But how could I tell him that the place he called home had never felt that way to me? That after years of wandering I still hadn’t found that elusive thing he’d found with Jess. I clutched the phone in my hand, taking a deep breath, as I fought the urge to argue. My silence seemed to echo on the line and I heard him exhale. “We’re worried.”
We…..always we. I scratched my eyebrow, hating the bitterness I felt, but understanding why didn’t change anything. Jess’s appearance in our lives had changed everything, including my friendship with Dom, and my own envy over their relationship didn’t help matters.
“I know,” I muttered, knowing he needed something from me. “It’s just –”
“Just what?” Dom interrupted tiredly. “There’s always an excuse, Caleb. Some reason you can’t come home, and I admit I don’t understand. Help me understand.”
I closed my eyes, wishing I could.
“You haven’t seen the kids in years. When was the last time you ran with a Pack?”
Did running from a lynch mob count?
I bit back the automatic response, knowing it would cause Dom to order me home immediately and I wouldn’t be able to ignore an Alpha directive. “It’s been awhile. But I’m good,” I reassured him and he scoffed.
“Jess wants to know if you’re eating,” he said instead of lecturing me, and involuntarily I smiled. “She says send a picture because she won’t believe you otherwise.”
“I can do that,” I replied quickly, sensing a reprieve. Dom didn’t speak for so long I wondered if we’d been disconnected. I glanced at the phone screen but the call was still active.
“Do you want to form your own Pack?”
The question was so unexpected I sat back on my haunches, stunned.
“Is that the reason you won’t come home?” He sighed as I tried to figure out how to respond. “You can tell me, Caleb. I won’t judge. You were Alpha and I forced you into my Pack.”
“No,” I managed to blurt out. “No, Dom. That’s nothing…..no.”
“Caleb, I would understand.”
“I know you would,” I burst out. “But that’s not why. I appreciate what you did. You saved my life that night. I can never repay that, not in a hundred lifetimes.” He must have heard the truth in my voice because he grunted. “I’ll come home, just…not yet,” I gritted out, not wanting to admit how close I actually was to home.
“I don’t like that we need a phone to communicate,” he growled in frustration and I grimaced. “Lone wolves don’t….they don’t do well, Caleb.”
“Good thing I’m not a lone wolf then, isn’t it?” I joked, but it fell flat as he remained silent. “I swear I’m fine and I’ll send a picture as soon as I hang up. I’ll be back on Pack lands before you know it.” I glanced at the edge of the border between Navarre Pack lands and the Ghost Pack. I was at the extreme northern edge of the border, at a crossroads that had once been Hanley land until Dom had taken them over. One step to the right and technically I would be standing on Pack land, but I didn’t move.
“Fine, but you check in.”
“No problem,” I agreed, relief filling me.
“Every day.”
That was a problem. “Weekly?”
“Every. Single. Day.” His tone brooked no argument and I swallowed my automatic argument. “I mean it, Caleb. You miss a check in and I’ll come find you.”
I believed him and knowing Jess, she’d be right there with him.
“I’ll check in,” I promised, crossing my fingers behind my back even though he couldn’t see me. An angry scream cut across the line and Dom muttered something unintelligible.
“I have to go,” he spoke over the sound of crying and I ignored a familiar pang in my chest. “One of the kids just broke something. Hopefully not another kid. Check in,” he finished, the order clear as the line went dead.