Page 92 of Wolf's Chance

Not today.

We were both tired, I reasoned, and ill-tempered. Tomorrow would be better for this conversation.

“I don’t remember which paintings he didn’t like,” I admitted, turning my attention to the laptop.

I heard his sigh and then he was behind me, close but not touching. “I’ll show you.”

I deleted twelve paintings from the gallery, and Caleb made me go through my uploaded images folder and delete them from there too. I then signed into the Cloud and repeated the motion.

“Do you resent doing that?” he asked me quietly.

“No,” I answered honestly. “It’s like I told the others, if it puts you in danger, then I want to stop that.”

I didn’t turn to look up at him, but I could feel him staring at me. “It’s kind of you to think like that.”

I shrugged it off. “It’s not as easy as I’m making itsound,” I admitted, but I thought of what Cannon had said about the paintings. “Getting them back will be difficult, but if I have to, then I have to.”

“You have to,” he confirmed grimly.

Looking up at him, I asked, “Where are they places of? Do you know them?”

Caleb’s eyes turned hard once more. “You don’t need to know that.”

“Right, of course.” I heard the bitterness in my voice and closed the laptop. “That’s just par for the course now, right? Keep me ignorant and clueless.”

“You don’t need to know,” he reiterated angrily. “It’s better if you don’t.”

“Says who? You?” Caleb moved to the door, and I already knew he was walking out on me, again. “Don’t tell me,” I mocked, “you’re leaving?”

He stopped at the doorway, his head bent, slightly angled to allow him to look back if he wanted, but he didn’t move any further. “I did leave,” he spoke clearly, his tone devoid of emotion. “I was half a day away from this mountain when I knew I couldn’t do that to you. I hate these mountains. I don’t belong here, but I remembered something when I was on my way out of here.” He pushed the door open wide. “You don’t belong here either.” His fingers tapped against the doorframe. “Rest, Willow, tomorrow won’t be any easier.”

“Why would it be?” I mumbled bitterly.

He hesitated. “Shadowridge Peak,” he told me, his voice low, tight with emotion. “That’s where I come from, where I once called home.”

My emotions swelled and I went to speak, but he left without a backward glance, and that made the tears fall faster.

I’d been wrong earlier. Even with Caleb here, I felt alone. I missed my home. I missed Lily.

The sooner this other doctor came, the sooner I would be “fixed,” and that meant the sooner I could go home and put this whole mess behind me.

Lying down on the bed, I closed my eyes and hoped to dream of a time when life was much simpler and shifters were nothing more than a figment of my imagination.

I lay there for a long time, staring at nothing, wondering about the secrets that Shadowridge Peak held, before sleep finally came.

TWENTY-FIVE

Caleb

“You’re up early.”

Looking over my shoulder, I watched as Cannon approached me. “What do you want?”

“Good morning to you too.” He sat beside me, neither of us caring that the ground was heavy with morning dew. We were higher up the mountain, not much footfall at this time of the day. “She didn’t sleep well,” he told me conversationally. “I admit, I never expected her to stay in the room.”

I grunted at the acknowledgment. “I told you, she’s predictable.”

Cannon chuckled. “It’s not always a bad thing,” he reminded me ruefully. “Kezia would have been out of the room the moment I closed the door behind me.”

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