Chapter 5 - Lila
Caleb barely gives me the chance to regain my bearings before his voice cuts through the trees like a hardened blade.
“You’re coming with me.”
There’s no room for question in the demand. It’s an order, as if he suddenly gets to decide anything about my life.
I stiffen. “Excuse me?”
Despite the way he came to my defense so readily before, there’s something different in the way he looks at me. That protective edge shifts into what appears to be impatience. He murmurs, voice low, “We’re not staying here and waiting for them to double back. You and the child are coming to my place, where they won’t dare to come. Now.”
My jaw clenches, and my immediate reflex is to refuse him. But just as I open my mouth, prepared to spit back something sharp at him, something else hits me.
It starts as a small tug. Like a nudge at my side, telling me to pay attention. Then it crashes across my vision so quickly I nearly miss it.
Everything narrows at once, blurring the forest and even Caleb right in front of me. Everything stills, as if suspended in time beyond my control.
With violent urgency, images flood my mind at once like cracks of lightning.
I see a house bathed in warm light, with a fire flickering inside. Astrid’s laughter rings through a room I don’t recognise, even with dark shadows lingering outside. Then I see Caleb standing between us and the danger on the other side of thatwall, shielding us both from something deadly. Despite the cold, unknown out there, the house is warm. Safe and sound.
The pictures tear away from me just as fast, leaving me off-kilter as I come back to the present, steadying myself. I swallow hard as the forest snaps back into place, able to feel the cool air and the warmth of Astrid’s shoulders beneath my hands. The men with Caleb rustle around us, reminding me we aren’t alone.
As much as I don’t want to acknowledge it, I know exactly what that vision means.
Go with him. Trust him.
I hate the idea, despising how it tugs at those old wounds. He’s the last person I ever want to depend on, but at the same time, I know he isn’t wrong.
A dull headache forms in my temples from how hard I clench my jaw, feeling like I’m torn between self-preservation and giving my daughter what she needs.
After everything, it doesn’t seem fair. Caleb broke me in so many ways, and yet, I’m supposed to blindly trust him.
Feeling Astrid press back against me, small body trembling while that confusion cloaks her, melts my anger into something softer. Protective.
She comes first before all else, regardless of what the situation does to me, and it has been that way since the day she was born.
In this moment, knowing her life is in danger out here, my pride doesn’t matter. Neither does my heartbreak, nor the feelings I forced myself to bury the moment Caleb left me to fend for myself.
Astrid is my everything, and I can’t let my pain get in the way of giving her exactly what she needs.
Caleb looks at me strangely for a moment, as if sensing something in me, but he keeps his expression unreadable. “We don’t have time for arguments.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to,” he says simply, gaze sliding between Astrid and me before settling on me again. “Let’s go.”
The mere thought of him being right infuriates me, and I have half the mind to think there was something traitorous in that vision, but I force it all down and focus on what’s important.
“Fine,” I mumble, giving Astrid’s shoulders a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “But this is only temporary.”
Something moves subtly in Caleb’s eyes then. Before I can decipher it, it disappears, and he doesn’t argue. Instead, he gestures behind me. “That way. We have vehicles waiting.”
I agreed to go, yet that resistance flares inside me at the order. But I guide Astrid as Caleb moves ahead and starts leading us through the trees. The two guys linger behind us while the two shifted wolves stay at either side of us, keeping a respectable distance.
With every step, the formation feels almost practiced, and even if it’s meant to protect us, there’s something oppressive about it. But maybe that’s just from Caleb’s presence alone.
Eventually, we reach the highway leading into town, and sure enough, two jeeps are parked on the side of the road. The guys move ahead to the one, while Caleb leads us to the other.
