“Hey, kiddo.”
Astrid shrinks back a little, shy but still curious. Her voice comes out like a small thing, “Hi.”
“What’s your name?” he asks, his tone lighter with her.
She responds softly, “Astrid.”
“Astrid, huh?” he repeats, almost like he’s letting it set in. “That’s a beautiful name.”
A small, bashful smile settles on her lips. “Thank you.”
Despite everything that happened with the Wraith Peak wolves and the tension pulled tight between us, Caleb softens a touch, showing me a part of him I’ve never seen before, and it makes something twist in my chest. “You’re welcome.”
After a moment, as if growing more comfortable within a matter of minutes, Astrid’s smile brightens, and she sits up more. “Do you live in a big house?”
He chuckles to himself, turning onto a different road. “It’s fairly big.”
“Do you have any pets?”
“Not yet. I might get one eventually.”
She muses, “You should get a cat. I’ve always wanted one.”
There’s something easy in his smile while he talks with Astrid, and it feels more like a bruise to the ribs.
“Maybe someday.”
Astrid seems content with the idea, and she continues on, nattering about cats and dogs, and all the while, Caleb speaks to her like she’s the most important thing in the world right now.
Even hearing them talk wrecks something inside me I never expected to have to confront. It shouldn’t burn, but it does.
He has no idea. No clue that she’s his.
There’s a touch of awkward honesty in the way he interacts with her, like he isn’t used to talking to children, yet he’s still trying anyway.
After everything, I want to believe that guilt has no right to eat away at me, but it does anyway.
When he says something that makes her giggle, slowly bringing Astrid out of her shell, my heart only twists more.
Despite everything, part of me still remembers how it felt to silently long for him from afar. The part of me I tried to kill for years for my sake, only for him to come right back again.
When he said he wants to keep us safe, that piece of me wants to believe him.
And that might be more dangerous than the Wraith Peak wolves.
Chapter 6 - Caleb
The house is quiet when we walk in, and it feels far too still, almost as if it’s waiting in anticipation.
It became mine after my dad died when I was young, but Varic let me live with him until I turned eighteen. I only stayed in the house a few months before I enlisted, and it has sat empty ever since.
I always imagined it feeling warmer than this, like it was properly lived in and ready for a mate.
Before, I never once imagined Lila crossing the threshold.
She steps inside almost cautiously, fingers carefully wrapped around her daughter’s smaller hand to keep her close. All the while, Astrid’s wide, green eyes take in the wooden floors, the tall windows that let in the remaining golden hour rays.
Without any rival wolves threatening to tear her away from Lila, it’s like I can see her clearly now. I can see the bright wonder in her gaze, and the innocence in her that tugs hard at my heart.
