Page 16 of Wolf’s Providence (The Shadowridge Peak #3)

FIFTEEN

Willow

It was so strange being back.

My house looked exactly the same as it had when I left. Everything was tidy and in its place. It was neat, lifeless, pretty much how it always was. Standing there, I realized that my home looked unlived in. Empty. It wasn’t a perfect picture of how clean a house was before you went on vacation; it looked like this every day.

Had it always looked like this, or was I seeing it differently now that everything was different?

Because everything was different.

Glancing at Caleb, who was standing in the kitchen and scanning the room for threats that didn’t exist, I knew he was the reason everything had changed. My home, my sanctuary, felt too small with him in it. His presence filled the space, making it hard to look at anything else.

I could pretend this was normal, but did I even know what normal was anymore?

Caleb hadn’t mentioned sleeping arrangements on our journey back to Whispering Pines, and neither had I. What was I supposed to suggest? The bed? Too forward. The couch? Ouch. The very thought of a six-foot-plus, fiercely protective, intense shifter crashing on my couch was just a reminder of the world I’d become entangled in.

And now, said shifter was my…what? Roommate?

Unbidden, I started to smile at the thought of it. If someone had told me two months ago that I’d be sharing my living space with Caleb, I would’ve laughed in their face.

Yet here we were.

His intense stare caught mine and we stood a few feet apart, saying nothing. The silence between us wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was filled with things we were holding back. Like the night we slept together in the bunker. We hadn’t had sex again, but Caleb wasn’t shy in offering light kisses when he felt like it.

When he felt like it. Was that harsh?

I never felt like he felt obligated to kiss me. But I did think we were both trying to figure it all out.

“It was a long drive,” he spoke suddenly. “Do you mind if I shower?”

“Um…no, of course not. Are you using the main bathroom or mine?” Wow. Awkward.

“Which one would you prefer me to use?”

Loaded question, and I floundered as to what the right response was.

“Whichever one you want. The pressure’s good in both of them.” Pressure? That’s what you’re going with? Water pressure?

He didn’t say anything, and only moments later, I heard the bathroom door in the hall close.

“Right, the main one, then.” Did it mean anything that he picked that one?

Why did I feel that his choice of bathroom added to the tension? But yet I also felt relaxed knowing the door was closed and I could breathe in my own space without his eyes on me.

What was I doing?

How was I going to live with him if this was how I felt after one hour of being in the house together?

What the heck did I tell Lily? I wasn’t sure I could explain Caleb to myself , so how could I tell my friends? And expect them to believe me? The fact he was staying here, in my house, was out of character for me, and where did he sleep?

I could hear the questions now, and I knew I had no answer for them.

I had heard him in Cannon’s study…library? Shaking my head at being so easily distracted, I thought back to what he said in the whatever-it-was room. When he asked me if this was my “ever after,” I hadn’t expected the question, and I’d frozen when he asked it. Because all I could think of was, was I his?

What was I to him? Someone he needed to save?

Why was he really here? To find the ones who were pursuing me to get to him ?

Were we together? Or were we two people who slept together?

I hated the way the last question made me feel. I mean, we’d been alone for hours, and I hadn’t brought it up.

Neither had he.

In defense of the situation, I’d slept for most of the journey because I was still recovering from my wounds. Which brought me to my next fear…was he only here because he felt guilty about what happened on Shadowridge Peak?

Then add onto that I was struggling with how this relationship—if you could even call it that—was viewed by his fellow shifters. Shifters didn’t approve of mixed-race relationships. I wasn’t an idiot; it was obvious as to why. If Doc was part-shifter because his father was a shifter and his mother was human, then reading between the lines, it meant that babies born of a human woman to shifter men didn’t birth shifters. I also remembered my earlier thoughts that Luna was not a very forward-thinking Goddess; her emphasis was on continuing her species of shifters.

I wasn’t planning any baby showers in my immediate future, but Caleb was an alpha. Was it not his duty to his pack to give them shifter babies?

But he didn’t have a pack.

Which is why this shouldn’t be the thing bothering me as much as it was. But how could I be with him when some of his society didn’t think we belonged together?

Ugh…these thoughts were harder to shake off than I expected. Was he only here because of this bond between us?

I hated that that question was the one I feared the most.

Tea. That’s what I needed, a good strong cup of tea. Waiting for the kettle to boil on the stove, I busied myself with getting cups, the teapot, and the tea leaves for the pot ready.

I was pouring myself a cup of tea when the bathroom door opened, and soon he was walking into the living room, a walking temptation. Shirtless, with a towel slung around his shoulders, his hair damp from the shower, wearing dark jeans with the top button undone. I forced myself to look away before I started imagining things I definitely should not be thinking about.

“Do you think we need to talk?” I blurted before I could stop myself.

Caleb paused. He had been reaching for the teapot, his eyes locking onto mine. “About?”

“Our story? Your alibi? What we’re going to tell my friends?”

He poured himself a cup of tea, blowing across the cup delicately as he raised it to his lips. “Tell people? Why do we need to tell them anything? It has nothing to do with them.”

“Of course it has!” My voice was sharper than I intended, but when he said such ridiculous things, could he blame me? “People will ask questions, Caleb. You’re going to be living in my house. My friends, my neighbors…they’re going to want to know why you’re here! They know I only have one bedroom!”

He looked so calm, completely unfazed. “Why are you getting excited about this? Let them ask.”

I felt like I had stepped back in time. He was once more an infuriating man who drove me to the brink of frustration. “It’s not that simple.”

“Why?” He sipped his tea. “I don’t really care what anyone else thinks or asks. We know the truth.”

I opened my mouth to ask if we did, but the words died on my tongue. He had a way of simplifying things that could almost feel dismissive in the way he approached them. But it wasn’t that easy. How did I explain to my friends that this man, who only one of them knew about, was now living with me?

I couldn’t tell them what he was or why I had been targeted. It was such a mess. I had been so eager to come home, but I wished I’d had the foresight to plan better.

Or dared to ask in the car.

Hindsight truly was brutal.

The knock on the front door made us both look at each other and then towards the door. Neither of us moved, and when the knocking got louder, I jumped up to answer the door, only to meet an immovable wall.

“I’ll go,” Caleb told me. “You don’t know who it is.”

“Neither do you,” I whispered furiously, hurrying after him. “You can’t open my door in just jeans and all those abs out for anyone to see!”

Caleb looked over his shoulder at me, and I saw his smug smirk. “Hopefully, it encourages them to go away,” he said with a wink.

“It’s probably Lily!” I whisper-hissed, though I think I sounded more like a hissing feline than saying actual legible words.

Caleb opened the door without even using the spy hole. The audacity of him taking ownership was not lost on just me.

Lily stood at my front door with her mouth hanging open as she took in six-foot-three of muscled perfection. She recovered a hell of a lot quicker than me, her mouth snapping shut, and the most ferocious glare transformed her face.

“ You !”

Caleb turned slightly so he could see me as he kept her in his sights. “Willow, you have a visitor.”

Lily seemed to realize I was in the room, because her scowl vanished, and her squeal of delight caused not just the shifter in the room to wince. “Oh my God, you’re home!” She brushed past Caleb with barely a glance and launched herself at me, causing me to stumble backward.

I felt his hand at my back, steadying me, and I saw Lily look up at him and immediately drop her arms. “Your wounds, I’m so sorry!” Which was immediately followed by the realization I was not in a hospital bed. “Should you be out? You were so badly beaten up!”

Her innocent question caused Caleb to flinch again, but this time for a different reason.

“I’m better,” I assured her hurriedly. “Healing really well.” Flicking my eyes to Caleb, I tried to catch his eye, but he was avoiding me, staring at the floor with a frown on his face.

Lily missed nothing at the best of times. She turned to look at Caleb. “So…what’s going on here? Are you two…?” I saw her check him out. “Why are you half-dressed?”

“I just got out of the shower.”

“Why?” she demanded.

I saw the look that came over his face and knew he was about to deliver a witty reply that would not go down well, so being a good friend and always ready to avoid confrontation, I jumped in.

“How did you know I was home?”

Now, she was frowning at me. “Oh, you mean when you never told me?”

Yup, here we go.

“It was Noel’s turn to water the plants,” she said. “He said he saw ‘some guy’ come out of a Jeep and go into your house, and did I know who it was?”

She left the question hanging in the air, and I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks.

“It’s just Caleb,” I muttered. I hated how weak I sounded.

“Right.” She looked between us, her eyes once more roaming over his bare chest. “Just Caleb. Friends , right?”

Caleb didn’t say anything, but I could feel the tension rolling off him in waves.

“Well, you’re obviously busy ,” Lily said, breaking the sudden awkward silence. “I just wanted to check in and see how you were.” She sniffed delicately and I knew I was going to get it later. “It’s only been about a week since I saw you, but you look so much better.” Her smile was genuine, but I knew the glint in her eye well. “Call me… soon .”

I gave her a tight smile, grateful for the out she just gave me. “Thank you for stopping by. I’m…sorry I didn’t tell you. It was kind of sudden, and then I slept most of the way home?—”

“Willow.” Caleb’s voice was low, but it was enough to stop me from babbling.

“Yeah, right, sorry.” I forced a smile when I saw her eyes narrowing. “It’s all good, we’re good, just trying to settle back in.”

“Mm-hmm.” She turned to leave. “You need groceries. If I’d known you were coming home, I would have stocked your fridge.”

“I can do that,” I called after her, my cheeks burning again, but no idea why. “Wait!” She turned at the door, an eyebrow raised expectantly. “I have plants?”

She grinned, shooting Caleb a smug look, and I wasn’t sure why. “Yeah. You have plants. Speak soon.”

She left with a grin, and I wasn’t sure why she suddenly looked victorious.

“What just happened?” I murmured. “That was super awkward.”

Caleb’s voice rumbled close behind me. “You didn’t have to lie.”

Turning to look at him, I hadn’t realized I was so close to him. “I didn’t lie. I just…”

“Lied.”

“Didn’t tell her everything,” I snapped back.

He took a step closer, and I really wanted to demand he put a shirt on. All that flesh on display was distracting.

“So that’s how you feel?” he asked me, his face unreadable. “You need to hide what we are?”

Shaking my head, I took a step back. I didn’t have an answer. The truth was, I wasn’t sure what I would call us yet. And until I figured that out, wasn’t hiding the easiest option?

I didn’t say that.

Instead, I walked towards my bedroom, pushing the door open. I saw the new additions to the room. Several potted plants were dotted around my space, making my bedroom more…homey.

“You didn’t answer.”

I jumped ten feet in the air as the stealthy shifter scared the shit out of me by sneaking up behind me. “Caleb!” My heart was pounding. “Do not do that!”

His look was unrelenting, and I took a deep breath, searching for an answer that would make sense, for both of us. “Caleb, it’s not about hiding. It’s about…I don’t know.” I shrugged helplessly, frustrated at my tangled thoughts. “It’s just you’re…you. And I’m me. And in your world, that means something different. We’re different. And I need to have answers before I think of questions, and I don’t have any answers.”

He crossed his arms over his impressive chest, his gaze fixed and unblinking. Completely ignoring the fact he was making me drool at the sight of his physique. “You don’t need answers, you need honesty . Be honest with them…and with yourself.”

“Honest with them?” I challenged. “So, tell them you’re a shifter, and some of your species don’t like it when one of your kind sticks their dick in one of my kind?”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Is that what you think this is? That it was about sex and only sex?”

I hated his crude words, and I dropped my eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted. “No, of course not.”

“Then why are you acting like this? Do you want an excuse to step away from this? From us?”

The simplicity of his question struck a chord in me. But as much as I wanted to believe it, things weren’t that straightforward. Looking up, I took in the hard lines of his face, the intensity in his eyes as he watched me. My mouth went dry as I considered my words.

“It’s that easy for you?” I asked carefully.

His expression softened, and he closed the distance between us. “Yes. I know what I want.” Reaching out, he tucked my hair behind my ear, his fingers rubbing a few strands between them as his hand dropped softly. “I’m not ashamed of that. Or you.”

His words settled around me like a weight. A weight that pulled me closer to the truth I was too chicken to face. But Caleb wasn’t hiding, and he wasn’t pretending. His being here wasn’t just a commitment he felt he owed or empty words. It was action . He wasn’t wavering on what he wanted or letting the doubts of others cast a shadow over his own feelings.

I didn’t know what to say. All my life, I’d relied on myself and my own logic. But with Caleb, my expectations were different. He made me different. Being with him meant stepping outside my comfort zone, and it meant trusting him.

I wasn’t sure I was there yet. He had a tendency to disappear on me.

Caleb moved back, giving me space, and for the first time since returning home, I realized how much I wanted him here.

And admitting that to myself terrified me.

“Hey…” I began, but I didn’t know what else to say. “I…”

“You’ve got time,” he said gently. “Just don’t take too long. But also…take as long as you need.”

With that, he turned and walked down the hall, leaving me to confront the questions that haunted me, and no one to ask them.

Except for the plants.