Page 18 of Wolf’s Providence (The Shadowridge Peak #3)

SEVENTEEN

Caleb

Watching Willow eat made my wolf happy.

Watching her eat meat that I cooked for her was deeply satisfying. She’d frowned when I suggested cooking her steak rare, her nose wrinkling up in disgust. When she told me she ate her steak cooked “well done,” I’d questioned her sanity.

We’d compromised on medium-well, which in reality was more medium-rare. However, she was eating every scrap like she hadn’t been fed in days. Not only was she eating it, but she was savoring it, licking her lips as she gobbled her meal greedily.

“When was the last time you ate?” I asked her in amusement as she licked her lips.

“You made a sandwich earlier, after…” Her cheeks reddened, and she looked away from my knowing grin.

My smug grin. After fucking her on the counter earlier and carrying her to the couch where we’d both fallen asleep, I’d woken up, carried her to her bed, and started all over again.

Now it was evening, and we were both hungry after round three in her shower. I made a note to get her a new shower curtain. Taking a bite of my steak, I wondered if there was anything better in this world than Willow’s snug pussy wrapped around my cock.

Taking a sniff of the air as I chewed, my wolf rumbled with happiness as I smelled my scent all over her. She’s never washing that off, I thought, knowing how arrogant that sounded and not caring. My scent was embedded in her skin. The only way she would be free of it was if I never touched her again, and I knew that was never going to happen.

She was mine .

This morning and afternoon had proved that. I would find the bastards that hurt her, and when I was done with them, I would ensure no one ever hurt her again.

Including me.

When the threat to her was removed, I knew the right thing was probably to remove myself as well. But I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t . I would do better by Willow. I would be the man she deserved.

I knew the fears Willow had regarding how other shifters would view us. Some of my kind didn’t approve of blurring the lines. Humans were supposed to be separate from us, they were not part of our world. They didn’t share our abilities; they didn’t have the grace of Luna in their blood.

But Willow did.

I knew she did. She had my blood in her system. I couldn’t explain it, but the connection between us was growing the more we were together. I knew it wasn’t a mate bond—the simple fact was that a mate bond couldn’t exist with a human.

But our bond was something .

It was and I could feel it becoming more every day.

All of which satisfied my wolf, because it confirmed that the woman across from me belonged with me. I may never be able to call her mate, but I could call her mine.

Willow looked back at me, clearing her throat. “I had a few texts from Lily earlier,” she began carefully. “They noticed we never made it to the studio today.” Her slight frown as she spoke did nothing to quell my sense of self-satisfaction at how she spent her day instead. “They are expecting me tomorrow. I told her I would be in.”

I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t stop her. This was her business after all. “Sounds good,” I told her as I ate a fry. Why I needed to eat fries with a steak was alien. I wanted meat, and for a side, more meat would do. Instead, I had thin strips of a vegetable my wolf didn’t want or need. “What time do we leave in the morning?”

“We?” Willow was looking at me in surprise, her fork half-raised to her mouth. “You’re still coming?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Was she serious? After today? After laying claim to her tight body over and over again, she thought I wouldn’t be as protective. As possessive ?

“Oh, I thought, you know…”

“I don’t know,” I answered smoothly. “The threat to you is still out there. My enemies are still out there.”

“I know.” She dropped her eyes, and I wanted to tell her to lift them again and challenge me as she so obviously wanted to do.

Challenge me? What kind of shit was I talking about? That wasn’t me. A shiver of fear danced down my spine as I realized how I sounded to myself.

Unhinged.

Wild.

Feral .

Fuck, I was slipping. Again. Taking her this afternoon had loosened my control. I needed to be better.

Stronger.

For her. She could never be near me if I lost control again. And I knew I could never be without her being near. I needed to rein it in. My teeth ground against each other as I tried to pull control back from my inner darkness.

I claimed Willow. Only me. The beast that lived within me, that clung to the shadowy edges of my consciousness, it could fuck off.

Willow cleared her throat again. Either she had something stuck in her throat or I was making her nervous. I didn’t want it to be the latter, so I forced myself to eat another fried stick of potato.

“If you come with me, I’ll introduce you to Lorna and maybe her husband, Noel.”

“Sounds good,” I lied easily. “It would be nice to meet the people who took such good care of you when I wasn’t here for you.” That wasn’t a lie. I was appreciative of the people who had cared for her.

“We could go for dinner,” she suggested tentatively. “It will maybe help them understand…us a bit better?” She took a hasty sip of water. “And Lily too.”

The suggestion seemed to hang in the air between us. I couldn’t think of anything worse. “Dinner, huh?” I cut my steak with more savagery than was perhaps warranted.

She nodded eagerly. “It could be good, Caleb. I need them to know you.”

“You need them to like me, you mean.” I saw her disappointed frown and felt like a dick. “Alright, dinner it is.”

She gave me a look that lingered too long. It looked a lot like doubt, but then after a moment, I saw her smile, warm and soft, like her. She held my gaze for a second or two longer before returning to her meal.

“Thank you,” she murmured. “It’ll be good,” she said again, and I wasn’t sure which one of us she was trying to convince. Maybe both?

Her words settled around me as I watched her eat. I wasn’t sure why she thought meeting her friends was a good idea, but the hope in her eyes was hard to ignore.

“You don’t need to thank me, Willow,” I chided her gently. “This is what people do.” I saw her smile again, but I was wound tight beneath my own calm tone.

Pe o ple. Not shifters.

Pack ate together as it was. It wasn’t a formal affair. Or an event. It was simply mealtime. I was already dreading that I was going to make a mistake.

Dinner with her friends. People who were already protective of her, which was good, but not when it came to the fact that they would be protective against me. I would need to be on my best behavior as I pretended to be normal . The very thought of it left a bad taste in my mouth. It all felt so…human.

This quiet town, where they all knew each other, where dinner conversation would involve talking about people I didn’t know, about the weather, and whatever mundane shit they filled their day with. It hadn’t struck me until now just how something so simple could cause a problem for us.

Her gaze was steady, unwavering, as she ate, as if she knew I didn’t want this, as if she could hear my hesitations as they ticked over in my mind. The simple fact that she knew I was having trouble over this, even though I thought I hid it, just confirmed how much Willow had already sacrificed for me. I owed her my best attempt. Even if I hated the idea of fitting into this life, I would do it for her.

“You don’t need to worry,” I assured her. “We will show your friends that I am going nowhere.” I didn’t tell her that my instincts were at war with my words. I wanted to shout this wasn’t where I belonged. But I did belong with her.

When I was with her, just her, it was simple. When we were wrapped around each other, nothing else mattered. But then reality came along and reminded me that this world was sometimes as foreign to me as my world was to her.

Willow looked pleased and when she stood up to gather the dinner dishes, I watched her, appreciating the gentle curve of her ass and the way her hips swayed slightly when she walked. She wanted me to meet her friends; she wasn’t hiding me. I needed to recognize the trust she put in me. After what I did to her, I didn’t deserve it. But I knew I wasn’t going to shatter that for anything.

I would spend the rest of my life making it up to her, for hurting her. For using blood magic to save her.

I stood, picking up my glass and taking it over to her, where she stood by the sink, rinsing plates. Our fingers brushed, the thrill of her touch rushing through me.

“You don’t have to come, you know. It’s maybe not fair of me to ask. We’re, well, it’s kind of sudden.”

Which is exactly why I’d burn the fucking world for this woman if she asked.

She expected nothing from me, even when she gave me everything . Even after all the shit I’d put her through. Hospitalized her. Ripped her apart with my claws, yet she stood here telling me she understood if I didn’t want to have one meal with her friends.

One meal.

She had almost died in my arms, and I was balking at dinner?

Goddess, I was a colossal prick.

“I want to be introduced to your friends,” I told her, gathering her in my arms, ignoring the fact her hands were wet. “I want to hear their stories, I want to meet their challenges to see if I am good enough for you, and I want them to know that I’m not, but I will work hard every day until they think I could be.”

Her gaze was so soft as she searched my eyes. Reaching up, she cupped my cheek. “You’re too hard on yourself. They’re going to love you.”

Like I do— it felt like it hung unspoken between us. Or maybe I wished for more than I was due.

I meant it though. No matter how long it took, I would make myself worthy of her.

Why the hell had I agreed to this?

The day had passed too quickly, the threat of this meal hanging over me like a hangman’s noose as I stood on the gallows. We’d gone to her store in the morning. The older woman, who I remembered was one of Willow’s students, had been running the store in her absence.

She had a lot to say. The woman didn’t draw breath. Two hours into being back in the store, Willow coaxed me to leave. I think she knew her friend Lorna was close to no longer breathing because I was going to gag her.

She’d moved Willow’s store around a little, and I knew my girl wasn’t overly happy with the changes, but I saw her bite her tongue, and a few times she went to a different place than where she thought something should be, only to be directed in her own store to the right place. Lorna’s husband was a carpenter, and extra shelving and cabinets had been added to one wall and also in the kitchen.

Yet, Willow didn’t say a word and bit back all her hurt as she adjusted to her new store layout.

This was why I wanted to decapitate Lorna, but being the good shifter I was, I watched my girl, saw the way she graciously accepted the help, and respected what she wanted.

Willow urged me to go “for a walk,” which we both knew meant “shift and run.” Lorna had screeched at the idea of “a nice meal out,” and despite declaring she had nothing to wear, she adamantly insisted she would do her day’s work before she went home and ransacked her closet.

Willow caught my flat stare, and it was at that point I was led to the back door and encouraged to “run it off.”

Now, here we were. In an Italian restaurant, crammed into a booth with the stench of garlic lingering audaciously in the air. The place was small and cozy. If I were being overly critical, I would call it cramped, but it was full of people, and the low hum of their chatter and laughter filled the restaurant.

Lorna and her husband, Noel, were across from us, with Lily’s dad beside them. Lily was against the wall, with Willow between us, as I took the outside seat.

The scent of cooked meat, melted cheese and spices suffocated me. But overriding all of that was the scent of garlic. I could hardly scent Willow, and she sat beside me. I was not ignorant of the openly curious stares from the three humans across from me, or the constant wave of suspicion that assaulted my senses from Lily.

I knew it was going to be a long night. Reminding myself this was for Willow, I vowed I would get through it, but when the server came to the table to take drink orders, I ordered a beer before anyone else spoke. I felt Willow press her leg against mine, and my hand automatically dipped under the table, placing my hand over her thigh, letting the touch of her ground me.

She slipped her hand into mine, squeezing gently as she listened to her friends discuss the menu. I could feel her pulse as my finger soothingly traced over her wrist. It soothed me, at least.

She leaned in and whispered, “They’re just curious, don’t worry.”

I gave her a small nod, but my senses were on high alert, cataloging every voice and every movement in the restaurant. I could feel their stares as they drew Willow into the conversation, their unspoken questions sitting impatiently on their lips, waiting for the right time to be asked.

“It’s so good to see you, Mr. Summers,” Willow spoke to Lily’s dad, and I picked up on the hint of shyness she had when she spoke to the older man. He was dark-skinned, darker than his daughter. Willow told me he had a timber mill on the outskirts of town, and the first thing I’d noticed when I shook his hand was that he’d never logged timber in his life. His hands were smooth and soft. “I don’t remember the last time we all went out,” she added.

“Well, this is the first time you’ve been out to dinner with me,” Lorna added in, making herself somehow the center of attention again.

Willow’s smile was warm and filled with affection, and I tried to banish the thoughts of never wanting to be in the woman’s presence again.

Good Goddess, she was grating. My hand was squeezed beneath the table, and I tried to relax my shoulders.

She had done a lot for Willow, and I was grateful for her. I needed to see the qualities that Willow would see in her. Maybe then I could see the good things in the woman.

Other than the need to smother her in her sleep.

Hiding my grin behind my bottle as I took a swig of beer, I caught her husband’s eye, and somehow, I saw my thoughts reflected in his eyes. He gave me the weary smile of someone who’d been there, done that, worked through it, and resigned themselves to the inevitable that this was his life.

I tipped my bottle to him slightly and saw a genuine smile before he took a drink of his own beer. He had chosen draught beer. It was cloudy and had a huge foamy head, and I knew I was happy I took a bottle.

“Okay, I’ve been patient enough,” Lorna declared suddenly, her eyes wide with excitement. “Tell me all about yourself, Caleb.”

Fuck . Was this what hell felt like?