Page 24 of Wolf’s Providence (The Shadowridge Peak #3)

TWENTY-THREE

Willow

“No, you’re not.” Caleb glowered at me, standing up and moving away from me. “You barely survived the last time.”

I stared at him, my hands trembling at my sides as I tried to make sense of his words, put myself in his shoes, and recognize his need to protect me. But I didn’t need protection from him , and I needed him to understand that, but I also needed to let him see I was willing to listen to him.

And then I could tell the idiot man he was, well…an idiot.

“So your plan is what? Just…leave?” I tried to stay calm, the words felt forced out, and even though I was trying to be reasonable, I could still hear the hurt creeping into my voice. When we’d only been off those mountains for such a short time, the idea of him walking away, it felt like I was being cheated.

Caleb’s eyes were on the floor, his jaw clenched. “Willow, can you please understand that this is not a choice I want to make? But staying here puts you in danger. If I leave now that I know what they want, I can draw them to Shadowridge Peak. Leaving you, it takes you out of the equation.”

I closed the space between us, reaching out, though my hand hovered just short of his and he never closed the gap. “Caleb, you keep saying the same thing, like it’s your job to protect me. It isn’t and if it was, leaving me is not the way to fill the job description.” His small huff of amusement encouraged me to keep talking. “You think that leaving is drawing them away and that it will make it easier for me to be safer.” I felt my insides swoop as I said the next words. “Have you ever considered that maybe I don’t want to be safe if it means being without you?”

He lifted his head, and his eyes met mine, their intensity stealing my breath for a second. “It’s not about what we want right now, Willow. These shifters…they’ll be relentless. And I can’t stand seeing them use you against me. If they think you’re my weakness, they won’t stop until they have what they want. I killed one of them yesterday…” He exhaled sharply, stepping back to break the connection I was desperate to hold on to, despite his admission. “They will want revenge for that, against me. Their blood will be boiling to come after me . Let me use their fury to my advantage.” He broke eye contact with me, staring out the window to the trees. “I…I don’t trust myself to keep you safe if I stay.”

A surge of frustration burned in my chest, pushing words out before I could stop them. “Fine. Then as I said, I’ll come with you. We’ll face it together.”

His head jerked back as if I’d slapped him. “No, Willow,” he said firmly. “Shadowridge Peak is the last place I want you to be. Do you remember the last time you were on that peak with me? Or were you too busy bleeding in my arms because of what I did to you?”

“Will you please move past that? I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. No—” I held my hand up in a ‘stop’ sign. “No, let me speak. Was it your claws that wanted to churn up my insides? Yes, it was. Was it intentional? No , it was not. I’m not a victim, Caleb. You didn’t choose to hurt me. You were under the influence of something much darker than you, and if you go onto that mountain with no one at your back, then you may as well hand yourself over to it. You think keeping me here, drawing them away from me to you, is safe. I think the most dangerous thing you can do is walk back onto Shadowridge Peak with no one by your side.”

Caleb looked away from me, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said, but his voice was softer, more distant. And just like that, I knew he’d already made up his mind and he was already slipping away.

“And what do I do, just wait for you to come back?” My voice cracked, and I hated how small I sounded, hated the feeling of him slipping through my fingers when I’d only just begun to know what it was like to have him with me in my life.

A partner.

He lifted his hand, brushing his fingers along my cheek, and I stilled under his touch, savoring the warmth that I wasn’t ready to let go of. “I’m doing this for you, Willow. If something happens to you, because of me, I won’t come back from that, I know that. Let me do this. I don’t want to leave you, but I have to.”

I reached for him, fingers curling around his arm, feeling the tension there like he was ready to pull away at any second. “Let me help. Don’t leave me out of this. We’re in this together, Caleb.”

He pulled me close, his lips crashing against mine with fierce determination. I parted my lips, and his tongue slid in. It was a powerful, possessive kiss that left no room for doubt about how he felt about me, and I felt hope surge in me that he had listened.

Caleb pulled back, and before I could say anything, he was gone, a flash of movement out the door, and I stood there, heart pounding, frustration building in my chest as I looked at the empty doorway. I thought I’d gotten through to him. I thought he heard me, but he left me anyway.

The silence of my kitchen was louder than I expected.

I glanced around the room, my living room furniture, the kitchen, and the small breakfast bar. This was my life, but as I looked around, I felt how empty it was. This was the life he thought he was keeping intact by walking out?

He was wrong.

He had become as much a part of my life as anything else, and he needed to be reminded of that.

A sudden surge of anger bubbled up, surprising me. Did he think he could just walk away? Did he think I would just sit here? Waiting? I took a deep breath, the anger solidifying into something more stubborn, a resolve that steadied my trembling hands.

If Caleb thought he could make this decision for me, he was wrong.

Taking a shaky breath, I forced myself to stay calm. I would never get up that peak without a shifter to help me. I couldn’t ask Cannon; he’d probably agree with Caleb that leaving me behind was the safest option. I thought about it again. Was he right in his assumption that the shifters would leave me alone? Those who wanted to get to Caleb by using me would know that Caleb had figured it out, wouldn’t they? I mean, they were one less in their group now, weren’t they?

So was I really in danger anymore? Maybe not if he was right in the fact he had drawn their attention off of me. But that meant Caleb was , and that was not acceptable to me. He thought it was for territory. Now that I knew there were more survivors of the Shadowridge Peak pack than he let on, what if there were more survivors of the Cristone Pack? I already knew I wasn’t going to stay behind; I just needed to find someone who would take me up an unclimbable mountain.

In my bedroom, I pulled on jeans, a shirt and a sweater. I grabbed my jacket, and stuffing my phone and wallet into a purse, I headed for the front door. Caleb may think I would be safer here, hidden away, cowering in fear, but he was underestimating how much I was willing to do for him. I was not the delicate human he had to lock away and protect, not anymore.

Checking I wasn’t forgetting anything, I shoved my boots on. After checking everything one more time, I was ready to leave. Without any more thought, I closed the door behind me, locked it, and set off at a determined pace straight for the woods that enclosed the town.

He’d mentioned Eamon would still be here, by choice or chance? I knew what he looked like; I just needed to find him. If he was the same kind of anyone that Caleb was, then I knew I would find him in the woods.

Anger at Caleb and his bullheaded ways made my steps quick and sure. The threat he was facing was our threat. Had he learned nothing ? This fight was one we’d fight together. He would accept it because I planned on being right there with him.

It shamed me to admit it, but I had never walked any of the hiking trails that ran through the woods up the mountains near Whispering Pines. I wasn’t outdoorsy when I was a young teenager, and by the time I moved here, I was a woman who had ME, and that kind of activity was foreign to me. My approach to the first signposted trail was cautious, my pace slowing as I looked at the trees, the path that disappeared where the trees grew thicker and wilder.

Doubt flickered through me. I knew if I had been looking for Caleb, the woods would be where he would be. I guessed Eamon would be the same…but what if the others who were out for Caleb also stuck to the woods?

It was almost their natural habitat, wasn’t it?

I would not back down. I hadn’t even been gone from my home for fifteen minutes and already I was filled with doubts. No, I wasn’t. I could do this. My steps became more confident.

I may not know what I was getting into, but I was still getting into it.

The woods were silent, which freaked me out. The quiet was eerie. My footsteps sounded loud as they crunched over leaves and broken twigs. There was a strange feeling out here, like I was being watched, and I felt an awareness on my skin that I was trying to convince myself was my overactive imagination. If I shouted for this Eamon, would he answer?

Caleb called shifters hunters; was I willingly making myself prey?

I felt the low thrum of our bond, and it tightened my resolve. I had learned a few things in my time with shifters—the weak didn’t stand a chance.

I was not weak.

Pushing further, I heard a faint rustling to my right, and while I tried not to look directly at it, I was sure there was something keeping pace with me in the shadows of the trees.

The underbrush rustled louder and suddenly a rabbit jumped out, stopped suddenly at my loud yelp of fear, and then ran across the trail and disappeared.

“Whoa!” My pulse was racing. “It was just a rabbit.”

“Not just a rabbit.”

Spinning around, I gaped at the man behind me, his posture relaxed but his eyes sharp and assessing.

“Willow Harper,” he greeted me with a slight smirk. His voice was steady, confident, and edged with an unsettling familiarity that I couldn’t place. “Imagine my surprise when you wander right into the woods, dressed for a casual stroll as you decide to pick one of the hardest hiking trails around here.”

It was? Moving back, I looked him over. He was wearing thick tread boots, worn jeans, a zipped-up hoodie under a padded jacket, a backward baseball cap, and an attitude that just put me on high alert.

“Who are you and why do you know me?”

He leaned forward, still non-threatening. “I think I’m who you’re trying to find,” he whispered loudly.

Swallowing down my nerves, I tried to keep a hold of my composure. “You’re Caleb’s friend? Right? You’re friends?”

Eamon chuckled, stepping forward. “Friends? Wouldn’t call us that exactly.” He saw my reaction and he held up a hand in reassurance. “But…I owe him a favor, and that would at least make us acquaintances…right?”

Could I trust him? “What’s your name?”

“Eamon,” he told me with an almost bored sigh. He cocked his head, the amusement back in his gaze. “I thought it was funny that he’d leave you behind, but then imagine how amusing it was when you followed about twenty minutes later, all hot and bothered and completely oblivious to the fact I’ve been following you since you left your house.”

“You followed me?”

Eamon looked bored again. “Here’s my thinking of how this morning has gone for you, Willow Harper. You woke up feeling good. Then Caleb, the joy killer that he is, ruined your good mood by being a self-sacrificing ass and deciding that the best thing for you was to stay put, while he set off to tackle a band of dogs alone.” His eyes held a gleam of wicked glee as he watched my face flush. “You, being the strong independent woman you are, thought, ‘Nah, fuck that’ and decided to follow. You’re going the wrong way by the way, but I digress.” He covered a smile with a fake cough when he saw me immediately look around in despair at the knowledge I was going the wrong way. “I’m assuming Caleb mentioned me, we’ve already met after all, and now you think the best person to get you to a shifter as stubborn as that alpha would be…moi.” As he held his arms out at his sides, his grin was now a wide smile. “And here I am.”

“You’re a bit of a dick, right?” I said bluntly, causing him to laugh out loud. “I’m going the wrong way?”

“Completely. North is…” He twisted to point behind us. “That way.”

“Shadowridge Peak is north?”

Eamon looked at me as if I were dense. “Yeah, north, and north is that way.”

“Will you help me find him?”

“He isn’t lost,” he quipped, pushing his hands into his jacket pockets. “I know exactly where he’s going.” Again, that annoying glint of amusement in his eye. “And so do you.” He considered me, his eyes narrowing slightly. “He thinks he left you behind and that you’re safe. Putting yourself out here isn’t going to please him. I could be one of the dicks trying to use you. Plus, Caleb, will not like you disobeying orders.”

“Orders?” I scoffed. “No one made him boss. It’s not his choice to make.”

“The Goddess Luna made him boss, so it is most definitely his choice to make. You’re his woman.”

“I’m not a possession!” I snapped with a fierceness that surprised me. “We’re a team, whether he likes it or not.”

Eamon swept a glance over me, the corner of his mouth curling. “Well, aren’t you a little fighter,” he murmured. Turning his head slightly, he scanned the tree line, listening to something I couldn’t hear. He paused, and then he turned his attention back to me. “You really want to do this?”

“Yes.” My answer was so immediate I think I impressed him.

“It’s going to be tough. Winter comes early on Shadowridge Peak.”

“I’ve been there, I can handle it.”

“Okay, let’s go.” He turned around and headed back the way I’d just come. “First, we need to get you to change your boots. Those ones aren’t taking you anywhere.” Eamon turned to look at me over his shoulder. “That Jeep in your driveway? Caleb leave the keys?”

The Jeep. I’d completely forgotten that we could use the Jeep.

“Yes. I think they’re—” Eamon’s sharp look made me bite my tongue. “Yeah, he did.”

“Good. Pick up your pace, Harper. We got a lot of miles to clock today.”

Hadn’t he just said we were driving?

“Oh, and you may want to tell your friends you’re walking out on them,” he added with a casualness that didn’t detract from the harshness of his rebuke. “It sucks to find out you’ve been left behind, as you know from the fact that you’re out in the woods already lost. You’ve got a phone, use it.”

Shame washed over me. He was right. I had been so focused on following Caleb that I forgot about who I was leaving behind.

Shit, I was not looking forward to this next conversation. I called Lily.