Caine

Caine walking towards Adam created chaos around the area.

I took a step towards them, but two strong arms wrapping around my waist brought me to a halt. Adam and the rest of the Rogues took off in the opposite direction as soon as they caught on to Caine’s intentions.

I was partly relieved by that but I knew that Locus members were all over the place. It wouldn’t take long for them to find Adam and the gang.

“Let me go!” I yelled, stomping on the foot of whoever had taken a hold of my waist.

They released me, but I felt that it was only because the group had already disappeared into the trees. I heard howls, but I wasn’t sure whose they were.

When I tried following after Caine, a hand took hold of my elbow.

“I can’t let you go.”

I turned around to face Macon, Caine’s third in command.

“I’m going whether you like it or not,” I told him, yanking my hand from his hold.

He released my arm but he started following after me.

“You won’t catch up to them, they’re too far away,” he said.

I turned around to face him. Although he was saying that, there was something in his expression that seemed unsure.

“I’m still going to try,” I said, before turning back to the direction Caine and Adam were headed too.

I ran after them.

The more I ran, the more they seemed to get ahead of me. Macon was right- I wouldn’t be able to catch up to them.

I slowed down my steps because I was feeling disappointed in myself. I was too slow. It didn’t matter if I kept chasing after the group. By the time I got to where they had been, they were already ahead.

I was breathing hard, but I continued my fast pace whenever I thought I heard them. I wasn’t even sure I was going in the right direction.

Macon didn’t say anything. He quietly followed along.

“Where are they?” I asked Macon after a while.

I was tired of pretending I knew where the heck I was going.

“I can get you back to the Alpha’s house,” Macon offered.

I turned around to frown at him.

“I want you to tell me where they are.”

“We’re not close,” he vaguely replied.

“Alright, then take me where they are. I don’t care if we’re close or not.”

I waited for him to catch up to me so that we’d be walking side by side.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. The Alpha wouldn’t like that,” Macon slowly said.

I stopped and stared at him hard. I wasn’t expecting him to look down or bow to me, but he did.

“I’m your Luna now, right? Take me there. It’s an order,” I said.

I didn’t think he would do it. I was sure he would talk to Caine through their mind link to ask whether to follow my order or not, just like Victor had just hours ago.

He didn’t.

In front of me, he shifted into his Wolf and lowered his upper body- I assumed it was for me to get on.

I shook off my surprise and climbed on his back. The moment I had a good grip on his fur, he took off.

It wasn’t until Macon was carrying me that I realized just how behind we were. I never would have caught up to Caine and Adam by running or walking with my human speed.

The gang was running in circles and they had Caine and his pack chasing after them.

Smart.

It was the way Liam did it whenever he trespassed.

From how many laps Macon ran, I was sure Caine hadn’t caught Adam.

“Stop,” I told Macon.

He came to a halt just a second later. I was about to climb off from his back. We’d been chasing after nothing for a while now and I was starting to feel like Macon was maybe playing me.

I was thinking in my head of so many ways to kick his butt if he’d been dragging me around as a distraction. I was about to slip off when howls resounded everywhere in the area.

They grew louder and they sounded so pain filled.

“What was that?” I asked, feeling my heart pounding faster.

Macon, of course, couldn’t talk to me and I had no way to communicate with him. The howls didn’t sound too far away, which let me know that maybe Macon had been dragging me around the right path.

“Take me there, please,” I begged Macon.

I wasn’t sure if it was the desperate way my voice sounded or if he could hear how hard my heart was beating but Macon did as I said, this time without hesitation.

Macon let me get off in an area surrounded by trees, but there was no one around. With his head, he motioned up ahead.

When he did, I noticed that two more Wolves emerged from the woods and stood behind Macon. I wasn’t sure if they had been following Macon and me, but it seemed like they had.

Although I could see where the howls came from, I couldn’t move as the scene in front of me unraveled.

Estella was lying on the ground, naked and covered in blood. Despite how bad Estella’s body looked, my attention wasn’t on her. Shane, Estella’s mate, was currently fighting three Wolves from Locus pack.

It didn’t take a genius to see that it was anger driving Shane. He looked stronger and scarier than I had ever seen him before, but he completely had the underhand in this match. Not only was he alone against three strong Wolves, but others were waiting to jump in.

A nudge in my back snapped me out of my thoughts. It was Macon. I looked around the area but Caine wasn’t there.

“Stop!” I yelled, walking closer to the four Wolves fighting.

Macon must’ve shifted back to his human form because his arms wrapped around me right after I’d taken a few steps.

“Luna, you can’t intervene in the fight,” he said.

“Stop fighting!” I yelled louder.

It got their attention. All three of Caine’s pack members turned to face me.

Unfortunately, Shane didn’t stop. My unexpected distraction gave Shane the opportunity to bite down on the neck of one of the guys.

When Shane did that, the two Wolves he’d been fighting with attacked him. This time though, they attacked with more force.

I knew I couldn’t jump in to try and stop them. They could easily kill me. Even if I tried, Macon would stop me. He already had a strong grip around me to keep me from taking a step.

That didn’t stop me from slapping Macon or trying to pull away from his hold while I watched two more Wolves from Locus pack join in and kill Shane.

Macon helped me move Shane’s body next to Estella. He was quiet as he did. No one around was saying anything either.

I had silent tears running down my cheeks, but I refused to break down in front all of them.

Once they were next to each other, I sunk beside Estella’s body and rested my head on her stomach.

Macon managed to get a blanket to throw over Estella and Shane’s bare bodies.

Even as I looked at Estella’s bloodied body and at Shane’s body that had cuts, gashes, and bites all over- I couldn’t believe they were gone.

The first sob wracked my body just then. I held on tightly to Estella’s hand. I didn’t know what else to do. If Liam was here, he would’ve taken care of it.

If Liam was here, this wouldn’t have happened. Liam had done this same thing hundreds of times before and he’d never gotten caught.

“Clear out!” Macon’s order ringed out around the crowd.

I didn’t look up to see what was going on, but I did feel the emptiness in the area.

“Luna, we should get you home before the Alpha gets there,” Macon told me.

I noticed him until he was leaning down in front of me, on the other side of Shane’s body.

“Why did they come here? It was such a stupid idea?” I laughed, but a sob came out with it.

“Come on, I’ll take you,” Macon said, holding out his hand for me.

I looked at it, and then back at Estella. I couldn’t look away from her once I caught sight of how pale she was starting to look. She hadn’t even been dead for an hour and already the warmth was escaping her body.

“Why did they kill them? They weren’t here to hurt anybody,” I whispered and wiped away the tears in my eyes.

As soon as I did, more tears replaced them.

“We should really get going,” Macon said again.

When I looked up at Macon, the sight behind him caught my attention.

“What is Charlotte doing here?” Caine asked through clenched teeth.

Victor, his Beta, was walking right behind him.

“Where’s Adam?” I asked, getting up.

My legs were shaky, but I managed to stay up without any help.

“He got away,” Caine replied, not sounding all that happy.

I let out sigh of relief, and felt the sobs that wanted to escape my body.

“Did you get hurt?” Caine asked.

He quickly closed the distance between us and tried to get me in his arms.

“Look,” I weakly said, pointing down at Estella and Shane.

It felt surreal to see their bodies lying lifelessly on the ground.

Caine looked at them for just a second, before returning his gaze to me.

“They trespassed.”

His reply and the cold way in which he spoke- so detached- it got me angrier.

I wanted to punch him, to kick him, to do so many things. But instead, I walked away.

I could feel Caine’s presence behind me, but I didn’t turn around.

“You’re going the wrong way,” he told after a few minutes.

I didn’t say anything.

“You’re going to get us lost.”

I knew for a fact that there was no way he could get lost in his own lands. I wasn’t even sure where I was walking to, but I was hoping I was headed to my apartment.

“Charlotte, you can’t keep walking like this.”

It wasn’t until Caine said that that I realized I’d been crying all the way.

This was all Caine’s fault. He couldn’t bend the rules just this one time and let me talk to Adam. Adam would have left and no one would have died.

Those thoughts kept running through my head, but I didn’t tell Caine. He should have already known. He just didn’t care. Liam was right. Packs were archaic and so focused on their stupid rules.

“Let’s go home. It’s cold and you look tired,” Caine told me.

He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and made me stop walking.

I didn’t even think it through when my body sagged against his. Caine took that opportunity to pick me up from the ground.

His arms went on my back and under my knees. I wanted to fight it, wanted to fight him. I just couldn’t bring myself to push him away. I felt exhausted.

We made it to his house in record time. It was already really late by the time Caine laid me down in bed.

“Did you kill anybody else?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer to that.

Thinking about Estella and Shane was enough.

Caine shook his head.

“They weren’t here to attack your pack. I could have been Estella,” I told him.

Caine cringed when I said that, and he closed his eyes, breathing deeply a few times.

“They shouldn’t have trespassed. I gave that Rogue a chance to leave. He shouldn’t have returned.”

Caine sounded angry as he said that. His eyes had remained that darker color, so I knew his Wolf must have had some influence in all this.

“You’re so…” I didn’t have a way to finish that statement.

Caine was waiting for me to continue. I didn’t know what to say so I just lied down and turned away from him.

Caine had the nerve to press his lips against my shoulder before leaving the room.

Again I wasn’t able to pull away from him when he did. The guy was seriously doing some things to me.

That made me angrier. I wanted to hate him, but I couldn’t. I kept fighting with myself, throwing the blame of what happened this afternoon around.

Caine was right in way. Adam had no business coming back, not yet. But I didn’t know what made Adam come after me. I had to consider something might have happened. Then I blamed myself for allowing Lesley to catch me the other day.

I should have just left the night they were chasing me. But something inside of me told me I never would have met Caine if I’d left. For some reason, that really bothered me. I blamed Caine and his pack the most, for being so aggressive. They just attacked, no questions asked.

For just a tiny moment I blamed Liam. When his name popped up in my mind, I remembered that he was going to call.

My phone was right next to the nightstand. When I picked it up, I noticed the missed calls, voicemails, and text messages from Liam’s number.

I had to talk to myself a few times to make sure my voice wouldn’t sound broken or shaky.

I hit the call button and waited for him to pick up.

Liam answered in the middle of the second ring.

“Are you okay?” He worriedly asked.

“I am,” I replied.

“What’s wrong?”

“I misplaced my phone and it was on silent,” I replied, chuckling. It was more a nervous chuckle than anything else and I was scared he would recognize it.

“Again?” Liam said, laughing.

“Shut up,” I told him, giving in to a little laugh.

I ran my hand over my eyes. Without having to look in the mirror, I could feel how puffy my eyes were. They were hurting and I had a headache. It was either from all the crying, all the thinking, or all the worrying.

Just because Caine hadn’t killed Adam or anyone else didn’t mean they were safe.

“I only get a simple ‘shut up’? What’s wrong? Come on, tell me. I promise I won’t laugh… much,” Liam said.

I could feel his grin and hear his teasing tone. If he knew what was really going on, the last thing he would do was laugh.

“Have you talked to Adam?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Na, I called him and he didn’t pick up. He’s probably avoiding me like the plague. I might have accidentally scared him.”

“Right, accidentally,” I repeated.

When I rolled my eyes, I noticed that small action hurt as well.

“I talked to him in the afternoon, but they were all moving to another city. We didn’t get to talk for long and I was busy too,” Liam explained.

“I’m sleepy.”

He chuckled softly at my words. If he was in front of me, he’d be shaking his head.

“I’ll let you go because I know it’s late. Call me when you get up tomorrow. I need to fill you in on some stuff,” Liam said.

“What stuff?”

“You’re sleepy, I’ll let you go,” he said.

“I can manage to stay awake a few more minutes.”

I was sure he’d said that to get me curious and I’d definitely fallen for it. Only Liam could pull that off.

“No, no. You’re tired. Call me tomorrow and I’ll tell you. Laters Charlie, love ya!” Liam said before hanging up.

I just knew he was laughing by now because he’d done that.

As soon as I stopped talking to Liam, the emptiness in the room started eating at me. All of the thoughts I’d been having since I saw Estella lying dead came back to me. Shane’s unfair fight against Locus Wolves kept replaying in my mind and I broke down crying.

Distant voices in the background brought me out of a restless sleep. I hadn’t realized I’d fallen asleep until I was abruptly woken up by arguing that sounded like it was happening right next to me.

I groggily got up from the bed to see what was going on. The exhaustion hadn’t left my body.

“How is she?” That was Victor’s voice. I easily recognized it.

I was standing on top of the stairs, keeping my body behind one of the walls.

Caine and Victor were standing on the first floor, right next to the stairs.

“Charlotte’s fine,” Caine snapped at him.

“That isn’t what Macon said.”

“Macon should mind his own business. I’m his Alpha and I’m your Alpha too,” Caine reminded Victor.

“And Charlotte is you’re mate. I’m not trying to go against you Caine. I’m just saying you should take her into account now.”

Both Caine and Victor had a stare off. Victor was the first to look down- Caine was his superior after all.

I began walking downstairs then, but neither of them seemed to notice me.

“We didn’t have to kill the Rogues.” Victor’s voice was quiet then.

I had to strain myself to hear him. I only managed to catch Victor’s words because I was closer to him and Caine.

Victor had just spoken, when Caine’s fist connected with the side of his face. I hurried my walk, not wanting a repeat of this afternoon but now featuring Caine and Victor.

“You’re up,” Caine said, turning to look at me.

I went around him and made my way towards Victor, who was sitting up in the ground where he’d landed after Caine hit him.

“I’m fine,” Victor told me, but there was blood in his mouth.

I turned to glare at Caine, who was already frowning at me.

“I can’t believe you,” I told him.

“Get away from Victor,” he said, grabbing my arm and getting me up.

“You just punched him!”

“He disrespected me.”

I shook my head at him.

“Alpha, Luna.” Victor nodded at Caine and me, before getting up and turning his back to us.

He made it seem like if Caine hadn’t just hit him and landed him on the floor.

“Wait! You can clean up here.” I tried walking after him but Caine stopped me.

“He’s fine.”

Victor turned to give me a small smile, which seemed sincere despite how dark everything felt at the moment, and then walked out the front door.

I didn’t wait around to talk after Victor left. Caine tried making conversation but I turned my back on him and headed upstairs.

I woke up a few hours later. Somehow, my body was more tired than before I’d gone to bed.

I stretched, trying to loosen my body.

When I turned to the side, I noticed Caine.

He was sitting in a chair right next to the bed. His dark eyes were concentrated on me. He had that intense look in his eyes.

There was little light in the room, but that didn’t stop me from noticing how tired he looked. His hair was disheveled, like if he’d been running his hands through it.

The silence surrounding us combined with the coldness of the room made the air feel thicker.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

I looked away from him then. I didn’t want him to apologize and I didn’t want to forgive him.

I thought he would say something else, but he didn’t.

He got up from the chair and quietly left the room without another word.

I didn’t go downstairs the next morning. I stayed in bed. I wasn’t sleeping, but I didn’t want to see Caine.

It was almost noon when a knock on the door brought me out of my daze.

Caine walked in carrying a tray with food.

It was a strange sight, but I didn’t comment about it. Yesterday or the day before, when my friends hadn’t been killed, I would have poked fun at him for it. Today, everything felt gloomier than last night.

“You didn’t sleep well,” Caine commented when he placed the tray on the bed, right next to me.

He took a seat on the same chair he’d been in last night.

“You didn’t either.”

“You’re still mad?”

“No.” My response shocked him- that much was obvious.

“That’s good,” he said.

He reached out for my hand but I pulled it away.

“I know. Last night I realized that there’s no point in being mad at you. Packs are like that- unfair. It’s how you people do things. My Alpha used to be heartless too.”

Caine completely pulled away from me when I said that.

I reached out for a slice of toast. I wasn’t particularly hungry, so I began tearing it into pieces and putting it in the tray.

“Your Alpha? You used to be in a pack?” Caine asked.

I widened my eyes at his words.

Crap crap crap! I kept repeating in my mind.

I hadn’t meant to say that in the first place. Caine just made it so easy to spill my guts without meaning too.

“It’s a long story,” I quickly told him.

“I have time,” Caine said, pretending to get comfortable in the chair.

“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t want to talk to the guy responsible for my friends’ death!” I snapped at him.

“They shouldn’t have come here. This is my territory. I had the right to protect my land and my pack,” Caine replied defensively.

A small part of me understood that. The bigger part of me, the part that was mourning Estella and Shane’s death, wanted to punch Caine for giving an excuse.

I didn’t get a chance to give him a piece of my mind because my phone went off.

I expected it to be Liam, so I wanted for Caine to get out.

“I need to take this,” I told him as I grabbed my phone from under the pillow.

I didn’t remember how it managed to get there. More than likely, I’d been holding it when I drifted off to sleep.

“Who’s calling?”

“It’s private.” Although Caine frowned at my words, he didn’t make a move to get up.

“Take the call, I won’t bother you.”

I glared at him, but I knew I had to answer. There was no way I could pull off lying to Liam about losing my phone. He’d get suspicious and find out what had happened.

When I looked at the screen, I noticed Adam’s picture blinking on it as it rang.

“Hello!” I said into the phone, feeling my body awaken at the prospect of hearing Adam’s voice.

“Charlotte,” Adam said, sighing loudly.

“Please tell me that you’re okay,” I said.

Caine reached out to take the phone from me.

“It’s that Rogue isn’t it?” Caine asked, though it seemed like he already knew it was Adam.

“I didn’t tell anyone what happened.” Adam said and I knew he was talking about Liam.

“Estella and Shane are gone,” he continued.

I could hear how grave his voice sounded. The way he said it, it brought me to tears again.

“I know,” I softly said.

Right after I said that, Caine stopped trying to take the phone from me.

“It’s my fault. I thought we could do it. Liam’s done this same thing so many times before. I thought I could do it and I got them killed.”

“Where are you?”

“I crossed state lines just to be sure. I’m sorry Charlie, I really am.”

He didn’t have to say that. I already knew he was sorry.

“It’s okay, we’ll get through this.”

“No we won’t. Once Liam finds out…”

“Shh… don’t say that. I’ll talk to him.”

Caine was staring at me. I could tell that he was listening to both sides of the conversation. While I wanted to make Adam not hurt as much, I didn’t want Caine to hear more than he should.

“He’s going to kill me. I know he will.”

“Come back.”

Caine’s growl was enough to let me know he didn’t want Adam here. But I couldn’t let Adam go. He needed me.

“So the Alpha can kill me? It’s probably a better way to go. I bet you Liam will torture me. I got them killed and I left you trapped with that pack.”

The more Adam spoke, the more defeated he sounded.

“Give me a second, okay? I’ll call you back right now.”

I didn’t give Adam a chance to reply before I hung up the phone.

“He’s my friend,” I told Caine pleadingly.

I was still so mad at him. But in that moment, I would have done anything to see Adam.

“He isn’t welcome here,” Caine told me.

“Adam isn’t going to hurt anyone. He’ll come alone.”

“He’s a Rogue. Friend or not, I don’t trust him.”

“You killed two of my friends,” I said.

I hated that I was using Estella and Shane’s death for this, but at that point- I was throwing out any cards in the air.

“They’re gone now.” The emotionless tone in his voice made me shudder.

How could he be so cold?

“Didn’t you say I’m the Luna of this pack? I can make decisions too. I want Adam to come here.”

Caine narrowed his eyes at me. He was looking at me intently, making me want to break away from his stare.

“I thought you didn’t want the position.” Caine’s steady voice did nothing to help how hard my heart was pounding in my chest.

“I changed my mind.”

Silence.

Caine let the silence drag on for minutes. I was thinking that maybe he’d changed his mind and didn’t want me anymore. The thought of that hurt me more than it should.

“No,” he simply stated.

“What do you mean ‘no’? You don’t want me?”

“You know I do, more than anything.”

He gave me a few more minutes of silence.

“I didn’t think the deaths of those Rogues would affect you this much,” Caine steadily said, lowering his gaze.

I swallowed when he said that and willed my tears to stay away, at least while I spoke with Caine.

“I’ll let the Rogue come through my territory,” he replied, though I noticed his clenched jaw.

“We’ll talk about your position in the pack after his visit.”