Caine

“I can go back to my apartment. I don’t think it’s a good idea for Adam to come here. He doesn’t trust you,” I told Caine a few hours later.

I was in his study, while he worked on whatever Alphas did all day.

“I don’t trust him either,” he replied, without looking up at me.

His focus was on his laptop, which I was quickly learning to hate.

At the moment, Caine was the only person I had around that I knew. I didn’t trust him, but at least I felt that he wouldn’t hurt me.

The silence that took over the room whenever Caine turned to his laptop only gave me time to think.

Thinking.

Any other day, I would have used that time to make plans, most which would include annoying Liam or Caine. Today, I hated being left alone with my thoughts.

Shane and Estella’s memory kept crawling into my mind. Images of their bloodied bodies had taken front and center seats in my thoughts.

I hated that. It made me feel guilty, lonely, and bitter towards Caine and his pack.

“Perfect. I can meet him at the apartment and you two don’t have to see each other,” I said.

“That will have to do. I prefer to have the Rogue as far away from my lands as possible. Your apartment is as good as it will get. I will be present during your meeting,” Caine stated.

I shook my head at him. How he managed to sound so smooth while complaining about something was beyond me.

“I guess I’ll go ahead and go back to my place.”

I wasn’t looking forward to being alone in the apartment, not after everything that happened. I didn’t tell that to Caine though.

“Your door isn’t fixed yet,” Caine told me.

“I thought you were taking care of that today. Actually, I thought it would get fixed yesterday.”

“I thought I would have a peaceful afternoon yesterday,” Caine said, mockingly.

I narrowed my eyes at him and had to force myself to keep my mouth shut. If I said to him all the things that were running through my head, well it felt like I was asking for a death wish.

“Those were my friends that died yesterday,” was all I said, getting up from the chair and heading for the door.

Caine was in front of me in a flash.

“I apologized for giving that order. I didn’t realize you needed another apology,” he said with a serious voice.

My mouth dropped opened and I stared at him incredulously.

“You’re unbelievable,” I snapped, trying to sidestep him.

He wasted no time in wrapping his arms around my waist and keeping me in place. That place happened to be inches away from his chest.

“What do you mean?” He asked me.

He was frowning, but I could see the confusion written all over his face.

Being in Caine’s arms made it hard to think straight, especially with his voice sending shivers all through my body.

“You didn’t think I needed another apology? Who says that?”

“I said that, right now,” Caine replied, his frown not letting up.

“I was being sarcastic. I didn’t ask for another apology. By the way, apologizing doesn’t fix anything. It can’t bring Shane and Estella back,” I snapped.

I tried getting out of his arms, but he held on to me tighter, which stopped me from making a run for it.

“You’re upset,” he said, putting his hand under my chin to make me look up at him.

Even while he was holding onto me with one arm around my waist, I couldn’t manage to pry away from his hold.

Stupid Alpha with his stupid strength.

“I’m more than upset!”

I slapped his chest, just because it was right in front of my face.

“What can I do?” Caine asked after a while.

I sighed, and felt myself slouch against him.

Caine tightened his arms around me. I didn’t realize he was carrying me until he sat me down on the couch in his study.

“You should go to bed for a few hours, before the Rogue gets here,” Caine said.

His placed his hands on either side of my face, and his grayish green eyes were on me, searching for something. I did notice the worry in his expression.

“I’m not sleepy.”

“Then you can rest,” he suggested.

“I’m not tired.”

He gave me a flat look and ran his thumbs under my eyes.

“You look tired,” he said.

I tried shoving him away, but it was useless. Just like before, he didn’t move an inch.

“Why are you so strong?” I complained, feeling annoyed with my own weakness.

He cracked a smiled at that.

“I’m an Alpha,” he replied.

Although he didn’t say it in a cocky way, I took it as that.

“Whatever,” I said, and tried ignoring the fact that he was kneeling in between my legs, way too close to my body.

“You can go back to working. I’ll just sit here,” I said, trying to put some distance between us.

I couldn’t like Caine. It wasn’t right and Liam would hate me for it. I laughed out loud when those thoughts crossed my mind. As much as I tried to kid myself and pretend like I wasn’t attracted to Caine, I knew I was.

“What’s so funny?” He asked, looking amused, probably over my random outburst.

He got up from the floor and sat on the coffee table, in front of the couch I was in.

“I was remembering something,” I lied.

“I really am sorry you were hurt by what happened. It wasn’t my intention,” Caine said.

His voice sounded sincere, and he had taken my hand in his much larger one.

“You can be sorry about that and you can’t be sorry for killing them?” I asked.

“You already know my thoughts on that. Repeating it will only hurt you,” he replied, softening his voice.

I lowered my head onto my knees, feeling my emotions spin out of control for the hundredth time. Caine was quick to sit by my side and take me in his arms.

He held me while I spilled silent tears.

“When is the Rogue going to get here?” Caine asked on the way to my apartment.

“Adam said he’ll get here in an hour or so. You better warn everyone to let him through,” I told Caine, giving him a pointed look.

“They’ve been warned,” he replied, with the trace of a smile on his lips.

“You are really good at handing out orders you know,” he said after a while.

“I won’t make a good Luna,” I told him flatly.

“You are my mate, the position automatically passes to you whether you want it or not. We will discuss that after the Rogue is gone.”

I didn’t add anything, even though Caine kept making suggestive comments about how amazing pack life was.

“Why isn’t my door fixed again? You never did tell me,” I said when we got the apartment.

The door was put in place, but Caine had to carry it out of the way and then put it back in order to create some sort of privacy from the hall.

“I had other priorities, what with the pack getting attacked,” Caine replied.

“Can you fix it right now, while we wait for Adam?”

“I don’t have any tools,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes at him when I noticed the smug look on his face. He looked too happy about not being able to fix my door.

“I’ll get Adam to fix it,” I said, and took off upstairs before he could add anything else.

“The Rogue isn’t staying that long,” Caine said when he came after me.

“He can stay long enough to talk,” I said.

“And to fix my two doors,” I added as an afterthought.

“I don’t mind you staying in my home. It’s yours as well.”

We had a stare down going on, which was interrupted by a crash downstairs.

“Adam!” I cried, running up to him.

He was holding the door in his hands and was looking at it worriedly.

“I swear I didn’t break it,” he quickly told me.

“I know. It was Caine’s goons.” Caine growled behind me when I said that.

“They are pack members. Your pack members as well and they’ve been punished for that,” Caine said through gritted teeth.

I shook my head at him for a second, before turning back to Adam.

“Put the door down,” I told him, already at his side.

I embraced Adam in a hug as soon as he put the door in the ground.

Adam’s arms were about to wrap around me, when Caine stood behind me and pulled me to his chest.

“Don’t get too close to her,” Caine said in his usual low threatening voice.

“Seriously?” I said, turning to face him.

I found myself in between Adam and Caine, although there was no distance at all between Caine and my body.

Adam took a few steps back either way, and he trudged towards the living room.

“I wasn’t going to attack your pack,” Adam said in a sullen voice.

He didn’t look up, but we all knew his words were directed to Caine.

“We were going to get Charlotte back. Your pack just got in the way and you attacked us first. We didn’t attack you.” By the end, Adam’s voice had picked up a few notches.

I noticed, he sure noticed, and Caine’s Wolf definitely noticed Adam’s tone.

Caine’s eyes were swirling with a color too dark to be safe and I saw his canines trying to make an appearance.

“We attacked?” Caine practically yelled.

He tried to go after Adam, but in my hurry to calm him down, I wrapped my arms around him.

It kept him in place but it wasn’t enough to placate his Wolf.

“You and the rest of the Rogues trespassed! You could have killed someone!” Caine growled at Adam.

We were standing a few feet away from Adam, and I could tell his Wolf was responding to Caine’s tone.

“We didn’t plan on doing anything. All we wanted was Charlotte.” Even I knew that Adam saying that was the dumbest thing he could have done.

Caine swiftly moved me aside and made his way towards Adam.

He had some muscle and a few inches on Adam, other than the fact that he was an Alpha as well.

“She’s my mate! Did you really think I would let you take her?”

“Caine, stop!” I got a hold of his arm, which had been ready to slash Adam with his claws.

“Look, Adam isn’t here so you can hurt him more,” I said, in a reprimanding tone.

“Then why is he here? If it’s another plan to take you away from me then I can guarantee you and him that he won’t walk away alive this time,” Caine said, turning back to face Adam.

“I warned you Rogue. I didn’t want you in my territory.”

I got Caine to take a few steps back. His breathing had hitched up and he was trying to control it. Each of his breaths created a rumble from his chest, which sounded a lot like growls from his Wolf who was trying to come out.

“You warned him and he didn’t listen. But you told me it was okay for him to come today. You said it was fine,” I reminded Caine.

He snapped his head in my direction.

“Why do you want him here?”

“I want to talk to him,” I said.

Adam had spaced out during that time, it wasn’t hard to tell. He was looking at the ground, hardly paying attention to Caine and me.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Caine said, and he took a seat on one of the couches in the living room.

He still looked ticked off and his Wolf was at bay, but at least he wasn’t trying to rip Adam’s throat out.

“Adam?” I asked, waving my hand in front of his face.

Adam turned to look at me. He had a haunted look in his eyes, which I hadn’t noticed when he first arrived.

“I didn’t mean to cause you problems here,” Adam apologized.

“No harm done. You okay?” I moved him over to the couch.

All the while, I felt Caine’s steady gaze on us. His hands were on his lap, but there was a calculating look in his eyes. I wasn’t sure how he managed to look so threatening all the time.

I blamed it on how tough he looked, his height and muscular build definitely helped. Caine exuded so much power from his Wolf, even when he was in his human form.

“I’m alive. I can’t say the same thing about…” Adam let the sentence hang, but he didn’t need to finish it.

“If anyone deserved that, it was me. I dragged them here,” Adam said, dropping his head into his hands.

The moment I placed my hand on Adam’s back, Caine growled and was at my side.

“No touching.”

I frowned at him, but didn’t argue. Adam needed my attention and fighting with Caine was only going to distract me.

“They’ve done this so many times before. They knew what they were getting into,” I told Adam.

It was true. I didn’t know exactly what the secret was. But all of them had trespassed pack boundaries more times than I could count.

“Yes, but Liam was always leading us,” Adam said.

“You didn’t force anyone to come,” I countered.

“No, I didn’t. But Estella was worried about coming. She wanted to get you back, but she wanted to tell Liam. I was against the idea and everyone supported me. None of us wanted to get in trouble with Liam once he found out you’d been captured,” Adam said.

“I didn’t capture Charlotte, she’s my mate,” Caine snapped, but both Adam and I ignored him.

“Right after we arrived, Estella was still set on calling Liam. She even got him on the phone, but Shane snatched it away and told Liam that we were just checking in. Then, well you know what happened.”

That sounded like something Estella would do. If she would have told Liam, I would be in a lot of trouble. Liam would find a way to get me back, I was sure of it. He’d be angry with everyone though. But at least Shane and Estella would still be alive.

I didn’t know what to say after that. The silence dragged on for minutes, and it was Caine who finally broke it.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he said, his eyes fixed on Adam.

I was taken aback by his words for a second.

“Yes it was,” Adam said, but Caine had definitely caught his attention.

“All of you had a routine, or whatever it is that you were following. She stayed behind for her own pride,” Caine said, shaking his head in disapproval.

“What are you talking about?” Adam asked, while I muttered a quiet, “Huh?”

“You were running and the She-Wolf, along with her mate, stayed behind. I kept chasing you and the rest of the Rogues, but one of my trackers gave me a rundown of what happened,” Caine explained.

“So what happened?” I asked.

The only thing I saw when I arrived at the clearing had been Shane fighting. Estella was already dead by then, so I didn’t know how it had started.

“One of my men questioned her strength, because she wasn’t only a female but a Rogue as well. She wanted to prove her strength, against three males. I am not sure what she expected the results to be,” Caine replied.

Adam seemed to be thinking over Caine’s words. I knew that no matter what, he’d still feel guilty. But I was hoping that what Caine said would lessen the burden he was carrying.

“It doesn’t matter. Estella didn’t want to go over your boundaries. If I had listened to her, she would be alive,” Adam said.

“Were you going to attack?” Caine asked him.

Adam shook his head.

“Then why did she? She was the one who should have listened to you. If she had kept up with that mediocre plan you had, she would still be alive,” Caine said with a small shrug.

“I had been wondering why her and Shane stayed behind,” Adam said.

“Shane stayed because Estella was already dead,” I quietly added.

“I understand that,” Caine said, staring at me intensely. “I wouldn’t care about living if you were gone.”

My eyes widened at his confession. I wasn’t sure why, but his words tugged at something in my chest.

The room felt too quiet after that.

Adam was lost in his own thoughts and Caine hadn’t stopped looking at me. I didn’t know what to say back to him, so I focused on what Caine had said before.

“Did you really have to say it was a ‘mediocre plan’?” I asked, shaking my head at him.

“It wouldn’t have worked. I’m not entirely sure how it has worked before with other packs,” Caine said, not sounding at all affected by his insults.

At least his words had served as some relief for Adam.

“I have to catch up with the rest of the guys. Shane was in charge when Liam left. Now that Shane’s gone, I have to take over until Liam gets back. Chris doesn’t want to do it and no one else knows how things work,” Adam said, not sounding too excited about the prospect.

“Have you been sleeping?” I asked.

He was looking pale and the area under his eyes looked bruised from lack of sleep. He looked tired. I wasn’t even sure how he was functioning at all.

“Some, but it’ll get better,” he said, giving me a half smile.

It wasn’t the best, but it was an improvement from the zombie-like state he was in when he first arrived.

Caine barely let me give Adam a hug before he left. I had insisted that he stayed in the apartment, but both he and Caine objected to the idea.

Caine ‘didn’t trust the Rogue’ and Adam said he had to put some order back at the place where he was staying with the other guys.

“Thanks, for what you did, for saying that to Adam. Estella and Shane, they are- were, like family,” I said, dropping my gaze to my lap.

We were driving back to his house. Caine said that the door would be fixed by tomorrow, or the day after at the latest. I didn’t exactly believe him about it anymore.

“I didn’t do anything. What I said to him was the truth,” Caine replied.

“Still, that meant a lot to him,” I said. “He’s still going to be sad, we all are. At least now, Adam’s only going to be mourning them, not feeling guilty and blaming himself.”

I knew it had helped. Adam hadn’t straight-up admitted it, but he left a lot more relaxed than when he had arrived.

“What can I say to make you feel better? That’s what I really care about,” Caine said.

I snapped my head in his direction and noticed his eyes were on me, instead of focusing on the road ahead of us.

“They were my friends, Caine. There isn’t anything specific you can say. I’m still gonna feel bad and I’m still going to miss them.”

I was surprised by the sight that I found once we got home- well, to Caine’s house.

Lesley and Macon were both outside, leaning against a black SUV.

“What is she doing here?” I asked him as soon as he parked the car.

“Don’t get upset, let me explain,” he said.

Caine didn’t try getting out of his car after he shut the engine off. He took my hand and tugged on it, bringing my gaze back to him.

“Explain what? She tried to kill me. In fact, if it wasn’t for Macon, I wouldn’t even be here, holding your hand.” I raised our joined hand to put extra emphasis.

That got his attention, because I was sure even Lesley and Macon heard Caine’s loud growl.

“Do you want me to kill her?” Caine asked through gritted teeth.

I shook my head at him, but didn’t respond.

“She isn’t going to hurt you, Charlotte. I know she tried, but it didn’t happen. I’m sorry for letting it get that far, it was my fault because those were my rules. But now Lesley knows who you are and what you mean to the pack,” Caine said.

He ran the outside of his hand over my cheek, which made me blush, despite how much I was fighting it.

Heck, not even being mad about Lesley’s presence kept the warmth away from my cheeks.

“Come on,” Caine said.

He got out of the car and opened the door for me in record time. I rolled my eyes at him, but still took his hand when he offered it.

“Lesley is my best female fighter,” Caine said, keeping his steady gaze on me.

Although he was talking about Lesley, who was a few feet away, he was facing me. One of his arms was around my waist. When I tried to shrug it off, he just tightened his hold on me.

“As you know, Macon is my third in command.” Caine gave Macon a quick glance, before focusing on me once again.

“I don’t need introductions,” I grumpily said.

“I know I’ve been around at the house these past few days, but that isn’t always possible. I’ve been neglecting some pack duties.”

“Okay.” I still didn’t know where he was getting at.

“I can’t leave you alone at the house,” he said.

“You don’t trust me in your house?” I asked, frowning at him.

“It’s your house too. I just want to make sure you’re safe, in case anyone were to attack us.”

Lesley and Macon were simply standing there. I didn’t think they needed to be present for the talk Caine and I were having, but I kept that to myself.

“Which means?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“Lesley and Macon will be keeping you company, for your protection,” Caine said, in a tone that sounded like his decision wasn’t up for discussion.