Caleb’s POVThe first thing I did when I got home was go straight to the medical centre. Every fibre of my stupid heart wanted to go to Rhiannon, to make sure she was okay in the wake of all this, but I forced it to shut the fuck up. She was probably the cause of all this, not a victim of its trauma.As he’d said he would, Kieran had remained in the Moon Chasm pack. I couldn’t say I was too sorry to see him go. Now I knew the truth, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before. He was so obvious, with his puppy-eyed pining looks and the eager way he always offered to work when Amelia was involved.It was better that he was gone. That was one mate issue down… and one to go.Harley’s cropped black hair was splayed up across the starchy white pillow. She rolled her head towards me, her eyes heavy-lidded. She’d taken the studs and rings in her ears out and didn’t look like herself; her olive skin was wan and the usual glint of daring amusement in her honey-coloured eyes was gone.An image o
Rhiannon’s POV‘Rhiannon?’The sound of Alpha Caleb’s voice infiltrating my mind had me bolting upright. I’d been lying on the bed with Foxy Spangles, ruminating over my terrible life choices and watching as the dull midday sunlight almost managed to break through the white cloud cover outside.I shot out of bed so fast that Foxy gave me some serious side-eye. My hands shook. I picked at the scabs on my palms and took a few deep breaths before I replied coolly.‘Alpha?’‘I’d like you to come up to my office, please. Now.’Oh goddess, oh goddess, oh goddess. I started to panic.‘What for?’ I shot back.It had to be my interrogation – Stephen had reported seeing a lot of other Omegas heading into the pack house, one by one, from his position by the window downstairs – but as far as we knew, Nova and Anderson had been conducting them. I’d only known Caleb had even got back because the mate bond had lit up like a fucking firework and tried to drag my sorry ass straight over to him. ‘You
Caleb’s POV“Come in, Rhiannon.” My hands were trembling. I shoved them under my desk and set my face in a cool mask, wanting to give away nothing when she entered. Rhiannon didn’t seem bothered by our time apart at all – she’d marched down the hallway outside like she owned it and hadn’t hesitated even a second before she’d knocked. The girl had balls bigger than any Alpha I’d ever met, I had to give her that.My heart was still thumping away, but there wasn’t much I could do about that. Taking a deep breath, I sat tall and waited as the door swung open.Fuck, she was beautiful. I gaped at her for a moment, my thoughts getting more scrambled than a damned egg at breakfast as she lifted her chin and met my gaze with impenetrable grey eyes. The creased leather jacket she wore hung off her, despite her tall, broad-shouldered frame; paired with her nose ring, eyeliner, and slick braids, she looked like the sort of badass I wouldn’t want to mess with if I met her in an alley at night. Or
Rhiannon’s POVI froze where I was, halfway out of my seat and with my eyes fixed on the door. I couldn’t take it; I couldn’t stay here one more second with him.Not because I hated him, like I was pretending, oh no. But because if I didn’t leave I’d be flinging myself across the stupid desk that was parting us, climbing into his lap, and kissing him until I couldn’t breathe.My need for him was in my blood. It pulsed with every beat of my idiotic heart, spreading through all of my silly limbs, making them agree with the mate bond that my place was beside him. The way he was looking at me, for a moment, I’d thought he felt it too. His lips were parted and his pupils dilated, so big that only a thin slice of summer-leaf green iris surrounded them.But then his jaw flexed and his expression hardened, and he snapped, “No, that’s not all, Omega. I know it was you. I know you poisoned them.”Hearing him call me by my rank rather than my name cut deep – far deeper than I’d ever admit to hi
Caleb’s POVMy dick wouldn’t go down. I crossed my legs, winced, and smoothed out my expression before Rhiannon could notice anything was wrong. But fuck – it was so, so wrong. Everything was seriously messed up but, as I looked at her, her lips and cheeks flushed, her eyelids heavy, her sharp-as-all-hell eyeliner smudged, I didn’t want to make it right.She’d dropped her cool, unbothered demeanour. This was one of those rare moments where I felt like I was getting to see beneath her sarcastic façade. I’d barely seen it before and, as much as I hated that she’d thought she’d seen something and split our kiss apart, part of me was glad.Because oh, goddess, this went deeper than attraction or even lust. The mate bond was in me, everywhere, telling me that after we’d sated our more carnal needs we’d lie together, tangled on the bed, the desk, hell, in the snow, and just talk. About everything. There would be endless nights and days to fill with learning, with filling in the gaps between
Rhiannon’s POVHyacinth and Stephen were waiting for me on the damned doorstep when I got back. They crowded around me like penguins desperate to huddle for body heat and started braying like donkeys with inane question after inane question.“What happened?”“What did they say?”“Did they think you did it, Rhi?”“Was he nice to you?”“Did you argue?”I put a hand up and halted just past the doorway. “Stop.”They both froze. Then they started clamouring around me again.“Did something happen?”“Why do you look so shaken?”“Did he shout?”“Did he ask you questions you couldn’t answer?”A growl built in my throat. I just wanted to be alone for five minutes to process everything that had just happened – but I wouldn’t get it. I had to sort myself out right here, right now, because I was the only one that could hold this family together now.Without Dad, I was the closest thing to a leader we had. Even though Cin wasn’t my younger sibling, it had always felt to us both like she was. I coul
Rhiannon’s POVI shoved my hands deeper into my pockets and huddled down into my coat. Snow tumbled through the air, a thousand infinitesimal ballerinas dancing in the dark; everything felt eerie, as though the world itself was leaning in closer to watch whatever was about to unfold. I couldn’t know what was to come, but the intensity of the very air around me made me think the earth beneath my feet and the trees surrounding me could.‘Maybe this isn’t a good idea,’ I muttered to Tiger, but I knew I didn’t mean it even as I said it. I’d never had a single sliver of doubt in my mind that I was going to find Caleb. I couldn’t refuse his call, not after we’d been forced apart for so long. Goddess, it was ridiculous, really – I’d spent longer apart from Stephen before, the man I was actually in love with, and though I’d missed him I’d just made the most of our time apart and then been happy to see him when we were reunited. This, though? This was like I was going out of my head with des
Rhiannon’s POVCaleb’s touches were everywhere. His mouth was on my throat, carving along the sharp edge of my jaw, brushing softly, so softly, over my parted lips. And yet I wanted, needed, more of him. We slid off the wall. Caleb backed me up until I hit the oak tree, which trembled behind me as wantonly as my thighs were. I tipped my head back, a moan building in my chest. When I let myself go, he became my everything. My everything – but I ached to know the parts of him I didn’t yet. He seemed to know exactly what I wanted from him and exactly when to stop just short of giving it to me, making my core throb with desire and my thighs clench together. It seemed crazy to me that he knew me so well, while barely knowing me at all.His fingers carded through my hair, pulling my braids free. He sighed contentedly as my hair came loose and he could at last run his hands through it.“Perfect,” he breathed, and then he kissed me.I gasped as he kissed me. Actually gasped.He laughed into