25. The Ride Back.

Adrian’s POV

The road stretched in front of us—long, quiet, and darker than usual. Maybe it was just my mood, but even the moonlight felt dim tonight. The engine's hum filled the silence between Caleb and me, thick and heavy. The kind of silence that presses on your chest instead of letting you breathe.

We had left Matthew’s estate about twenty minutes ago. His words were still echoing in my mind, looping like some unfinished prophecy:

“If the vampires are preparing for day warfare, the balance will break.”

And balance… was the only thing holding this world together.

Caleb drove, eyes fixed on the road, jaw set tight. I could practically feel the thoughts bouncing around in his head—loud and messy. He wasn’t the type to hide them well.

Finally, he exhaled. “So they’re evolving,” he murmured, voice low. “Vampires. Day-walkers. If this continues—”

“It won’t,” I cut in, sharper than intended.

Caleb glanced at me briefly before returning his eyes to the road. “You don’t know that.”

I didn’t respond. Because he was right. And the truth had a way of irritating me when it came from him.

The night outside the windows blurred past trees and streetlights. My mind drifted back to the vampire in the sun—his skin smoking, yes, but not burning instantly like it should. That was wrong. That broke every law written in our lore.

Something ancient was moving. Stirring.

Caleb sighed again. “You know Matthew’s right. The ritual—”

“No.” My voice came out cold.

He didn’t back down. “Adrian.”

“I said no.” I clenched my jaw. “I’ll handle the vampires. I’ll handle the council. I always have.”

“Yes,” Caleb said, “you have. But this time—”

He paused, searching for the right words.

“This time you may not get to handle it alone.”

I stared ahead. The road was empty, but I could feel something coming, like the air before a storm—charged, restless.

He continued carefully, “I’m not saying you like Lucy. I’m not saying you want her. Hell, I know you don’t want her. But you have to at least try. For the sake of the pack. For the sake of—”

“For the sake of me?” I cut in, voice dropping low. “Or for the sake of the throne?”

Caleb didn’t answer immediately.

“That throne is yours by destiny, Adrian. Not the council’s. Not mine. Yours. And without a Luna—without the bond—you’re vulnerable.”

I breathed out slowly. “You sound like them.”

He shook his head. “I’m not them. They want power. I want you alive.”

A silence fell again. A real one this time. Heavy, but not hostile.

The weight of leadership felt heavier in moments like these. People saw the title—Alpha of Alphas—and forgot that the price of being chosen was solitude. Responsibility was never shared. Not really.

Then Caleb spoke again—carefully, cautiously.

“And you’re avoiding her.”

I didn’t need to ask who her was.

I felt her name like a bruise under my skin.

Rose.

The one human who shouldn’t have survived me.

My hands tightened into fists.

“Don’t,” I warned.

Caleb didn’t stop. He never does when he thinks he’s right.

“You’re pushing her away. Pretending she’s nothing. Ignoring her at meetings. Avoiding eye contact like she’s a threat. Adrian—she’s not the danger here. You are.”

I turned my head slowly and stared at him.

He swallowed, but continued.

“You slept with her. You marked her—even if lightly. You tasted her blood. By every law of the moon, she should be dead. Yet she isn’t. And you think that means nothing?”

My chest tightened—not with fear—but with something far worse.

Hope.

Hope was dangerous.

Hope made people foolish.

“Caleb,” I said quietly, “don’t bring her into this.”

He took a breath. “But she’s already in it. She’s in you.”

I looked away. Out the window. At the dark blur of the forest passing by.

“She’s human,” I murmured. “Humans break. They shatter. They don’t survive our world.”

“But she survived you,” Caleb insisted. “That means something.”

“It means she got lucky,” I muttered. “And luck always runs out.”

Caleb didn’t speak again for a moment.

The only sound was the road beneath us.

Finally, he said softly, “I miss my mate too, you know.”

My chest tightened.

Caleb rarely spoke about her. His mate—the girl who vanished when we were barely grown. The one fate had given… and taken.

He continued, voice rougher now.

“So don’t act like I don’t understand what it means to want something you can’t have. But at least you have her near. Breathing. Existing. I’d have given anything—anything—to still have mine.”

The pain in his voice was something I couldn’t look at head-on.

I exhaled slowly.

“I know,” I said quietly.

He nodded once, accepting the acknowledgment.

Then he added gently, “ I understand you’re afraid.”

I looked at him again.

“This isn’t fear.”

He raised a brow. “No? Because it looks exactly like fear.”

I leaned back in the seat. “I’m protecting her. And myself. And everyone else. The moment I let myself feel anything—anything—she becomes a target, it's a taboo. The council wants control. And the entire kingdom is watching my every step.”

Caleb’s voice dropped lower. “So what are you going to do?”

I answered truthfully.

“I don’t know.”

The car rolled to a slow stop as we approached the estate gates. Guards stood immediately at attention, bowing their heads as we passed.

Quiet settled again—not resolved, but understood.

Caleb parked the car in the courtyard. He sat there for a few seconds, hands still on the wheel.

He sighed. “I didn’t mean to push you.”

I shook my head. “No. But you were right to.”

He managed a small, tired smile. “Always am.”

I scoffed under my breath. “Don’t get used to it.”

We both stepped out of the car. The night air was cold—sharp—almost too clear. The kind of night that felt like a warning.

Caleb paused before heading inside.

“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “We always do.”

I didn’t answer.

Because I wasn’t sure we would this time.

---

Caleb’s POV

Adrian pretends he’s impossible to read.

He isn’t.

He’s loud in silence, heavy in stillness.

He feels too deeply—so deeply he cages everything inside just to stay functional.

But tonight… something in him had changed.

Fear wasn’t something Adrian ever admitted to.

But I saw it.

Not fear of losing power. Not fear of the council.

But fear of losing her....to death?.

Rose.

The girl who was never supposed to survive him.

I closed the car door behind me and watched him walk into the estate, shoulders heavy, footsteps slow for once.

The strongest wolf in the world…

Looked tired.

And that scared me more than vampires evolving or councils plotting ever could.

Because when the strongest cracks, the rest of us fall with him.