Chapter 1

 My Caleb

Scarlett’s POV

“It’s your ninth rejection!” My father screamed.

I didn’t flinch, nor respond. I was transfixed by the storm gathering in the clouds outside my room window. Two days before my wedding to Nathan Hartwell, I fell from a cliff and ended up in a coma. After four months, I opened my eyes today.

“Nathan was doing our family a favor by marrying you, but you ruin everything, didn’t you, Scarlett?” he said bitterly, pacing about my bedroom, raking a hand through his slightly wild, black hair.

I rested my head on the window glass, a tear slipping as lightning sparked in the sky.

He left me.

I screwed my eyes shut, gasping shakily. I thought it would be different this time. That the man I love would fight for me. But at the first sign of trouble, Nathan discarded me, like all the others.

“Are you even listening?” My father asked suddenly, and my heartbeat quickened. Holding my breath, I turned the fraction of an inch.

The bed shook when he grabbed the post. “Get up and look at me!”

They told me my legs were broken, and the pack doctor ordered bed rest for a few more days — said my Omega wolf needed time to heal completely.

But no one dared refuse the Alpha of the Fate pack, not even me, his daughter.

I grabbed each leg and pushed them out of the bed. I took in many deep breaths, then tried to stand up.

“Ah!” I crashed on the tiled ground immediately, sobbing.

I flattened my palms, fighting hard to hold myself up, but my body was like lead. Completely useless. My father had always been right about me.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been born.

“Now that you’re awake, it’s high time I rid my last name of your disgrace,” he said cooly, and I raised my head, brows wrinkling. “Tonight, you’ll no longer belong to my pack.” My father walked away without helping me back to the bed.

The tiles were terribly chilled. I was wearing only a thin, silk nightdress with a lace neckline, and nothing underneath.

I crawled to the bed, stretching my hands to grab the edge, so I could try to pull myself up. My body shook as I struggled.

Then I fell back to the ground miserably, crying harder.

Even for myself, I was pitiful.

I heard the door open again. My father must have returned to curse me some more. To tell me how much he regretted having me as a child.

Instead, strong hands lifted me from the ground as if I weighed nothing, steering me around.

I blinked in the face of the stranger inches away from mine, about to scream at the top of my lungs for help. But when I remembered my only friend Demi didn’t live in the pack house and that no one cared about what happened to me, I clamped my mouth shut.

His stare was intense, ripping through my soul. I dropped my gaze to the strong, veiny hand under my breast. Warmth flooded my chest, creeping up my neck.

“Did you roll off the bed?” he asked in a charming, manly voice, and I blinked rapidly, falling back to earth.

Oh… About that.

But how could I form a coherent sentence when the outline of my breasts was visible, and his hands holding me were so close?

“I just… needed a bath,” I blurted and then chuckled nervously.

He glanced at my legs, like he knew my condition already and wasn’t planning on letting go. I was in awe. Did he work for my father? Was he new to the pack?

Even the pack doctor was cold towards me. No one treated me nicely because I was an Omega, and because my father bullied me in front of everyone else. Though I had recently made friends with a girl named Demi during preparations for my wedding. And I doubted she would be anywhere around now.

“Are you in pain? The doctor prescribed more rest for you—“

“How do you know that?” My expression slipped.

His gaze flickered. “I’ve been looking after you since the accident. I’m Caleb.”

My father hired a caretaker? I opened my mouth and closed it back again. Of course, he didn’t want to burden himself with me so he hired someone new to do it because his pack wolves hated me.

“Oh... You were assigned to me.”

“Something like that.”

Caleb sat me down on the bed, and my knee brushed the inside of his thigh.

Heat burned through me immediately. My pulse raced. My breaths turned shallow. He tucked a lock of blonde hair behind my ear, deepening his smile, and I couldn’t look away.

“I’m glad you’re awake, Scarlett.”

Sweet goddess. Why’s my heart feeling like it could explode?

“Was I not a burden to you?”

Caleb cupped my cheek, his thumb tenderly stroking me. “Not at all. I wasn’t allowed to come close to you. So I read to you from over there.” He pointed at the armchair in the corner of my room.

“We talked every day, Scar, and I couldn’t wait for you to wake up because I wanted to see what your smile looked like.” His eyes dropped to my lips and my lungs stopped inflating.

Caleb swallowed, taking a step back. “Should I help you to the bathroom?”

“No, I’ll just wait until my wolf heals.”

“Scarlett, please,” he said softly, breaking all the walls I’d put up to protect myself from the cruel world. “Let me take care of you.”

No one had ever said that to me. I was used to being left behind and alone. Used to caring for myself.

“Caleb…” I bent my head, tears falling.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Why?” I asked between sobs as he lifted my chin. “I’m awake now. You don’t have to look after me anymore, Caleb.”

“You’re right, but I don’t want to see you suffering again — at least not alone.” His brows drew together slightly, like he was physically in pain. “I know how they treat you here.”

How could a man I just met make me feel so loved in a couple of minutes?

Caleb lifted me in his arms, and I hooked my hands around his neck as he carried me into the bathroom.

He sat me down on the edge of the tub and prepared a bath. “I’ll turn around so you—”

“I want you to take it off me,” I said, my heart pounding hard in my chest.

Something had come over me, but if he didn’t touch me now, I would regret it for the rest of my miserable life. Caleb paused, tension flickering across his jaw before he reached for the hem of my nightdress, hands steady but eyes searching my face for hesitation.

“Are you sure?” he asked, frowning — and his hesitation broke my heart. Was I imagining everything?

“Scarlett—” I kissed him.

His lips were warm and soft against mine. I cried with each stroke of my tongue. Every kiss from him felt like healing.

A growl came from the back of his throat. “If you don’t stop now, I won’t be able to,” he rasped, his forehead touching mine.

“Then don’t,” I whispered. And with trembling hands, he lifted my dress over my head.

When he learned it was my first time, he carried me back to my bed and worshipped me. I fell harder the second time he did it — and even more when he bathed me in the tub like I was his queen.

I rolled in the sheets hours later, giggling and screaming into my pillow. Caleb. Caleb. My Caleb.

He’d left not long ago, brushing a kiss to my temple and whispering that he’d see me soon. I clung to those words even after the door closed, curling into myself beneath the blankets.

For the first time in forever, I felt wanted. Safe. Seen.

I reached for the spot where he’d lain beside me, already cool. My lips still tingled from his kisses. My body ached in all the right places, but it was the ache in my heart that scared me most. I was already missing him.

Bang!

The door slammed open.

I gasped, covering myself even though I was already dressed. The pack doctor entered with a wheelchair.

“Get dressed. Your father has summoned you,” he said curtly.

“What?” I blinked at him, confused. “Why?”

“You’re to meet your buyer.”

My heart stopped. “My… what?”

I pushed back against the headboard. “You must be joking. I’m not—he can’t just—! I’m still healing!”

The doctor said nothing. He marched over, grabbed my arm, and tried to pull me forward.

“No! Let me go!” I screamed, slapping his hand away. “Caleb just—he was just here! He said he’d see me soon—”

But he yanked me up, ignoring my cries and shoved me into the wheelchair roughly.

I kicked and thrashed, but it was no use. My strength hadn’t fully returned. My legs barely worked. Tears spilled down my cheeks as we rolled down the corridor, my pulse deafening in my ears.

I didn’t want to leave. Not now. Not like this.

We reached the throne room. The doors opened, heavy and cold.

He wheeled me to the foot of the dais and dumped me out of the chair. I crashed to the marble floor, pain shooting through my knees and elbows.

My father rose from his throne like a vulture waiting for death.

“This transaction was finalized four months ago,” he said, voice devoid of warmth. “After he found you at the cliff, Scarlett. I’d like you to meet the Beta of the renowned Ice Pack.”

The throne room doors echoed loudly as they opened.

I turned, already shaking.

And my world shattered when Caleb walked in.