جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 38

JodieThat familiar male voice cut through the tense silence, smooth and teasing, carrying that calm confidence that always seemed to make a room notice him. My head snaps toward the doorway, the sound echoing in my ears. It's…My eyes adjust to the figure leaning casually against the frame, arms crossed, a faint smirk playing on his lips.It's Kaiser.“Kaiser?” I mutter under my breath, but loud enough for him and Calden to hear. I didn’t expect he would honor our pack’s invitation to the festival. When last did I see him… he suddenly just stopped communicating with me after my marriage to Calden.“You came?” my mouth falling open before I can stop it.“Of course I did… I’ll be labeled the only Alpha who didn’t attend this year’s Moon Festival, and it’s happening in a pack where you’re Luna.” Kaiser jests in his usual tone, a crooked smile forming on his lips. Dark coils fall across his face, his brown double-breasted suit making him look every bit as commanding as I remember.He wa

JodieI can tell Calden just zooming off after hearing about Enid’s condition still bothers Kaiser because he is failing to hide the disgust and pity in those eyes staring at me. I look away for a moment, my gaze catching the wine bottles on the shelves, and I suddenly realize I haven’t even offered him a drink.“Wine?” I finally break the silence as I push myself up from the chair and walk toward the shelf in the corner of the office.“Uhm, that’s okay,” he responds softly.I pick one I know he might like. I haven’t touched any of these since my stomach started rejecting everything I try to keep down, even coffee. I grab a glass and pour, the sound filling the room a little too loudly.It feels safer to change the topic and distract him before he says whatever is sitting heavy in his chest. Kaiser is the last person I want looking at me with that pitying gaze. I walk back toward him with the wine, and he reaches out to take the glass.“You don’t have to stay with him, Jodie,” he says

Jodie I least expected Calden to react the way he did, like something inside him snapped the moment he saw Kaiser holding me. He knows Kaiser has always been around me. He knows we have never been anything more than friends. So where is this coming from? Where did he dig up this ridiculous idea that I am doing something shameful behind his back?I turn my head slightly, just enough to look at Kaiser. He has already moved back to the chair he was sitting on earlier, one hand braced on the table, fingers curled tight. His jaw is clenched so hard I can almost hear his teeth grind. He looks pissed, but he is holding himself together, probably more for my sake than his. I hate this.Embarrassment washes over me in a thick, suffocating wave. What the hell is Calden doing? This is the Luna’s office, and Kaiser is a guest, a visiting Alpha. Yet here he is, acting like a feral wolf that has lost all sense.I open my mouth, meaning to grab Calden’s arm, pull him aside, tell him to calm down so

JodieKaiser and I went on, and for a moment I almost forgot how much of a mess my life in this pack has become. Sitting here with him, away from the walls of the office and Calden’s sharp words, feels oddly normal. Like the old days. We talk about all the time that slipped past us without real communication, Kaiser is still Kaiser. Even now that he is a powerful Alpha, there is still that kindness in him, the way he listens like what I am saying actually matters.“Recently, my pack has doubled security around the pack borders and enforced strict searches within the pack for unknown identities,” he says, his gaze drifting around the yard as if he expects something to jump out at us.We are sitting outside, not far from the pack office.“Is something wrong?” I ask. “Why would you go that far when you are not at war?”He looks back at me, one brow lifting. “Has Silver Moon not gotten the signal yet?” His voice lowers slightly. “There’s been this strange stench of rotten wild rogues. The