Page 50 of Wolf's Providence

I hated the way the last question made me feel. I mean, we’d been alone for hours, and I hadn’t brought it up.

Neither had he.

In defense of the situation, I’d slept for most of the journey because I was still recovering from my wounds. Which brought me to my next fear…was he only here because he felt guilty about what happened on Shadowridge Peak?

Then add ontothatI was struggling with how this relationship—if you could even call it that—was viewed by his fellow shifters. Shifters didn’t approve of mixed-race relationships. I wasn’t an idiot; it was obvious as to why. If Doc was part-shifter because his father was a shifter and his mother was human, then reading between the lines, it meant that babies born of a human woman to shifter men didn’t birth shifters. I also remembered my earlier thoughts that Luna was not a veryforward-thinking Goddess; her emphasis was on continuing her species of shifters.

I wasn’t planning any baby showers in my immediate future, but Caleb was an alpha. Was it not his duty to his pack to give them shifter babies?

But he didn’t have a pack.

Which is why this shouldn’t be the thing bothering me as much as it was. But how could I be with him when some of his society didn’t think we belonged together?

Ugh…these thoughts were harder to shake off than I expected. Was he only here because of this bond between us?

I hated thatthatquestion was the one I feared the most.

Tea. That’s what I needed, a good strong cup of tea. Waiting for the kettle to boil on the stove, I busied myself with getting cups, the teapot, and the tea leaves for the pot ready.

I was pouring myself a cup of tea when the bathroom door opened, and soon he was walking into the living room, a walking temptation. Shirtless, with a towel slung around his shoulders, his hair damp from the shower, wearing dark jeans with the top button undone. I forced myself to look away before I started imagining things I definitely should not be thinking about.

“Do you think we need to talk?” I blurted before I could stop myself.

Caleb paused. He had been reaching for the teapot, his eyes locking onto mine. “About?”

“Our story? Your alibi? What we’re going to tell my friends?”

He poured himself a cup of tea, blowing across the cup delicately as he raised it to his lips. “Tell people? Why do we need to tell them anything? It has nothing to do with them.”

“Of course it has!” My voice was sharper than I intended, but when he said such ridiculous things, could he blame me? “People will ask questions, Caleb. You’re going to be living in myhouse. My friends, my neighbors…they’re going to want to know why you’re here! TheyknowI only have one bedroom!”

He looked so calm, completely unfazed. “Why are you getting excited about this? Let them ask.”

I felt like I had stepped back in time. He was once more an infuriating man who drove me to the brink of frustration. “It’s not that simple.”

“Why?” He sipped his tea. “I don’t really care what anyone else thinks or asks. We know the truth.”

I opened my mouth to ask if we did, but the words died on my tongue. He had a way of simplifying things that could almost feel dismissive in the way he approached them. But it wasn’t that easy. How did I explain to my friends that this man, who only one of them knew about, was now living with me?

I couldn’t tell themwhathe was or why I had been targeted. It was such a mess. I had been so eager to come home, but I wished I’d had the foresight to plan better.

Or dared to ask in the car.

Hindsight truly was brutal.

The knock on the front door made us both look at each other and then towards the door. Neither of us moved, and when the knocking got louder, I jumped up to answer the door, only to meet an immovable wall.

“I’ll go,” Caleb told me. “You don’t know who it is.”

“Neither do you,” I whispered furiously, hurrying after him. “You can’t open my door in just jeans and all those abs out for anyone to see!”

Caleb looked over his shoulder at me, and I saw his smug smirk. “Hopefully, it encourages them to go away,” he said with a wink.

“It’s probably Lily!” I whisper-hissed, though I think I sounded more like a hissing feline than saying actual legible words.

Caleb opened the door without even using the spy hole. The audacity of him taking ownership was not lost on just me.

Lily stood at my front door with her mouth hanging open as she took in six-foot-three of muscled perfection. She recovered a hell of a lot quicker than me, her mouth snapping shut, and the most ferocious glare transformed her face.

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