Page 72 of Wolf's Providence

It seemed the Goddess Luna was all about fertility.

If they told me at this point it was in their holy texts that she wanted women chained to the kitchen sink, barefoot and pregnant, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

“You still with me, Willow?” Doc asked gently.

“I may have passed out,” I muttered and heard his chuckle. “I only phoned about my ME…”

“Well, I would have had this talk with you at some point,” he conceded, “but you left so quickly I never got the chance. I think you need to accept having Caleb’s child is inevitable if you keep having sex with him.”

There wasn’t much to say to that, so after a few more minutes of chitchat, I said goodbye and then hung up.

I spent the next hour rubbing my belly, repeatedly telling my womb to be unaccommodating to all sperm, and watching the door for signs of Caleb coming back.

I woke up when I was lifted off the couch and carried to the bedroom. Opening my eyes, I saw Caleb’s handsome face, noting a few bruises on his cheeks, but otherwise, he seemed unharmed.

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“It’s late,” he told me, placing me with such care on the bed that I almost cried again.

“Did the trap work?”

“It did.” His voice was grim, his eyes tight with fury.

“Then it’s over?”

“No, it’s not over. This is just the beginning.” His voice held a hard edge, something dangerous, and I wasn’t sure when he looked at me if he wanted to push me away or pull me closer.

“Your information gathering worked though, right?” I was almost scared to ask the next question. “Which is a good thing…right?”

Caleb looked down at me, his face half-hidden in the shadows of my dimly lit bedroom, his expression one I couldn’t quite read. “I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he said, his voice low, barely controlled. “Not even me.”

The intensity of his words and self-loathing made my stomach flip. “I know, Caleb. I trust you, you would never hurt me.”

“You mean again?” His voice was heavy with scorn. “We all know I already hurt you, Willow…” He inhaled deeply, and I heard how shaky his control was. “We all know I could do it again.”

“No, we don’t.” Sitting up, I grabbed his arm. “I know you won’t.Youdidn’t hurt me the first time, it was the darkness that lives on that peak of yours. It wasn’tyou. It would never be you.”

For a moment, I thought he’d argue, but he finally looked away, his shoulders deflating. “I wish that one day I have as much confidence in me as you do,” he murmured, moving to the door.

“Where are you going?” I asked, fear of losing him clutching at my throat.

“I know who it is that’s targeting you. I know what they want.”

“Who are they?” I was rooted to the bed. “What do they want?”

“Rogues.” He saw my confusion. “Shifters who have left their pack. They roam together, killing, destroying, raiding.” His lip curled in a sneer. “Pathetic.”

“Oh.” That sounded like something that could be handled, didn’t it? “What do they want?” I asked again.

Caleb’s eyes blazed with fury. “They want my land.”

His land?

My stomach dropped like a lead balloon as I understood. “You mean Shadowridge Peak?”

“I mean Shadowridge Peak,” he repeated, his voice dangerously low.

“They can’t take it though, right?” I desperately tried to remember what they told me about Caleb and his packlands. “You have to give it to them?”

---