Page 82 of Wolf's Providence

And it all made sense.

This was why he still watched him and followed him. “You’re his beta.” My heart rate picked up. “You were with him when he returned?”

Eamon shook his head. “Not his beta, he wasn’t alpha of Shadowridge Peakthen. I knew, we all knew, he would be when Amos stepped down.” He cleared his throat. “But no, I wasn’t withhim when he returned. He left in the middle of a training day. By the time I found out he’d gone, I was sixteen hours behind him.”

“His revenge?”

Eamon’s eyes were hard when he looked over at me. “Washisrevenge. He never let me get mine.”

Oh.

He snapped himself out of his dark mood. “Tell me about this darkness?”

“Did Caleb tell you about my…ability?” It sounded so ridiculous when spoken out loud.

“Told me you’re human, he cares for you, and some pricks want to use you to draw him out.” He checked the rearview. “No mention of anything other than you’re human.” I watched him think about it. “He said you’re tied to something, but he doesn’t understand what it is.”

“I’m tied to him,” I told him quietly. “I started drawing scenes, paintings, sketches, and in them were places I had never seen, a man I had never met. Until one day I did.”

“You drew Caleb?”

“I did.” My voice was shaky. “And dear Lord, was he pissed about it,” I added with a small smile of remembrance.

“So that’s what she meant by psychic?” he asked, referencing Lily’s jibe at my tie to Caleb.

“Yes.” I nodded. “I’m not though. I’m just linked to Caleb.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” I wanted to tell him the theories, but I didn’t believe them myself to tell someone else them.

Eamon was quiet as he thought about it. “And this darkness? Are you linked to that?”

“No!” Shaking my head, my hands curled into fists. “No, that’s his past and the…the spirits of the dead.”

He looked at me, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “I knew he’d gone mad,” he muttered. “Fucking dick always was wrestling with his demons.”

“What do you mean?” I turned again to face him in my seat. “He’s done this before?”

“What? No.” Eamon shook his head. “He’s just, Caleb’s a powerful alpha, okay. I dunno how much you know about us, as inknowabout us, but alphas have varying levels of strength. TheGoddess likes strong-minded alphas. I don’t mean that they’re opinionated—though Goddess knows she has a fair few of them too—but inner strength. You’ve met Alpha Cannon?” When I nodded, he continued. “His father was an absolute bastard, cruel to the bone, but his Will was strong. He believed in what he was doing, so because he did, he had a strong pack. He just beat them down because he was stronger.”

“Cannon isn’t like that.”

“No, absolutely not. I mean, he’s overbearing with all his righteousness sometimes, but he inherited a strong pack because his father made them strong—for the wrong reasons, but the way they mold you is the way they mold you.”

“Caleb’s father was good?”

“Amos? Yeah, he was the best,” he said with a fond smile. “But Caleb is very powerful,” he added, the smile fading. “He had a lot of power to control. It was why we went back for the third tour; he felt he just wasn’t ready.” A flash of bitterness crossed his face. “It cost us everything.”

“Do you think you’d have made a difference if you were there that night?” I asked gently.

“The new alpha of the Shadowridge Peak Pack walked into our community hall where the bastards were gathered,celebratingtheir victory, and used his Will to tell them all to not move—that’s his Will on shifterswho were not his pack—and then walked through them, one by one, and cut every one of their throats.” Eamon’s face was like stone. “He killed them all, and henever lost his hold on them. Notoneof them managed to fight his Will.That’show strong he is. How powerful he is.”

Jesus Lord.

“It’s a lot to get your head around.” My voice was barely a whisper. “You resent him for that?”

“I resent him for the third fucking tour I went on, the sand in my ass crack for months that I couldn’t get out, the sunburn onmy face I couldn’t shift to heal, and the fact he wasfucking ready and too weak to admit it. If we hadn’t been fucking about in the desert, we would have been there, and with one word,one word, he would have held themallin place as they tried to kill us, and my little sisters wouldn’t have had to die.”

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