Page 99 of Wolf's Providence

Turning, I looked up at Caleb and saw he was watching me closely. “This was my mother’s favorite place,” he told me simply. His gaze swept the scenery once, a glimmer of pain in his eyes as he stepped back in his memories. “She would like that you are here.”

“It’s gorgeous. Thank you for showing me.”

Caleb nodded once, his gaze averted, and then he turned his head to look at me. “The night you almost died”—he cleared his throat—“I gave you my blood.”

“I know.” I stepped closer. “You saved me.” I reached for him, but he stepped back.

“My grandmother was an old one,” he told me gruffly. “Not a shaman, though Luna may have welcomed her, my grandmother was…” He struggled for the words. “Eccentric?” he offered. “Some may say odd, some may say delusional.”

“She sounds interesting.”

“She was.” He nodded and it seemed to help him come to terms with what he had to say.

“She used to tell me high tales of nonsense when I was young. Father would scold her for filling my head with gibberish. Mother would scold her for scaring me.”

The thought of Caleb scared of fairy tales made me smile.

“She would tell me stories of times before, when we were more animal than shifter. There was a time when we preferred to stay in wolf form. Rogues that we worry about today, the worries they had about me…” He hesitated. “They are founded on our knowledge. Our history.”

“I don’t understand.”

Caleb didn’t meet my eyes. “In times before, we weren’t pack. It was more one wolf for themselves, rather than one wolf looking after a pack. Luna allowed us to run free and wild.Wildness causes its own problems.” His gaze shifted to my belly where my scars were hidden. “You’ve seen what wildness can do.”

“But you’re not wild,” I reminded him gently.

“No,” he agreed. “But I could be. I have been.” Caleb licked his lips. “I accept now that the darkness of the beast will always be within me and, that to move on, tolive, I need to accept that.”

“That’s good…” Anxiety was dancing all over my body, and I felt nauseous as I waited nervously for the bomb to drop. I knew one was coming, I just didn’t know why.

“You’ve saved me, Willow.” His lips curled into a soft smile. “I owe you my life.”

Shaking my head in denial, I moved closer to him. “No, you saved me, remember?”

“My grandmother told me tales of shifters who lusted after human women, who wanted to keep themwiththem. Shifters live longer, did you know that?”

Did I?“Um…I know you don’t age the same as I do.” My thoughts were racing. “And the shaman isreallyold, so when I think about it, then yes, I guess I did.”

Caleb nodded. “The shifters of old wanted to keep their human women with them for as long as possible. Not always for a good reason and not always successful.” His frown deepened and his voice grew harder. “Dangerous to do so. Exposure of our kind is the most guarded secret. But men aren’t always wise.” Caleb’s hard gaze kept mine transfixed. “Blood magic is a dangerous thing. An unholy thing.”

“Blood magic?”

“Tying a life to yours by blood is not the Will of the Goddess.” He swallowed. “It’s unpredictable. A life for a life, a life bound to a life…it’s not the Will of Luna.”

I was confused, my head was spinning with this weird conversation. “Okay?”

Caleb saw I was struggling. “You were dying.” The sound of the words was like a hammer in the silence. “I killed you, Willow. You would have died.” He swallowed hard. “I did the only thing I knew to save you.”

“I know, you gave me your blood.”

“I gave you more than blood,” he murmured. “Ask me now and I wouldn’t remember the spell…”

Spell?

“Ask me now, and I wouldn’t be able to perform the rite.”

“What rite?”

“But with you in my arms, dying, bleeding all over me…Losingyou? I couldn’t do it. Iwouldn’tdo it.”

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