She glanced at me, her face apologetic. “I’ll talk to you when you get home.”
My eyes darted between the two of them as the realization of what could have happened today really sunk in.
Ellie’s car had been tampered with. Someone had purposely cut her brake lines in the hopes she’d lose control of her car.
She could have been injured.
She could have died.
And Wyatt had been with her the whole time.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Get there safe.”
Wyatt grunted. “Thanks for the suggestion, Callista.”
His response was like a bucket of ice water dumped on my head. Without waiting for a response, he took off down the hallway, dragging Ellie behind him as I stood there with my mouth hanging open.
He’d never spoken to me like that. Never been rude or short. But I guess that was back when I was someone he cared about. If he’d showed me one thing over the past couple of weeks, it was that I wasn’t important to him anymore. He didn’t have to be sweet, or nice, or even courteous.
It didn’t feel good being on the outside of his life and looking in, but who could I blame for that but me?
***
“This is bullshit,” my older sister mumbled before tearing out of the dining room as fast as her long legs would carry her.
I watched the doorway where Bea disappeared from for a long time as the conversation continued around me. I wasn’t sure what had set her off like that and I wanted to go after her, but I couldn’t walk away from what was going on at the table.
It was family dinner night with Nana, and someone had invited the original werewolf to join us. Little did anyone know the kind of bomb he was going to drop in the middle of our Sunday night supper.
I finally tuned back into the conversation as Will looked at Ellie and said, “I don’t think. I know. You’re one of my descendants. I thought you knew.”
It hit me just as hard as the first time he’d said it.
Ellie was descended from the original werewolf. Not in the sense that we were, but an actual blood relative. Somewhere along the line, he’d procreated with one of her ancestors and she was his many times over great-granddaughter.
It was unbelievable.
When my curiosity became too much to contain, I piped up with a question of my own. “How do you know she’s a descendant? Have you kept track of them over the years?” If there was some kind of family tree of his out there, I needed to get my hands on it.
Will shook his head and my hopes came crashing down. “That would be impossible since there’s no way to accurately tell paternity,” he explained. “I suppose I could have followed the women of my line, and I have in the past, but after a few centuries, it becomes complicated and convoluted.”
Yeah, I’d imagine following the bloodlines of thousands of descendants wouldn’t be easy. But oh, how I wish he had.
After that, dinner was a quieter affair as everyone at the table worked to wrap their minds around the information Will had sprung on us. I was sure Ellie and Abraham had their minds spinning the fastest. She’d just learned how it was possible to be fated to a werewolf when she’d been born a human, and he’d just learned she’d been questioning Will about it. I bet they were going to have a long talk about that later, and I was glad I wouldn’t be there for it.
But speaking of talks, I needed to have one with my sister. She’d leant me her ear often enough in the past couple of months, and now it was my turn to return the favor.
When dinner finally wrapped up, I went looking for Bea, and unsurprisingly, found her out on the training grounds running suicide sprints by herself. I watched from the sidelines for a little while until she’d made me tired with her back and forth.
“Bea, shift back. I want to talk to you.”
She continued her sprints, and the only reason I knew she’d heard me was the soft grunt she’d released at my request.
I sighed and tried again. “If you don’t want to talk to me, I can send Abey out. And you know how he gets.”
Nosey, intolerable, and bossy were the first few words that came to mind. I knew she wanted him in her business about as much as I did, so I wasn’t surprised when she shifted back a few minutes later.
I looked away to give her some privacy as she pulled her clothes on. When she walked over to me, she was still panting from her exertion, the sweat making her short hair stick to her neck.
“Wanna sit on the dock?” I asked.
She shrugged but took off in that direction and I hurried to keep up with her. She was storming toward the lake so fast I thought she might just walk off the end of the dock, but at the last minute, she stopped short and plopped down, letting her bare feet dip into the water beneath us.
I took a tentative seat next to her, and the second my butt hit the planks, she let loose exactly what was on her mind.
“I’m so sick of it, you know? He’s like a million years old and yet has the emotional maturity of a teenager. Sleeping with half the female population. What was he thinking?!”
I frowned in her direction, completely taken aback at the turn this conversation had taken. “It doesn’t sound like he just got them pregnant and took off. He had relationships with these women. Would you have expected him to remain single and celibate all those years?”
“Yes.” She sighed, her shoulders drooping. “No. I guess not.”
I watched my sister for a moment, seeing her in a new light. Bea was the fiercest, most self-assured woman I’d ever known, but there she was, shoulders hunched, head down, and fingers pulling at a thread in her shorts. I couldn’t help but wonder why.
“What’s going on, Bea? Why is this upsetting you so much? Who cares who Will’s slept with?”
She blew out a deep breath and leaned back on her hands. “I guess I care. I’ve tried not to. But I do. A lot.”
I sat there, just as confused as ever. Did Beatrice actually–
“And no. I don’t wanna talk about it,” she said, cutting off my thoughts before they could fully form. I thought she was done, but when she turned to me, her icy blue eyes watery, I knew she had a whole lot more to say. I also knew that despite that, she’d keep most of it to herself.
“Just, do me a favor, Callie. Don’t wait, okay? Don’t play games and don’t be stupid. If you love someone, make sure they know it. If you want someone, don’t let anything stand in your way. Not the past, and not the future. Because you can’t erase the past and you can’t predict the future. All you have is right now. All you can do is hold on to your present and make it count.”
She reached up to wipe her nose with the back of her hand before looking away. My heart broke in my chest for my sister. She was the toughest out of all of us, but right now, she was a little broken and I didn’t know how to put her back together.
She sniffed one more time before climbing to her feet. “I’m going for a run. I’ll catch you later.”
Without waiting for a response from me, my sister ripped her clothes back off and shifted mid-leap with a loud crack. I watched her wolf bound across the field behind the lodge before she disappeared between the trees. My eyes stayed glued to the place I last saw her for a long time as I thought about what she’d said.
Was I playing games?
This whole time I’d been waiting for Wyatt to realize he was wrong and come back to me. I thought I was standing on the moral high ground. That he needed to accept what I was offering him. Accept the crumbs I was dishing out. But maybe I was the one that was wrong. Maybe I needed to apologize.
Was I being stupid?
I knew I wanted to be with Wyatt. I’d never felt this way about anyone in my entire life. And here I was, wasting time that could be spent with him. If that wasn’t the definition of stupid, I didn’t know what was.
I loved him.
I could admit that now. It still scared the crap out of me, but I couldn’t deny it anymore. I loved him and I wanted to be with him. The past two
weeks had been torture and, as I really examined it from this perspective, I realized it had all been my fault.
Wyatt hadn’t asked for anything outlandish. He wanted to love me in the daylight instead of the darkness. He was sick of slinking around and hiding what we had. I’d had a man who wanted to be with me and tell the world about it, and I’d done nothing but push him away.
So, what the heck was I doing?
I knew the answer to that, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself. But the time for lying was over.
I was scared.
Terrified, really.
I’d watched him swing back and forth, in and out of my life like a pendulum, too many times. I’d been left in his treacherous wake too many times. So, could I be blamed for being scared of him and his shifting moods? Maybe not, but how long was I going to punish him for that? How much penance did he have to pay before I forgave him?
Shouldn’t his desire to go public with our relationship prove that he meant it this time?
Shouldn’t his profession of love be enough to soothe the raw edges he’d left behind?
And, the most important question of all: didn’t he deserve to know I loved him as much as he loved me?
Deep down, I knew the answers to all those questions. I’d probably always known the answers but was too scared to admit it. But just like the time for lying was over, the time for being scared was over too.
I knew what I wanted.
I knew who I wanted.
Now, I just had to go get him and hope I wasn’t too late.
Chapter 35
Wyatt
“Hey, Ma. Can I get you more tea?” I asked as I peeked out the back door.
Mom huffed and shook her head. “Wyatt, I’m not doing this with you anymore. I’ve had enough tea to flood the state of North Carolina. Just come out here and keep me company.”
Sitting still wasn’t something I liked to do these days, but for her, I’d do anything. I closed the back door behind me and took a seat at the glass table we’d bought a few weeks ago.
Honestly, it was really starting to come together out here. I’m sure a lot of that had to do with the fact that I’d worked on it basically non-stop recently. It was either keep busy or drive myself crazy thinking about her. So, I chose to be productive and not wallow in my misery. If nothing else, it made Ma happy, and that was one less woman mad at me in the world.
“What’s been goin’ on, Wy? You haven’t been yourself lately.”
I hadn’t been myself because a piece of me was missing and I was afraid it was for good this time.
“I’m fine, Ma,” I lied.
She tsked and shook her head. “Now I know that’s a lie and you know how I feel about liars.”
I sighed. “Tell enough white lies and soon you’ll go color blind. I know, Ma. I’m just not in the mood to talk about it, okay?”
“Does it have to do with Callie?”
Another crack raced through my heart at the mention of her name and I took deep steadying breaths through the pain. I wanted to lie again, but knew she was already sick of my crap. “Yeah. It does.”
“What did you do, son?”
I sat back in my seat and linked my fingers on top of my head. “Nothing this time, honest. I just wanted things she wasn’t ready to give.”
She was quiet for a moment, but I felt her watching me. “It’ll turn out, Wy. It always does.”
I released the breath I’d been holding and let my hands drop to my lap. “I’m not sure, Ma. I don’t think it will this time. It’s gone too far.”
Every single one of those words burned on their way out, but they were the truth. A truth I’d been avoiding. A truth I’d been denying. But still the truth.
“Maybe it’s better this way,” I continued. “Now I can focus on you more.”
“Why would you need to focus on me?”
I shot her a look out of the corner of my eye, noticing the rash on her face was lighter than ever. That didn’t mean she was cured though. That would never happen. Which meant I’d always need to take care of her. Didn’t she know that?
“I mean I can be here for you whenever you need me now. I won’t have to divide my attention.”
She was quiet for so long I started to worry something was wrong. Turns out, I was right, but not in the way I’d thought.
“Wyatt Augustus Carter, tell me I’m hearing you wrong.”
Oh, shit.
She’d just whipped out my full name.
Suddenly, I was twelve again and wondering how long I’d be grounded for this time.
“Tell me you’re not givin’ up on that girl because you think you need to babysit me. Tell me that’s not what you meant just now.”
I scratched the back of my neck and shrugged. “Um. Okay?”
She let out a frustrated breath and reached out to grab my face. She smooshed my cheeks together harder than I thought she was capable of as she looked into my eyes, hers flaming mad.
“I. Don’t. Need. A. Babysitter,” she said slowly. Mom released my face and crossed her arms over her thin chest. “I’m doin’ just fine on my own. I can take care of myself, and if I need medical help, the dang doctor is right next door! I don’t need you sacrificing the best thing that’s ever happened to you because you think I need a chaperone.”
She paused for a minute and I opened my mouth to respond, but she wasn’t done.
“If that’s what you’re really doin’ right now, I swear to you, I will march my own butt right up to that lodge, draggin’ you by your ear to find Callie right now.”
I pressed my lips together to stifle my smile. “That’s not necessary, Ma.”
“Don’t think I won’t do it! You just try me, Wyatt.”
It was getting harder to keep a straight face, but with a Herculean effort, I somehow managed. “I have no intention of trying you, Ma.”
She settled back in her chair, but I could tell she was still miffed. Man, I loved seeing her spunky again. There was a time when she wasn’t even strong enough to reprimand me. Now I had no doubt she had the energy and strength to drag my ass up to the lodge just like she’d threatened.
The smile faded as quickly as it had appeared as I remembered the situation I was in. I sighed and shook my head. “It’s not like that, though. This wasn’t my decision. She had the chance to make things work between us, but she didn’t take it. Not much I can do about that.”
“Son, there’s always something you can do. Always.”
I let her words swirl around in my head as I wondered if she was right.
Could I reconcile with Callie and let things go back to the way they were? Could I keep quiet about our relationship when all I wanted to do was tell every sorry son of a bitch I ran into that she was my girl.
Maybe.
But the bigger question, the harder question, was could I keep loving her when she didn’t love me back.
I swallowed past the Callie-shaped lump in my throat as I thought about that.
How long could I last in a relationship like that? How far could my love take us? How could I love her without receiving hers in return?
The answer was simple: I couldn’t.
I couldn’t love her and not be loved back.
I couldn’t keep our relationship in the dark like she wanted.
I couldn’t let things go back to the way they were when I wanted, needed so much more than that.
Which was why I was sitting in my backyard with my mom, trying my damnedest to forget the women I knew I’d love for the rest of my life. I had to work on forgetting her or I’d never past this.
How I was going to get over her when I had to guard Ellie in Callie’s office building every day was beyond me, but I had to do it. There was really no other choice for me. And fuck if I wasn’t sick of saying that phrase.
I opened my mouth to change the subject when that feeling in my stomach that never really went away gave a sharp tug. I looked down at it, like I could see through my skin and
muscles to the source of the sensation. While I sat there, that tug became a pull that got stronger with every breath I took.
My heart started to race as I realized she was coming closer, but that was stupid. She could be coming down to the pack houses for any number of reasons. She had friends down here. She could be visiting them.
But that didn’t stop my palms from sweating.
I stood from my seat, straining to hear her approaching footsteps. When I caught the quick sound of the crunching gravel, I knew I couldn’t stay put any longer. Even if all I could do was stand by my front window and watch her pass, I’d do it. Because I was a glutton for punishment, and she was my favorite whip.
“I’ll be right back, Ma,” I mumbled as I left the backyard and raced through the house.
The feeling in my stomach was getting stronger as she came closer and I peeked through my blinds to find her running down the road leading to the pack houses. Her curly hair bounced behind her as she pumped her arms and legs, her face set with determination.
What I hadn’t been expecting was for her to veer onto my driveway and continue running toward my front door.
I let the blinds close with a snap and swallowed hard as I crossed the distance to the front door. Standing there, with my heart in my throat and my stomach somewhere near my boots, I waited to see what she’d do next.
That wait only lasted long enough for me to hear a single knock on my door before I whipped it open. Callie stood on the other side, her fist still raised to knock again and her chest heaving with her labored breaths. Man, had she always been this stunningly beautiful? Or had I just forgotten how perfect she was?
We stood there looking at each other for what felt like forever as I desperately tried to avoid her gaze. I couldn’t go there right now. I wasn’t strong enough.
“Hi,” she finally said.
I tipped my head up and said, “Hey.”
She lowered her hand but kept it fisted at her side. Callie took a slow, deep breath before saying, “Can I come in and talk?”
I swallowed. “Sure.”
Chasing Callie (Southern Werewolf Sisters Book 1) Page 29