Chapter 5

Chapter

Five

Callista

T he truck engine hummed beneath me as we pulled out of the gas station parking lot, and I shifted in the passenger seat, crossing my arms over my chest. Tall evergreens blurred past the window, their dark limbs stretching toward the sky, and I resisted the urge to drum my fingers on the armrest. I wanted to play music, but Lana didn't seem like the chill, folksy type and that was everything on my playlist as of late.

Lana gripped the steering wheel. The muscles in her forearms flexed as she navigated another curve in the road. I glanced at the speedometer.

"Do you have a problem with my driving, Callista?" Her eyes were trained on the road ahead.

I shook my head. "Zero problems." I didn't trust myself to drive, and I was glad she didn't question it.

It was a three-hour drive, and we were making good time. We'd only had to stop once for gas and food. The donair I'd picked up at the gas station had left much to be desired, but at least it hadn't given me food poisoning.

"Almost there," Lana murmured, her voice softer now. I glanced at her, catching the flicker of something in her eyes before she turned her attention back to the road.

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Yeah." There was a time, not so long ago, when I would've been thrilled at the idea of a road trip through the woods. Evelyn and I used to pack the car full of camping gear and snacks, our suitcases stuffed, and head out on our next adventure. Now? I was terrified.

My thoughts drifted to the camping trip Evelyn and I took one summer as kids. We were both nine or ten, and Evelyn had insisted on packing the car herself, refusing to let our parents help. She'd stuffed the backseat with pillows and blankets, creating a nest for us to curl up in during the drive.

I could still smell the sun-warmed leather of her family's old Subaru, hear the way she'd sung along to the radio, her voice always a half-step behind, and see how her eyes crinkled at the corners when she glanced back at me. She'd taught me how to roast marshmallows to the perfect golden brown, and we'd stayed up late, whispering secrets under the stars.

I clenched my teeth at the memory, a bitter taste coating my tongue. This wasn't a camping trip with s'mores and blanket nests.

Lana glanced at me, her eyes narrowing. "You're staring again."

I huffed out a breath and turned my gaze to the trees. The blur of green felt like it was swallowing me whole. I could almost feel the forest closing in, pressing against the windows, threatening to suffocate me.

These last forty minutes were going to be torture if we couldn't find some way to pass the time. "So. Evelyn tells me you're a teacher?"

Lana nodded. "Yep. Special Ed. I start back at the end of August."

"Why did you choose that?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me. She didn't seem like the warm and fuzzy type.

Lana's eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, then back to the road. "My brother." Her voice softened, and I could see the muscles in her jaw relax slightly. "He had muscular dystrophy. He was my best friend."

Was. I sucked in a breath, my heart squeezing at the raw emotion in her voice. "I'm sorry."

Lana shrugged, her shoulders tight. "It was a long time ago. But it's why I do what I do. Teaching helped me cope. It gave me a purpose." Her gaze flicked to me, then back to the road. "Rowan was there for me. For my family. It's not something I'll ever forget."

I cleared my throat. "Tell me more about him. About the pack." I'd been gobsmacked to find out that not only was Evelyn back, but she was fated to Rowan Steele. The stories I heard about him weren't good, but I'd always taken them with a grain of salt. Everyone in Kitimat knew how Nathan felt about Black Lake's alpha. Now that I had first-hand experience seeing how deeply Nathan had entrenched himself with the alphas in the north and, apparently, dark magic, I wondered if I needed to rewrite my version of history.

"Rowan's a good man. Kind."

That was true. I remembered him as a kid. Evelyn had been better friends with him than I was, and...I realized right then that my bias against Rowan had started at fourteen. The day I found out Evelyn had gone with him to the creek instead of calling me. Was I jealous of him? No. That was ridiculous. I was happy for my friend, wasn't I?

Lana clicked her tongue. "I was proud that Rowan took his place as alpha. The whole thing...it was a mess."

I remembered. It had been years, but we were still too close to the day our pack split. It felt like we were being yo-yo'd with it joining back together. "I think it will be good. Especially with everything going on. We need to band together."

I said it like we had a tough work schedule or something. Not that dark magic was working to infiltrate our towns and our lives. Even after seeing Nathan with the dagger, I still didn't know what he wanted. Why was he working with the alphas in the north? Why did he come back looking for blood? He wanted Evelyn, but I doubted the alphas had given him a powerful ancient relic to force his ex back into his arms.

He'd killed with that dagger. He'd wanted to kill me.

I shivered as the car rounded a bend, and I caught a glimpse of a lake through the trees. My heart skipped a beat, and I leaned forward, straining to see.

"Really almost there," Lana said, her voice breaking through my thoughts.

I nodded, my pulse quickening. I barely noticed the growing throb in my arm. I had no idea what we were walking into, but we couldn't turn back now.

The car crested a hill, and the lake came into view, the water shimmering in the fading light. I held my breath, my eyes scanning the shore. There. A cluster of tents and cars. People milling about, setting up camp.

We followed the path toward the campsite, and I immediately caught the scent of roasting hot dogs. My stomach growled in response. I hadn't eaten since breakfast.

Lana and I stepped into the clearing, and I stopped in my tracks, taking in the scene. At least fifteen pack members were there, bustling around, setting up tents and campfires. The air was filled with laughter and the clatter of camping gear, the sounds bouncing off the towering redwoods surrounding us.

I spotted Rowan and Evelyn right away. Rowan was talking to Will and Marissa, who I recognized from the week before. Her pregnant belly looked like it was about to burst. Evelyn was chatting animatedly with a couple I didn't know. Probably more of the Black Lake pack. I scanned the crowd, noting Finn, the doctor who had initially looked at my arm, and Jasper standing near a cooler.

As I watched, a couple of kids ran past, giggling as they chased each other around the campsite. My heart warmed at the sight. What would it be like to run like that, so carefree? To not be constantly thinking about pain?

Rowan spotted us first. He nudged Evelyn, and they walked over, leaving their conversations mid-sentence.

"Callista, Lana, glad you could make it." Rowan grinned.

Because I definitely had a choice.

"Isn't it great out here? I swear the trees are bigger." Evelyn sucked in a lungful of air.

I nodded. "Gorgeous." Truthfully, I'd barely looked around. Everything that used to bring me joy seemed frayed at the edges.

Evelyn pointed at the bag in Lana's arms. "Do you need help setting up your tent?"

Lana shook her head. "I think we've got it."

Not once had I thought about the fact that I'd be sharing a tent with Lana. Not that it made any sense to share with Evelyn now that she was with Rowan, but because I'd never corrected the image in my head, the one with me and her together was still there.

"Alright, well, let us know if you need anything. We brought extra sleeping bags and blankets, just in case." Rowan turned to me, assessing.

"Thanks." I dropped my eyes.

They walked back to their friends, and I followed Lana to an open patch of grass. "I'm sure they've bribed you with something good to babysit me for the night, but you don't need to do this. We could just go home."

Lana laughed. "Yeah. That's not happening."

Before I could argue, Maya approached us with a warm smile. "Hey, Callista! Lana! It's so great to see you here." She was petite, with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes. What was I, the community project?

Maya's family had camped with us on a few occasions, but she was so much younger than Evelyn and me, I hadn't paid her much attention.

Lana gave her a quick smile before dumping out the contents of our tent bag. "Just getting settled."

Maya smiled. "Callista, remember when we all had that midnight snack raid on the cooler?"

My brows pinched, but then I remembered what she was talking about. "Blake just about murdered me when he found out we ate all the s'mores ingredients."

"It was mostly us little kids. You guys took the brunt of the punishment."

That was true. My parents had forced us on a murderous hike the next morning.

Maya chuckled, her eyes sparkling. "It's funny. I never thought I'd miss camping, but here I am, nostalgic as hell."

She gave a small wave and jogged back to her side of the camp. Lana and I finished setting up the tent and rolled out our sleeping bags, then wandered toward the food.

". . . and if you think about it, the hot dog is essentially the perfect encapsulation of modern food engineering. It's convenient, high in protein, and—" Finn adjusted his glasses. "—has a decent amount of sodium, which, while not ideal for daily consumption, can be beneficial when we're exerting a lot of energy."

"Here we go." Lana rolled her eyes as we approached Rowan, Finn, and Jasper.

Jasper stared at him, his expression deadpan. "Finn, you could make a sandwich out of drywall sound appealing."

Finn shrugged. "I'm just saying they're underrated. Nutritionally speaking."

Jasper snorted. "Right, because when I think of nutrition, I think of processed meat tubes."

Finn held up a finger. "Actually, if you look at the ingredients?—"

"Please don't." Jasper held up a hand. "I don't need a dissertation on the culinary merits of hot dogs. Let me enjoy my trash food." He grabbed a beer out of the cooler and handed one to Finn.

Rowan appeared from behind the tent, his eyebrows raised. "What are we talking about?"

Jasper leaned against a tree. "Finn was going off on how sausages are misunderstood."

"I think your sausage has been very clear about its intentions," Lana quipped, and I almost laughed out loud.

How long had it been since I laughed? My arm was so calm, I hadn't thought about it since we pulled up. Strange.

Jasper grinned. "Consistent marketing. That's my mantra."

"Hungry?" Finn offered Lana and Callista a paper plate, then pointed them toward the table with buns, condiments, and extras.

I looked at the spread. "I should've brought something."

Rowan shook his head. "Nope. This was extra from the long weekend. Needed to be used up."

I made up a hot dog and had just dipped the spoon in the potato salad when Blake and Celeste walked up. They both grinned when they spotted me, and Blake strode over, pulling me into a tight hug, nearly spilling the food on my plate. "Hey, Sis."

"Hey. Took you long enough." I returned to scooping salad. He didn't have to say anything for me to know what he was thinking. How did they finally get you to crawl out of your shell?

Blake laughed. "Some of us had to work."

"Okay, ouch."

Celeste rolled her eyes. "He's kidding. By the way, we would've been way later if you hadn't taken care of things at home."

I nodded, my throat tight. "I'm just glad you could both get away. I know it's been a lot lately."

Blake nodded, understanding passing between us. "We also convinced a few other Kitimat pack members to join. We thought it would be good for morale." He gestured behind him, and I noticed a couple of familiar faces unloading gear from another vehicle.

"That's great. The more the merrier." I glanced around the campsite, noting the smiles and nods from our pack members as Celeste and Blake greeted them. This was good. We needed more people from our neck of the woods integrated with Black Lake.

The sun lowered over the peaks behind us, and the campsite lit up in gold. It did look different than I remembered. Both bigger and smaller. The last time I'd been there my world had been the size of Kitimat and surrounding area. Everything had seemed new and fresh, and now it looked a little tired. It wasn't that I was a world traveler, but I'd taken enough trips to make it seem like my town had shrunk.

We finished our food, and I helped clean up with the others, then sat on a camp chair Lana brought around the fire Jasper had made. By the size of the blaze, he was planning to sit there for the next three hours.

Rowan stood by the fire, his piercing blue eyes reflecting the dying light. The flickering flames cast shadows on his face, making him appear even more commanding. He raised a hand, and the ambient noise slowly died down.

The crackling of the fire became the only sound, its warmth brushing over my skin. I understood how Rowan had drawn Evelyn in. He was magnetic. Definitely not the same boy we'd known growing up. But that was the alpha in him, wasn't it? Or had that strength always been there, and we hadn't been looking for it?

My dad always used to say, 'Alphas aren't born. They're made.' Most shifters believed there was something in their genetic code that made alphas, and it was only a matter of time before they presented. But not him. He believed they were born out of necessity. That many were capable, but only a few chose to step into that role. He had so much faith in alphas. I wondered what he would've said about Nathan Black after he'd singlehandedly dragged our pack through the mud.

"Thank you all for coming," Rowan began. "This has been a difficult time for our pack, for all of us. But seeing you all here standing together, it reminds me of our strength. Our unity."

Evelyn sat beside him, her hand resting on his arm as she leaned toward him in her chair. I wanted to be happy for my friend. I was happy for her. That happiness was just buried under something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Jealousy, yes. But not because I wanted someone like Rowan or even that I wanted a relationship. I just wanted...things to go back to normal. I wanted my life before Evelyn left Kitimat. Before Nathan Black lost his sanity.

But it was ridiculous to keep wishing for something that couldn't happen. I'd survived without Evelyn before, and I could do it again. It just sucked that we didn't have some time to figure ourselves out before she mated. Wasn't that what Evelyn was trying to do? Spend time with me? I was the problem now, always pushing back.

"We've faced challenges," Rowan continued. "And we've lost . . . good people." His voice caught, and Evelyn squeezed his arm.

My heart twinged at the thought of the still missing wolves. We knew Nathan was responsible for at least one death but had no trace on the others.

Finn sat on Rowan's right while Jasper poked at the red-hot coals. Blake and Celeste stood at the back, their silhouettes dark against the fading light.

Rowan's gaze swept over the group, landing on each of us in turn. A shiver ran down my spine when his eyes met mine. "I know there are still questions. Things we don't understand." His voice was steady, but I could hear the undercurrent of frustration. "But we will find answers. We will protect our pack. And we will honor those we've lost by standing together, stronger than ever."

The fire crackled, sending a shower of sparks into the air. Rowan's eyes lingered on me for a moment longer before he looked away. My chest tightened with a surge of emotion. I wanted to believe him, to trust that we could overcome whatever lay ahead. But the shadows of doubt were hard to dispel, especially because the evidence of it was burrowed deep in my arm.

I was far enough back from the fire, I hoped no one besides Lana would notice me leaving the fire ring. I pushed up from my chair and walked into the woods. I should've predicted Evelyn's hawk-like attention since she hadn't stopped watching me since I'd arrived.

"Hey, you okay?" She jogged to catch up.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just tired." How many times had I said that? It was losing its punch just like the words 'I can't' had failed me earlier.

Evelyn stopped next to me when we were well into the shadows. It felt safer here. Away from the light and curious glances. The sounds of the campfire and murmuring pack members faded slightly, replaced by the rustling of leaves and chirping frogs. "I didn't mean to interrupt Rowan's speech."

Evelyn shoved her hands in the pocket of her sweatshirt. "He won't care. He's just trying to bring people together. Make them less afraid."

"Are people afraid?"

Evelyn sighed. "How could they not be? After what happened?"

Fair. I hadn't thought much about it. I used to think about people besides myself, didn't I? I wanted to be that girl again, but these days, the pain was all-consuming. I couldn't come up for air.

Evelyn reached out a hand. "I'm sorry?—"

I flinched, wincing and pulling my arm back.

Evelyn frowned. "What the hell was that?"

I dropped my arm to my side, trying to keep my expression even. "Nothing."

"You flinched like I slapped you."

"I have a bruise?—"

"We don't keep bruises." Evelyn's eyes shot to mine. "Show me your arm."

My heart rate skyrocketed. "I'm wearing my jacket?—"

"Show me your arm, Calli." Evelyn crossed her arms over her chest. The sound of boots on dry leaves sounded behind us, and we both turned to see Rowan's silhouette in the orange glow of the fire.

He looked between the two of us. "What's going on?"

Evelyn nodded to my left side. "Callista has something wrong with her arm."

Rowan's brow pinched. "From tonight? Let's take a look."

I wanted to run. Why was she making such a big deal out of such a tiny motion? I wanted to bolt past them and get in my truck and drive, but I knew that wouldn't accomplish anything. Rowan could outrun and outdrive me, and if I turned and ran back in the house, I wouldn't put it past Evelyn to break the door down. She'd gone after her crazy ex, and Nathan Black was a hell of a lot scarier than me.

"It's not a big deal?—"

"Take off the damn coat!" Evelyn barked.

"Someone hasn't had their french toast," I muttered, pulling off my jacket and rolling up my sleeve.

"I wonder whose fault that is." Evelyn took a step closer as I revealed the bandages. I didn't wait for her to boss me around a second time, I just started pulling at the gauze.