21. Willow

TWENTY-ONE

Willow

The air was crisp and cool, filled with the scent of pine and earth as we made our way through the dense forest. We’d eaten late, and then after that, we hit the road again. Caleb had parked the truck on a side road I would have driven past, never seeing it, it was so concealed.

He’d made a makeshift holder for my art and was carrying it like one of those big pizza delivery carriers. He’d muttered about some of the boxes, and then he made the call to leave them. I knew he wanted to destroy them, but he saw my look and instead flicked through them and left ones behind that he deemed weren’t worthy.

He hadn’t said it, but he kept looking at me as if he was expecting me to fall down at any moment. The fact that I was expecting me to fall down at any moment didn’t help either.

The towering trees loomed above us, their branches casting long shadows that looked like fingers stretching across the ground as the sunlight started to creep across the sky. The mountains above us were a jagged silhouette against the darkening sky, and the whole place was eerie and throwing off horror movie vibes. Honestly, if I were on the sofa watching this film, I would be screaming at us both for being idiots who deserved to die.

The path that Caleb was following was barely visible. I doubted few hikers used it. It looked more like an animal track than a trail or path.

Caleb moved with a grace that I envied, his movements silent, his body fluid and sure. He looked so comfortable out here, and I didn’t doubt that he was familiar with this land like the back of his hand. He was the exact opposite of me. Where he was one with the scenery, I was crashing through the landscape like a bull in a china shop. Every step I took seemed to reverberate through the still evening. I’d tripped and stumbled so often I knew he knew I was struggling to keep up.

When my foot caught on a hidden root, I fell forward, knowing the impact was going to hurt, and I braced myself for the fall. I didn’t fall, a strong hand caught me, pulling me back into his chest, waiting while I regained my footing.

“Thanks.” I instantly missed the warmth of his hand as he withdrew it, seeing I was steady again.

“Are you doing okay?” Caleb’s voice was low, but I could hear the barely concealed amusement. It was quite obvious I was not doing okay .

“As we discussed, hiking isn’t my thing,” I offered with a self-deprecating laugh.

I heard his answering low chuckle, and I caught his rueful smile as he met my gaze. “You’re doing better than you think,” he offered, and even though I knew it was bullshit and that I was doing as badly as I knew I was, his false compliment made me smile.

Instead of calling him a liar, I dipped my head in acknowledgment while trying to shake off the embarrassment of falling over, again.

Caleb’s attention went back to scanning the trees, searching the shadows, and his wariness made my palms clammy once more. He looked casual and relaxed, but I’d come to decipher some of his characteristics, and I could see the tension that he tried so hard to hide from me. He looked so alert, so ready to react to something , that I was having a tough time not hyperventilating.

Did he expect us to get attacked at any moment? The idea scared me too much to ask because I didn’t want the confirmation that this was exactly what he was waiting for.

As we walked further, the trees closed in around us. The forest seemed even more foreboding as the tall pines formed a dense canopy above us that blocked out what little light was left in the sky. The climb was gentle, but there was no denying that the air was getting colder, and thinner. The unmistakable smell of pine would put me off Christmas for life, I was sure. A shiver ran through me, and I wrapped my arms around myself, wishing I’d had the sense to take a jacket.

When I’d packed, I hadn’t expected an excursion through nature. I’d stupidly thought Caleb’s friend was accessible , and by accessible I thought within an urban area.

I needed to start asking more pertinent questions, and Caleb had to start providing answers. Actual answers, that had information.

Caleb was ahead of me once again, and as I considered him, I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease as I watched him move soundlessly through the forest. I didn’t know how he was doing it; it was almost like he was floating over the rugged and uneven terrain. He was wearing heavy black boots, but his steps were effortlessly confident and soundless as he guided us along the trail.

“How can you move so quietly?” I blurted into the quiet.

With a glance over his shoulder, he smirked at me. “I’m making noise. You just can’t hear it over your crashing.”

Okay, crashing was harsh. But when a twig snapped loudly under my foot, the sound echoing all around us, Caleb laughed as I blushed scarlet. I fell silent as I followed him, my clumsy steps making me wince as we progressed through the trees.

I didn’t know how long we walked, but I knew I was tiring. Caleb knew it too. With an unspoken agreement, he slowed, and soon we were walking side by side. The pace was slow, and no doubt for someone like Caleb, the progress was painful, but he never said a word.

I was just about to give in and admit defeat when Caleb came to a sudden stop, his hand curled around my forearm as he pulled me to a stop beside him. His body was rigid, and my open mouth snapped shut, the question dying on my lips as I watched him. Caleb turned his head up slightly, and I saw him sniff the air.

What could he smell? Smoke? I inhaled trying to smell what he could, but all I could smell was pine and damp earth. I was sure that there were parts of this forest that would never be dry, and the smell of dank, musty vegetation confirmed my thoughts.

My attention was on Caleb, waiting to see what had caused him to stop, what had caused the line of his shoulders to tense.

“Caleb? What is it?” My whisper sounded loud in the quiet, and I could hear how shaky my voice was.

When he said nothing, I felt my heart rate pick up. We were in the middle of nowhere, in the true wilderness, being hunted by shifters , and I had the sudden realization I was most probably in the worst position I could be. Just the two of us, alone and defenseless.

What the hell had I been thinking when I followed him into the trees?

Caleb was wound so tight beside me that I knew he was ready to pounce on whatever came at us, but even that didn’t ease my panic.

“Calm down,” he suddenly said with another look around. “It’s nothing.” His voice was low and gruff, and with a quick look over at me, he nodded. “Stay close.”

Of that, I could absolutely guarantee that I would. Hell, I was so close to him already that I was almost glued to his side. “Okay.”

We resumed walking, and even though he’d said it was nothing, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was just saying that to make me feel better. Caleb wasn’t acting as if it was nothing. He still felt tense beside me.

I knew I was in danger of freaking out. So I did what I did when I needed to focus: I concentrated on something familiar to me. Right now, that was Caleb.

Strange how it was him, but I was so far outside of my comfort zone, was it any wonder that he was the only familiar thing to me ?

I watched him from the corner of my eye as we walked. His steps were sure and steady. He avoided the concealed knots and roots of the forest floor easily as if he already knew where they were hiding. He confidently plowed ahead, sure in his direction. The whole stopping and sniffing the air was strange, but was there anything about this whole scenario that was normal ?

My steps were slowing even more. We’d been walking for hours, and the tension was growing between us. The thick canopy overhead was thinning, and I could see through the branches now. Night had fallen, and the sky had settled into a deep indigo, peppered with stars that gave no light.

It was getting harder to see, but Caleb had taken my arm a while ago and was guiding me through the fading light. This close to him, I wanted to ask more questions. I knew he couldn’t avoid them, he had nowhere to go that wasn’t here, and I knew even stubborn, secretive Caleb wouldn’t leave my side no matter how uncomfortable my questions made him.

But even so, despite having a captive audience, something still held me back. As I watched him, I’d also seen the number of times that he looked over his shoulder, as if he was waiting for our earlier pursuers to suddenly emerge from the shadows. I’d also watched him try to hide his frustration at our pitiful progress, and maybe it was guilt at the fact I was the reason we were making it so slow that I kept quiet.

Eventually, I had to admit defeat. “Caleb.” I slowed to a stop. “I can’t.”

He didn’t argue, didn’t protest; instead, his hand left my arm, and I felt him rub my lower back. “You did well,” he told me before moving away .

The sudden lump in my throat was hard to swallow past as I struggled to accept the unexpected praise. “I’m sorry it wasn’t more,” I told him honestly.

“You did your best.” He flashed me a quick smile. “I have protein bars.” He gestured to a fallen log. “Take a seat.”

I was glad it was night so I didn’t need to see what manner of creepy crawlies were my neighbors as I sat down. Or which ones I crushed under my ass.

He handed me a protein bar and a bottle of water, and I took both gratefully. I didn’t say that I would need a lot more than a protein bar, because the exercise had made me ravenously hungry, so I just ate what he gave me.

We ate our meal—snack—in silence. Caleb remained alert as he crouched beside me. He took the wrapper off me, shoving it into his pack. “You should sleep.” He pulled a blanket from his pack, laying it on the forest floor, and I was once again reminded why I hated camping.

“I need the bathroom.”

He looked surprised for a moment. No doubt he was expecting to have to persuade me to “go” and instead I was letting him know. With a nod, he was on his feet, his hand held out to help me to mine.

“You’ll need to stay close,” he told me, leading me behind a tree, and I heard him kicking up the turf. “Try and squat here.”

Squat! “It’s just a…a number one.” My face was on fire for having to discuss my toilet needs and for some reason lapsing back to first grade as I numbered them.

“Okay, hover over here and then kick this back over it, okay?”

He knew I didn’t understand his bizarre instructions, and he sighed with exasperation. “You’re in the mountains now,” he explained. “There’s more than us out here.”

“Shifters?”

“Mountain lions. Bears. Men.” He added the last with a grunt. “We cover our tracks so you don’t leave your scent behind.”

“My scent?” I quickly realized what he meant before he needed to explain further, and I instinctively covered his mouth with my palm to stop him from telling me that the smell of my urine would invite predators to us.

I was already internally freaking out. He didn’t need to confirm it out loud.

In the dark, I was never going to manage to do my business without falling over, especially when my legs suddenly decided to resemble Jell-O. With a low curse, I undressed my bottom half entirely, hoping it was only spiders and mice I was flashing my ass to.

The thought of a spider crawling up my bare ass almost made me shriek. I’d never peed so fast in my life. Caleb had given me a tissue before he stepped around the tree, and I knew he hadn’t moved any farther away from me.

“Don’t drop the tissue,” he told me suddenly. “I have a bag for that.” I was going to die of embarrassment. The thought was only cemented when he handed me a plastic food bag. “Drop it in here.”

Thank God it was dark and he couldn’t see my humiliation as I came out from behind the tree and stood silently as he squirted a drop of hand sanitizer in my upturned palms.

I bit my tongue when he went to my makeshift toilet and I heard him stomp on the earth, covering my scent, as he called it.

“Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

Keep watch ? It all sounded very special ops, but again, I simply did as I was told and lay on the hard, unyielding earth.

The night had gotten colder, and I was sure I would never sleep, and it was with surprise that I was shaken awake.

Barely clear of the fog of sleep, I felt the prickle of unease trickle over my skin. Caleb was beside me, and I instinctively moved closer to him. His large hand clasped mine, and I felt him squeeze it slightly. Maybe in reassurance. Maybe in warning. I didn’t know, and at that moment, I didn’t care.

I was just so grateful he was beside me, and I knew to keep quiet.

Caleb went to withdraw his hand, and I felt him jerk in surprise when I clung to him tighter, my fingers linking with his, keeping a firm hold on him.

There was a sudden rustling in the dark of night, and me being so far from my comfort zone, I had no idea in which direction it was coming from.

But Caleb did.

I could just make out his outline in the blackness that surrounded us, and I could see his head turned to the left of where we were hidden.

“Stay behind me,” he told me, his voice low and commanding and so sudden that I’d jumped with fright.

He didn’t wait for confirmation as he rose and took me with him. I felt another squeeze of my hand, and then Caleb gently disengaged from my panicked hold. He stepped in front of me, and I fought the urge to throw myself forward and plaster myself to his back.

The small area we’d been using was suddenly lit with the light of the sliver of the moon that shone free from the cloud cover.

My eyes darted from tree to tree, desperate for whatever had alerted us both to remain in the tree line. When nothing immediately revealed itself, I took a step out from behind Caleb, and for the first time I saw his face.

His chocolate eyes appeared black in the night, and they were focused on that same area to the left with an intensity that caused my tummy to flutter with fear. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as I watched him.

I had no words to describe him. He looked completely different from the man I thought I knew. It was like he was someone else. His face looked sharper, tension and danger rolled off of him in waves, and I took a step back. His hand snapped out and caught me. He didn’t take his eyes from the tree line, but he pulled me back to his side.

“With me ,” he growled.

My body was refusing to accept that Caleb was my safe option as he drew himself up to his full height, and I wanted to put as much distance between us as humanly possible.

Human .

He heard my startled gasp and turned to face me, quickly checking to make sure I was okay. Our eyes met, and I saw him flinch.

“Later.”

It was a one-word command and held no promise, but I knew better than to ask questions right now. But by God, he would give me answers if we escaped whatever was watching us right now.

Caleb rolled his shoulders, and I had the brief thought of a boxer loosening their shoulders before getting ready to fight.

It’s what he was doing, I realized. Caleb was getting ready to fight. Almost as if my understanding was the go-ahead to our foe, something lunged from the shadows, and my scream was drowned by its roar as it launched itself toward us.

Everything happened in a blur. Caleb pushed me backward, and then he moved faster than I thought possible towards the thing that had attacked us as he rushed to meet its attack.

I heard a snarl, and I saw Caleb tackle the assailant to the ground. I saw fur and claws, and in my haste to get away, I fell backward. My wail as I lost my balance was cut short when I hit the ground with a thump, my head banging off the log I’d used for a seat earlier.

The painful thud of my head meeting solid wood jarred me, and my teeth sank into my tongue, causing me to yelp as I bit it. Looking up, I saw a wolf, its hackles raised, its teeth bared in a snarl, ready to launch, and I didn’t see Caleb.

My head swam as dizziness from the collision made everything spin.

I heard an answering growl, low and threatening and so primal it caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand, and I tried to turn to look, but my head decided that was the exact point that I was out of this fight, and I passed out.