Ashleigh just stared back at him. Trying to understand what he meant.
Caleb took a deep breath.
“I didn’t want you to come,” he began, “because I knew how they would react.”
He clenched his jaw and sniffled.
“I knew that my pack was not ready to accept you as Luna. I knew that having to explain what happened between us would only make it that much harder for them to understand.”
“Ok,” Ashleigh said. “But why not just tell me?”
Caleb scoffed. He looked up at her, and the moonlight reflected off the tears that shone in his eyes.
“Why couldn’t you accept me, Ashleigh?” he asked gently. “Every time we got close, what got in the way?”
“I thought Granger–”
“It wasn’t just him,” Caleb interrupted, shaking his head. “Granger, your dad, our packs. It always mattered more to you what others thought.”
Ashleigh swallowed down the painful feeling.