Callie POV ...
The air around us was silent. Kameron was still in his wolf form, looking in the direction where the pack of wolves had run off to. I felt my racing heart slowly come down as the adrenaline gradually began to leave my body.
The rain was still beating down on our bodies, but it had lightened now, and the thunder had calmed. I whipped away some of the mud that had splattered onto my face. I didn't dare move toward Kameron, because l knew his wolf was in control and he was still in active threat mode.
Instead, I moved to where my duffle bag was lying on the ground and shouldered it.
When I turned around, I saw a now-human Kameron who was also naked. I shrieked and turned around, my cheeks heating at the sight of him.
I was tempted to turn back to him because the little glimpse I caught of him was not nearly enough for me. I wanted to see more.
I scolded myself internally. I wasn't supposed to be thinking like that about him.
'He is your mate,' my inner voice tried to reason with me. I shook my head. He may have been my mate, but he also belonged to another. I had to remember that important fact.
"You can turn around now," Kameron's voice rang in my ears.
I turned around slowly and found him buttoning a pair of shorts that he didn't have when he arrived here. I looked at him, completely confused.
"We keep changes of clothes throughout the woods for situations such as this," he said simply. Even under the darkness of the night, I could still see the glow behind his forest green eyes.
Our vision as wolves only strengthened with the night, so seeing him was not the problem. It was seeing him without having my heart accelerate to dangerous speeds that were the problem.
Kameron was staring at me. His gaze was heated, but not in a sexual way-it was like he was holding back his anger. I didn't dare say anything, because l didn't know if anything I said would set him off or not.
He opened his mouth, but then immediately closed it right afterward. I stood there staring back at him, shifting awkwardly on my feet.
Less than half an hour ago, I had been crying because I wouldn't be able to see him, feel him, or hear him ever again. Now, he was in front of me, and I didn't know what to do.
The thunder rumbled, startling me a bit. Kameron's eyes shifted from my face to the duffle bag that was on my shoulder. A wave of shame came over me. I felt like I had been caught red-handed and guilt settled over my heart weighing it down with its heaviness.
I had been so sure of my decision to leave but when I saw the flash of hurt cross Kameron's features, I knew I had been wrong. Hurting him was the last thing I wanted to do.
"Let's get back to the packhouse." he turned away from me and started in the direction of the pack's camp.
I fell into step with him as we made out way back to the packhouse. We walked a few meters in awkward silence. The only sound that could be heard was the rain coming down from above and the low rumble of the thunder in the distance.
I kept stealing glances his way, trying to gauge his current emotional state. Even though I had only known him less than a week, I knew that Kameron was not the kind of man to wear his emotions on his face. He kept his true inner feelings to himself.
"Thank you," my voice came out meek and small. I was trying to test the waters to see if he were approachable or if he needed some time.
He grunted in response and just continued to walk. I struggled to keep up with his pace.
For every step he took, I had to take two. I would have asked him to slow down but seeing as how he just responded to me, I realized that silence was the best answer. I would just deal with it.
I wasn't watching where I was going and suddenly found myself tripping over a root and falling toward the forest floor.
Before my face could plummet into the mud, Kameron reached behind him and caught me in his arms.
We stood like that for a little while, awkwardly, until he was shocked back to reality by the thunder. He helped me settle on my feet and started walking again.
"Kameron wait!" I called to him.
He paused and turned around slowly. His eyes were emotionless and gave nothing away but I could tell that he was bothered.
"What, Callie?" He sounded so fed up with me. It hurt my heart a little that he was speaking to me in such a way.
"Are you angry with me?"
Kameron let out a humorless laugh, then turned away from me and continued walking. I ran up from behind him and grabbed his arm. I forced him to stop and took the chance to go and stand in front of him.
The rain was cold on my skin and mud was seeping into places mud should never be in.
"Kameron," I said as I looked him dead in the eye, "I know you're upset. I can see it in your eyes"
"So, if you can see it, then why are asking me such a stupid question, Callie?" he said exasperatedly. "Now, move. The rain is only going to get harder and you need to get warm."
"I'm sorry," I blurted out. "I'm sorry for hurting you. I didn't mean to"
His eyes narrowed at me. "And why exactly were you running away?"
l opened my mouth, ready to tell him everything, but then I quickly clamped my mouth shut.
This was not something that I could discuss with him, no matter how badly I wanted to. My true identity had to remain a secret.
"Right, another thing you're planning on withholding from me," he said. He walked around me and continued toward the packhouse.
"I thought I was doing what was best for the both of us."
Kameron spun around so quickly it gave me whiplash. He walked right up to me and stared down at me with blazing eyes. His chest was rising and falling in deep and labored breaths.
"You don't get to decide for me, Callie," he seethed. "You don't get to decide what is best for me and what is not. Your leaving was the farthest thing from being the best for me. What you did was careless and selfish"
I hung my head in shame. His anger was justifiable and I had no real leg to stand on at that moment.
"I had wolves who were meant to be on guard scouring these woods I looking for you, Callie. You damn well nearly gave me a heart attack when I couldn't find you. You put my wolf through hell. You put me through hell."
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
"I'm tired of the constant tip-toeing that you do, Callie" Kameron cupped the sides of my face and forced me to look at him. "I know you are lying about your amnesia. You don't have amnesia and I know you are running from something from wherever you came from. I want to trust you but how can I do that when I barely know you?"
My heart hammered inside of my chest-his. touch was like ecstasy and I was about to have an overdose. I enjoyed the feeling of his skin against mine.
Damn this mate pull. As the days passed by, the pull got stronger between us. It was getting harder to fight off my desires and impulses.
I should have stepped out of his hold and made sure to keep a safe distance between the two of us but my body craved his touch.
It was calling out to him, like a secret siren luring in its prey.
"Let me help you," Kameron placed his forehead against mine. "Let me in, Callie"
His words came out almost like a plea as if he was begging me to do as he asked. I contemplated his request.
I knew Kameron was my mate but he had greater loyalties to his pack than to me. I was scared that when he found out, he would turn me over to Alpha Damien.
I pulled away from him and stepped out of his hold. A look of hurt and rejection crossed his features but as quickly as they came, they faded away.
"We're almost to the packhouse."
I muttered before turning away from him.
Kameron fell into step with me shortly after I started in the direction of the packhouse. I could see the building coming into view past the tree line that led to the compound. We walked the rest of the way in complete
silence.
We may have walked in silence but there were a million different unspoken words between us. My mom always told me it was the words we didn't say that mattered the most, at times. No truer statement could have related to me more than that single quote.
Kameron was everything I needed but he wasn't mine to have. He was marrying someone else and I could do nothing to stop it.
As we walked through the tree-line of the forest, I decided that I needed to tell him that I knew about Flo. I was done acting like certain things didn't bother me. I was done feeling like a spare part that he didn't want. I was done pretending that we weren't mates and trying so hard to deny it. I was a person too and I was being put through the wringer in terms of emotional stability.
Above all, I really needed to talk him out of doing things that would put me in danger.
But I also knew I couldn't speak to him about not calling the alphas because then his suspicions of me running from something would only grow. I needed more time to work my way into that conversation.
For now, I would tackle the issue of Florence first.
As we drew closer to the packhouse, I could feel my nerves fading and I knew that needed to do it now or I would never get another chance to do it again.
"Kameron?" I looked up at him as we walked.
I noticed then that Kameron's face had paled and his movements were looking rather sluggish.
I placed a small hand on his arm to grab his attention.
Kameron looked down at me and I watched as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body lost strength and fell on me.
I caught him in my arms and slowly brought us to the ground.
"Kameron?" I slapped his face gently.
"Kameron, come on, wake up. You need to wake up."
Something felt wet against my hand. I looked down. In the darkness, I could just make out the blood slicking Kameron's shirt to his side.
"No, no no ... please, Kameron, wake up. I can't lose you, too."
Flashes of my parents filled my mind as repeatedly slapped his face. He wasn't responding.
"Help!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. In the distance, I saw the healing center through the trees. Rex was walking out the door with his head buried in a file.
"Rex!" I screamed as loud as my voice could carry itself. "Rex! Over here"
Rex heard my voice and his head shot up, looking for where the sound had come from.
When his eyes landed on where I was holding Kameron in my arms, they went wide as he drank us in. Rex took off flying in our direction and dropped to his knees.
"What happened?"
I shook my head the tears streamed down my face. "There was an attack ...and he ... and he saved me. Please, Rex, save him for me, please. He has to live. Because I don't know what I would do without him."