Chapter Thirteen
A week later, Caleb found himself thinking about intimidating people. A thick crowd confronted Sarah and him as they tried to find a good spot to watch the upcoming city fireworks show.
The exteriors of the shops of the outdoor mall, although closed, provided more than enough light to push away the darkness at ground level. The thousands of bright smart phones did the rest.
Three teens blocked their path. Caleb glared at them, and they scattered to either side.
“Come on, don’t have to be that way,” Sarah said, lightly punching his arm.
“Hey, it gets the job done.”
She rolled her eyes.
Really, the good thing about being a huge man was that people tended to stay the hell out of your way. Normally, he didn’t mind crowds, but this time he had to worry about Sarah’s comfort, even if she had complaints about his methods.
“I didn’t get dragged out here just so we can get stuck in some crappy place where you can’t see a thing,” Caleb grumbled.
“Oh, the gesture is sweet enough.” Sarah let out a light laugh. “You know, I don’t think I’ve actually been out to watch fireworks on the Fourth in years.” She furrowed her brow and looked down. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve gone since my undergrad days.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I just always ended up busy, or at a party or something rather than watching fireworks. Maybe after seeing them for so many years, I guess I’m just jaded.”
Caleb snorted. “Really? I love this crap.” He shot a glare at another man trying to crowd in before saying, “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of fireworks.”
Sarah smirked. “What? You don’t really strike me as the patriotic type.”
“What’s patriotism have to do with it?”
“Hello. Fourth of July? Independence Day? The rockets red glare and all that?”
Caleb scoffed. “Nah. Nothing to do with that. I just love seeing things blow up.” He grinned and shrugged.
“All men are just big kids in the end.” Sarah laughed. She leaned in, a worried expression on her face.
He resisted a frown, wondering the reason for the sudden change.
She spoke quieter, but he could still hear her despite the murmur of the crowd. “I want to tell you something. I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while.”
“What?”
“I called my advisor the other day. I’m taking some time off from my grad program.”
“Huh, really? So, what is that like quitting?”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “Not quite, but one step down from it. I’m going to have to figure out different funding when I go back, but, you know, one day at a time and all that, like you said.”
“Glad to see you coming around, just don’t do it because you think you’re going to be forced to stay in my place forever. Do it because you want to.”
Sarah nodded slowly. “I know that the danger will probably be over sooner than later, but I just… don’t think I can go back to worrying about that kind of thing, and I don’t know what we have together, but it feels good.” She sighed. “I do like you a lot, though.”
“For a woman whose telling me she’s into me, you seem awfully depressed.” Caleb swept a strand of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear gently.
“I just don’t know if what I feel is real, or if I’m just into the idea of what you are. I just want to be honest with you about everything, so we both have reasonable expectations.”
He shrugged. “Fair enough. Like I’ve told you before, don’t worry so much about the future. We…”
“What is it?”
Caleb held up a hand and inhaled deeply. An earthy scent hit his nose. Damn it. He’d let his guard down. He let out a low growl.
Sarah blinked. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone’s here.” Caleb scanned the crowd, but he couldn’t spot any obvious threat in the huge group of people. “Someone… like me.”
He shook his head.
“That doesn’t have to be a big deal, right? Maybe it’s just someone from Devil’s Den. I’m betting a lot of them like to see things blow up, too.”
“No.” Caleb leaned over to whisper into her ear. “As alpha, I can feel when my packmates are close. I smell another werewolf here, but none of my pack is close. It might be a different pack, but I’m guessing it’s a True Son.” He grabbed her hand. “We need to get somewhere less crowded.”
Sarah swallowed once and nodded. Caleb tugged her through the crowd, pushing and glaring his way through, though most areas parted before him with little trouble. Even if he weren’t a werewolf, leaving a crowd was usually easier than trying to enter it.
Caleb inhaled deeply again. Too many damn scents overlapping. He knew the other wolf was close, but he couldn’t pinpoint its direction. He just hoped they wouldn’t do something stupid.
The crowd began to thin, and he halted. Sarah looked up at him, confusion on her face. He wanted to tell her everything would be all right, but he didn’t have a good handle on the threat.
Was moving to the sparser part of the crowd the right move? He doubted even an idiotic member of the True Sons would be stupid enough to go after him in a crowd of thousands of people.
That kind of exposure wouldn’t just bring the dragons down on them, but probably every other shifter in the area. No matter how badass Jake thought he was, he couldn’t take on every shifter in Maricopa County.
“We’re staying here,” Caleb said, his voice full of authority.
Sarah glanced around, probably trying to spot the enemy herself. She leaned in to speak quietly. “But you said someone was coming. Shouldn’t we get out of here? What if they try something?”
“We’re safe where there’s people. Less chance of them trying something then. And there still is few enough people here that we can run if we need to.”
She winced. “I don’t like the idea of using people as shields. We’re gambling with other people’s lives.”
“It’s not a gamble when you know you can win.” He shook his head. “Trust me. There’s far less chance of trouble this way.” Caleb let out a low growl. “I’d love to take this guy on and teach him a lesson just like I taught his buddies a lesson, but we’re out here, exposed.”
In the distance, something caught Caleb’s eye. Not movement, but more the lack of it. He finally spotted a man staring at them, a bald, bearded man wearing a leather jacket covered with patches. He couldn’t make them out so far away, but he didn’t doubt for a second that it was a member of the True Sons.
“Should we call someone?” Sarah asked quietly, glancing the same way as Caleb. She shuddered. “Not the police, I get that, but someone from Devil’s Den?”
Caleb locked eyes with the True Son in the distance. Confidence filled him, and he grinned at the other man, who only frowned back.
“No,” he said. “Screw them, and screw that guy.”
“Huh, but you… okay, I’m confused.”
“We should stay and enjoy the fireworks.” Caleb snickered. “We’re not going to let them win. This is just them trying to play games, trying to let us know they haven’t forgotten. From the scent, I’m guessing there’s only one of them, and they aren’t going to try shit with just one of them, especially with so many people around. You saw what I did to two of the bastards. Just imagine what I could do to one.”
Sarah trembled slightly. “Are you sure?”
Caleb wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against him. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you, and I won’t let anyone ever hurt you. I promise you that.”
The crowd thickened again around them as more people pushed in.
“I guess I just thought maybe they’d never come back,” Sarah said. “Silly hope, I guess.”
“You stay with me, and I’ll always make sure you’re protected, no matter what. It won’t matter if they come at you, or someone else does.”
Sarah looked up, and he locked gazes with her. He wasn’t sure exactly what he felt. Yes, she was Blooded, but the more time they spent together, the more he cared about her and not just her sweet body. He wouldn’t call it love, but it was far more than casual interest.
The truth was he was glad that she didn’t want to go back to graduate school right away, glad that she was choosing him. For the first time in a long time, he started wondering about what it’d be like to have an investment in the future that wasn’t centered only around the pack.
He needed to make sure that the True Sons didn’t screw that up for him. Even if they didn’t injure Sarah, they could easily scare her into trying to hide from all werewolves.
Caleb inhaled deeply, trying to ignore all the other scents, including the intoxicating sweetness of the Blooded right next to him. It wasn’t exactly easy with the crowd, but he was sure the earthy scent of the other werewolf had grown weaker.
The alpha glanced around, looking for the bald man he’d seen earlier. Nowhere in sight. He’d moved. Ca;eb wasn’t sure if he’d left, but the diminishing scent suggested as such.
“I think our boy left.”
“Just a message, then?”
“Yeah, just a message. May have just been wanting to get close enough for me to smell him, but since I saw him, he wins.”
A loud boom rumbled overhead. Their heads shot up, and a massive multi-colored explosion filled the sky. Several white streams of fire popped into existence with a staccato series of explosions a few seconds later.
“Fuck that guy,” Caleb shouted. “Let’s just enjoy the night.” He pulled Sarah closer to him and caressed her back. “And enjoy some explosions.”
He meant what he’d said. He’d protect her, no matter what.