Aysel
The pain inside my chest intensified and I doubled over, my body folding in on itself as if someone had driven a fist straight through my ribs.
Everything sounded muted and far away.
“Aysel!”
Skylar’s voice cut through the haze, her voice filled with alarm.
I heard her chair scrape loudly as she rushed to grab my shoulders.
“Hey.
Hey, look at me.”
I tried, but when I lifted my head, the movement made dizziness crash over me in sickening waves.
The room tilted dangerously, and I had to grip the edge of the table to keep from toppling sideways.
Something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
My wolf stirred violently beneath my skin.
She was agitated and panicked.
“What is happening?” Skylar demanded, her voice tight with barely controlled fear.
The teasing was completely gone from her voice now.
“I don’t know.” I replied weakly.
Skylar crouched beside my chair, her face level with mine.
The concern on her features deepened.
“You look pale.”
“I am pale.” I pointed flatly.
“You look dead pale.”
I managed a weak grimace.
“That’s encouraging.”
Skylar didn’t laugh.
That alone was enough to make me uneasy.
Skylar always joked.
Always found something ridiculous to say, some way to puncture the tension and make me smile.
But now her expression had gone very serious.
I straightened slowly, forcing my spine to uncurl despite the lingering tightness in my chest.
The pain had lessened slightly, though the pressure remained.
Skylar studied me carefully, as if trying to gauge what’s wrong with me.
Then her eyes widened with sudden realization.
“Oh.”
I frowned, my brow furrowing.
“What?”
She pointed at me, her finger trembling slightly.
“Oh the gods.”
“What?” Impatience crept into my voice.
Skylar began to grin.
“Skylar…”
She leaned closer to me.
“Is this because you miss your chef boyfriend?”
I stared at her, utterly bewildered.
She pointed dramatically, her finger stabbing the air between us.
“You have only known each other for just one day and you’re already having withdrawal symptoms.” She shook her head with mock solemnity.
I groaned, letting my head fall back.
“Please stop.”
“You miss him.”
“I absolutely do not.
I think it’s more than that.”
Her smile fell immediately, “You have only known this guy a day, Aysel.
What are you….”
“I know.” I cut in, “I know how insane this sounds.
I know I sound like a crazy person.
But I felt it, Sky.
I felt it in my chest, like…
like something was tearing.
And I knew it was him.
I knew it.”
She studied my face for a second, then she let out a long breath and stood.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay.
Let’s say you’re right.
Let’s say something did happen to him.
What are you going to do about it?
You don’t know where he lives.
You don’t even have his phone number.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but I stopped as a shadow fell over our table.
“Ms.
Stormborn.”
The voice was devoid of warmth.
I looked up to find a man walking towards our table, with a bunch of men behind him.
My body tensed instinctively.
Skylar immediately straightened, her posture shifting subtly.
I saw the tension ripple through her shoulders meaning she felt it too.
The man stopped at our table, looking only at me as he dismissed Skylar entirely.
“You should learn when to stop asking questions.”
I blinked in confusion, suddenly it dawned on me who he might be.
Then I leaned back in my chair, letting my posture relax into something deliberate.
“Oh.”
The man smiled, apparently pleased by my response.
“Now you’re understanding.”
Actually, I was.
Just not in the way he thought.
Because I haven’t even begun any investigation.
I didn’t tell anyone what Magnus told me, not even to Skylar.
This stranger shouldn’t have known anything about what I’d been looking into, unless he was an important part of the investigation.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
The man glanced around the restaurant, his gaze sweeping over the other diners with practiced ease.
Satisfied that no one was paying attention, he leaned slightly closer.
“You’ve been digging into things that don’t concern you.” His voice lowered, taking on a menacing edge.
Skylar’s eyes narrowed at him as she clenched her fists by her sides.
He noticed but he kept his attention fixed on me.
“If I were you,” he continued, his tone conversational yet laced with warning, “I’d leave the past buried.”
I tilted my head, letting my expression remain pleasantly confused.
“The past?”
The man’s smile tightened, a flicker of irritation crossing his features.
“Don’t play games.”
“I’m not.” I widened my eyes, feigning innocence.
“You’ve already crossed lines you shouldn’t have crossed.”
I rested my elbow on the table, propping my chin in my palm.
Then I looked him up and down.
Slowly like he was a strange insect I had found crawling across their counter.
The movement visibly irritated him.
“I think,” I said thoughtfully, letting the words draw out, “you may have been mistaken.
Even though you seem to know me, I do not know you.”
His jaw flexed, a muscle twitching beneath the carefully maintained composure.
Skylar crossed her arms, her tone filled with hostility.
“So,” she said, “are you going to tell us who you are, or do you just wander into restaurants threatening random women as a hobby?”
I snorted, unable to help myself.
“If this is your idea of flirting, we don’t appreciate it, especially from someone like you.
So if you would please excuse us.”
I turned back to Skylar, deliberately dismissing him.
“I think we should just…..”
The man slammed his hand against the table with enough force to rattle the silverware.
Skylar flinched in surprise, her eyes widening.
“How dare you bitches ignore me?”
****
Caleb
The moment my palm struck the table, the entire restaurant went silent.
A thrill of satisfaction courses though me.
For once, every eye in the room was on me.
Not Magnus, not Bastien, not my father.
Me.
The silverware rattled beneath my hand.
A glass tipped and rolled across the tabletop before settling against a napkin holder.
The blonde woman beside Aysel stared at me with open disbelief.
Aysel herself looked…
unimpressed.
And it made me even more irritated.
I had crossed half the country to find her.
I had assembled my men.
I had planned this carefully and even risked my father’s wrath.
Yet she looked at me as though I were an inconvenience.
“How dare you bitches ignore me?” I snarled.
Several patrons immediately stood from their tables.
Others hurried toward the exits.
The blonde stood up immediately.
“Excuse me?”
I turned to her, “If you value your pathetic life, I would advise you to leave because this is between Aysel and I.”
She scoffed, “Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do and what not to do.”
I took a step closer to her, “I’m Caleb Ashford, the only son of Connor Ashford.”
Aysel’s eyes widened at the name and I smirked.
Yes, that’s right.
You finally understand who you have crossed.
She probably recognized that I was the rightful heir to Shadowbane pack.
“I’m not sure I have ever heard that name before.” She replied coolly.
Anger flared in me.
Of course nobody ever remembered me.
I was always somebody else’s son.
Somebody else’s shadow.
Somebody else’s disappointment.
I clenched my fist as the familiar humiliation twisted inside my chest.
The same humiliation I’d lived with for years the moment Bastien had brought my cousin, Magnus back.
My father nearly lost his mind and everyone in the pack celebrated Magnus as if the fact that his mother had gone mad was a trivial thing of the past.
Since then, my father had been preoccupied with bringing Magnus down.
It was Magnus this.
Magnus that.
Magnus fucking Magnus.
As though I didn’t exist.
The damned high priest had handed Magnus a crown that should have belonged to my bloodline.
To my father.
The men behind me shifted uneasily.
I could feel their discomfort.
They were all cowards.
Scared of what Magnus and my father would do if they found out we came here.
One of them had tried warning me before we left asking me to tell my father before we left.
I had struck him hard enough to split his lip.
I wasn’t going to be lectured by a man who lacked the courage to act.
Father was growing cautious.
And this would prove to him that we didn’t need to be cautious.
It would prove to him that I wasn’t weak and I wasn’t a disappointment.
After I teach this insolent bitch a lesson.