KEISHA’S POV
Sothing felt off.
I slowed my pace slightly, pretending to adjust my bag strap and listened carefully.
Footsteps.
They were still there, sowhere behind and showed no signs of leaving.
My heart picked up imdiately and I hated that it did. I hated that Orin had done that to , made soone who flinched at footsteps on a path I had walked a hundred tis. I kept my face forward and my breathing even and took the left turn at the council building like always.
The footsteps followed.
Shit.
I kept walking, my fingers tight around my bag strap, and when the narrow gap between the storage buildings ca up on my right, I turned into it sharply, pressed myself against the wall and waited.
The footsteps slowed down and I held my breath.
The figure ca around the corner and I stepped out directly in front of them, bag raised, ready to—
"You’d make a good cop."
I froze, bag raised and stared with my lips parted and heart pounding.
Callum looked at my raised bag with sothing like amusent pulling at the corner of his mouth.
You have to be kidding . Was he out of his fucking mind? Did he seriously just stalk half the way ho, almost scare to death and then have the guts to tell I’d make a good cop?
I lowered my bag slowly. "Are you joking?" My voice ca out completely flat.
"Your instincts are good." He said. "You felt within thirty seconds."
"You were following in the dark without saying a word." I pointed at him. "Don’t ever do that again."
"Noted." He nodded but didn’t look sorry at all.
I turned and kept walking while he fell into step beside and I waited for my heart rate to return to the normal speed.
"How was your day?" He asked.
I looked at him sideways. "You just scared half to death."
"Before that." He shrugged, hands clasped behind his back
I exhaled. "Busy. The office is drowning in correspondence logs for these visitors." I glanced at him. "Who are they?"
He was quiet for a beat too long which confird my worst fears.
"Inter-pack delegation like I said." He said. "Business matters."
"Right." I said.
He didn’t say anything for a second. "I’m really sorry about what I said the other night. This— it’s new to and if I knew you wouldn’t be comfortable with that question, I wouldn’t have asked, I swear."
My fingers found the strap of my bag and I hoisted it higher on my shoulder. "Never mind. It was just unexpected."
He humd under his breath. "I totally understand. You didn’t choose this and I understand how tasking it could be for you. We’re still looking into it."
A huff escaped . "Are you?"
He turned to . "Just because we’re giving in to the bond doesn’t an we don’t understand the repercussions of what we’re doing. It’s hard to stay away, trust . We just—" He paused and looked away, his jaw tight.
Right.
For the rest of the walk, we were silent and I kept thinking about the delegation coming to Ashveil.
Finally, we stopped at my door and I looked up at him, clearing my throat.
"Good night." I said.
"Good night." He nodded.
I went inside and he didn’t move from the path for a few minutes, I stared at him through my window, wondering if he would knock and co inside.
But he didn’t.
He left a bit later and I forced myself to clean up for the night.
****************
My phone buzzed at half past ten just as I was falling asleep.
I grabbed it without opening my eyes.
Lyra. My sister.
Shit.
I sat up imdiately.
She never called this late. She barely called at all lately. What did she want this ti? I imdiately picked up the call, sleep leaving my eyes.
"Hey." Her voice sounded slightly tired and I imdiately felt this tension leave my body at the familiar sound of her voice.
"Hey." I whispered. "It’s late."
"I know. I’m sorry." She paused. "I’ve been aning to call for weeks and I kept not doing it and then it beca this thing where the longer I left it the harder it felt to just pick up the phone and—" She stopped. "Anyway. I’m calling now."
"Indeed." I huffed a laugh.
"Are you okay? Nadia said sothing happened with a guy—"
"I’m fine." I cut her off. "It’s handled."
"Keisha."
"Lyra. I promise. It’s done." I pulled my knees up. "Tell about you. Where have you been?"
She exhaled. "Work mostly. I had a conference up north for two weeks and when I ca back everyone was talking about—" She paused. "I just got back to Coldridge."
"Okay." I said carefully, my chest tightening.
"Riven has another mate?" She said quietly. "I didn’t know. I an I knew you two were together but I didn’t know it had— I ca back and people were just talking about it like old news and I felt terrible that you’d been dealing with that while I was—"
"Lyra." I muttered. "I’m okay."
"Are you sure?"
"I’m sure." And the strange thing was— I mostly was. "I’m here, I have Nadia, I have work, I’m building sothing. I’m actually okay."
She was quiet for a mont. "Okay." She said. "I believe you." She paused again. "Tell about the pack. Tell everything."
For a long hour, we spoke about everything and I told her about my new pack. But I didn’t tell her about Dane nor Callum. Because how did I tell her I was sleeping with Nadia’s father and her ex.
That didn’t get any better.
I lay back in the dark after she hung up and thought about her back in Coldridge. Back in the sa pack as Riven and his mate.
The interpack delegation would arrive soon and I would have to receive them again.
I would have to receive the man who broke my heart months ago.
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