Chapter 157: The Ghost From The Past

Maddie Pov

I stood right behind Calix and my legs felt heavy like bags of wet sand. The silver-haired man did not move his feet from the grass. He just kept looking at my face with a small smile.

"Get away from her," Calix said and his upper lip curled back to show his front teeth.

The stranger raised both of his hands up to his chest with his palms open. He did not look scared of Calix at all. He looked completely calm.

"I am not here to fight you, young Alpha," Kai said and he lowered his hands back to his long grey coat.

"You don't belong in our camp," I said and I stepped out from behind Calix's shoulder.

"I belong wherever you are, Maddie," Kai said.

Calix took a large step forward and his shoulders went broad. The gold light in his eyes started to push through the dark pupil. He looked like he was about to shift his entire body right onto the man's chest. Marcus and Elder Thomas moved up to Calix's sides and they held their wooden spears straight out.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't tear your throat out right now," Calix said.

"Because I was your mother's most trusted friend, Maddie," Kai said and he looked right past Calix's shoulder to meet my eyes again. "I was her secret protector for ten years. I made a solemn vow to watch over you before she died."

My stomach felt cold when he said the word mother. I reached out and I grabbed the back of Calix's wool shirt to keep him from launching himself forward.

"My mother died a long time ago," I said.

"I know," Kai said and he nodded his head slowly. "I was in the forest the night she left. Your father did not know I was there but I saw everything."

"You are lying," Calix said and he shook his head.

"I do not need to lie to a boy," Kai said.

He took three slow steps around the edge of the fire pit. His boots did not make any sound on the grass. He looked very elegant and his silver hair shined bright under the stars. He stopped ten feet away from us and he did not touch his coat pockets.

"Maddie's father went to the North Peaks twenty years ago because your pack was starving, Calix," Kai said and he looked at the elders. "He made a deal with my people. But her mother knew the cost was too high. She came to me in secret."

"My mother did not know any Northern wolves," I said and I let go of Calix's shirt to take a step toward the fire.

"She knew me," Kai said and his voice stayed very soft. "She called me when you were just a baby. She asked me to make sure nobody took you to the mountains before you were ready."

"She is ready for nothing from you," Calix said and he bared his teeth again.

"You don't know her childhood, boy," Kai said.

"I know her now," Calix said.

Kai let out a small, short laugh and he looked down at the dirt. Then he looked back up at me and his face was full of an intense familiarity. It looked like he was looking at an old picture he had kept in his pocket for a long time.

"Do you still hate the taste of wild blackberries, Maddie?" Kai asked.

I stopped my feet right where they were. My skin felt tight.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Because your mother used to pick them by the creek," Kai said and he took one more step closer to the logs. "You would throw them into the water because you said they were too sour. You preferred the sweet honey from the old hives near the barn."

Nobody in the Crescent Pack knew that story. My father had never talked about the honey hives after the great winter.

"You were watching us," I said and my voice sounded thin to my own ears.

"I was always in the tree line," Kai said and he rubbed his palms together over the heat of the fire. "When your father was away with the hunters, I sat on the hill. I watched you learn how to run on your small paws."

"This is crazy," Calix said and he turned his torso toward me. "Maddie, do not listen to him. He is Simone's kin. He is from the North."

"Simone was a fool who tried to use the old stones," Kai said and he spit into the grass. "She did not understand that some bloodlines cannot be controlled by a rock. I did not help her."

"You let her attack our house," Marcus said.

"I let her fail," Kai said without turning his head to look at Marcus. "She was not my Alpha. I answer to nobody but the vow I made to her mother."

I looked at his tall frame and his long grey coat. He did not smell like the rogue wolves from the mountain. He smelled like cold wind and cedar wood. The mate bond in my chest was pulsing hard against my ribs because Calix was so angry, but I felt a strange quietness inside my own head.

"What do you want from me now?" I asked.

"I want to keep you safe," Kai said. "The North Peaks are waking up because the stones are broken. The other packs know about the White Wolf now. They will come for the promise your father made."

"She has an Alpha," Calix said and he reached back to grab my wrist tight. "She has a pack."

"You have fifteen broken wolves, Calix," Kai said and he looked at the three canvas tents behind us. "You cannot stop a real northern army. You could barely handle Simone and her small band of rogues."

"We are still standing," Calix said.

"You won't be standing for long if you stay in this valley," Kai said.

He walked around the final log until he was standing five feet away from my right shoulder. Calix moved instantly to block him but Kai did not raise his fists. He just reached out with his left hand and he gently pulled his own grey sleeve up to his elbow.

"Maddie," Kai said softly.

I looked down at his bare arm. There was a long, thin white line running from his wrist up to the middle of his forearm. It was an old scar from a deep cut.

"Why are you showing me that?" I asked.

"Look at your own right arm," Kai said.

I pulled my right sleeve up past my elbow. There was a matching white line in the exact same spot on my skin.