Chapter 71 Away From Murder
Calix Pov
I was walking back from the equipment shed when I saw them. Jace had Maddie cornered behind the bleachers. His hand was on the wood next to her head. He was leaning in close. Too close.
My wolf exploded to the surface immediately. A snarl ripped from my throat before I could stop it. My vision went red around the edges. Every instinct screamed at me to charge over there and rip Jace's throat out.
He was touching her. He was threatening her. He was hurting my mate.
I took a step toward them before I even realized I was moving. My hands shifted partially. Claws extended from my fingertips. My wolf was taking over. Demanding action. Demanding violence. Demanding I protect what was mine.
"No," I said out loud to myself. "Stop. You can't."
But my wolf didn't listen. He kept pushing. Kept trying to take full control. Kept demanding I shift and attack.
I could see Maddie's face from here. She looked terrified. She was pressed back against the bleachers. She was trapped. She needed help. She needed me.
"We have to save her," my wolf snarled in my head. "That male is threatening our mate. We have to eliminate the threat."
"We can't," I said through gritted teeth. "The curse. Remember the curse. If we get that close to her we might trigger it. We might hurt her worse than he is."
"He's hurting her right now," my wolf argued. "Look at her face. Look at how scared she is. We need to act."
I took another step forward. My feet were moving on their own. My body was betraying my mind. The protective instinct was too strong. The mate bond was too powerful.
Then Jace leaned in and whispered something in Maddie's ear. I saw her whole body flinch. Saw the fear flash across her face. Saw her push against his chest trying to create space.
The rage that filled me was unlike anything I had ever felt before. It was hot and violent and all consuming. I wanted to kill him. I genuinely wanted to end his life for touching her like that.
My claws extended fully. My eyes shifted to gold. My wolf was seconds away from taking complete control. From shifting. From attacking.
"Move away from her," I growled. My voice came out rough and animalistic. "Move away right now."
But I was too far away. Jace couldn't hear me. Maddie couldn't hear me. Nobody could hear me except myself.
I forced my feet to stop moving forward. Forced them to turn in the opposite direction. Every muscle in my body screamed in protest. My wolf howled with rage and frustration. But I made myself walk away.
"What are you doing?" my wolf demanded. "She needs us. She needs our protection. Turn around."
"No," I said. My voice was shaking. "We can't. We can't get that close. We can't risk the curse."
"The curse might not trigger," my wolf argued desperately. "The mate bond might protect her. We don't know for certain."
"We also don't know that it won't trigger," I said. "And I'm not willing to risk her life on a maybe. I'm not willing to bet that the bond is stronger than the curse."
"So we just let him hurt her?" my wolf asked. "We just walk away while another male threatens our mate?"
"Yes," I said. The word tasted like poison. "That's exactly what we do."
I kept walking in the opposite direction. Away from Maddie. Away from Jace. Away from everything I wanted to do.
My fists were clenched so tight my claws drew blood from my palms. I could feel it dripping down my fingers. Could feel the pain. But it was nothing compared to the pain of walking away from her.
I made it to the edge of the field before I had to stop. My legs wouldn't carry me any further. I collapsed against a tree and tried to breathe. Tried to calm down. Tried to push my wolf back before he took over completely.
"This is wrong," my wolf said. His voice was broken. Devastated. "Everything about this is wrong. We're supposed to protect her. That's what mates do. They protect each other."
"I am protecting her," I said. "By staying away. By not triggering the curse. By not becoming the thing that kills her."
"You're protecting yourself," my wolf accused. "You're protecting your fear. Your guilt. Your cowardice."
The words hit me like physical blows. Because he was right. I was being a coward. I was letting fear control me. I was choosing the safe path instead of the right path.
I pulled out my phone with shaking bloody hands and texted Marcus. "Need you to watch someone. Jace Ryder from Silverthorn. Follow him. Document everything he does. Report back to me."
Marcus texted back within seconds. "On it. What am I looking for?"
"Anything that involves Maddie Vale," I typed. "Any contact. Any threats. Anything that could be considered harassment or assault."
"Got it," Marcus replied. "I'll start surveillance immediately."
I put my phone away and looked back toward the bleachers. Maddie was running now. Sprinting away from Jace toward the main campus. She was safe for the moment. She had gotten away.
But the fear on her face. The way she had been trapped. The way Jace had cornered her. All of it burned into my memory. All of it made me hate myself for not intervening.
"We failed her," my wolf said quietly. "When she needed us most we walked away."
"We protected her from a worse fate," I insisted. "We protected her from the curse."
"Did we?" my wolf asked. "Or did we just abandon her to face her demons alone because we were too afraid to face ours?"
I didn't have an answer to that. I didn't know anymore what was right and what was wrong. I didn't know if staying away was protecting her or abandoning her.
All I knew was that watching Jace corner her had been the hardest thing I had ever done. And walking away instead of helping had broken something inside me that might never heal.