Chapter 153 Skipped Things - Callista's POV

Chapter 153 Skipped Things - Callista's POV
Getting two demon-freed, blood-covered, naked Alpha heirs cleaned up at two in the morning with only my family’s car and out in the middle of a clearing wasn’t ideal.

My father, to his eternal credit, had thought ahead.

There was a bag in the trunk that I hadn't noticed on the way to the clearing. It had spare clothes, a water bottle, and a small first-aid kit. Then there was my father, who had the calm expression of a man who had raised two wolf daughters and learned that emergencies rarely waited for convenient circumstances. He handed it to me without a word when we reached the car and I could have kissed him.

"There's only one set," he said, nodding at the bag.

I looked at Riven, then at Raze. Both of them were standing at the tree line covered in evidence of what had happened in the clearing. My father's blanket was still around Riven's shoulders and Raze had nothing.

"Raze gets the clothes," I stated firmly. "Riven keeps the blanket."

"I'm the Alpha King," Riven said flatly.

"And you can be the Alpha King in a blanket for two more hours," I mused. "Raze is meeting his mate tonight. He gets the clothes."

Riven looked at me, then looked at his brother before glancing back at me.

"Fine," he huffed. “I think you like me like this.”

“Shut up,” I snapped. “Now isn’t the time.”

Raze had the grace not to smile about it, though it was close.

We used the water bottle and a spare cloth from the first aid kit to do what we could about the blood, which was functional rather than thorough and would have to be enough. My parents drove us back to the house while I sat in the back between the two of them, which wasn’t a situation I had anticipated when I woke up this morning. Sabine was up front, sitting in the same seat as our mom.

My mother instantly busied herself, telling Sabine to get into the house quickly. She turned at the door, taking in Raze, who was in clothes a size too big. Riven was still in his blanket and then looked at me, who was ready to collapse.

"Shower," she said to Riven, pointing upstairs. "There are clothes in the hall cupboard. They'll be too short but they'll do. Your things hadn’t come yet.”

He went.

"You," she said to Raze, and her voice changed slightly, the way it had been changing around him since the first morning. "Come sit. You need something warm before you go anywhere."

Raze sat down in the first available chair. She went to the kitchen and grabbed him whatever was fast, then handed it to him. He was still adjusting to everything with wide eyes.

I sat across from him.

"How are you feeling?" I asked. "The demon—"

"Quiet, though he’s still there a little," he said softly. "But—" He tilted his head slightly, the gesture of someone listening inward. "It's like it can't find its footing anymore, like the ground shifted underneath it." He looked at me. "Is that what his felt like? Before you—"

"I don't know what his felt like from the inside," I admitted. "But from the bond, toward the end it was—" I paused. "Like something running out of room."

He nodded slowly. "That's it. Running out of room."

My mother refilled his mug without being asked.

Riven came back downstairs twenty minutes later in clothes that were indeed too short at the ankles and too broad at the shoulder, his hair damp, and the blood gone. The mark on his shoulder was visible above the collar of the shirt—already fully set, already permanent, blazing warm through the bond in the way it had been blazing since the hallway.

He looked at me across the kitchen.I looked back at him.

"Ready?" He asked, his voice low.

"Give me ten minutes," I said softly. “We need to catch our breath.

We left eight minutes later. Riven was at the front door with the car keys and Raze was finishing his tea quickly. My mother was standing in the kitchen doorway with her arms folded and the expression she wore when she was not going to say something she wanted to say.

"We'll be back before morning," I told her.

"I know you will," she said. Then, to Riven, "Drive carefully. The roads going east are wet."

He looked at her, and what crossed his face was the same thing that crossed it whenever my mother said something ordinary/

"Yes, ma'am," he stated.

She nodded once and went back to the kitchen. We left.

The drive to Northern Ridge took two hours and four minutes.

I know because I was awake for the first forty minutes of it, sitting in the passenger seat while Riven drove and Raze sat in the back looking out the window with the expression of someone who was trying not to count the miles. The roads were wet the way my mother had said. The headlights caught the rain-slicked surface and threw it back in strips of white.

Nobody talked much.

There wasn't much to say yet. Everything significant had either already been said or was waiting for a moment that wasn't a car at two in the morning, and we had all learned by now the difference between things that needed to be said immediately and things that needed to breathe first.

I fell asleep somewhere around the forty-five minute mark.

The bond was warm and with Riven’s driving, it was just too much. I was tired.

I woke up when the car stopped.

For one disoriented second I didn't know where I was, and then I felt the bond and felt Riven beside me before remembering everything.

"We're here," Riven said quietly.

I sat up. Northern Ridge Academy sat outside the window, dark and quiet in the pre-dawn stillness. The dorm building Carson and Kalley had identified was to the left. It was three stories and lights were out on most of the windows.

Raze was already out of the car.

He was standing on the path outside, looking up at the building with his hands loose at his sides, and even from here I could see he was about to combust.

I got out of the car.

Riven came around from the driver's side and stood beside me without touching, just present. The bond moved between us in the warm, steady way it had been moving all night.

"You should wait here," Raze said without turning around.

"We know," I stated.

He nodded, then squared his shoulders with the deliberateness of someone who had been preparing for something for a long time and was finally allowing himself to arrive at it. Then he went inside.

I leaned against the car.

Riven leaned beside me, his shoulder against mine, and we watched the building in the quiet pre-dawn dark. A light came on in a second-floor window after a few minutes. Then stayed on.

The bond was humming between us in a satisfied completeness.

I looked at the side of Riven's face in the dark—the jaw that ticked when he was processing something, the mark on his shoulder just visible above his collar, the eyes that had been red-gold and clear since the hallway and had stayed that way.

He felt me looking and turned his head.

"Stop," he said playfully.

"I'm not doing anything," I argued.

"You're doing the thing where you look at me like that."

"Like what?" I asked.

He held my gaze for a moment. Then the corner of his mouth moved into a smile.

"Like you're deciding something," he mentioned. “Are you thinking about…a ceremony since we kind of skipped things?”

“Well, that was already decided a long time ago,” I laughed.

He looked at me for one more second. Then he looked back at the building, but the corner of his mouth stayed moved. The light was still on.

I hoped that all was going well with Raze.

“Good,” he said finally. His hand found mine, his fingers tangling with mine. “Really good.”