Chapter 18 Filling Me In
DAVINA'S POV
I didn't look up at the window again.
One glance was enough. Aurelia was still up there, watching me.
I followed Zane through the lodge, down a short corridor I hadn’t explored before, and into a cozy little room at the end. It had a square table with four chairs, and a window that overlooked the side yard where frost still clung to the grass. A pot of coffee was already waiting on the table, along with two plates.
I took a seat, and without asking, he poured me a cup and slid it across the table. I wrapped my hands around the warm mug and looked out the window.
We ate in silence for a while. The frost outside sparkled in the morning sun, melting at the edges first. Just then, a wolf crossed the yard below, caught sight of me, and quickly looked away, as if it had seen something it wasn’t supposed to.
I was still watching when Zane broke the silence. “Are you still mad?” He wasn’t even looking at me, he was rather focused on cutting into whatever was on his plate. “About last night.”
“I’m trying not to think about it,” I replied.
He glanced up, eyebrows raised. “So you're not mad then.”
“I didn't say I wasn't,” I said.
He set his fork down and leaned back in his chair, studying me with that steady gaze of his that I was still getting used to. “I need you to hear something,” he said. “The bond exists, and I can’t undo that. But I don’t want you to choose me just because of it.” He picked up his coffee, and held it. “I want you to choose me because you actually feel something. And if you don’t, or if you decide you can’t, then that’s a decision I’ll respect.” He set the cup down, his expression serious. “I mean that.”
I met his gaze across the table, he meant it. That was the thing that kept catching me off guard, he was genuine in a way I’d almost forgotten men could be.
“I don’t know you,” I said. “I know pieces of you, but that’s not enough to make a decision.”
His face softened a bit. “Then let’s fix that.”
He picked up his fork again, and we finished our meal while the frost outside melted away completely.
Afterward, he led me through the eastern edge of the compound, where the buildings thinned out and the trees closed in around us. As we walked, he talked easily about the pack’s history in this territory, how his grandfather built the first lodge with just twelve wolves and a borrowed truck, and how the eastern cabins went up twenty years ago when three smaller packs merged with theirs during a territorial dispute.
I listened, taking in the sights of the compound around us.
Two warriors returning from patrol passed us on the path. They nodded to Zane, and their whole demeanor shifted, their shoulders back, and eyes dropping just a bit. One of them glanced at me and quickly looked away.
A group of younger wolves training in a clearing to our left quieted down as we walked by.
“Does it ever get heavy?” I asked, breaking the silence.
He glanced at me, curious. “What do you mean?”
“All of them watching you.”
He paused for a moment, his gaze drifting to the tree line. “Sometimes,” he admitted. “More lately.”
We reached a curve in the path where the valley opened up below us, revealing the entire compound bathed in morning light. I stopped to take it all in for the first time, the buildings, the training yard, wolves moving between them, and the mountains looming in the background, massive and completely unbothered by all of it.
"Can you fill me in on the hearing?" I asked, keeping it simple. "What happens if I lose?"
He stood next to me, looking down at the compound. "My father leads this pack now," he explained. "When he steps down, I take over, and then it’ll be my kids, and after them, theirs. The Storm Pack has always been led by our bloodline, and every wolf down there knows that’s how it works." He paused for a moment. "If the Council rules in Grayson’s favour, that ends. They’ll come in, strip away the succession, and this pack will answer to outside authority, people who don’t know this valley or these wolves, or what it took to hold this territory together." He turned to look at me. "Everything my father built. Gone."
Everything was hanging in the balance because of a hearing that Grayson had planned. And somehow, at the center of it all, without having asked for any of it was me.
“He’s not just coming after you,” I said slowly. “He’s using me to do it.”
“Exactly.”
“Because he knew having a human here would give him the perfect argument in front of the Council.”
Zane met my gaze. “You catch on quickly.”
“I’ve had to,” I replied. “I’m used to figuring out how people twist situations to their advantage.”
He didn’t press for details, he just held my gaze for a moment, and I could see him piecing together what I hadn’t said. I turned my attention back to the valley, not wanting to dwell on it.
“Three weeks,” I said finally.
“Three weeks.”
I turned away from the view and started back down the path, and he walked beside me. We walked in comfortable silence for a while.
Then, just as I was lost in thought, my foot caught on a root. Before I even realized what was happening, his hand shot out and grabbed my arm, steadying me. His grip was firm, and when I looked up, I found him staring down at me, our faces closer than I’d expected. I noticed a small scar running along his jaw that I hadn’t seen before.
Neither of us moved.
I stepped back, breaking the moment. “Thanks.”
“Yeah,” he replied, a hint of warmth in his voice.
We continued walking, and my heart started doing something I decided to ignore for now.
I was still trying to push those thoughts aside when we rounded the corner and spotted Caspian standing at the lodge entrance.
One glance at his face, and I knew something had happened