Character's POV
The cheap wooden chair shattered as Caleb lunged.
He didn't just stand up. He erupted across the tiny table, his massive hands slamming flat onto the cracked linoleum right beside my hips. The force of it made the plates violently rattle.
His face was inches from mine. The scorching, suffocating heat rolling off his body was practically a physical blow.
What the hell did Mia put in that sauce?
My spine slammed hard against the back of my chair. I couldn't pull air into my lungs. Caleb's gold eyes weren't just wolf-like anymore; they were completely feral, swallowed by blown-out, pitch-black pupils that screamed pure, unchecked Alpha rut.
"Mr... Mr. Blackwood?" I stammered, my voice cracking perfectly in pitch to sound like a terrified prey animal.
A guttural, vibrating snarl ripped from deep within his chest. He didn't answer. He simply leaned closer, his high, sharp nose dragging agonizingly slow down the curve of my jawline. He inhaled sharply, aggressively breathing in my scent.
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the edges of my seat. Every finely tuned assassin instinct in my blood roared at me to drive a knee into his throat. I forced every muscle to tremble instead, aggressively paralyzing my own lethal reflexes.
Before his lips could graze my neck, a muted, wet thud echoed from the dark hallway behind the kitchen.
My heart literally stopped.
The scent hit me a microsecond later. It sliced right through Caleb's overpowering pine aura. Copper. Deep, heavy, and metallic. And beneath the blood, the faint, undeniable scent of night-blooming jasmine.
Viola.
My second-in-command was here, and she was dripping blood onto my floorboards.
Simultaneously, the night outside exploded with the shrieking wail of armored vehicles. Heavy military tires violently screeched against the asphalt of the slum street. The blinding beams of searchlights began ripping violently through the darkness, slashing across the dusty windows of my grocery store.
Blackwood Syndicate was here. They had hunted her right to my doorstep.
Caleb's massive head snapped up toward the front window. The feral glaze in his eyes fractured, battling violently with the cold, ruthless logic of the Lycan King. The potion in his veins was making his wolf crazed with lust, but the sudden attack triggered his combat instincts.
"Stay exactly where you are," Caleb growled, his voice rough as sandpaper.
He moved with terrifying, unnatural speed. He grabbed my waist, lifting me effortlessly out of the chair, and shoved me back against the narrow wall separating the kitchen from the darkened hallway.
His towering frame completely caged me in. His chest was rising and falling rapidly, radiating blistering heat.
Viola is three feet behind this wall. If he takes one step back, he'll smell her.
I let out a sharp, pathetic sob. "What's happening? Please, my babies—"
"Quiet." Caleb's hands flattened against the peeling wallpaper right beside my ears. He was staring at the front door, his broad back rigid, entirely focused on the tactical situation outside.
I whipped my gaze downward.
A thick, dark crimson drool of blood was slowly seeping out from the shadows of the hallway baseboard. It crept agonizingly across the yellowed linoleum. Straight toward Caleb's polished military boots.
Panic, absolute and visceral, tore through my chest.
If he sees it. If he smells it over what Mia gave him. My entire family dies tonight.
"Alpha." The heavily filtered voice of Caleb's lieutenant crackled harshly through the comms piece resting in Caleb's ear. It was loud enough for my enhanced hearing to catch clearly. "Target vanished in Sector Four. Right outside the grocery store. Requesting permission to completely breach and sweep the building."
My blood ran completely cold.
A sweep. They would find Viola practically bleeding out in my laundry pile. They would find my underground armory.
Caleb's jaw clenched tightly. His terrifying, golden gaze slowly began to shift away from the window, turning back down toward me. He was going to authorize the sweep. It was the only logical move.
I didn't think. I reacted.
I threw myself entirely forward, crashing my small frame directly against his solid, iron-hard chest.
Caleb violently stiffened, completely shocked by the impact.
I wrapped my arms desperately around his narrow waist, burying my face deep into his expensive shirt, right over his pounding heart. I clamped my eyes shut, letting my body shake with violent, uncontrollable tremors.
"I'm so scared," I choked out, a genuine note of desperation leaking into my voice. "P-please don't let them take my children. Please, Caleb. Don't let them in."
Using his first name was a calculated gamble. A massive one.
His heart violently stuttered beneath my cheek. The ferocious, drug-induced heat radiating off his body spiked so hard it physically burned. His massive hands, which had been resting flat against the wall, slowly slid down, his thick, calloused fingers curling hesitantly over my trembling shoulders.
I subtly shifted my weight, dragging the heel of my worn-out sneaker firmly over the pooling blood on the floor. I smeared it violently into the dark grout line, masking the bright crimson edge just half an inch from the tip of his boot.
The silence stretched out, agonizing and suffocating. The lieutenant's voice crackled again on the comms, demanding orders.
Caleb let out a shaky, ragged exhale. His large palm flattened across the back of my head, pressing my face harder against his burning chest in an intensely possessive gesture.
He tapped his comms piece with his other hand.
"Negative on the breach, Lieutenant," Caleb commanded, his voice dark, heavy, and leaving zero room for argument. "The premises are secure. Push the perimeter out three blocks. She didn't come inside."
"Understood, Alpha."
The heavy thud of combat boots retreated from my front door. The blaring sirens began to distance themselves.
I couldn't breathe. My heel was still clamped firmly over the bloodstain. The overpowering smell of his arousal and Alpha dominance completely drowned out the iron tang of Viola's blood.
A blinding white searchlight swept past the front window, slicing through the darkness of the store. It illuminated the dust motes dancing in the air, and threw our entwined shadows violently against the wall.
Caleb didn't let me go. He angled his head down, burying his face directly into the crook of my neck, his hot breath grazing my racing pulse.
The searchlight flickered past. The absolute darkness swallowed us again.
And there I stood, clinging to the man who wanted to slaughter me, my heart ripping through my ribcage, while my shoe remained clamped millimeters away from his boot, hiding the treasonous blood of my assassin.