One Bite

Epilogue - 3

"They're starting, love." A gentle tug on my sleeve interrupted my phone call.

"Thanks." I smiled as a pair of lips pressed against the crook of my neck.

A flush of warmth that I swore I'd gotten used to feeling by now rushed through my neck from his contact. Goosebumps raised on the skin covering my thrumming veins. Caleb's lips nibbled on his mark, still prominent on my pale skin and similar to the one I gave him three weeks ago.

After we reunited, Caleb proved me wrong in how romantic he was... or could be.

As far as being romantic on a frozen island in the middle of an arctic sea can get.

After three weeks of reacquainting, he packed dinner and we stayed outside. He brought me to the Istas prayer grounds, a set of monolithic spires of ice. I'd seen them in the day but at night, they were up-lit with lights, illuminated like a makeshift temple. He laid a soft blanket down, where we sat, ate, and, like every night since I arrived, talked until hours passed. After so many subdued secrets, we talked until the late evening spread into the dark of night.

A sense of lightness filled me whenever we talked because the more Caleb talked, more of Coldin surfaced, even though he decided to stick with Caleb. I was glad he did because I felt no shame in remembering where we came from, our past shaping who we became.

I don't want to forget.

He also seems like a Caleb to me.

His words flowed like unrestrained waters once he knocked down his own blockade of restraint. His parents were killed in the Northern attack when he was three. Alpha Faelon pitied, then brought him along when Cassius took with our mother.

For Caleb's protection, Faelen moved him into the Southern territory when our mother was discovered pregnant. A few forged documents later, Luna Sierra gained a second son and renamed him Caleb.

Once his wolf Aquilo appeared, Caleb lived his own life of suppression, isolation, and secrets until my escaped brother stumbled into the South-Western territory during Caleb's patrol shift.

"After I left you, I came here every day," he confessed as we laid with our eyes gazing up into the inky blue sky, dotted with countless stars. "With hopes I'd come back with you someday."

My fingers brushed against his lightly. "Why did you leave so quickly? I thought... I... didn't know if you were okay."

"Thanks to Lumi, yeah." After I propped up onto my elbows, Caleb sat up. One of his hands lifted up the edge of his coat and revealed a circular scar near his waist. "Not sure how the bullet missed all my vital organs but guess I was lucky."

I reached over and traced the hardened tissue with the pads of my fingers. The warmth of contact stirred both of us and he leaned over me. My heart pounded the longer he looked down at me. His clear blue eyes, which I still wasn't used to seeing on him, looked so warm and soft that my stomach pulled inward.

"I knew from first sight," he confessed as one of his hands caressed over my cheek. "Sol wanted me to watch you for signs you were on Cassius' side. When you stepped off your father's property for the first time, I knew... You were mine."

"Could've saved a lot of time and effort, you know." My lips twitched at the idea but they parted in a silent gasp when the pad of his thumb traced over my lower lip.

"I have a lot to make up for," he whispered, lowering his lips to mine.

The soft press of his mouth over mine started in a slow, feather-delicate kiss that fluttered sensations all the way down into my curled-up toes. My hands reached up, cupped behind his neck, and pulled him down with me.