2 - Thoughts of You

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Lee's face was like a storm cloud as the two friends walked back to Caleb's blue Dodge Charger.

"I should—I should just go back there and drag her out," Lee growled, fists clenched at his sides. His shoulders were shaking—not with rage, but with desperation.

Caleb paused with one hand on the door handle. "She'd hate you if you did that," he replied quietly. Lee was the more hot-headed of the two, which was ironic considering that Caleb was Alpha-descended.

Lee heaved a huge sigh and thrust a hand through his dark hair. "I'd come back tomorrow night, but I've got to work. Are you free?"

Caleb hesitated. Lee worked night security for Stillwater Casino, Hecate City's largest employer—as well as Caleb's family's business. Caleb, on the other hand, was a firefighter in one of the city's poorest districts. "Yeah, I'm off tomorrow."

"Something wrong, man?" Lee asked, catching on instantly.

"It's—it's just been a long time," Caleb replied, opening the Charger's door and climbing inside. Right now, he didn't want to relieve the shock and hurt he'd seen in Sawyer's eyes when he walked into that seedy bar. He lived every day with the guilt of not defending her from his grandfather's rage.

Mollified by his explanation, Lee nodded and climbed into the passenger seat.

The two men drove in silence through the streets, passing bar patrons stumbling toward their next destination. Bars and strip clubs soon gave way to Hecate City's bustling business district, quiet for the night save for one building: In the very heart of the city was Stillwater Casino, Owen Stillwater's pride and joy. Caleb drove a little too quickly past the main entrance, not wanting to stare at the monument to his grandfather's arrogance any more than he had to.

The claustrophobia of the inner city gave way to pleasant suburbs and then, farther out, clan land. Caleb pulled up to the gate at the front of Clan Bloodmoon and punched in the code he'd memorized since childhood. The gates slid back soundlessly, allowing the Charger to pass through.

Lee lived in a small bachelor's cottage on his parent's property. Caleb pulled into the driveway and the two men exchanged a fist bump before Lee got out, their agreement lying unspoken between them.

It was well after one in the morning when Caleb reached Clan Stillwater. Armed guards shined a light in his eye as he pulled up to the gate, bowing in deference once they recognized the alpha's grandson. Caleb hated the sniveling and scraping his grandfather expected from his underlings and he was more than happy to see it go once his father received the Authority.

Like Lee, Caleb lived in a cottage behind his parents' house. Most adult male werewolves did until they got married. But he didn't go there immediately—the lights in his parents' house were still on.

Caleb parked in the driveway, got out, and locked the Charger. His mother met him at the door, dressed in her pajamas.

"Something wrong, Ma?" Caleb asked, concerned.

Helen O'Connell Stillwater was a small, petite woman with kind green eyes and a startling wealth of heavy auburn hair. "Wrong?" Her eyebrows lifted in confusion, then she smiled. "Oh, no, honey. Your father and I just wanted to know if you managed to find Sawyer or not."

After years of looking for the faerie, a werewolf police officer who worked in the bar district had reported seeing a woman matching Sawyer's description the week before. Caleb had told his parents right before he and Lee left.

"Yeah, we did," Caleb told his mother, stepping into the house.

"Oh, blessed goddess!" Helen exclaimed, pressing a hand to her heart. "How is she? Did you bring her home?"

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