Chapter 27: COLDRIDGE IS COMING
CALLUM’S POV
I stood outside her door for longer than I should have after she went inside.
Not long enough that it would become concerning or anything. Just long enough to stand there in the cold and think about the look on her face when she said it’s not like she wanted it before she stormed off into her house.
Did that question annoy her?
Goddess, I was terrible at this.
I walked back to the main pack center.
My office was the way I had left it with papers on the desk and my lamp on.
With a grunt, I sat down and pulled the nearest file toward me.
Enough of all that, I needed to focus on my pack work. And that also seemed impossible now because I was too caught up with thinking about her.
After a long unfruitful hour, I leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
’It’s not like I wanted it.’ That’s what she said.
She had said it with conviction and irritation. Like the idea itself was something to push back against. And I had stood there and let her say it and said nothing because what was I going to say? That I had felt the lie in it through the bond before she finished the sentence?
I pressed my fingers to my temple and groaned.
Damon had said nothing all evening and while I appreciated the silence, I also wanted some form of reassurance.
I pulled the pending appointments folder toward me, trying to focus again.
That’s when I saw the document I had ignored for a while now. A delegation notice.
Slowly, I read it, wondering why I still hadn’t gone through this much earlier.
Coldridge Pack was arriving in two days. Formal delegation, inter-pack business, standard courtesy visit. The signature at the bottom was from Riven Cole’s council secretary, which meant it had come through official channels and had been sitting in my pending folder for two days without being flagged to me.
My gaze remained on it.
Riven.
The reason Keisha was currently living in a house and in my pack. The man who had stood at a podium and said another woman’s name instead of Keisha’s.
He was coming here in two days, he was going to walk through my gates and sit at my table and I was going to receive him with the courtesy required of an Alpha hosting a delegation because that was what the situation called for.
How pleasant.
I set the notice down, picked up my pen and tapped it once against the desk.
What did I even say to this?
There was a knock on the door and I sighed, gaze lifting as the door freaked open and Dane poked his head in.
"Ah, thought so. You’re still up." He said, coming inside.
"So are you."
He dropped into the chair across from me and looked at the notice on the desk. "What’s this?"
I didn’t bother to say anything, just let him read the folder carefully.
His jaw tightened slightly when he finished. "Coldridge."
"Two days." I nodded. "They’ll be here in two days."
"Are you granting them an audience?"
I looked at the notice. "We don’t have grounds to refuse. It’s a formal delegation, legitimate channels, no outstanding disputes between our packs." I set the pen down. "We receive them."
Dane looked at me for a moment. "She’s going to find out he’s here."
"I know." I rubbed at my temple.
It was all I had been thinking about for a few minutes now.
"And?"
"And nothing." I sighed. "She’s a resident of this pack. She’ll know what everyone knows and handle it the way she handles everything." I held his gaze. "We don’t make it into something. This is pack duty."
He looked unconvinced but let it go, leaning back in the chair. "What’s the agenda?"
"Nothing specific yet. Alliance matters, border discussions probably, the usual." I picked up the notice and set it in the response pile. "I’ll have the council prepare a standard reception."
Dane nodded slowly and I watched his eyes move to the window and back to me. "There’s something else."
"What?"
"Osric." He tilted his head.
I was quiet for a moment. "What about him?"
"I’ve been watching him the way you asked." Dane said. "Nothing I can point to directly. But there’s no communication I can trace and no movement I can document." He paused. "But the way he operates in council meetings." He looked at me. "He always knows more than he should and I don’t know what is going on in his head."
"He’s been on the council for forty years." I reminded him.
"That’s not what I mean and you know it."
I did know it. I had been keeping an eye on Osric lately because he seemed off but somehow, I had nothing on him yet.
Reed was dead. The query was gone. And Osric had been in the building that night according to intel.
"Keep watching him." I finally said. "Don’t make it obvious. Don’t let it pull you from the border work too, that’s way more important."
Dane nodded and stood, straightening his jacket, and moved to the door before he stopped
"Keisha." He said without turning around. "Does she know Riven is coming?"
"Not yet."
He stood there for a second. "Who’s going to tell her?"
I looked at the delegation notice on the pile. "I will." I said.
He nodded and walked out.
I sat there alone and thought about a girl who had come here in the hopes of finally building her life, just to end up being bonded to two men, and who was going to wake up in two days and find out that the man who had started all of this was walking through the same gates she had walked through eight weeks ago.
This was bad.
I owed her a warning at least. I owed her considerably more than that.
But a warning was what I had to give her tonight and so I pulled a piece of paper toward me and wrote four lines before I folded it and set it on the corner of my desk where I would remember to deliver it in the morning before the pack woke up and the day made it harder.
I had to tell her.
