Chapter 48: The Phone Call
Rosalie:
It was because nobody had ever looked after me like this before. Nobody had ever made me feel as though I was worth looking after.
The phone started ringing again. Louder this time, and more persistent. Yet Eiden continued brushing away droplets of water as though whoever was calling could wait.
Only after he seemed satisfied did he finally reach for the device, and answered without even looking at the screen.
Instantly, an irritated voice exploded through the car.
"ABOUT TIME!"
I jumped.
Eiden didn’t.
The voice was so loud that despite the call not being on speaker, I could hear every word perfectly. It was Zaiden, and judging by the tone of his voice, he was not happy.
"Do you know how many times I have called you?" he demanded. "You have been ignoring me for twenty straight minutes!"
Eiden leaned back in his seat, looking completely calm and unaffected. "Have I?"
"Don’t play dumb with me."
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from smiling. Zaiden sounded genuinely offended. "Forget that," he continued immediately. "Did you find Rosalie yet?"
Eiden made absolutely no effort to lower the volume. No effort to hide the conversation. Instead, he glanced at me and a faint smile touched the corner of his mouth. Then he answered calmly.
"She’s right here."
There was silence for a moment or two. Then Zaiden’s voice came back even louder.
"What?"
"She’s sitting beside me," Eiden said.
The car fell completely silent. I blinked, waiting for Zaiden’s inevitable explosion. After all, only seconds ago he had practically been shouting through the phone. Instead, when he finally spoke again, his voice sounded so different that I briefly wondered whether someone else had taken the phone.
The panic was gone and so was the irritation toward Eiden. Even the urgency had vanished. What remained was the calm, composed, unreadable Alpha I had encountered during the few occasions our paths had crossed.
The change was so abrupt it was almost unsettling.
"Rosalie."
My name rolled off his tongue evenly, controlled, and measured. It was the same voice that could probably order an entire army into battle without ever raising a single decibel.
"Are you alright?"
The question caught me off guard. And for a second, I simply nodded. But then realized he couldn’t see me. Heat immediately rushed to my cheeks, and I answered quickly, "Y-Yes."
My voice came out embarrassingly soft, barely above a whisper. Yet somehow he still heard me.
A small silence followed for a moment before Zaiden spoke again, "Good."
It was just one word. Simple. But somehow it made the knot in my chest loosen.
Then he spoke again, this time his words directed at Eiden. "I want both of you at the packhouse in ten minutes."
I turned to look at Eiden who glanced at his wristwatch before telling Zaiden - "I’m thirty minutes away."
"You have ten."
Eiden looked utterly unimpressed. "That’s not how distance works."
"It does today."
I had to bite down on my lip. Hard. Because despite the cold and the exhaustion threatening to drag me unconscious, I suddenly found the conversation ridiculously amusing.
Eiden rubbed a hand over his face. "Zaiden-"
The call disconnected. Just like that. There was no goodbye, no further discussion, and no room for arguments. Nothing.
I blinked at the phone. Then looked at Eiden only to find him staring at his phone. For several seconds neither of us spoke. Then he released a long, quiet sigh. It was the kind of sigh someone made when they had endured the exact same situation hundreds of times before.
I couldn’t help it.
A smile slowly bloomed across my face. It started small, but then grew. The sight of one of the most powerful Alphas on the continent being completely ignored by another equally powerful Alpha was strangely entertaining. Especially because Eiden didn’t even seem surprised. If anything, he looked resigned as though this was simply another ordinary day.
"You seem very used to that."
His eyes shifted toward me and a faint smile appeared on his own lips as he answered, "I am."
That somehow made me smile even harder.
The atmosphere inside the car felt noticeably lighter now. The overwhelming tension from earlier had faded. Though it didn’t disappear entirely, and I wasn’t sure it ever truly would. But it had settled into something quieter, something easier to breathe through.
And as my amusement slowly faded, another feeling took its place. Warmth. It was a different kind of warmth than the one created by Eiden’s coat draped around my shoulders. And this warmth settled somewhere deep inside my chest.
Because now I knew. It hadn’t just been Eiden. Zaiden had been worried too. Enough to call repeatedly, enough to lose his composure, and enough to ask how I was doing.
The realization left me oddly emotional.
I stared down at my hands, unsure what to make of it. I didn’t know why they cared. Maybe it was simply because of the bond. Maybe the mate bond compelled them to worry. Or maybe it was because I now belonged to Nightfang Pack. Maybe they viewed me as one of their own and felt responsible for my safety.
Or maybe...
Maybe they genuinely cared about me, as a person. Not as a responsibility and not as someone connected to them through fate.
The thought felt dangerous. Hope always was. Yet despite myself, I couldn’t stop it from taking root.
Whatever the reason behind their actions, I was grateful. So incredibly grateful. Because every single time I found myself in trouble, they appeared. Every time I thought I had nowhere to go, they reached out a hand.
I wasn’t used to that. I wasn’t used to people choosing me, protecting me, and caring whether I was safe.
The feeling remained in my chest long after the call ended.
Beside me, Eiden started the engine. The car immediately came alive beneath us, and the soft hum filled the silence.
"You should rest."
I looked toward him, but his eyes remained on the road ahead.
"You look exhausted."
I wanted to deny it, but the words died before they could leave my mouth. Because I was exhausted - emotionally, physically, and mentally. Every part of me felt drained.
So instead of arguing, I simply nodded.
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