Chapter 30

Caleb

Luka spent a few days in the hospital recovering, leaving me far too much time to think about my role in her injury. I sent her flowers and gift baskets every day, a new bouquet, and stayed vigil by her side as much as possible. She needed surgery, but her heart wasn’t affected.

Her heart. Her sensitive, delicate heart. I needed to do a better job protecting it.

“I’m so grateful to be back here at the estate,” Luka told me coming through the doors.

“I’m glad you feel like it’s home.”

“Well, if I had to stay in that hospital bed one more day, I thought I might have to go to a mental hospital.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re back,” I told her.

The next morning, bless her, she got up to prepare for training, as if there had been no interruption.

“We’re taking a pause on training, Luka,” I told her.

“Again? All of this back and forth…”

“We’re going to focus purely on physical therapy. I got you one of the best physical therapists in the kingdom.”

An hour later, Rainier arrived complete with his cases full of equipment for repairing bodies and teaching them to move again.

“King Caleb, it’s a pleasure to see you.” Rainier bowed, and I slapped him on the back.

“We don’t need to be so formal, Rainier. You’re acting like we didn’t take martial arts together for a decade.”

Rainier smiled sheepishly. “I just wanted to be on the safe side. You hear stories about people who take power…”

“If I ever get like that, depose me.”

Rainier looked nervous.

“Joke, my old friend.” I turned to Luka. “This is Luka Shaw, the patient. I sent the full work-up.”

“Absolutely, I already have a regimen created for you. A lot of elastic bands, calisthenics, gentle strengthening. From the sounds of it similar to what you’ve done with Caleb.”

They started on their mats, and Rainier began initial assessments to gauge her current physical state, after recovering from starvation, battling a broken ankle, and now healing from a deep slashing.

I stayed so I could get a sense of the exercises and understand her physical state, but it was just the two of them. I felt like an observer.

It was strange watching her with another man, being friendly, talking. She was her usual shy self. I tried to push it down, but it was too forceful. Jealousy.

Anyone who tried to swoop into a king’s relationship would be tried for treason, which Rainier knew well. He was a professional, and besides that he was a friend and a loyal subject to the crown.

But seeing her in such close proximity, with him touching her even clinically, a sharp unease swirled beneath my skin, coursed through my veins, pricked the hairs on my body.

I got closer to them. “I realized it would be useful for me to be a second spotter, since Luka, you’re been through so much lately. Not that you’d fall, or that you’d let her fall…”

I also wasn’t used to having to justify any of my actions. They both nodded, seemingly equally surprised to hear me explaining.

She’s your woman. You do not need to explain anything, Logan whispered.

Except if I acted on my impulses, she might have another attack. With her power growing, and with our chemistry getting stronger, the attack might damage her permanently.

I wined and dined her to make up for such a traumatic first few months. We had more time to ourselves, with physical therapy instead of training, and I filled it with beautiful things for her to experience.

“Are you afraid of heights?” I asked her one morning.

“I don’t know if I am. I’m mostly an earthbound kind of girl.”

“You’ll know after this,” I told her, and took her to the airplane hangar. She shrieked the entire time, with both joy and terror, and she gripped my hand like it was the only thing holding her up.

“I think I’d have to go up again to decide if I’m scared of heights,” Luka said with a grin. I accepted her challenge.

“Great. Let’s try my biplane.”

I taught her to sail on the lake, and she had a knack for learning all kinds of knots. With all the exhilaration, it was hard not to act on what I wanted to do, and Logan was getting more impatient.

I took her out on the helicopter, and her presence disoriented me so much that her scent made me lose awareness of the altitude.

I needed to cool myself down. I decided as we landed the chopper that I would start making the rest of the pack visits that had been on the back burner since the curtailed inspection of Long Lake Pack changed my life.

Once we landed, I arranged a clandestine meeting for that evening with Mia and my closest advisors.

“I’m going to restart pack visits,” I announced. They nodded.

“I’m going to leave James in charge in my absence. Warren will come with me, and Frederick.” They nodded.

Around the table, my confidants gave each other furtive looks, as if they had a question they were figuring out how to ask.

“Are there concerns? Questions?”

“Well…” Hector, my chief of staff tentatively jumped in.

Mia got straight to the point. “I think we all are curious about the same thing, if I may speak for all of us.”

“Oh? Concerning…?”

“Luka,” Mia answered. My advisors looked at each other knowingly.

“What about her?” I felt myself getting prickly.

“Is she coming with you?” James asked.

“No. Mia, you’ll be her guardian for the time being.”

“Guardian? That seems…”

“Maybe guardian isn’t the right word,” I huffed. “Companion? You’ll tend to anything she needs.”

They looked like they had more questions.

“When will these visits begin?” Frederick asked.

“Tomorrow. Dawn.”

Their eyes all widened.

“All right then…” Mia said.

I assigned roles to each of them. Mia stuck around at the end.

“I know you love the pack visits, but this seems…”

“Sudden?”

“I was thinking impulsive.”

“It’s better to follow the impulse to tour the kingdom than the other…impulses…”

Mia understood and softened. “I see.”

I gave her a hug, and she held onto me closely.

“I’ll take care of her, Cay. Don’t be gone for too long.” She kissed me on the cheek.

“I can come back on short notice, you know that, Mia. You’ll tell me of news here, I’ll tell you of news there?”

“Absolutely. We’ll talk more on the phone than we do when you’re in town, I bet. So…about Luka…”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Is there a reason you’re not telling her?”

I sighed. “It’s too complicated. What do I say? I have to be away from you to fight how much I want to fuc…”

Mia snickered. “I know, you’re doing great.”

“Besides, you can see her reaction when you give her the news, without my influence.”

“Are we in middle school? Does she like me, yes, no, circle one.”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Mia. This is much more important than a crush. It’s life and death.”

“I know, Caleb. I know. I’ll take care of her as you would…”

“Well, definitely don’t do that, or when I’m gone, you will have stolen my mate.”

“Who says I’m not planning that to begin with?”

I stared at her grimly. “Let’s save the joking for after her wolf wakes up. If her wolf wakes up.”

My household staff had already started packing my things, and they came in to let me know they were done.

“You can stay in the guestroom. Decorate it however you want. Your budget is unlimited.”

In the middle of the night, just before leaving, as quietly as possible, I looked into Luka’s room.

Some of my best memories of childhood involve tagging along with my father’s pack visits. But as the car left the house that morning, for the first time, it felt like the world outside of the estate offered less adventure than the walls of the manor.

She was in those walls, bringing the world into my life.

“I hope I’m not making a mistake,” I said to no one in particular as the gate to the estate closed behind us.