Chapter 168: THE WARNING AGAIN
CALLUM’S POV
I stayed beside Keisha for several minutes after asking about her wolf, waiting for an answer that she clearly didn’t have. She looked down at her hands, turning them over slowly as though the explanation might somehow be written across her palms.
When she finally looked back at me, there was genuine confusion in her eyes. "I don’t know what happened." Her voice was quiet, but there was no hesitation in it. "I didn’t know I was going to shift. I wasn’t trying to. I was just standing there, looking at that thing falling, and then everything happened so quickly that I don’t even remember deciding to change. One second I was human, and the next I was on the floor as my wolf."
I studied her face carefully. "You’ve never seen that form before?"
She shook her head. "Never."
"And the eye?"
"I’ve never seen that either." She sounded almost frustrated by the admission and I could tell she wanted an answer as badly as I did. "I don’t understand it, Callum. I don’t know why it happened tonight or why my wolf looked different. I don’t even know why I was able to shift when I wasn’t supposed to. If you think I know something and I’m keeping it from you, I don’t."
"I don’t think that." I reached over and rested my hand against her arm, giving it a gentle pat. "I’m asking because I need to understand what we’re dealing with. That’s all."
She nodded, though the uncertainty remained on her face.
I let the subject drop. She had been through enough for one night, and judging from the way she kept fighting to keep her eyes open, her body was demanding rest whether she wanted it or not. I pulled the blanket higher around her and remained there until her breathing evened out and her eyes finally closed. Once I was certain she was asleep, I stood, gave her one last look, and quietly left the room.
The moment the door closed behind me, I stopped and my hand curled into a fist.
I could still see the chandelier falling and I could still see Keisha standing directly beneath it. I had moved the moment I realized what was happening, I had pushed myself out of that chair and tried to reach her, but even with my wolf’s speed, I knew the truth the instant I saw the distance between us. I wasn’t going to make it. There had been too much space between us and not enough time.
If she hadn’t shifted, I would have watched that chandelier crush her.
The thought scared me badly.
I struck the wall with my fist, then stood there with my breathing heavy, forcing myself to regain control. Anger wasn’t going to change what had happened, and it wasn’t going to protect her from whatever came next. I needed to think clearly, especially now that there was another problem we hadn’t expected.
Her wolf and the golden eye.
I finally pushed away from the wall and headed downstairs.
Dane was waiting in the sitting room. He looked up the moment I entered, and his first question was about Keisha. I told him she’d fallen asleep, and some of the tension left his face.
He sat back, but he didn’t look entirely satisfied. "There was something else."
I took the chair opposite him. "The wolf." I nodded. "I’ve been thinking about it too."
Dane ran a hand across his jaw before continuing. "I don’t know what it means, and that’s what worries me. I heard some of the people talking after we got her out. They weren’t just surprised because she shifted. They were talking about her eye."
"What exactly were they saying?"
"Some of them thought it was unusual. Others were already turning it into something worse."
My gaze hardened. "How much worse?"
Dane hesitated. "Some of the older wolves were calling it a bad omen."
I stared at him for a moment. "Based on what?"
"Nothing. But you know how the elders operate. They don’t need facts when they think something gives them an advantage. If word gets around that Keisha has some rare wolf form that appeared without a full moon, they’ll start attaching whatever meaning they want to it. Especially after everything that’s already happened."
I understood immediately. The elders had already tried to use Keisha against me once. They had accused her of treason, produced fabricated evidence and demanded that I punish her. I had stopped them, but that didn’t mean they’d abandoned their suspicion. If they learned about the wolf, they could use the uncertainty surrounding it to create another problem. "I won’t allow that."
Dane nodded. "I figured you wouldn’t."
"I don’t care what they think they’ve seen. Until we know what that wolf actually is, nobody gets to label Keisha a threat."
We were still discussing how to keep the matter contained when footsteps sounded from the staircase and I turned immediately.
Keisha was coming down so I stood. "What are you doing out of bed?"
She reached the bottom of the stairs and looked directly at me. "I want the chandelier investigated."
For a moment, I simply stared at her. "You should be resting."
"I can rest after we figure out why that thing fell." Her determination made it clear that she wasn’t going back upstairs until she’d said what she had come to say. I moved toward her, ready to argue, but something in her expression stopped me.
There was fear there.
And not from what just happened.
"What aren’t you telling me?" I whispered, my voice soft.
She took a breath. "I’ve been receiving letters."
My expression changed immediately. "What letters?"
Dane stood as well and Keisha looked between us before continuing.
"A raven brought the first one to my window several days ago. I didn’t know where it came from, and I didn’t know who had sent it. The letter warned me that someone inside the estate was trying to kill me. It said the sender didn’t know who the person was yet, but that I needed to be careful."
I felt my anger rising again. "You received a warning that someone was trying to kill you and you said nothing?"
"Callum—"
"No. You should have told me." I sighed.
"I didn’t know if I could trust it."
"You could have let me decide that." My voice rose slightly with anger. Not at her. Never at her. But the fact that someone unknown was in communication with her.
Dane stepped closer before the argument could grow. "Let her finish."
I forced myself to remain quiet as Keisha continued. "I wrote back to the sender. I asked who they were and why they were warning me. The raven returned with another message. They said they were a well-wisher and that they were acquainted with one of my parents."
"That’s all?" I raised a brow.
"That’s all they gave me." She looked frustrated. "I still don’t know who they are."
I stared at her. "And you received another letter tonight?"
She nodded. "At the party. The same raven appeared in the ballroom. I took it into the restroom and read the message there. It warned me that I needed to be careful because harm was definitely going to come to me at the party."
The room went silent and I scowled. Someone had known.
"Where is the letter?" I asked.
"I destroyed it."
That made me pause. "Why?"
"I didn’t want anyone to find it." She shrugged.
I closed my eyes briefly before I opened my eyes and looked at Dane. "We’re investigating everything."
Dane nodded and Keisha folded her arms, her expression firm. "That’s what I wanted."
I looked back at her. "Then you’re staying out of it."
She immediately opened her mouth to object but I raised a hand before she could begin. "You’re injured, you’re pregnant, and someone may have been planning this for days. Whatever investigation we conduct, you are not putting yourself in the middle of it."
Her expression hardened, but this time she didn’t argue.
And now we had to find out whether the person who warned her had been trying to save her...
Or whether they had simply been making sure she knew exactly when to be afraid.