Caspian's POVI remained in the pool, keeping my gaze firmly in the direction where the footsteps were coming from. “Woah!” “Argh!” the man and I yelled simultaneously. He was obviously not expecting to see me here, and if I could, I would have taken advantage of the situation to flee.“I’m so sorry,” he said, putting his hand over his eyes. “I wasn’t expecting to find anyone here. How did you even get here?” His confusion was as evident as my diffidence. “It’s fine,” I summoned enough courage to say. “If I knew that a single soul lived around here I would have been more cautious,” I said. “I’ll just let you finish up,” he turned his back to leave.“Wait!” like him, I couldn’t believe that I was going to call him back. “I was done, and just about to leave,” I said. He had his back towards me, as he responded, “oh, okay. I guess I will let you dress then and then I can go in for my shower,” he said. I coughed slightly. “I don’t have any change of clothes,” I admitted. “What

Caspian's POV“How did you know I’ll be needing all this stuff?” I asked. Roy and I had been busy for almost two hours, packing stuff into the house. “How did you even get all these here?” I had been asking a lot of questions, but Roy had failed to give me a definitive answer to all my many questions. “I watched you from the moment you crossed the pine tree line and walked into this part of the woods,” he finally offered a response. “In fact, I followed you from beyond the pines. Roy was really mysterious. He knew more about me than I had recognized of myself–at least in the past two weeks. “This part of the woods used to be my safe place–somewhere i got to enjoy privacy,”“Used to?” I chipped in.“Well, with you here it’s not much of a private space now, is it?”“Ouch!” I exclaimed, placing my hand on my chest. “I see just how welcoming you are, making me feel like I’m intruding into your space.” “Well, I mean, you are,” Roy raised his shoulder, signaling that he was stating t

Caspian's POV “Alex!” My jaw fell below my belt. “What are you doing here? As a guard? How did you even get in? Or win their trust?” I fired question after question non-stop. How could I even bring my mouth to keep quiet? “Shhhh,” he said softly. “I'm doing my job, and I'm here as the Beta of the pack, not the guard,” Alex responded pretty boldly, “and for how I got in or won their trust, I didn't have to,” he said, “Roy is an old friend of mine, so he was delighted to have me,” “Wait! What?” I blurted, realizing just how small of a world it was. I felt stupid, taking the opposite direction from Alex, when I was only going to end up in the same spot as him. “Did you know…?” I froze, trying to convince myself that it couldn't be. “Take a walk with me, Caspian,” Alex requested–a request I did not hesitate to yield to. “When I left you, I knew exactly where I was going,” he began, “but it seemed like a really dangerous path, a path I didn't want to drag you on,” “I couldn't f

Caspian’s POV Another tough battle, but I was finally able to skip responding to Roy. Ever since the morning of bliss we shared, it was as though we were struggling to get through one conversation. We had contrasting views and no one was going to give room for the other. I took deep breaths, focusing on the bright sides, no matter how little they were. To begin with, I had a spacious and well furnished room. It had more luxury than I knew what to do with, and as much as I did not quite agree with his arrangement of the pack, one could not ignore the neatness and the organization of it. I looked out the window at the pack over and over again. I wondered how Roy could not see the problem, because it was only after a few sentences that I realized that the problem was that he was trying to treat the pack like a group of robots. Roy obviously had no working knowledge of people and it was impossible for him to be able to rule the very people he did not understand. I stepped out of th

The convoy cut through the streets of Rose City like a blade.Night had fallen, and the city glowed in a wash of amber and violet. Towers loomed above like watchful sentinels, and the hum of traffic whispered the same song it had sung five years ago — except this time, it felt different.Jayden sat in the back seat, his elbow resting against the car door, his eyes locked on the skyline. The same skyline he had built half of, and the same skyline that had turned its back on him.Nova sat opposite him, tablet in hand, her voice crisp and focused. “The Gilroys are mobilizing. Their security director just called in an emergency board meeting. The Campbells have also gone dark — likely planning a response. The Hawkins are silent, but that won’t last.”Jayden gave a slow nod. “As expected. They move fast when they smell danger.”Elsie sat beside him, her fingers clasped tightly together. She hadn’t said much since the confrontation. The image of him commanding soldiers, watching Kelvin drag