Chapter 4 Chapitre 4

The cries were heard before he even had time to react. A familiar voice, but marked by anger that Caleb had not seen for a long time. When he turned his eyes, he saw the young Derek, a member of the pack, approaching Mia with an aggressive attitude, tight teeth and closed fists. He immediately knew that the incident was linked to the difference in status between Mia and the other members of the pack. As an alpha, Caleb had always ensured that the rules were respected, and it was not going to allow an omega like Mia to be mistreated.

"Do you really think you have your place here, Mia?" Denk launched, his voice piercing the heavy air of tension.

She didn't need to answer. Caleb's eyes were already fixed on them, and in an instant, he stood between the two, his sharp gaze directed towards Derek. A thrill traveled the pack as Caleb approached. He never moved as fast as when he was angry.

"Do you have a member of my pack, Derek?" Her voice was calm, but each word was heavy with threat.

Derek, surprised by the sudden appearance of the alpha, took a step back, but his gaze did not turn away from Mia. "She is not one of us, Caleb. She is weak. She has no place here."

Mia's breathing cut itself off under the effect of the insult, but it says nothing. She knew it was this kind of judgment that she had to face every day. Omega were seen as inferior, not worthy of protective. But that was not what she felt, not in that look. Caleb. He protected her, in her own way. He had interposed, he had not hesitated. A tense silence settled, heavy with unsaid. Derek did not know how much he had crossed a dangerous line. Caleb had nothing to do with traditions, unwritten laws. He knew what was right, and what was an insult to his authority.

The silence finally broke when Caleb made a sudden movement, imposing its authority.

"Go back to your room. And think about what you just said."

Derek had no choice but to look away and withdraw. The alpha waited for the young wolf to be far enough before turning to Mia, always silent. She hadn't moved, her arms crossed, her eyes riveted on the ground. Her lips were shaking slightly, but Caleb did not know if it was anger or pain. Or both. He approached slowly, each heavy step of unposed meanings.

"He doesn't know what he says." His voice was softer now, but he knew that the injury was there, invisible, but present.

She slowly looked up at him, a hint of challenge hidden behind the pain that marked her face. "I don't need your pity, Caleb. »»

A heavy silence weighed together, a space where the unsaid took up all the space. But he could see that she was suffering, despite her words. It bothered him, to see her like this. He didn't want to see her fragile, not after all she had gone through. He would have liked her to show this strength he knew that she had, even if she did not seem ready to let her pierce.

"You have no pity on my part, Mia," he replied gently. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you be crushed by an idiot who doesn't understand anything. Not here, not in my pack."

She looked at him intensely, then looked away, as if she had trouble believing what he had just said. However, he saw in his gaze a certain recognition, a form of appeasement that he had not planned. She walked away, but did not go completely away. A moment of silence passed, when neither knew exactly how to break this distance between them.

Finally, it was she who spoke first, breaking the tense atmosphere that still reigned.

"I don't want to be a weakness for you, Caleb," she said in a low voice, but determined. "I don't need you to protect me."

He felt a frustration to be born in his bowels. This obstinacy that she displayed reminded her so much, things that he had experienced in a past that he preferred to forget. Independence, the refusal to be helped, to show weakness. It had been his, for so long. But he was no longer this lone wolf. Not since he had taken the head of the pack. And he couldn't let Mia get lost in her pride.

"Mia, I don't ask you to accept everything. But I won't let you debate alone against everything, not when I am supposed to protect you." It is my role. "

She stared at him again, her dark eyes like abyss, impregnated with melancholy that Caleb Peina to understand. "You have no role here. You don't have to help me. "

"I can't pretend that I've seen nothing. And even less when it comes to you."

His words seemed to resonate in the air around them, heavy heavily. She blinked, as if to free herself of an invisible weight, but this time, she did not look away. She stared at him, and Caleb felt the tension relax a little, like a tense thread that relaxes slowly. She was not ready to accept, but she no longer rejected him entirely.

"You know," she began, an almost imperceptible note of fun in my voice, "I'm not used to receiving lone wolf lessons."

This slight smile that chicks her lips brought something unexpected, a bond that they both ignored so far. He smiled in turn, a weak, but sincere smile. This did not mean that everything was going to be easy, or that everything was resolved. But it was a first step.

"You are not alone, Mia," he said, his simple words but loaded with meanings.

She nodded, always hesitant, but for the first time since their meeting, something had appeased in her. There was no big gesture or spectacular declaration, but in this shared silence, they had taken a stage. Caleb knew that it was only the beginning, that their paths were still sown with pitfalls. But he was ready to face them, even if it meant that he should protect an omega. Even if it meant that he should confront his own demons.

They stayed there for a moment, without saying a word, but in a silent understanding that the future would not be as lonely as they had imagined it.

Caleb was used to isolation. After the loss of his partner, he had erected around him a fortress, an invisible wall that moved him from others. But since he had met Mia's gaze, something had changed. His gestures, although measured, were softer. His words, always firm, now carried a note of benevolence, as if he finally understood that he had a role to play in the lives of others. Mia, in his apparent fragility, woke up in him a desire for protection that he had not felt for a long time. Part of him, this dark and lonely part that had never given way to emotion, rebelled. But another, more insidious, softer, liked this role, fed on the proximity he had with her.

He was now looking at her differently. When their eyes met, an electric shiver crossed his body, a thrill that pushed him to be more attentive, more present. He could not explain this strange bond which was woven between them, a connection that he had not sought, but which was imposed with disturbing evidence. When she was there, even in his restraint and his silence, he felt soothed, as if the simple presence of Mia was enough to appease the torments that haunted him.

However, despite this attractive attraction, he was not sure that he was ready to accept what he felt. Mia's vulnerability, his past marked by another Alpha, made him uncomfortable. She had no room in his life, and he knew he couldn't afford to feel feelings for her. The pain of his past was too recent, and his injuries too deep for him to fully accept it. But despite everything, something refused to repel it.

Mia, for his part, felt a mixture of confusion and hope. Since her arrival, she had always kept her distance from Caleb, aware of the dangers that surrounded her. But with each interaction, something turned into her. There were moments when, in her eyes, she saw a glimmer of sweetness that she would never have thought of finding it. She was not used to benevolence, to the protection of another wolf, especially coming from an alpha. And yet, with Caleb, it was different. He did not see her as a simple omega, nor as a prey. He looked at her with a new intensity, as if she deserved her place among them, as if she were not condemned to stay outside, where the others did not want her.

But this proximity, this attention he paid to him, scared him. She had learned to be wary of men, especially alphas. Her past was a burden that she could not share with him or with anyone. The scars of his soul were too deep, too recent. She felt shared between the fear of attaching himself to him and the hope that he could be different. But every gesture of Caleb, every word he sent to him, gave him a reason to hope. And that was where the threat resided: hope. She had never believed in love, nor in the possibility of regaining peace. Caleb, with her unexpected sweetness, was starting to revive something in her that she thought she had lost forever.

She knew that her situation was complicated. The Alpha who had marked her, the one she had been running away for months was never far away. The memories of that time, marked by pain and fear, always returned to haunt her. But in Caleb, she perceived something different. It was not the same brutality as the one she had known, not the same overwhelming domination. There was a quiet force in him, a natural authority, but also a part of humanity that she had never expected to meet. And this humanity, this possibility of being seen other than as a simple omega, frightened it more than anything.

Caleb's gaze, these moments of silence between them, these protective gestures that had multiplied lately, gave birth to contradictory feelings in it. She felt attracted, but at the same time, a veil of prudence enveloped her. She did not know how far this complicity could go, nor if it was ready to face it. The injuries of the past were still too fresh, and she did not intend to reopen them.

Caleb, meanwhile, was at the crossroads. He had not sought this complicity with Mia, but it was far too late to give it up. Her feelings for her began to overcome him, to escape him. He thought it was perhaps a moment of weakness, a kind of reminiscence of his old life. But when he was surprised to look for her gaze, to worry about herself, to protect her, he understood that something much stronger was forged between them. Mia was this enigma that he could not decipher, but it was precisely this mystery that attracted him more. He couldn't help but want to understand her, to want to be there for her, despite all that he had sworn for himself that he never felt.

And so, their eyes crossed, and their gestures, sometimes hesitant, spoke of a greater truth than they wanted to admit. Caleb knew he was getting lost, slowly, but surely. And Mia, she found herself to juggle between the fear of an uncertain future and the hope of a possibility that she had never considered. Their hearts, tormented in the past, were getting closer in spite of themselves, and fate pushed them to each other, without possible return.