Mated To An Enemy

96 He Still Dares

After his argument with Alpha Wyatt, Caleb had needed to cool off. So he went for a run in the woods. He was headed back to the training grounds when an uneasiness came over him. He felt panicked, scared, a terrible sense of foreboding.

He didn’t know what was happening. There was no one around him, no danger. But then he felt Ashleigh’s presence. He recognized her heartbeat. It was pounding intensely, quickly, in his head. It called him, it screamed for him.

Caleb followed it, followed her. Then, from a distance, he saw them. Bile rose into his throat.

He tried to look away. He had no right to interfere. Ashleigh had told him time and again that she loved Granger. It wasn’t wrong for them to engage in intimate acts.

He planned to leave before his jealousy got the better of him before he did something he would regret. But, as he turned to go, he felt her again, fear, panic, pain. Caleb looked back; he saw her now. Her eyes squeezed tightly closed, tears that ran down her face.

She didn’t want this!

Granger’s mouth pulled away from Ashleigh. She gasped desperately for air but dared not move.

‘It’s not right…’ she howled in her mind, ‘this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen….’

Her body ached, and her heart felt like an exposed nerve, raw with burning pain.

“Please,” she begged quietly, “please stop.”

Granger pulled away from her. Letting go of her wrists and pulling his hand from the tender flesh of her stomach.

In that instant, Caleb was on them. He pulled Granger by the back of his shirt and flung him across the path to slam hard into a tree.

Feeling the weight of Granger’s body suddenly pulled away, Ashleigh kept her eyes squeezed tightly. But she curled in on herself. Bringing her wrists down against her chest and crouching into a ball against the base of the tree.

She sobbed, gasping for air that never seemed to fill her lungs.

“Ashleigh…?”

Caleb’s voice called to her like a dream, a gentle, comforting dream.

She lifted her head and turned toward his voice. He was crouched down beside her. His grey eyes looked at her with such care it almost hurt.

“Caleb?” she whispered.

He clenched his jaw and creased his brows. The look on his face was solemn, worried, and angry.

“Are you ok?” he asked as he reached to touch her.

Ashleigh pulled away without meaning to. Clutching her arms tightly against herself once more. In that action, his expression shifted. The anger turned to rage.

Caleb stood up and turned his back to her. As he walked away, Ashleigh saw something lying in the snow, and her head finally cleared enough to piece together what had happened.

Granger struggled to get to his feet. He was stunned, dizzy. He finally managed to sit up when Caleb appeared before him once again. Granger was lifted from his place on the ground, raised into the air by the intensity of Caleb’s rage.

He stared into Caleb’s grey eyes, burning like a white-hot flame. For just a moment, he hoped that Caleb would kill him, that he would make him pay for hurting Ashleigh.

But then another thought fell over his mind. His belief that Ashleigh would then seek comfort in Caleb’s arms. Jealousy burned in Granger’s soul. He would not lose her, not to Caleb or anyone else.

Both men growled and snarled at each other. Caleb threw Granger once again. A loud crack echoed through the forest as his body slammed against the tree, splintering it.

Ashleigh gasped, looking up to see Granger’s body crumpling to the ground.

Granger got to his knees, his body already protesting, turning his head, he spat on the ground, fresh blood in the snow. Then, wiping his mouth, he snarled as he stood and faced the rage-filled Alpha before him.

“Is that one of those famous Summer tactics? Attacking someone only when their back is turned?”

“Is it your habit to force yourself on an unwilling woman!” Caleb roared.

“You don’t know what you are talking about!” Granger called back. “This is an issue between mates! Not an outsider!”

‘This bastard put his filthy hands on her, made her cry!’ Caleb screamed in his mind. ‘Yet he still dares to call himself her mate!’

Caleb took a step towards Granger, snarling. His blood was on fire. He could see nothing but a target before him.

Granger felt the rage that flowed off of Caleb. His aura had almost visibly changed into a warning. A presence that told you to run. This was the Alpha in him. It infuriated Granger.

‘I am not less than you!’ he snarked in his mind.

Granger was the first to make a move. He ran at Caleb, full speed. He was fast, but Caleb was faster. As Granger got close, Caleb pulled his fist back and threw it forward, landing his hit square on Granger’s chest, sending him crashing to the ground.

Ashleigh looked over as the two men stared each other down. Her shock was starting to fade, clearing the way for her mind to process what she was seeing.

‘They’re going to kill each other…’ she thought to herself.

Caleb stalked over to Granger, who still lay flat on the ground. He reached down and picked him up, hoisting him into the air above him. He pulled back his fist and slammed it into Granger’s face. A sickening sound as Caleb hit him again and again.

Ashleigh gasped.

Her dream surfaced again, the feeling of Caleb’s hands gripping at her shoulders, forcing her to her knees as the pain overwhelmed her. Even now, the cold hatred in his eyes sent a shiver up her spine.

He had hurt her, killed her. It was a dream, but watching him hit Granger now made it feel so real.

“Caleb!” she screamed. “Stop!”

Caleb stopped.

He looked back at Ashleigh; her face twisted in fear. Caleb dropped Granger to the ground, rushing back to her.

“Ashleigh, it’s ok…” he said softly as he knelt beside her. “It’s ok. I won’t let him hurt you anymore.”

As angry as he still was, he was more concerned about her. Caleb calmed the fires in his heart, pushed away from the desire to kill that pathetic excuse for a wolf. Focusing all his attention on Ashleigh, he softened himself to comfort her.

“You need to stop,” she said.

“What?” he asked, unsure what she meant.

“Leave him alone, don’t hurt him anymore!” Ashleigh cried out through fresh tears.

Caleb felt as though he had been struck by her. She was afraid? Of him?

“Ashleigh…” he began, “what are you… he was hurting you!”

She looked up at Caleb, and back down at herself, the bruises on her wrists.

‘How much did he see?’ she wondered with shame.

“Go away,” she said coldly.

“No,” he replied.

“Go. Away.” She demanded.

“No,” he said again, “I won’t leave you like this, not with him.”

Caleb was angry, but his concern outweighed anything else he felt.