There was a good chance Ronan wouldn’t pick up. They never kept their phones long, but if Ronan still held any hope of hearing from him, then he wouldn’t have gotten rid of this phone.
It rang five times, and he was about to hang up and dial the last number he had for Declan when the ringing stopped and a gruff voice asked, “Lucien?”
Despite his uncertainty over how this would all go and what they would think of him, relief and joy filled him at the sound of the familiar voice.You did not become a monster,he reminded himself.
But he would have if it wasn’t for Callie, and he couldn’t forgive himself for that. However, he may not be able to forgive himself, but once he heard the hope in Ronan’s voice, he realized they wouldn’t care. They wouldn’t hold his actions against him; they would just be happy to have him home.
“How did you know?” he asked.
The harsh release of Ronan’s breath sounded across the line. “Everyone else has a new number for me.”
“I thought you might have gotten rid of this phone.”
“I was hoping you’d call.”
“Here I am.”
“And who are you?”
Her mate.“I’m not a Savage.”
Ronan hesitated long enough that he thought he’d lost the connection. “You’ve been gone a while.”
“I have, and they starved me for most of that time, but I’m not one of them.”
“What happened?”
Lucien gave him a rundown of the details he remembered. A lot was a blur that revolved around thoughts of death, starvation, and feeding, but there were breaks in his cruel reality before Callie entered his life.
“You didn’t kill her?” Ronan asked when he told him about Callie.
“I could never kill my mate.”
Ronan’s breath hissed in. “You’re shitting me.”
Lucien chuckled as he ran a hand through his hair and tugged at the ends of it. “I’m not. I hurt her, badly, when I bit her, and that pierced through my madness. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be calling you. Or who knows, maybe I would, but the conversation would be a lot different.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yes, for now, but I have to get her somewhere safe.”
“Tell me where you are, and we’ll come get you.”
Lucien told him the name of the motel and the town.
“It’s going to take a while to get there; we have to be careful when we travel,” Ronan said.
“I know.”
“We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“We’re safe here; take your time.”
He said the words, but he wanted them here now. Callie would be a lot safer when there were more of them to protect her. However, they couldn’t risk the Savages locating and following them while they traveled.
“Do you have a number where I can reach you?” Ronan asked.
“I’ll keep this phone until you get here.”
