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“Nothing yet,” he answered with a shrug. “That depends on your actions because you have a choice to make. Have Kaleem relinquish his claim to the pack, and I won’t kill his mate’s father. If Kaleem refuses, Diana, I will kill Mathieu and take Silverdawn Pack by force.”
“You’re bluffing!” I snarled. “You don’t have the manpower to attack the pack again.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets and took a sharp breath. “Neither you nor Mathieu or my father saw the vision of the packs becoming one again, but that’s fine. I hadn’t planned on things happening like this or for you to be involved beyond getting the pack back into town. But Diana, you forced me to take this route. Run home and give your mate my message.”
He turned and left, and I was left frozen where I stood. This was why he’d allowed Dad and me to go so easily. We were his means to an end, even without us realizing it. I was now in the perfect position to be blackmailed, and Kaleem would be trapped between two hard choices.
For a man in Colin’s position, he was too confident he could pull something like this off.
I dialed Dad’s number and listened while the phone rang out. I called again and again, and on the fifth try with no response, I almost threw the phone.
He wasn’t bluffing. Colin didn’t waste time on bluffing, but he enjoyed games, the slow kind that he could watch play out over time, and that was what this all was.
I locked up, rushed out of the supermarket, and hailed a taxi.
My body was shaking, and for the entire ride to the pack, I called Dad, each time with his phone ringing out. This was it. This was the moment I’d been dreading. The rug was being pulled out from under me again, and like before, I was being forced to choose between Kaleem or my father.
***
When I got to the house, I searched every room and Dad wasn’t there. Like every day when I got home after him, the second he heard me arrive, he’d come to find me, or I would hear him in the house.
None of that happened tonight, but still, I searched.
The more I looked, the more I panicked. I was meant to go to Kaleem’s house as soon as I got to the pack, but I needed to get my thoughts right to tell him this.
Have Kaleem relinquish his claim to the pack, and I won’t kill his mate’s father. If Kaleem refuses, Diana, I will kill Mathieu and take Silverdawn Pack by force.
How would I tell Kaleem he had such a choice to make when I brought this on him? I begged for the pack to return, and a week after joining his pack, this happened. His members were going to think I planned this with Colin, and I couldn’t blame them.
This was all lining up to be too convenient for Colin, but he’d said I’d changed his plans. Whatever those original plans were, I forced him to change them, so I played a more significant role against my will.
I’d known Colin was using me to get to Kaleem before, but this was worse. I’d thought I’d cut the strings he tied onto me, but some were invisible, and he was still tugging on them.
I needed to save Dad, but I couldn’t ask Kaleem to give up his life.
When the front door opened and Kaleem entered the living room, I held my breath with my back turned to him while I stood at the fireplace.
“Hey,” he wrapped his arms around me from behind. “I thought you were going to come over. I’ve been calling you.”
I couldn’t answer his calls, not in this state.
“I um, my phone died,” I lied, and Kaleem went still.
He tried to turn me around, but I refused, so he stepped around to face me. I looked away, but he promptly held my chin to face him.
“Diana,” he whispered at the sight of my tears. “What’s wrong?”
I bit my tongue, and more tears flowed down my cheek. He hugged me, but I hugged him back because I wasn’t sure how he was about to react. I’d seen only a small dose of his anger, and I didn’t want to see more of it not aimed at me.
I stepped away and swatted at my tears. “I, um, I saw Colin at the supermarket.” I began to say, and as expected, Kaleem grew tense. “He… he has Dad.”
Kaleem stared at me for a second as if trying to process my words, but already his lids were lowering, and his eyes were starting to glow.
“What do you mean he has your Dad?”
“He abducted Dad, Kaleem. Dad’s at the Bluemoon Pack right now, and Colin said if you don’t relinquish your claim to the pack and invite him onto pack ground, he’s going to…” I swallowed hard, unable to repeat the words. “He will kill Dad and force his way onto the grounds anyway.”
Kaleem turned away, his hand over his mouth while the other formed a fist at his side.
