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Eleanor’s pain slowly turned to anger, and her anger into a red-hot rage. She was pissed. It didn’t matter what terms they’d agreed on when entering the marriage, the baby changed things. They hadn’t planned for it, but it had happened anyway.
It was their collective responsibility. But if Blake chose to be a coward when she needed him the most, then she would raise her child on her own.
She’d never really felt at home with the wolves, anyway. She looked around the living room and made a decision. There was nothing here for her anymore. Not here in Rhinestone. Not in Deepwood.
She was going to do what she knew how to do best. Perhaps what she should have done a long time ago. She was going to retreat to her safety net. Blake was not going to find her waiting whenever he decided to return, she decided.
It shocked Eleanor to see that her hands no longer trembled when she pulled out her phone, cold determination running through her. The call rang three times before it was picked up on the other end.
“Hi, Carla,” Eleanor said, wiping her eyes and sniffling. “Did you miss me?”
Chapter 20 - Blake
Blake’s heart was pounding in his chest as he barreled out of the house and slammed the door shut behind him. He tugged at the neck of his sweatshirt, fighting to get air into his lungs.
He bent over and drew in a deep breath for what seemed like the first time in several hours. The cool air stung him, but he drew in deeper, filling up his lungs. He tore his sweatshirt off, breathing heavily through his mouth.
There was a typhoon spinning fiercely inside him, and all he wanted to do was escape. He needed to escape from his mind. There was too much happening beyond his control, pressing down on him with enough force to crush him.
Let me out, his wolf whispered.Let me lead for a while. Recover yourself and free yourself of the burden of making a decision for a little while. Trust me.
Blake didn’t have to think twice. He could feel the woods calling him. He could smell the forest acutely—the fresh fallen pine, the damp earth, and the faint musk of other creatures. It made sense to spend some time lost in the forest, without a care in the world.
He wrapped his phone and keys in his sweatshirt, and set the bundle down behind a rock. His breath came in ragged gasps, and he felt the wild energy coursing through his veins, that telltale sign of his transformation. He let himself go, relinquishing control.
Muscles rippled beneath his skin as bones cracked and reshaped, and in mere seconds he had turned from a regular-sized man into a massive werewolf. The peace he felt was instant, if somewhat temporary.
He turned back to look at the house. Eleanor was inside there, somewhere. Blake had seen her heartbreak into bits as he’d turned around and fled from the house. Deep down, a part of him wanted to return to her. To tell her that everything was going to be alright.
He considered it, but then ripped the idea into shreds. He couldn’t bring himself to face her now. To face the reality of his impending fatherhood. So, he turned around and disappeared into the woods, putting as much distance as he could between himself and Eleanor.
In his lupine form, he raced through the woods, fingers of sunlight flickering through the dense canopy of leaves. Each stride was a burst of power, and the pounding of his paws against the forest floor served as a rhythmic drumbeat to accompany the turmoil in his mind.
Blake had always come here when he needed to clear his head, to escape overwhelming emotions that threatened to drown him. The woods had been his sanctuary for years, a place where he could run freely and lose himself in the solitude of the green.
He could sense life at every turn—large, small, and invisible. It was all around him. It was grounding, a reminder of the world beyond his own internal storm.
As he raced through the trees, the cool breeze ruffling his fur, he couldn’t escape the thought of Eleanor and their unborn child, try as he might. His denial and fear churned within him, and deep down he knew he couldn’t run from this forever.
And yet, for now, he was just a wolf, the human in him hidden deep inside, seeking solace inside his beast. It would take time and space to make sense of the unexpected turn his life had taken, and he was determined to find that clarity among the ancient trees of the woods.
After running for half an hour and failing to shake off the discontent he was feeling, Blake decided to bring out the big guns. He needed to talk to his friends. He returned to the house and recovered his phone and keys from where he’d stashed them earlier.
He considered taking a shower and changing his dirty, bloody clothes, but the risk of seeing Eleanor was too high for him to take the chance. He slipped into his messy clothes and got into his beat-up truck.
He sent a simple, urgent message to the group chat with the other alphas:Emergency meeting, Articus’s town. NOW.
He didn’t care if Xander saw the message. He didn’t care if he showed up. Right now, Xander was the very least of his problems.
The best part about his friends was that they always tried to be available for one another. Regardless of the nature of the summons, they always tried to show up when they could.
Blake had picked Articus’s town for the meeting because it was the most central, and it was far enough from Rhinestone that he could collect his thoughts on the drive over.
Many of the townsfolk watched him curiously as he drove past with a battered truck and bloody clothes. He didn’t doubt that they would start their own version of events and that before nightfall there would be a story that explained why Blake and his truck looked as bashed-in as they did.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Eleanor the whole drive. The look on her face when he had run away was now forever engraved in his mind. He knew that what he’d done was shitty, but how could he have made her understand how close he’d been to passing out?
Would she ever understand? He doubted it, and he couldn’t blame her if she never forgave him. There was more than enough time to deal with that. Right now, his sanity was his utmost concern. He was quite certain that he was slowly losing his mind.
