Filed to story: Claimed By My Fiance's Alpha Brother (Callie & Cameron) Book PDF Free
Caleb’s expression grew serious, though not unkind. “Why don’t we grab some food and I’ll explain everything? There’s a diner just down the street. We can talk properly there.”
The diner was small and worn but clean, with red vinyl booths and the kind of fluorescent lighting that made everyone look slightly pale. The scents of coffee and home-cooked food filled the air, making my stomach growl despite my anxiety.
Caleb chose a corner booth and slid in across from me, his movements natural and easy. A waitress with graying hair and kind eyes approached our table.
“What can I get you folks?” she asked with a warm smile.
“Two coffees, please,” Caleb said. “And maybe some of that apple pie, if you have any left.”
“Coming right up, honey.”
Once we were alone, Caleb leaned forward slightly, his hands clasped on the scratched tabletop. “Callie, I need to start by telling you about what’s been happening up here in the north. It’s not the same place you might remember.”
“Actually… I don’t remember anything. What do you mean?”
“Chaos. Complete chaos.” Caleb’s voice dropped low despite the nearly empty diner. “Rogues moved in, testing boundaries, picking off isolated territories.”
The waitress returned with our coffee and pie, setting them down with practiced efficiency before retreating to give us privacy.
He continued grimly. “Pack after pack has been heading south toward the central territories, looking for protection with the bigger, more established Alphas. Families loading up everything they can carry and just… leaving. This whole region is emptying out.”
“My God.” I took a shaky sip of coffee. “Caleb, if it’s that dangerous here, why haven’t you and your family left? Why are you still here?”
His smile was tired but determined. “Because someone has to help the ones who can’t leave. The elderly wolves who are too set in their ways to start over, the families who can’t afford to relocate, the people who get caught in the middle of territorial disputes.”
“That’s incredibly dangerous.”
“Maybe. But my parents and I, we run the only repair shop for three hundred miles in any direction. When families are trying to escape with their lives, they need working vehicles. When isolated communities need supplies, they need reliable transportation.” He shrugged. “We can’t just abandon them.”
I studied his face, seeing the weight of responsibility he carried, the quiet courage that kept him here when others fled. “You’re a good man, Caleb Morrison.”
“I’m just doing what needs to be done.” He took a sip of his coffee, then looked at me intently. “But enough about the current mess. You said you forgot everything and wanted to know about your family.”
My heart began to race. “Yes. Please. I need to understand who I was, where I came from.”
“Your parents were Alpha and Luna of the Northern Ridge Pack,” he said gently. “Good people. The best, really. Your father was known throughout all the northern territories for his fairness and strength. Your mother had the most beautiful laugh -you have her eyes, you know.”
Tears blurred my vision. “I don’t remember them at all.”
“I know.” His voice was soft with sympathy. “Callie, how much do you remember about us? About our friendship?”
“Us?” I looked at him in confusion. “Caleb, I’m sorry, but I don’t remember anything about knowing you before today.”
Something flickered across his features -pain, maybe. “We were neighbors when we were children. Our fathers were allies, close friends.”
“We knew each other as children?”
“More than that.” Caleb’s smile became gentle, nostalgic. “We were best friends, Callie. From the time we could walk, we were practically inseparable. Every summer, our families would get together for these big barbecues by the lake. You and I would disappear into the woods for hours, building forts, climbing trees, getting into all kinds of trouble.”
My heart clenched. “We were that close?”
“Childhood sweethearts, my mother used to call us,” he said with a soft laugh. “You were fearless and stubborn as hell. There was this old oak tree with branches hanging out over the water -must have been thirty feet high. All the boys were too scared to jump from the top, but not you.”
“Did I jump?”
“Every single time. And every time, your mother would lecture you about being more ladylike while your father tried not to laugh.” His expression grew distant with memory.
The tears I’d been holding back finally spilled over. “Caleb, I’m so sorry. I don’t remember any of it. Not you, not my parents, not the life we had together.”
Caleb squeezed my hand gently. “Callie, look at me.”
I raised my eyes to meet his warm gaze.
“I’m not hurt that you don’t remember,” he said firmly. “I’m just grateful you’re alive. Do you understand? For years, I thought you were dead. I thought I’d lost my best friend forever. The fact that you’re sitting here, breathing and talking and laughing -that’s all that matters to me.”
“Besides,” Caleb continued with a lighter tone, “maybe it’s better that you don’t remember some of our adventures. We got into some serious trouble together. I’m pretty sure we gave both our parents gray hair before we were ten years old.”
Despite my tears, I found myself laughing. “That does sound like something I’d do.”
“Oh, definitely. You were the mastermind behind most of our schemes.” He grinned. “I was just along for the ride.”
“Callie,” Caleb said, “where are you staying tonight? Please tell me you’re not planning to drive back south in the dark.”
“I was hoping to find a motel somewhere nearby, actually. I know it’s not the safest area right now, but -“
“Absolutely not.” He shook his head firmly. “You’re staying with us.”
“Caleb, I couldn’t impose -“
“You’re not imposing. My parents still live in the same house they did when we were kids. When I tell them you’re alive, when I bring you home…” He smiled warmly. “My mother’s going to cry for a week.”
Caleb released my hand and pulled out his wallet to leave money for our coffee and pie. “Besides, it’ll be safer and more comfortable than any motel in the area. And it’ll give us time to talk more, to help you piece together some of those lost memories.”
Callie’s POV
The walk to Caleb’s house took less than ten minutes,. The small residential street was lined with modest homes, their front yards dotted with autumn flowers and children’s toys.
“That one’s ours,” Caleb said softly, pointing to a two-story house with white siding and a wraparound porch. A wooden swing swayed gently in the evening breeze.
Before Caleb could reach for his keys, the front door swung open, revealing a woman in her fifties with graying brown hair and kind eyes that went wide with shock the moment they landed on me.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, her hand flying to her chest. “Oh my God, it’s really you.”
“Mom,” Caleb said gently, steadying her with a hand on her elbow. “I told you she was alive.”
Mrs. Morrison stared at me with tears streaming down her cheeks. “Callie,” she breathed, my name coming out like a prayer. “We thought… we all thought you were dead. After what happened to your parents, when no one could find you…”
“Mrs. Morrison,” I said softly, my own voice thick with emotion. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you. I don’t remember anything from before.”
“Margaret? What’s all the commotion -” A man appeared in the doorway behind her, tall and broad-shouldered with silver threading through his dark hair. The moment his eyes found me, he went completely still. “Holy hell.”
“Robert, watch your language,” Margaret scolded automatically, though she never took her eyes off me.
“Sorry, hon, but…” He shook his head in amazement. “Callie? Is it really you, little wolf?”
Margaret stepped back and gestured us inside. “Come in, come in. We can’t have this conversation on the front porch.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, though fresh tears continued to fall. “I need to call Eleanor and Tom. They’re not going to believe -“
“Mom,” Caleb interrupted gently. “Maybe we should let Callie settle in first. It’s been a long day.”
The inside of the house was warm and inviting, with overstuffed furniture and family photos covering every available surface. The scent of something delicious -pot roast, maybe, or stew -drifted from the kitchen, and I could hear the faint sound of a television playing in another room.
“Sit, sit,” Margaret insisted, ushering me toward the living room couch. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? I can make coffee, or tea, or -“
“Mom,” Caleb said again, his tone fond but firm. “She’s not going anywhere. Breathe.”
Robert settled into his recliner with a heavy sigh, his eyes never leaving my face. “We looked for you, you know. After the attack, when the authorities couldn’t find your body with your parents, we held onto hope that maybe you’d survived. We searched every hospital within five hundred miles, called every agency we could think of.”
“Where did you end up?” Margaret asked, perching on the edge of the coffee table so she could be closer to me. “How did you survive?”
I took a shaky breath, preparing to tell the abbreviated version of my story. “A woman named Elena saved me. She was badly wounded, but she managed to get me to another pack territory before she died. The Nightshadow Pack took me in.”
“Actually,” Robert said, standing up with purpose, “we might be able to help with some of those memories. Margaret, where did you put those photo albums?”
“Which ones?” she asked, though her eyes lit up with understanding.
“The ones from the summer gatherings. The ones with all the kids.”
Margaret practically bounced with excitement. “Oh, yes! Callie, you have to see these. We have pictures of you and Caleb from when you were tiny.”
She disappeared down a hallway and returned with an armload of photo albums, setting them on the coffee table with reverent care. “These are from the annual pack gatherings we used to have at Moonrise Lake. Every year, all the northern packs would come together for a weekend of celebrating and bonding.”
She opened the first album, and I gasped. The photo on the opening page showed a group of adults standing around a picnic table, their faces bright with laughter. In the center were a man and woman I didn’t recognize but somehow felt like I should -a tall, proud-looking man with dark hair and kind eyes, and a beautiful woman with auburn hair and the exact shade of green eyes I saw in my mirror every morning.
“Your parents,” Margaret said softly.
I traced their faces with my finger, searching for some spark of recognition, some echo of love or memory. But there was nothing except a hollow ache in my chest for people I should have known.
“And this,” she said, turning the page, “is you.”
The photograph showed two small children, maybe three or four years old, sitting on a blanket by a lake. A little girl with wild curls and grass stains on her dress was grinning at the camera, her arms wrapped around a slightly older boy with serious dark eyes and a protective posture.
“That’s us,” Caleb said, settling on the other side of me on the couch. “You’d just fallen into the lake trying to catch a frog, and I was trying to keep you from doing it again.”
Margaret flipped through more pages, revealing a treasury of moments I’d lost. There were photos of me and Caleb building sandcastles, chasing butterflies, sharing ice cream cones that were bigger than our heads. In every picture, we were inseparable.
“Oh, this one’s my favorite,” Margaret said, stopping at a photo that made my breath catch.
It showed the two of us asleep under a large oak tree, my head pillowed on Caleb’s shoulder while he leaned against the trunk. We couldn’t have been more than five years old, but there was something so peaceful, so trusting about the image that it made my heart clench.
“You two had been playing all day,” Robert said with a chuckle. “Running around like wild animals, getting into everything. By evening, you just collapsed wherever you were and fell asleep. Your parents thought it was the sweetest thing they’d ever seen.”
