Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 83

Chapter 83

Maya

My head hurt like hell.

It felt as if someone had reached inside my skull, twisted every thought out of place, and then left the lights on too bright and the volume turned painfully high.

A low groan slipped out of me before I could stop it, scraping up my throat like something dry and broken.

My mouth felt parched, my tongue heavy, and every inch of my body ached in a deep, bruised way.

I blinked slowly, forcing my eyes open, and the cold reached me first.

The ground was damp beneath my bare skin. Actual bare skin. My arms and legs prickled with goosebumps as the night air crawled over me, and for a moment I could not figure out why the world felt so exposed.

The sky above me was dark and wide, speckled with faint stars barely visible through the branches overhead. My senses came back slowly, and just as slow, the questions came.

Where was I?

Why was I outside?

And why was I completely naked?

Panic rose sharply in my chest. I pushed up onto my elbows, and the movement sent the entire world tilting sharply to one side.

My stomach turned. My limbs felt heavy and unresponsive, as if they belonged to someone else. I grabbed at the ground to steady myself, but my fingers shook so badly that the leaves beneath them trembled with me.

“Hello…” My voice cracked in a dry rasp. “Is someone…?”

Nothing answered but the sound of my own pulse pounding in my ears.

I swallowed again, my throat scraping like sandpaper, and tried to stand. My legs refused to hold my weight, buckling the moment I straightened them. I collapsed back down, breath shuddering as fear clawed deeper.

A soft tread over leaves caught my attention, too controlled to be human.

I froze, heart slamming against my ribs as the sound grew closer. My mind spun, searching for rational explanations, but everything inside me buzzed with instinct and warning. The trees shifted just slightly, and I held my breath, bracing for whatever was coming.

A silhouette emerged through the shadows.

But instead of a death sentence, it was broad shoulders and wild curls met me.

Caden.

He stepped into the moonlight fully, and the look on his face nearly undid me. Relief rushed over his features so visibly I felt it in my chest. His mouth fell open in something like disbelief, then relief turned sharp, almost painful, as if seeing me like this broke something inside him.

“Maya.” The word left him in a breath that cracked at the edges.

He dropped to his knees beside me so fast the leaves scattered, and his hands were immediately on my shoulders, checking if I was cold or hurt or fading again. He wrapped a thick robe around me, pulling it tight across my chest and gathering me gently against him. The warmth of it barely registered before his arms folded around me completely, holding me with a desperation he didn’t even try to hide.

“You are awake,” he whispered into my hair, his voice trembling. “You are actually awake”

He kissed my forehead. Then my cheek. Then the top of my head like he had been waiting a lifetime to do exactly that.

Everything hit me at once.

The grove. The fight. Rohan. The relic.

Leo.

I pushed my hand weakly against Caden’s chest so I could look at him. My lips felt numb.

“Leo,” I whispered.

Caden’s eyes darted away for half a second, and something in my stomach twisted hard. He cupped my jaw gently, steadying me before I could spiral again.

“Take it slow,” he murmured. “You just woke up.”

“Caden,” I croaked, “is he… tell me if he is…”

He lifted a bottle from his bag, guiding the water to my lips. I drank greedily, letting the cold settle the fire in my throat, but even water couldn’t soothe the pressure building inside me.

“Leo is alive,” he finally said.

My eyes closed with a shuddering breath as relief washed over me so strong it nearly took me down again.

But the relief didn’t last.

“He has not woken up,” Caden continued, voice softer. “Not once.”

My heart squeezed painfully.

“It has been three weeks,” he said. “Three weeks since the grove. Three weeks since you collapsed. Three weeks of searching these woods because every night you shift and run straight here.”

Chapter do

I blinked at him slowly, trying to understand. “Three weeks…”

He nodded.

765 vouchere

“You shift,” he said gently. “You run. You always run in this direction. We bring you home every time, and you don’t wake. Until now. We try to safe-guard you, every single night. And you somehow still manage to slip through our grasp.”

I stared at the forest floor, too stunned to form a coherent thought. “Why am I waking up out here naked?”

“Because you shifted again,” he said softly. “You shift every night, and Aelera always brings you here. We try to intercept you, but you move fast. This is the first time you came out of it fully conscious.”

I pressed a shaking hand over my chest as though it might steady the wild beating of my heart.

“Leo,” I whispered again, because the fear hadn’t left. “What happened to him?”

Caden swallowed, his eyes darkening in a way that told me this had been killing him slowly for those entire three weeks.

“His wolf isn’t healing him. His neck was broken, and it remains broken. He breathes on his own, but he isn’t waking up.”

My breath trembled. “Please tell me he isn’t dying.”

“He’s holding on,” Caden said quietly. “That’s all I can tell you.”

The guilt hit hard and fast, curling into my chest like a second heartbeat.

He shifted because of me.

He died for a moment because of me.

He is in limbo because of me.

Caden must have felt the shift in my expression because he caught my hand and brought it slowly to his lips. He kissed the backs of my knuckles as if grounding us both.

“I missed you,” he whispered, and the raw honesty in his voice nearly broke me. “I missed you every minute you were gone.”

That was when I noticed the rest of him.

His curls were longer, untrimmed and wild.

His jaw was covered in scruff he never allowed.

His eyes were ringed in deep shadows as if sleep had become a luxury he couldn’t afford.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify