Caleb paced nervously in his room, the chipping paint and wall holes meant he had to clean up soon. He needed to know what color to paint the house. Once that was settled, then things could be made ready. Then he could focus on his house, on his pack, on his life. And not focus on her in the Bahamas, her on the beach in a bikini, her without the bikini. Her, with some nameless, faceless man. Bull Rush can see the way he holds her, tightly, strongly, not letting her go. Keeping her away from him. His fist rushes out before he has a chance to control himself, and punches another hole in the wall.
The swift pain from the impact brings him back to reality. Focus.
He dials the number.
It rings 4 times before going to voicemail. Bull Rush just hangs up. He contemplates looking through the paper again, but decides against it.
RING RING goes the phone. Thrice more it repeats, and then her voicemail picks up. Hearing her voice over message system just doesn't seem to evoke the same feeling that her voice did when she said goodbye all those many months ago. Was he growing distant? Maybe she wasn't the right one? No. He knew she was right. Damn his family, damn the school. It didn't matter that none of them approved. They were going to be married. He would get over this, anxiety. He had read all about such issues before; but it was entirely different to be on the receiving end.

"Hi , its me. I haven't talked to you in a while, so I was wondering how you were doing. Also, how is work going? Make any new finds? I've found a nice house for us, but my question is [size=small]what [/size] *BEEP* "to listen to your mesage press 1. To re-record your message, press 2. To *CLICK*" He hung up on the stupid machine. He tossed the cell phone on the bed. At least that was brought in fresh. King size, it dominated the room.

He took a deep breath and exhaled. Life as a Uratha was hard. In addition to all the crap about spirits and pure and shapeshifting. It was hard to just keep himself in control. To keep himself from lashing out. He looked at the hole in the wall. "what if that had been her, and not some cheap drywall?" He asked aloud. He almost responded back "she would have bled." but stopped himself. A small, quiet voice answered back, deep in the back of his mind, under all the rage and anger and passion. "you wouldn't hurt her."
*RING RING* Bull rush's reverie interrupted by the phone. It was her.

"Caleb! Oh its so good to hear your voice again. Everything is going great here. more excavating, more sifting, more tagging, more pictures. Nothing earth shattering. just more on the life of the locals. What did you want to ask me? The message got cut off." Bull Rush can see her in his mind's eye, twirling her rich, soft hair with her left hand while she smiles as she speaks into the phone.
"Uh yeah." He says nervously. Desperately pushing out the thought of who might be with her on the other side, even as it desperately pushed back. "I was justwonderingwhatcoloryouwanted..I want to know what color you want for the house. I was pretty sure you wanted that Rose Veil color, but I wasn't sure."
"Yes honey, whatever sounds good to you. Listen, I got to go, the group is going into town. Bye!" She hangs up before he can stop her, before he can ask her not to go into town and get drunk and do spirits knew what. So he stares at the phone for several hours, wishing and willing that he could make sure that she was safe, that she was true, his mind racing with the thought of her with other men, abandoning him.

He fell asleep, still holding that phone tightly. Holding on to his mate, thousands of miles away.

When he woke up, he had found the phone had slipped out of his hand, and had banged on the floor. The battery cover had come off.