Chapter 55 Caleb
CALEB
I’ve counted every brick in this cell more than one hundred times.
My brain feels like it’s crumbling, and my body is going to combust with every second that ticks by. Minutes feel like days. I haven’t seen sunlight for what feels like years.
I have no concept of time. It all blends into one.
Days. Weeks. Months.
The damage it’s doing to my mental capacity is torturous. I’ve lost a huge amount of weight as food is delivered at random times to make me disorientated and fatigued.
When I wake up, I try to be optimistic, but I’m slowly starting to lose faith in everything. No matter how hard I try to get out of this room, it’s useless. I can’t fight my way out of bricks and metal.
Some days, I dream with my eyes open. I don’t know what’s real and what’s fake anymore. I convinced myself I must be in the afterlife. I’m dead. I am inside. But the loud clang on the metal door tells me otherwise.
My head snaps up to the sound, my neck cracking in the process.
“Vella,” Wes, one of Ryker’s guards, alerts me. “Get up.”
I don’t even have the strength to push myself up from the floor, so he starts to drag me when I don’t oblige. He wraps my wrists in silver, but I’m too exhausted to even hiss at the pain.
“Today’s your lucky day.” He grins as he pulls me onto my feet.
My legs are unstable and wobbly, but I keep them engaged. We walk through the cells, but not once do I hear any screaming or shouting. Everyone is silent, and the eeriness has the hairs on the back of my neck standing.
All their mouths remain shut as they watch me being tugged through the middle, eyes hollow and expressions blank.
Wes stops in front of one of the cells and unlocks it with his keys before shoving me inside. I collide with the far wall and grit my teeth as the silver pushes further into my skin.
The door slams behind me as I slowly glance around the cell. There’s a woman and her child huddled in the corner. On the other side is an older man, his eyes fixed on the bricks, not blinking once.
My gaze flicks over the walls. The same nasty wet cell I was in before. Except now I have company.
I turn towards the woman in the corner with her child clinging onto her.
“What the hell is going on?” I croak, speaking for the first time in a while.
Her dark eyes widen as she shakes her head. “Shh.”
My knees quiver as I sink to the floor beside her, and tear the silver off my wrists with my teeth. I pant heavily at the uncomfortable ripples that hit my nervous system.
Once I’m released, I allow my hands to fall to my sides, and my head to hit the wall behind me with a loud thud.
At some point, I must have fallen asleep as I found myself lying on the floor with my face in a shallow puddle. I grunt and push myself up, wiping my dirty cheek with my even dirtier T-shirt.
My eyes flick around the cell to be met with the woman in the corner. She offers me a weak smile as the girl rests her head on her lap, her eyes closed.
“Hi,” she whispers.
I swallow. “Hi.”
“I’m Fi,” she mutters so quietly I barely hear her.
“Caleb,” I say in response.
Her gaze wanders over to the door. “They mostly go to bed when it’s late.”
“Do you know what the time is?”
“I know this place like clockwork,” she sighs. “So, I presume it’s one or two in the morning.”
“Why the hell are there so many of you down here?”
Fi strokes the child’s head softly. “He attacked our pack, and when we fought back and didn’t want to join him, he held us hostage. He wanted us to learn a lesson, so we’re his prisoners now.”
My jaw clenches. “How long have you been here?”
“Months.”
I curse and drag a hand down my face. “I’m sorry.”
“We’re all just trying to survive.”
My eyes fall on the girl in her lap once more. “Is that your daughter?”
Fi smiles and admires her. “Yeah, this is Lula.”
“How old is she?”
“Thirteen.”
Thirteen years old and being kept in a rotten cell against her will. My blood boils.
“He killed my husband,” Fi says after a few moments, and my throat closes up. “He killed him in front of me and has taunted me with it ever since. He’s a monster.”
There is a tight ache in my chest. “I’m so deeply sorry,” I murmur.
“I have to keep going. For Lula.”
I study the sleeping girl. “Yeah,” I rasp. “I understand.”
“How did you end up here?”
A choked laugh escapes me. “If I tell you, you’ll probably presume a lot about me.”
Fi frowns. “I don’t judge anyone here apart from Ryker and the guards.”
I suck in a breath as I turn to face her. I zero in on her dark eyes and the curiosity behind them.
“Ryker is my father,” I state simply.
For a few seconds, she says nothing.
“What—” she gasps before stopping. “Why are you down here?”
“It’s a long story,” I sigh.
Fi shrugs. “We have time.”
“I’ll give you the quick version,” I say, not wanting to dive into the details of my past.
“Okay,” she whispers.
“When I found my mate, I knew I had to protect him from my father. He found out about us and he—”
My throat dries out at the flashbacks that haunt me.
“He nearly made me kill him,” I say through gritted teeth.
“And I promised to come with Ryker if he left my mate alone. I couldn’t risk seeing him hurt or being forced to do unspeakable things to him.
I didn’t know this was what I’d be walking into.
I shouldn’t have expected anything less, but I wasn’t thinking at the time.
All I knew was I needed Evan to stay safe. ”
I allow my head to hang low as Fi’s eyes bore into the side of my face.
“I’m sorry, Caleb,” she says sincerely.
“Me, too,” I say with drooping shoulders. “He made me reject him.”
Fi nods. “I know what it’s like to have that bond ripped from you.”
The lump in my throat returns. As much as the rejection tore through me, at least I know he’s still alive. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.
“If he stays unharmed, then you know you’ve done the right thing.”
“Yeah,” I whisper vacantly.
“It’s coming up to the end of the week.”
I frown at her. “What do you mean?”
She raises her fingers and brushes the wall behind her. My eyes flick over the lines that have been carved into the brick.
“Every week, he takes a random prisoner and kills them as part of a sacrifice."
“Sacrifice?”
“He believes that he gets stronger every time he sacrifices a wolf. His powers get even deadlier. There have been nine so far. Everyone is on edge.”
I stare at her for a long, long moment. I don’t even know what to do with the information. But nothing surprises me when it comes to him and his delusions.
“Has anyone tried to escape?”
“Tried.” She nods. “And failed. This place is under watch at all times.”
I glance out of the cell at the others who are sitting in silence. “You said you know this place like clockwork.”
“Caleb, it’s not worth it.”
“I think I’d rather die trying than nothing at all.”
Fi’s eyes glow in the darkness.
“Are there only four guards?”
“There are a few more,” Fi says. “They come and go, but those four always stay.”
A loud thump on the metal door behind us causes me to jump. “Hey,” Wes shouts. “Shut the fuck up before I serve you to your father.”
I glare at him over my shoulder, choosing to keep my mouth shut.
“I’m watching you, Vella,” he spits through the railings.
My wolf growls in protest as I move to get up, but Fi’s hand reaches out to grab my wrist to stop me. I look back at her, and she shakes her head. I regretfully settle back onto the floor.
Wes snorts. “That’s what I thought.”
When he stalks away, I tighten my fists.
“I’m getting out of here,” I grumble quietly. “He’s not getting away with this.”
Fi smiles softly, reaching for my hand again. She gives it a gentle squeeze.
“This is going to sound cheesy, but the second I saw you come into this room, I saw something,” she says sincerely.
I blink back at her, confused. “Saw what?”
“Hope.”