Chapter 59 Caleb
CALEB
Food is scarce. Water is scarce.
We’re all slowly dying in here. Weak doesn’t even begin to capture how I feel inside. My muscles are wasting away, my body eating itself from the lack of nutrition.
“Vella.” I hear my name as something taps against the cell bars. My head tilts, and I’m met by a smug Wes. I want to smack that smile off his lips. “Your father wants to see you.”
I stay on the floor for a moment as I stare at him through heavy eyelids.
“Let’s go. Now.”
He unlocks the door with the keys chained to his trousers. After a few minutes, I stand and step out of the cell, not before I glance back at Fi and Lula, who are watching me with wide, terrified eyes. I give them a reassuring look before Wes slams the door shut and locks it again.
When he’s distracted, I swing my elbow back into his face and watch as he stumbles, blood dripping through his fingers as he cups his nose.
“What the fuck?” he spits.
I reach for his keys now that he’s a little dazed, but before I get them, I’m tugged backwards by two sets of arms. A growl of defeat rushes through me. With all the strength I can gather, I attempt to break free from their grip, but I’m beyond fatigued to win.
Wes steps towards me with a bloodied face and vengeance in his gaze. “You’re gonna regret that,” he says before punching me.
I’m startled and disoriented for a moment as blood bursts in my mouth. The next second, I’m tugged upstairs into a room that’s dusty and glum. My eyes flick across the space before they land on my father, standing by the large window.
I make the mistake of looking at it when I haven’t seen sunlight in however long. It burns my retinas, and I wince, clamping my eyes shut at the pain that spreads through my head.
“My, my,” Ryker tuts. “What happened here?”
“He attacked me,” Wes hisses.
Ryker snorts. “He attacked you? Get over yourself.”
Wes doesn’t say anything more.
I lick my tongue over my teeth to remove the metallic taste that’s making me nauseous.
“So, Caleb,” Ryker drawls. “How are you settling in?”
My nostrils flare at his words. “Settling in? I’m not settling into being your prisoner.”
Ryker releases a humourless laugh. “What did you expect? Five-star service? I don’t trust you.”
And you shouldn’t.
“I thought by now you might have come around, practically begged me to be by my side, and do anything to earn my forgiveness, but that’s not what I’m seeing.”
“I don’t want to be by your side,” I grunt.
Even if it gave me a chance to escape, I wouldn’t be able to fake something like that. I know he’d force me to do things I don’t want to do, and I’d never forgive myself for making that choice when I know how brutal he can be.
“So you want to stay down in the cells?”
I don’t respond.
“Caleb, you really didn’t turn out to be the son I wanted.” The room around us turns eerily silent. “So I guess I’ll have to teach you a lesson.”
“What kind of lesson?” I spit, blood dripping down my chin.
“A lesson in resilience.”
I shake my head. “You’ll have to fucking kill me.”
Ryker’s eyes widen. “Well…yes. If you don’t comply, you’ll be nothing of worth to me, so I’ll find pleasure in killing my only living son. But I’m sure it won’t have to come to that, not if I destroy your sanity, piece by piece, until you’re nothing but a fragment of yourself, begging for mercy.”
My face scrunches up in disgust at his words. No matter how much he tries to break me, I’ll show resilience, just not in the way he wants. In the way I’ve taught myself.
He will not destroy me. He will not destroy me.
Even if it’s the last thing I do.
“But there’s something you should know.” His grin is feral.
I brace myself. His hand slides into his pocket and pulls out a chain. At first, I don’t know what I’m looking at, but after a few seconds, I realise it’s my necklace. The necklace I gave to Evan before I left.
My blood runs cold. I fight the arms holding me back. “What the fuck did you do?” I growl.
Ryker’s smile increases. “I didn’t do anything, your mate did.”
No. Fuck. No.
“He had to stick his nose in,” he sighs patronisingly. “So I had to teach him a lesson.”
“You motherfucker,” I bellow as I grit my teeth and kick. “Where is he?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Panic floors me. “Tell me where he is!”
“He’s in pain—I can tell you that.”
A snarl rips from my lips as I try to lunge for him, but it’s no use.
Has he kidnapped him?
Got him chained up?
Is he torturing him?
Bile rises in my throat at the endless possibilities.
“Get him out of my sight,” Ryker dismisses me like I’m nothing.
I’m roughly shoved backwards, but my head is spinning.
“Wait–” he calls out before we reach the door to the basement stairs.“Let’s give him a parting gift, shall we?”
I attempt to turn my head back to him, but a fist lands in my gut, and I keel over with a huff. Then another until I’m winded on the floor. They all take turns kicking me until bruises start forming and my skin splits.
Ryker’s laugh echoes around the room as he stops dead in front of me. “Remember when your precious mate lay nearly unconscious,” he says with fake sadness. “The way he cried, begged, and held onto life. I’m gonna make him do that over and over until he’s nothing but a bloody mess.”
I tighten my fists as I listen, but wish my ears had burst instead.
“That weak little thing,” he purrs. “No one to protect him now, huh?”
The tone in his voice tells me everything I need to know.
“We had a deal,” I grit.
Ryker’s eyes light up at my reaction. “And I told you not to let anyone look for you.”
“Leave him alone,” I heave before another kick lands in my back, and I cry out. “He’s not part of this.”
“I’m gonna tear him apart,” he whispers with a sickening grin. “Break you into pieces.”
I attempt to shake my head, but my neck is stiff. “No.”
“Maybe then you’ll finally be nothing, just like your mate. I’ll take pleasure in killing him for going against my orders.”
A growl leaves my lips as I stand within a flash of light, my body groaning in protest. “I’ll fucking kill you.” I lunge for him out of instinct, and all he does is send me back to the floor with one swipe of his hands.
“I’d like to see you try.”
I’m fizzing inside, fizzing with resentment. Deeper than I’ve ever felt before. It’s alive, and present, and completely alien. A type of anger I have never experienced. It’s not just anger. It’s intense wrath—years and years of torment at the hands of my blood.
The man who should have loved me but doesn’t even know the meaning of the word. And yet, here I am, at his feet, exactly where he wants me. I refuse to let this be my fate when he should be the one in my position.
I stare up at him as he starts to walk away, the heels of his boots clicking against the floor.
I’m tugged upwards and dragged back down to the basement as every inch of my skin starts to sizzle.
I can’t control my breathing; my chest gets tighter with every inhale I take.
My emotions are heightened, and it sends me into a spiral.
When I’m thrown back into my cell, Fi and Lula surround me in a second. “Goddess,” Fi murmurs. “What did they do to you?”
I shake my head as I pant. “Necklace,” I demand. “Give me your necklace.”
Lula races to take it off before placing it in my hands. My nose wrinkles as I let my rage grow through my veins, into my heart, so deep that all I can feel is pure hatred. I place the necklace on the ground as I tune into the tiny piece of metal.
My jaw clenches as I tilt my head forward and channel every last drop I have inside me. All emotions. Even the happy ones that I cling to daily for my own sanity.
I block everything else out and empty my mind. The sensation of an unknown fate crashes through me. My body tingles like pins and needles. All over. A burning tightness casts over my eyes. Blood rushes to my head as I don’t remove my gaze from the necklace.
The way he cried, begged, and held onto life. I’m gonna make him do that over and over until he’s nothing but a bloody mess.
The necklace twitches a fraction, and Lula gasps. I hold on to the moment. I don’t dare break the momentum.
“You can do it,” Lula says encouragingly. “I know what I saw before.”
Caleb, please. Don’t do this. I love you!
I grind my teeth together as Evan’s desperate plea echoes around my head.
I, Caleb Vella, reject you, Evan Wolfe, as my mate.
No, Caleb. Please don’t.
Evan’s tears leak down his face, imprinted into my memory forever.
Come back. Promise you’ll come back.
I promise.
My eyes flare, and I tilt my head a centimetre before it catapults into the wall. The pendant clangs against the floor as they both cry out in shock and disbelief.
I allow my shoulders to droop, drained and empty. My breath comes out in short pants. The tips of my fingers tingle, and I stare at them.
Powers I’ve always had but never had the emotions to access because I pushed them away when it came to my father, never wanting him to get in my head or use my feelings to manipulate me.
All I’ve done is suppress them even more.
“You did it.” Lula scurries towards me. “I knew you could do it.”
Fi’s mouth hangs open. “Wha–” she pauses. “What just happened?”
I don’t want to be like my father, but it’s the only thing I’ll accept.
Because now, he’s met his fucking match.