Page 23

CHAPTER 22

C alla

I ’m strapped to a chair.

Wrists and ankles bound. Legs spread so wide I’m aware of every shudder that makes my pussy clench. Anticipation. Nervousness. A little fear. Most of them haven’t been gentle with me, especially when I was being punished, but they were still somewhat playful about it. Caleb just seems angry.

“My brothers got your scent and turned into animals,” Caleb growls. “Apparently, I have better control than they do. Even Gideon. Or maybe I just don’t want a mate that constantly drags us into danger for no reason. A mate that keeps secrets. That’s unacceptable, Calla.”

The leather whistles through the air and cracks against my skin. I let out a groan, but don’t cry, even though it leaves a trail of fire where it landed on my skin.

“I’ve buried so many fucking brothers,” Caleb continues, whipping me again. “Watched others turn feral. Watched my sisters lose their minds because of the cruelty they experienced. But Silas… that was the breaking point.”

The leather whistles again, slicing through the air with a sting that sears across my ass. I clench my teeth, groan, and instinctively pull against the restraints. The pain is sharp, but clean. Measured. Caleb’s not out of control. He’s not swinging with the malice in his heart. It’s punishment, even if it makes my body ache with more than just pain.

“I’m sorry, Caleb,” I whisper.

“You didn’t even tell Gideon,” he mutters behind me, his voice low and bitter. “I didn’t really talk to you, so I get you not telling me. But Gideon? Jace? Knox? Even Vance—they’ve all talked to you. All been fascinated by you, for different reasons.”

Before I can respond, another strike lands, lower this time, across the tops of my thighs where the skin is thinner and more sensitive. My entire body tenses. I whimper and jerk, but another lash comes hard, making me squeal.

“You talk to our dead brother in your dreams, and you just… keep that to yourself?” His tone isn’t a question. It’s an accusation, and that accusation comes with another swing of the heavy leather he’s holding.

“Ow!” I whimper. “I didn’t know how, Caleb. I didn’t want to confuse things more than they already were, and I was confused too! I didn’t understand it!”

“But you do now?” he asks, bringing the leather down across my ass.

“Ah! Not really, no!” I admit. “But I’ll tell you… I was planning to tell everyone, once the time was right.”

“You don’t wait until the time is right,” he growls, whipping me with the leather several times in a row. “Especially when it concerns the pack!”

I shudder, jerk, and let out an anguished whine, but hold back my tears. A part of me knows I deserve this. That I shouldn’t have waited so long. Silas didn’t tell me I could or couldn’t share it, but I didn’t ask. I was too busy asking questions about everything I was seeing. And admittedly, Caleb wasn’t the first onyx wolf to make my pussy ache like it is doing now. Maybe I was being selfish.

“It wasn’t long after I woke up with the key,” I whimper, gritting my teeth when another blow lands. “It seemed like a dream, but… not a dream. I just faded into it. It’s called The Aether. It’s where all souls go when they die.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Caleb says, squeezing my punished flesh and rubbing his finger across my bottom hole. “The leather isn’t the only punishment you’re getting tonight.”

He pushes his finger past the tight ring and I gasp. “No, no, I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”

“You’re ours, Calla. Our mate, even if you do keep secrets from us,” he rasps. “Every part of you belongs to us. Even this.”

I gasp louder as he pushes deeper, but he pulls his finger away, and the leather whistles before it strikes. It’s getting difficult to hold back my tears.

“Keep talking,” he demands, whipping across the back of my thighs again. “Otherwise, this is going to really start to hurt.”

“It’s already hurting!” I squeal, yanking against the restraints on my legs as the pain settles.

“It could hurt a lot more,” he threatens, and this time, the leather curls along the edge of my ass, landing across my folds with an eruption of fire that makes me cry out. “Ow! No! Not there!”

“Then keep talking,” he says, landing the next strike directly on my pussy. It’s enough to force the tears.

“Ah! Okay!” I scream.

I don’t start talking. I start babbling. Rambling as I recount every interaction with Silas, The Aether, and what I’ve been told. Caleb doesn’t whip me. He just lets me talk. It feels like a confession, a weight lifted, and a strange sense of peace, all tangled into my whimpered words.

“And the last time I went there, he said our connection isn’t just because of The Aether. I healed you. That’s why you have my scent. Why… I feel the things I do. But Silas said our connection is because of something ancient. That’s all I know, I swear.”

“Fuck,” Caleb mutters, dropping the leather he’s holding. “After all this time, I have to admit Vance was right. That the fucking plants are talking to him.”

I almost laugh, but keep it contained. There’s some humor in that, but I’m not sure if Caleb sees it.

“I’m not sure why Vance can hear it. Maybe because he listens,” I say. “Silas said a lot of voices scream from The Tangle, but most are never heard.”

“And The Tangle is an extension of The Aether,” Caleb sighs. “Literally, just a bunch of lost souls that can’t move on. Some of them could be our brothers and sisters.”

“But it can be healed. The Aether. The Tangle. Everything.” I swallow hard and look back. “The pack won’t just survive and grow. Your descendants will rewrite the blueprint in the fabric of creation. It’ll include all living beings. Allow them all to find peace and be able to move on when their time is up.”

“And Silas?” Caleb growls. “Will he be able to move on, or will he just be stuck in The Aether for forever?”

“Eventually. I hope.” I shake my head. “I’m not sure. The Aether is too broken for him to move on right now. But if it’s healed… maybe they can all move on.”

“You should have never kept this from us,” he says, squeezing my ass and rubbing a thumb across my bottom hole. “I’m going to make sure you remember that.”

A drop of saliva lands. It makes me flinch and tense up. Caleb smears it, working a finger past the tight ring, and plunging it deeper. My walls tighten on him, but he pumps it into me. I don’t have to ask why. I already know what he’s going to do. Even worse, my body reacts to it, sending another trickle down my thigh. Caleb rubs his cock in my juices, dragging the thick flesh through my folds, and then I feel it pushing between my spanked cheeks.

“None of my brothers have claimed this for our pack, have they?” he grunts, teasing and threatening me with the head of his cock.

“No,” I answer, whimpering a little as I feel him pushing in.

“Good,” he growls, stretching the tight ring. “They may all want to claim it after they get back and find out what you’ve done.”

“Caleb… ow…” I whine.

“I won’t make this as punishing as I could,” he says, slapping my ass hard enough to make me jerk. “If you were just a fuck instead of my mate, I would make this a lot harsher, so you would really learn your lesson.”

“I’ve learned my lesson,” I groan as he pushes deeper and gives me a few shallow thrusts. “I swear I have.”

“We’ll see about that,” he says, pulling back for another thrust.

I can feel my walls stretching, protesting, and clenching. Caleb’s fingers dig into my waist, getting a good grip before he drives himself deeper into my untouched depths.

“This won’t even make a baby,” I mutter, and get a harder thrust that makes me squeal.

“If it’s like you said, and you’ve healed us, then that won’t be an issue,” Caleb grunts, pushing so deep I can feel his hips against my ass. “We’ll breed you in no time.”

I whimper as he pulls back and drives his cock into me again. All I can do is take it. Every gentle thrust that makes me think he might have forgiven me. Every harder thrust that confirms he’s still got some anger left inside him because I wasn’t upfront about my dreams.

“Ah… oh… Ah!” I cry out, starting to get some pleasure from the softer thrusts.

“You like this, don’t you?” Caleb snarls, sinking several soft thrusts into my bottom hole. “Nice and slow. Makes you tingle, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” I mewl. “It feels… good.”

“This is what I like,” he says, giving me twice as many of the harder ones. “I like to feel those quivers.”

I clench my jaw and endure the harder ones, suddenly aware of the way they make me quiver. Aware of how they make him throb. He mixes it up, alternating between softer and harder ones, keeping me on edge so I never know what I’m getting next. The pleasure blossoms into a whimpering cry, and then I feel my body reacting to the harder thrusts, too.

“Oh, you like this too, huh?” he chuckles. “I guess you are my mate.”

“I am!” I squeal.

“Not much of a punishment now, is it?” he asks, hammering his cock into me.

“No!” I answer, shuddering and shaking with every thrust.

“Promise me again that you won’t keep anything from us like this, and I’ll make it even better,” he says. “I’ll make you come for me.”

I gasp and my eyes get wide. I’m not sure it’s possible, but I’m learning not to doubt my new mates. I’m learning not to doubt most of the things I thought were impossible.

“I promise, Caleb,” I whimper. “I won’t keep anything else from you. Any of you. It was a mistake.”

“Sounds like you mean it. Repenting is always the first step,” he growls, moving his hand from my hip to my clit. “But I’m going to trust you, because you’re my mate. Don’t make me regret it.”

“I won’t,” I cry out as his finger begins swirling around the tight nub.

Caleb’s finger strokes my clit, moving in quick circles, while he drives bone-rattling thrusts deep into my ass. The sensation is overwhelming, especially when he settles into a rhythm that doesn’t slow. Hard thrusts rock the chair, a few of them vicious enough to drive the air from my lungs in quick, stuttering gasps. Yet his finger works as a perfect counterpoint, stroking relentlessly and methodically.

“I can feel that orgasm building inside you, mate,” he says. “But I want to feel you explode. You can do that for me, right?”

“Y-yes,” I whimper.

“Then do it,” he demands, slapping my ass and moving the finger circling my clit even faster. “Come for me like a good mate.”

Caleb spanks, fucks, and rubs me in the most beautiful way possible. All of the sensations blend together into the pressure that radiates from my core. I’m going to come. Hard. The pressure tightens my muscles until my toes are curled against the concrete, scraping against it every time the chair rocks.

“Caleb!” I cry out as the first pulse of my orgasm waves over me. “Ah! Don’t stop!”

A slap echoes through the warehouse, then another, but I don’t feel the pain. I just feel the bliss shooting through my body. Caleb’s hard thrusts keep the orgasm peaking until it feels like another one is coming. Caleb doesn’t stop. He doesn’t even slow down. His rhythm turns primal, and he digs his nails into my ass, squeezing the last fiery handprint he left there.

“I’m going to come again!” I scream, followed by incomprehensible noise as the pleasure consumes me for the second time.

“Damn right you are,” Caleb grinds out. “And I’m going to fill your tight little ass with so much cum you’ll feel it for days.”

The second orgasm is blinding. I can hardly believe how strong it is, but Caleb’s finger dances on my clit, making the sensations almost overwhelming. I’m seconds from asking for a break, when I feel him throbbing deep in my depths. His raw, primal thrusts keep slamming into me, and I hold on, because I want to feel him just as badly as he wanted to feel me.

“Oh, fuck!” he roars, hips moving with reckless abandon as his seed floods into me.

I should be done, especially with how strong the two orgasms were, but I feel the pressure building again. A response to him—my mate. Caleb’s pleasure is interwoven with mine. Now. Possibly forever. I scream for him until he stills, the last few pulses of his heat making me tremble.

His breath is ragged as he leans against me, making sure I get every drop before he slowly pulls back. I groan with every inch I lose, already knowing I’ll want this again.

“You’re ours, Calla,” he mutters, leaning down to free my wrists from the chair. “And as long as you are, we have to work as a team. I don’t care if Gideon grows ten feet tall, learns to shoot bullets out of his dick, and declares himself Alpha of the entire damn Tangle. We’re still a team, and if you’re going to be our mate, then you’re a part of that.”

“I understand,” I whisper, nodding in agreement.

Caleb finishes untying me and the leather falls to the floor. My knees are wobbly. I feel like I might collapse. Instead, I reach for him. My mate. I hug him with more ferocity than I’ve ever hugged anyone, even my guardian on the day I left.

“I’m so sorry, Caleb,” I whisper. “Not just about keeping secrets. I’m sorry about Silas, too. I’ve met him—or at least his spirit. I understand why the two of you were so close.”

“Silas was the best of us,” Caleb sighs, wrapping his arms around me. “Sure, he was flawed. I know he’d admit that, too. Nobody’s perfect, but we couldn’t have asked for a better leader. His heart… it was just too big for the cruelty that awaited us in The Tangle.”

“You don’t think Gideon could ever fill his shoes?” I ask, leaning back slightly. “If this is something ancient, and there’s more to you and your brothers than what scientists did in a lab, then Gideon may truly become the Alpha of the pack.”

“Yeah, I know,” he grunts. “I saw it as they got your scent. Gideon’s wolf casting a bigger shadow. Jace letting Gideon hold him back from claiming you. Knox siding with them. But it’s not about that for me. If they had just pushed a little harder, Silas would have listened. I don’t want a leader people bow to. I sure as fuck don’t want a pack full of yes-wolves.”

“But you seem to disagree with him about a lot,” I say cautiously. “I mean, you’ve been silent most of the time, but I could see it. It’s almost like you disagree because you don’t trust him.”

Caleb lets out a sharp exhale, releases his grip on me, and turns around. “I guess I don’t. Not really. The only brother I’ve truly trusted since Silas died was Knox. Because he was the only one who held his ground when Silas made the decision that cost him his life.”

“The alternative was to leave them in cages,” I sigh. “Silas was doing what he thought was right.”

“Because that’s what he did,” Caleb growls. “He put others before himself… before the pack. His death taught me that nothing should come before our pack. Not unless we want to keep digging graves. There aren’t enough of us left for many more.”

“I don’t want to attend a funeral for any of my mates,” I say, looking down at the floor. “Maybe we should forget all about this. Just go back to the den. I’m sure the peace officers will get enough reports with everyone we brought home tonight to look into Clyde, especially if Abigail shares what she learned.”

“Maybe,” he says, turning back to me. “Or maybe they’ll ignore it. Dope everyone up on supplements and pretend it didn’t happen. You don’t think the peace officers have been getting reports about missing women? I’m sure you and your friends weren’t the first.”

“Now it sounds like you want to do it.” My eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

“We’ve come all this way. Might as well do what we came to do,” he shrugs. “Besides. Nobody fucks with my mate and gets away with it.”

“Even if that means getting involved in human affairs?” I ask, unable to suppress a light laugh.

“Just this once,” he answers. “But I don’t know if this is going to solve the problem. Human trafficking? From Haven North? That’s been going on a long damn time.”

“What, what?” My heart skips a beat, and my bracelet skips a pulse. “What do you mean?”

“Calla, Calla, Calla,” he sighs, shaking his head. “You’re as brave as some of the soldiers I watched die in the Great War, but you’re so naive. You visit The Aether in your dreams, but you don’t know much about the real world, because you grew up in a breeding colony.”

I swallow hard, not liking his tone. It’s almost condescending. At least there was a little praise in there.

“You think there’s a tunnel here by accident?” He gestures to the hatch. “In the middle of a warehouse. That doesn’t seem unusual to you?”

“It does,” I admit, tensing up a little.

“They could have filled it in. Wouldn’t have taken much. You could just throw a grenade in the one outside.” He jerks his thumb. “Pave over this one.”

My eyes get wide and my lip trembles. “This has been going on for a while.”

“Yeah, not long after we were forced out. By the ones who did it,” Caleb sighs. “Fertility issues are widespread across The Tangle. The population is declining. Humans, animals, hybrids. Everything. Except the damn plants. And maybe all this death is why they’re growing.”

“Because of The Aether.” I bite my lip. “But what does this have to do with Haven North?”

“Haven North produces human beings, Calla,” he scoffs. “Women are scarce outside these walls in this part of The Tangle. New Chicago, it’s a different story. Slavery is outlawed. Prostitution is legal. It’s like the Wild West. You have no idea what that is, do you?”

“No.” I shrug slightly.

“Another time. But what I’m saying is that there are buyers with a lot of gold to spend. And a lot of greedy motherfuckers in this world. Everything went to shit, and people just got greedier.” He takes a step closer. “Except you. You might be the purest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Because I’m naive?” I ask, swallowing hard as he gets closer.

“No.” He shakes his head. “Because you care about everything. And everyone. When you don’t talk a lot, you have plenty of time to listen. Observe. Those women you were with. They look at you like I used to look at Silas back when I was still awestruck by him.”

He brushes some hair out of my face and cups my cheek.

“If what you’ve said to me is true, and we’re supposed to somehow save the world. Our bloodline. Our pack.” Caleb leans closer. “We can’t go running around The Tangle like we’re the fucking Avengers. You don’t know what that means, either. I’m sure you can figure it out from the name.”

A half-smile tugs my lips, then Caleb kisses me. Raw and hungry, but with just enough softness to make me gasp. I melt into his embrace. Everything loses its meaning, like this moment is simply ours. A warmth pulsates to life inside me. A coil in my core.

Caleb’s right. I’ve got something inside of me. Something that can save the world. But I’m already a hero to more than most. The time for heroics is over. Haven North is where I was born, but it’s not where I’ll live the rest of my life.

“Well, we certainly missed something,” Gideon snaps, causing us both to startle.

“First time anyone has slipped up on me in centuries!” Caleb yells, spinning around. “I thought you weren’t coming back until dawn.”

“I already figured out everything we need to know,” Gideon chuckles. “A nurse named Clyde who recently graduated. He’s very proud of the apartment he has in the Middle District. And everyone’s talking about the sudden reappearance of the missing women. Heard your name a couple of times, lurking near a bar called the Angry Sparrow.”

“College District?” I tilt my head. “Why were you hanging around there?”

“Seemed like a lot of people were there, so I got a little closer. Glad I did. Seems like your old co-workers and classmates are starting to question a few things. Like a letter, saying you were leaving Haven North.”

“That makes sense,” I say. “Even if Abigail didn’t say anything about me, the timing raises a lot of questions.”

“Mm,” Gideon mutters sagely. “Which means, if my instincts are right, we’ll need to move fast if we’re going to deal with Clyde. Probably not a good idea to stay in this warehouse, either. This isn’t the only tunnel to get in and out of Haven North, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone starts looking around when they realize the girls didn’t come through the front gate.”

“Right,” Caleb admits.

“Are we talking again, brother?” Gideon asks. “I wasn’t sure… after earlier.”

“Calla and I talked. There’s a lot we need to share,” Caleb growls. “For now, let’s leave some marks and a trail for the others to follow. Jace and Knox will have her scent, but Vance still doesn’t.”

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“Clyde’s apartment,” Gideon chuckles. “Then we’re getting the hell out of Haven North.”

Caleb looks at me, and I can see it in his eyes. I can get revenge on Clyde. I can’t save Haven North. I wouldn’t even know where to start. It’s one… dead body, and it may not even help. It’s personal vengeance and nothing more.

“We don’t have to,” I say, shaking my head. “It’s not worth it. I shouldn’t have dragged you in here.”

“You didn’t drag us,” Gideon says. “We decided as a pack. What the hell has Caleb been telling you?”

“How big the world is. What things are really like in Haven North.” I shrug my shoulders. “And I told him some things I should have told everyone—before tonight.”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Gideon growls, narrowing his eyes as he looks at the marks on my body. “But I guess you already got punished for it.”

Then a howl echoes in the night air, and both brothers tense up.

“It’s Vance. Trouble!” Gideon says. “Stay with Calla.”

Gideon shifts and spins in a golden flash before Caleb can object. Caleb’s face twitches and he shakes his head. “Fuck!” he yells.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my heart skipping more than one beat. “This is my fault.”

“Get dressed,” Caleb says, motioning to my clothes.

“Okay, why?” I hurry over and start sliding them on.

“I’m not staying here, and I’m not leaving you behind,” he growls. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I guess that means you’re going to have to ride me.”

I stop in my tracks and my mouth falls open in shock.

Ride him?