Donovan breathes through gritted teeth, his muscles straining, and his hands fisted so tight they’re nearly white, providing a harsh contrast to his olive skin. But he keeps his word, remaining silent as Felix tells us story after story of what happened here.
Kaleb covers his mouth, his eyes glassy as he quietly listens—his anger contained in a way I envy.
Nolan seems to shrink further and further into himself. There’s a hollow look to his eyes that makes me wonder if he’s busy containing his own beast. Nolan and I are predators by nature, but whereas I can work and reason with that part of myself, Nolan’s is something that takes over him. It’s then I notice the darker circles under his eyes, the sharp jut of his features, and the way his fingers dig into his arms. He’s not only furious over what’s happened to Callie, he’s starving. A vengeful, hungry predator is the exact opposite of what we need right now.
As we walk through a formal dining room, I drop a heavy hand on his shoulder and give him a knowing look when his gaze meets mine. His predator flashes within his arctic blue eyes, before he closes them and breathes out slowly.
“I’ll take care of it,” he mutters, then pulls away, weaving around a set of ornate chairs.
Felix stops in front of a thick, heavy door with weather proofing around it.
“The basement is this way,” he explains, his face a picture of sadness and loathing. “Most of what he did happened here.”
Without further explanation, he walks through the door, but it’s locked to the rest of us. There’s an almost sadistic glee on Donovan’s face as he finally has something to use all of his bottled rage against. He kicks the door, and the wooden frame splinters, but the door remains.
Felix pops his head back out, frowning at the splintered frame. “It’s going to be hard to explain why we need the key for this.”
My claws begin to grow, ready to use my Alpha strength to rip the door off its hinges, when Kaleb states calmly, “No. We can handle this ourselves. You might want to stand back.”
Felix shifts back behind the door, and Kaleb trades a look with Donovan.
“Together?” he asks, moving to stand side by side with him.
“On three,” Donovan replies with a nod.
After counting, they kick in unison with such force, the hinges rip from the frame and the door goes clattering down the concrete stairs.
Felix looks at the door that now goes through his shins, muttering, “Hope no one heard that.”
“Don’t care if they did,” Donovan growls, then maneuvers his way down the stairs. The second door at the base of the stairs opens easily.
Entering the cold basement, I’m once again reminded of the first time my eyes met Callie’s. The way she looked through me, knowing me without a single word. Instead of wood, her hell is made of cement. Instead of a chair, it’s a stainless steel table. There’s a cement counter that runs the length of the room with a deep, stainless steel sink, a drain in the floor, a giant fan in the ceiling, and heinous tools hanging on the wall. Blow torches. Saws. Butcher knives. Hammers. One tool right after the other, turning my blood to ice as the truth of how each one was used is explained.
“The first time I was here she was…” Felix trails off, swallowing heavily and looking like he wishes he could vomit. “Bastard had her tied down to the table, and she…she was on fire. All of her, burnt past recognition. He was yelling at her that she could stop it if she wanted to, and she…she begged to die.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Nolan whispers, his eyes bright under the fluorescent lights. “I’m going to find him and make him beg for death.”
“Not if I beat you to it,” Donovan snarls, unable to stop himself from punching the concrete wall, leaving a smear of blood from his busted knuckles.
“And how do you plan to accomplish that and stay out of prison?” Kaleb barks, his rage like a triggered switch none of us expected. “You self-centered, egotistical fu…” He grinds his teeth and fists his hands like he’s refraining from decking both of them. “I’m sure Callie will really appreciate your gallantry over ending that prick’s life when you’re serving a lifetime sentence in prison!”
“Why are you so sure I’ll get caught?” Donovan challenges, charging Kaleb so they’re now well within ‘beating the shit out of each other’ range.
“Why would you risk it?” Kaleb spits back, and the sheer force of his rage has me questioning my own promise of vengeance. “His death won’t change what happened to her. She doesn’t need damn idiots going off to defend her honor. She needs friends. She needs us to support her. To listen to her. To…fuckinggive more of a damn about her than our own pride!”
We’re all shocked silent, while he spins on his heel and paces the length of room, furiously muttering, “No wonder Callie only told Felix. He’s the only one of us who seems to really be listening toher. Narcissistic assholes. If she wants her father dead, Callie is more than capable of doing it herself.”
His fury is so intense, I wonder if he’s as mad at himself as the rest of us. Does he blame himself for staying away from Callie, from all of us, these past few weeks?
I don’t know what to feel. I still want the man dead, but nothing is more important to me than my mate’s happiness. Callie killed the previous Alpha to save our lives. With an unhappy sigh, I resolve myself to wait until the time when myreinadecides to end the bastard’s life.
While I make unhappy peace with more waiting, Donovan stands there like he’s been sucker punched in the head and woke up in Oz. Even Nolan is shocked back to his normal self, his predator receding into dormancy.
With a strange awe on his face, Felix is the first to speak. “Did…did Kaleb just curse inEnglish? Is this the sign of the coming apocalypse?”
Kaleb glares over his shoulder and kicks a large, metal cage none of us want to consider what it was used for.
Nolan does a silent count on his fingers, announcing, “If we count the damns, which considering it’s Kaleb so we definitely should, then he cursed, inEnglish, four separate times.”
