Chapter 34
Chapter 34
“Cass, listen…” Colt stands behind me and whispers.
We stand in front of the door
to my father’s office readying ourselves to go in.
“I can’t react in there.
Whatever I am told to do, I
have to do it.”
“I know, Colt. I understand.”
“I…I just don’t want you to hate me if I have to do
something…bad.”
I look back at him and smile.
“I could never hate you.”
He lifts an eyebrow up. “Are you sure about that? Didn’t you hate me already before
all of this?”
“I didn’t hate you. I disliked you. There is a difference.”
I knock at the door and
suddenly feel my butt cheek being squeezed.
I gasp and look back to find a chuckling Colt.
“Enter!” I hear my father say.
composing myself, I open
the door and walk in. His
office is big and spacious. So it’s no surprise to find a few people in here and it still doesn’t feel cramped. Victor
and Garret are also here
along with the Beta, Archie.
“Alright, my daughter. Let’s see what you can do. Come here.” Warrick holds a pack member by his shoulder and puts him in front of me. A
man in his thirties. He looks
a bit frail, more like a human
which tells me he is not a
healthy werewolf. Maybe it is
because he is mistreated.
“Command him,” Warrick
says.
The man looks at me with
fear. Taking a deep breath, I
stare at him and think of
him putting his hand on his head. Something simple. But nothing happens and I am not surprised. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be this easy because if it was, then I
would have been able to do
this a long time ago and I probably would have
realized that I had powers a
lot sooner.
I sigh with disappointment.
“Hmh…perhaps
encouragement is needed
here? Victor, your knife.”
My eyes widen.
Victor immediately walks up
to me and takes out his
knife.
“What are you doing?” I
quickly ask taking a step
back.
“It’s silver?” Warrick asks and
Victor nods.
Warrick gives him a nod.
Victor takes the knife and
presses it against the weak man’s neck. It immediately
burns his skin and the man
screams and shakes but he
doesn’t dare to move away.
“Stop! What are you doing?!” I try to take the knife away from Victor but he quickly
moves it away.
Warrick holds my wrist and
moves me back to stand in front of the man. “Every
time you fail to command him, he will be punished. Now, again. Concentrate.”
I look at all of them. They all stare at me waiting for me to
follow orders.
I take in a deep breath and
try again but this time I
really do give it my all. I
stare at the man and
somehow try to force the thought into his head. The
man stares at me as he
shakes but nothing happens. If he would just move at all then I could lie and say that
that was it. But he doesn’t do anything but stand there shaking.
I look down, giving up, and shake my head. the man
screams in pain as the knife
touches his skin.
“Again,” Warrick says.
This goes on for about half
an hour until Warrick finally gets irritated.
“Are you sure you have done
this before!?” He shouts at
- me.
“Yes!” I say. I explained to
him when it happened and
that’s when he starts to look
pensive.
“Maybe…you need even
more encouragement.” He nods to himself. “Yes.”
He suddenly grabs the knife from Victor and swipes it
across the brittle man’s neck.
I gasp watching the man fall lifeless on the ground.
Nonchalantly, Warrick wipes
the knife clean as he looks
pensive.
I am speechless with my hand on my mouth holding
the scream that wants to
come out but the anger
inside of me starts to grow.
“You… all are monsters!” I
shout.
Warrick finally looks at me.
“And you are too…soft. You will learn my craft,” he says handing Victor his knife
back.
“I don’t want to be like you,” I
respond.
Victor’s eyes widen as I say
this and the others look
surprised and a bit afraid.
Warrick walks close to me. “But you will be, I’ll make sure of that.” He puts a hand behind my head, tangling his fingers in my hair, and then pulls me close. “And if you keep talking back to me like this, I will cut your tongue out.”
This is why anger is so
dangerous to me. When I
lead with it, I do not think
about the consequences.
“Do it. I will still find a way to
say what is on my mind.” I
say.
“Ah…there it is,” he says
which confuses me.
“What?”
“I was starting to doubt that you were my daughter at all but I now see myself in you.”
He pushes me back and I almost fall to the ground but
I don’t hit the floor because
Colt catches me before I do.
He straightens me up and moves away from me.
Warrick walks back to his
desk. “Keep her in her room today. No meals. I’ll go easy on you this once but mark
my words…I will treat you like a dog if I have to. You will learn my ways.”
Before I can answer him
back–and I was going to answer him back–Colt takes
me by the arm and pulls me
away.
“Yes, Alpha,” he says and
leads me outside where he
quickly lets me go. “Are you
okay?”
“No. Yes…I don’t know.”
He sprints up the stairs and I have to keep up because he is going so fast.
“Colt…wait up.”
He doesn’t answer until we
reach my room and he
opens the door. “Go in.”
He looks away into the hall,
ignoring me.
Feeling deflated, I go inside
and he closes the door
behind me. I am throwing
such a pity party for myself
that I don’t notice that he is
in here with me until he hugs me from behind. I feel like a toy in his arms as his
b*dy completely covers me. My b*dy suddenly relaxes feeling like I am almost melting. His mouth is on my ear and I hear him breathe.
It relaxes me even more.
All I can think of is that poor
man. How terrified he was
and how he looked at me.
How can anyone be so
heartless?
“Stay with me,” I whisper.
He sighs. “It’s too early, Angel. I have to be seen outside of your room.”
I nod but I am disappointed.
He turns me around and
softly k*sses me. It is a gentle k*ss as if I would break at any
moment.“You are not alone.”
He whispers and then k*sses my forehead.
I watch him turn and leave, closing the door behind him.
Because of him, I don’t feel
alone. If he wasn’t with me,
I’d be crying in a corner the
whole time.
I take in a deep breath and
head to the sofa where I
spend the rest of my day watching TV.
I am not brought dinner but I think my father has a few
screws loose. He forgot that I have junk food in my little fridge and that is what I eat.
So I am not starving by the end of the night.
As I am putting chips in my mouth, I start thinking.
Everyone in the office
seemed a little surprised when he basically just gave
me a slap on the hand and
left me off easily. I don’t think they are used to him going easy on anyone but why did he? Why not really punish me like he does
everyone else? He barely
even knows me.
I ponder this the whole night until suddenly, Colt comes
- in. He closes the door behind
him and sits next to me.
“Almost everyone is asleep by now and I have two hours
before Serge comes for shift change. Come here.” He pulls me to his chest and holds
- me.
This makes me smile. I
immediately hug him and
get comfortable.
“How are you feeling now?”
He asks in a soft voice.
“A bit better I guess.”
“What can I do to make you
feel better?” he asks.
“This. Just this is enough.
Hold me.”
He squeezes me tighter. “Cass, I will get us out of
here.”
“I know.”
“I mean it. I heard of a few
people who are planning to
run,” he says.
“Run? So we are going with
them?”
“No. They will fail. But they
can be a distraction while we do our own escape.”
I can see how this can work
but suddenly, the poor men’s eyes flash in my head. All these people that are here suffering under my father’s rule. I feel selfish for leaving them like this even though I don’t owe anyone here
anything.
“I…I don’t want to leave…”
“What?”
I sit up and look at him. “I…these people…they are suffering. I don’t want to just leave them and I don’t want to use others to escape. They
will die.”
“Then…what do you want,
Cass?”
“I…I want to make things
better. I want to free them
all.”
“How?” He asks.
I am surprised that he
doesn’t shut my idea down.
That he doesn’t just try to
convince me to leave.
“Cass, how can you do that?”
What can I do? I can’t even
use my power.
Colt puts a hand under my chin and stares into my eyes. “I don’t want to force you to do anything you don’t want to do but…I don’t want to
lose you.
This place can
break you and I…I don’t want
to lose you. You are too good and Warrick…he is good at breaking others. He has
plans for you and I don’t
want to see you fall.”
But…can he break me? I have
lived all my life with people
who tried to do just that and never once did I break.
Ezra comes to mind.
Oh, how he tried but failed
time and time again.
Suddenly, I have a thought
or rather it is more of a
realization.
I have gone through so
much. I am pretty strong to be where I am now.
“Cass?”
I had been deep in thought until Colt called my name.
“I really do need to learn how to use my power,” I say.
“Well, yeah. You’d have such an advantage over Warrick.” He says. “If I am honest…” He suddenly lowers his head looking just a bit ashamed. “I…well, this was my thought at the beginning when I learned who you were. I wanted to use you against him and I am sorry. Back then I didn’t feel about you
as I do now.”
I put a hand on his cheek.
“It’s okay. I am not angry
about that.”
“You’re not?”
I shake my head. “No. But you are going to make it up to me.”
“I am?” he asks lifting an eyebrow seeming amused.
“Yep. Slap me.”
“WHAT?!” He pulls back and doesn’t jump to his feet only because I am on his lap.
I start laughing realizing that I should have explained
further.
“I need to learn how to use
my powers. So I am
commanding you to slap
me.”
“WHAT?” he asks again which makes me also laugh again. “Why slap? Why not something else?”
“Because I will know it is
real. I could command you
to k*ss me…”
And he does just that. He
k*sses me with a smile. After
tasting his lips and enjoying it, I pull back.
“See. That did not count.”
He sighs. “I am not going to
slap you. I would never do
that.”
“I know. That’s why I am commanding it.”
He crosses his arms. “Good
luck with that then.”
“Slap me.”
“No.”
“Slap me.”
“No!”
“Slap me!”
“NO!” he now shouts.
“SLAP ME!” I shout back.
He slaps me.
I gasp. He gasps. We both
gasp
and look at each other,
shocked.
“You slapped me!”
“I–I–I…I didn’t!” he stutters.
“You….slapped me…
“I….” He looks at his hand as
if it has a mind of its own
and then looks back at me. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
I start laughing
uncontrollably. “It worked!”
I continue to laugh but Colt does not look happy at all.
I throw myself at him and
k*ss him as he is still
confused and upset.
Suddenly, we hear a few
knocks on the door, and then
the door starts to open.