Calliope's Mate - Book 2
Chapter 14

Trigger Warnings: There will be a brief scene of attempted rape.

Calliope spent most of the day in her study with Lea and Briana. She knew that Caleb would not approach her in front of her companions. It would be three against one; four if Paige was there. So she felt secure in her little room of safety.

Lea and Briana didn’t need to ask about the prior night; they knew. They knew that Calliope could not be with Caleb so long as he planned to kill her. But they still worried about their Great Luna.

“You should have a guard be with you at all times,” Lea said as she looked at Calliope. “You shouldn’t be alone. He could pick your lock or, even worse, break the door down.”

“No,” Calliope replied, keeping her attention to her book. “I don’t want him to think I’m so scared of him that I need a personal guard.”

“But you are; I can see it in your eyes,” Lea argued.

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Calliope snapped. “I just... I want silence.”

“You should reject him,” Briana said. Calliope looked up at her, surprised. Surprised by the suggestion and surprised it was Bri who suggested it. “If he does not change, and soon, you should reject him. And not because he is weak, but because he is a risk, a danger to your territories. You know that if he kills you, your lands will be attacked and shackled under sun wolf rule.”

Calliope set her book down. She wasn’t angry; she wasn’t upset with what Briana was saying. But pain and sadness flooded her body. The memories of the pain of Gianna’s and Theo’s deaths hit the pit of her stomach.

“I don’t think I can,” she finally said. “I think I’d rather die than live through the pain of rejecting him. It’s selfish, I know. But I cannot live through it a third time.”

She stood from her chair and looked out the window. It was getting dark outside.

“I’m going to go run myself a bath and go to sleep,” she said to her companions.

“Do you want company?” Lea asked.

“No. You spend time with your children. I’ll be alright. I will lock my door behind me.”

Lea and Briana nodded as Calliope left the room. She walked down the hall and stopped at Caleb’s room. She smelled the air, but his scent was not strong. He must still be gone. She knew he left in the early morning hours, but she didn’t even care to watch through his eyes.

She continued down the hall to her room. His scent was strong by her doorway. She froze but then relaxed when her hand touched the handle.

He probably just tried to find me, she thought to herself.

She opened the door and walked in. As she closed the door, she saw him sitting in a chair. She froze. A shiver went up her back to her neck. A shiver of fear, a shiver of attraction. She held her breath, afraid that breathing in his scent would weaken her resolve.

Caleb stood from the chair. His eyes were glued to her, mesmerized by her. As he neared her, he saw the worry in her blue eyes. He went to touch her arm, but Calliope backed away from him. Her pulling away angered him.

How dare she not want to be near me, not want to feel my skin to hers? He angrily thought to himself.

“What are you doing in my room?” She asked him.

“This is our room,” he answered with a frown. “Or do you never intend to let me stay here? Treat me like a human consort that you will call for when you please?”

“Leave,” she growled. She took another step away from him. Caleb clenched his fists and stomped to her, forcing her back against a wall.

“I will not leave,” he hissed, grabbing her face. “You are my mate. You will lie with me in this bed, and we will mark each other. Tonight.”

He yanked her from the wall by her arm and dragged her to the bed. He grabbed her dress and tore it from the back. Calliope spun around and struck him against his jaw. He stumbled back from the jarring hit. He looked at her with an angry glare in his eyes.

He reached over and grabbed her hair. He pulled her head down to the bed as his other hand ripped her dress further apart. She struggled beneath him, but he was pressed against her. His was taller and heavier, and she couldn’t fight against him, not in human form.

She reached over with her hand and gripped his wrists. She was able to get him to release the grip on her hair. She closed her eyes and threw her head back, slamming it into his face.

He yelled as blood rushed from his nose. Seeing the blood caused him to step back from Calliope; he needed to assess the damage done to him.

Calliope took the opportunity to step away from him and shift into Giizis. Caleb looked up in fear and began to run towards the head of the bed. Giizis ran over and knocked him to the ground on his back.

She pressed her paws onto his chest, pinning him to the floor. She snarled, inches above his face. Saliva dripped from Giizis’ mouth onto him.

If you ever attempt to do that to me again, I will kill you. I will bear the pain of losing another mate, and I will forever be alone. Do not test me, pup. She yelled at him over mind link.

Caleb looked at her in shock, in awe, in fear, in every emotion he could convey. He had not expected her to shift in her room so quickly. Nor had he expected her to threaten to kill him. He did not think she was strong enough to go through the loss of another mate willingly.

He tried to shift, but he couldn’t. His wolf refused to come out. And with each struggle, Giizis pushed hard onto his ribcage. He groaned in pain as he could feel his ribs begin to buckle under the pressure.

“Fine,” he gasped with what breath he could gather.

Giizis stepped off of him. But when he began to sit up, she moved forward with her head, growling in his face. He laid back on the ground, defeated. Only then did Giizis back away. She went to the door and pushed it open with her nose.

Calliope lay inside the mind of her wolf. She curled herself into a ball, tears streaming down her cheeks. She had never expected Caleb to get so violent with her... so forceful. Her heart began to break. She knew she was going to have to reject him. Otherwise, she would end up killing him. She felt the pain in her stomach, the pain of losing your mate. She began to cry loudly, sobbing into her wolf.

Giizis looked to no one as she walked through the palace. She walked until she came to a set of doors. Calliope was too upset to even talk over mind link, so Giizis began to whine loudly.

The door opened, and on the other side was Beta Blake. He quickly opened the doors wider so Giizis could come in. Lea looked up from where she sat with her three children. She quickly got up and hurried to the wolf. Giizis went in front of their bed and laid down on a rug.

This was a familiar place for her. When Calliope was still blind, Giizis would sleep here often. Even when Lea was a child, Giizis slept in her room by her bed.

Lea wanted to speak and ask what was wrong, but she could feel Calliope was in distress. She looked up to Blake. They mind-linked one another before Blake left. Lea curled up with Giizis on the floor. Two of her three children hesitated to approach the giant wolf. They were her older sons. The third child, her little girl, walked over as best as her little legs could walk. She had no fear of the wolf before her. It was in her blood to have a bond with this giant creature. The little girl curled up with her mother, gently touching Giizis’ fur.

As Lea coaxed her other children to her, Blake stormed his way to Calliope’s room. He opened the door and saw Caleb on the floor. He walked over and looked at him. Blood was stained on his face, and on the floor were bits of a torn dress. Blake reached down and pulled Caleb up.

Caleb winced and wrapped his arms around his body. His ribs were still hurting. They were not healing from nearly breaking under the weight of Giizis.

“What did you do?!” Blake yelled at him.

Caleb looked at Blake with sadness. He had several minutes to lay on the floor reflecting on what had just happened and what he had done. He was upset with himself over what he tried to do. This wasn’t him, this wasn’t what he wanted to be. Even his wolf was ashamed, refusing to heal him.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, looking away from Blake’s gaze.

Blake was angry, but he was still a lower rank than Caleb. He wanted to yell at him, hit him, but his own body wouldn’t give in. Blake pulled Caleb closer to him.

“If I even get a whiff of you hurting the Great Luna again-”

“She will kill me if I dare hurt her again!” Caleb interrupted. But then the air felt like it got caught in his lungs. “I wouldn’t dare.”

Blake finally let him go and left the room. Caleb sank back to the floor in pain. Everything washed over him. Every emotion he pushed away, everything he had hidden in his mind and soul, came flooding out. He felt shame and disgust, not because he didn’t mate with her, but because he nearly forced her to mate with him. This woman who was always kind and gentle, whose smile was bright and vivid, he could not believe what he almost did.

The anger he had felt for her began to subside. The only anger he had was for himself. Hours passed by in the silence of Calliope’s room. Caleb pulled himself to his feet with a groan and stumbled to his room. He found Waylon sitting on his bed. He growled at him.

“What are you doing in here?”

“I had come to check on you. I heard from an omega that Calliope left her room in her wolf form, and you were in there. But I can tell by the dried blood that you tried something.” Waylon said as he went to Caleb. Caleb pushed him away and walked over to a sink basin.

He looked at the blood on his face and shirt with disgust. He threw off his shirt and washed his face. He could hear Waylon hiss behind him.

“What?” He growled.

“I’ve never seen bruises like that,” Waylon replied as he pointed to Caleb’s chest.

Caleb looked at his chest and ribs. He had considerable bruises in the shape of wolf paws. He touched one and recoiled in pain.

“Is Altan not healing you?” Waylon questioned.

“No, in fact, he refused to shift so I could defend myself,” Caleb answered.

“What did you do?”

“I tried to fuck her like Bennett told me to do!” Caleb yelled as he threw the water bowl onto the floor. It shattered upon impact. “I should never have listened to him!”

“I could have told you that,” Waylon said with a flick of his wrists. Caleb stormed over to Waylon and pushed him towards the door. “Wait, wait, wait! What I meant was that is not how you should have approached her!”

“You better talk quickly,” Caleb instructed as he stopped pushing Waylon.

“She is a girl; she likes to be wooed. I know you are angry with her, but you’ve seen how she melts in your hands when you are gentle with her. What made you think you’d get what you wanted by being forceful?”

Caleb listened as he pulled on another shirt. He had to go slow; lifting his arms caused him a lot of pain.

“I know, I know I screwed up. I’m so angry at myself for what I did. I can’t think when I have everyone else telling me what to do, telling me how I should feel. I am conflicted all the time in my heart and soul. I feel like everything would be better if I just caved and loved her as she loves me. And then... I also feel like if she killed me, she would be spared from all the pain I would bring her.”

Waylon walked over and slapped Caleb’s face.

“Love her? Wake up! Did you forget she killed your family? Tortured your family? You are supposed to kill her! Yes, be mad that you messed up, but this whole thing about being better off loving her or dying is nonsense.”

Caleb pulled away from Waylon. He left his room, not saying anything. Caleb walked the halls of the palace. Everything seemed oddly quiet, oddly empty. He would notice heads peek around the corner at him before disappearing. Everyone purposefully avoided him.

He was upset because he couldn’t figure out his own emotions. He had his mind and body pulling him one way; then he had his family pushing him the other way. Even Waylon, whom he thought he could at least confide in, pushed him away from Calliope. He didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know who to turn to.

He stopped at the painting of Theo and Amarok. He looked at it and wondered if Theo had ever had an internal conflict as he did. If he ever felt a push and pull all at once, splitting him into two. He felt someone step near him. He turned his head and saw Briana.

“My mother always said this painting never really captured Amarok’s size correctly,” she said without looking at him. “My mother, aside from Calliope, was one of the only ones who remembered the Great Alpha and his wolf.”

“I am a terrible Great Alpha compared to him, aren’t I?” Caleb asked as he turned his attention back to the painting.

“You are young.”

“Did Calliope struggle when she was my age?” Caleb asked.

“She did,” Briana nodded her head. “She had a lot of struggles that took years to overcome. Even when Theo died, and it was just her, she had her own internal struggles that she had to deal with. She still does. Her battles now are smaller compared to what she dealt with in the past, but she still struggles. Just as you are.”

“What can she have to struggle about?”

“There is a lot about her you don’t know, Great Alpha,” Briana said as she looked up to Caleb. “There is a lot of your internal struggle that could be solved by just talking to her.”

Caleb looked down at the old companion and frowned.

“I know you’ve been angry with her for a long time,” she continued. “You call her a monster; you treat her as such. But you’ve only seen the memories from one side. Yes, she has done horrible things, but she has her reasons. You will continue with this internal struggle because you refuse to get to know her, to know her memories. You struggle with your perception of Calliope. Of the stories you’ve been told. But you only know parts of the truth. You only hurt both of you when you refuse to at least try to talk and listen.”

Briana gave a slight bow and walked away. She sighed to herself. Even though she felt Calliope should reject him, she was willing to try to help them, at least. She loved Calliope enough to see past her feelings for Caleb. Even with what Caleb did hours ago, she knew Calliope would still try. She never gave up, even when it put herself at risk.

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