Calliope's Mate - Book 2
Chapter 21

Caleb ran the fastest he had ever gone. He was at the palace in under an hour. He shifted into his human form as he ran into the front hall. Calliope was standing in the middle of the room, waiting for him. He ran up to her and embraced her. He pulled her tightly against him. Tears fell from his eyes.

“Cali!” He cried as he nestled his face into her. He could feel the burns on his neck heal, the pain dulling as he held her.

“Caleb,” she gasped. “You’re squeezing me too tight.”

He let her go and stepped back. He looked at her eyes. She looked at him with love and concern. Everything he tried to do, every time he wanted to fight against her, rushed over his thoughts. Regrets and guilt weighed so heavy on him that he fell to his knees in front of her.

“I’m so sorry for everything that I’ve done. This is all my fault.” He said as he looked down to the floor.

Calliope reached down and took his arm. She pulled him to his feet and sat him down on a chair.

“Caleb, what do you mean?” She asked.

“I’ve hidden so much from you,” he said as he felt his mouth go dry. He bit his bottom lip. If he was going to be honest with her, it was now or never. If she wanted to reject him, he would accept it. If she sent him away, he would leave. “Cali... I’m half sun wolf. And not just in my blood, in my wolf, too. I can dual shift. I have both a sun wolf and a moon wolf form.”

“And my dad, it’s not Edwyn. His name is Aaron. He is a sun wolf. I was told as a child I needed to hide my real father from you. They said you would kill him, kill my family, because of who they are.”

“But not only that, I was told I had to kill you. That when you marked me, I was to kill you. That’s why I attacked you that night. I was told to force you, to make you mark me. And I hid a dagger in our room... in your room.”

“Caleb...”

“No! Please. Let me finish.” He begged. “I was so angry at you for so many years, I didn’t bother trying to learn from you, to hear your side of the brief war. That was until after that night. I felt so broken, so guilty for what I did to you. Even my wolf hated me and refused to heal me. I felt so ashamed of what I had become. You were so kind, gentle, and always truthful. But here I was, ready to throw all of that away.”

“But then when we sat down on the floor, and you explained it to me, showed me the memories, it all made sense. At that moment, I no longer hated you as I once had. I wanted to give in to our mate bond, to be with you. I only craved to see you smile, to make you happy. I had forgotten that I hid the dagger.”

“And then there is Alpha Bennett. I’ve been secretly meeting him since I’ve moved here. But since that night, I haven’t gone there. I wanted nothing to do with him, with his plan to kill you. I don’t want you dead. I want you here with me, with this child.”

“But tonight, Waylon cornered me. He had found the dagger, and Bennett had threatened to kill you himself. I had to go see him, to keep you safe. But when I refused to do as he wanted, he had me held down by a silver chain. He had my parents chained, too. But I fought it, and I don’t know how, but my wolf was able to burn the chain off.”

“Cali... I killed two men tonight.” He said as he began to choke on his words. He felt sick to his stomach. “And in that moment, I didn’t care that I killed them. Their blood, the stench of their blood, it didn’t bother me. Not then. But now, I can’t get the smell out of my head. It feels like I’ve bathed in their blood.”

Calliope reached over and took his hands in hers. She looked at him. She pitied him. She was sympathetic to how he was feeling. She had once been where he was. The first kill is always the hardest. It feels different. It changes you.

“Caleb,” she said softly.

“Why aren’t you upset? Why aren’t you yelling at me for lying to you? Why don’t you tell me you no longer love me? That I can’t be trusted?” He questioned angrily.

“Because I know, Caleb. I know all of these things that you are telling me.” She whispered.

“What do you mean? How could you know?”

“You aren’t the only one who has told lies. You aren’t the only one with secrets.” She answered. She watched as he frowned. He leaned back in the chair, pulling his hands away. “What are my gifts?”

“What?”

“Tell me what my gifts are,” she instructed.

“Y-you can bless people, you are strong, and you can overhear mind links.”

“Only one of those is true,” she said as she looked into his eyes. “I’ve hidden my gifts from you to protect myself. Caleb... I can give blessings; that much was true. But I can also create mate bonds. However, I haven't done so since Theo died. These two gifts came from the Goddess herself. They were gifts she had when she would be in wolf form.”

“But I’ve hidden two very powerful gifts from you. The first one is that I can freeze people. I can freeze a lot of people. I’ve been told I’ve frozen animals, too. But this gift I’ve rarely used. I keep it close to my chest, using it only as a defensive gift. I can count on both hands the number of times I’ve used it.”

“Lastly, I can see through my mate’s eyes. It was the first gift that I mastered. It wasn’t the first gift I ever used, but it was the first one I could use at will.”

“Wait...” He murmured as his eyes went wide.

“I’ve been able to not only see what you do, but I can hear too. I had to lie to you. I had to tell you that I could hear mind links so you and the others would talk out loud. It was the only way for me to stay one step ahead.”

“So, this whole time, you knew what I was planning? You knew about my gifts?”

“Yes,” she answered. “I looked through your eyes nearly every day before you shifted. I watched as they trained you. I watched as they hurt you. I watched as they schemed against me. As they brainwashed you. I saw the first time you ran really fast. The first time you dual-shifted. I watched and heard it all. Every trip to the cabin, every time you and Waylon snuck off. I knew everything. I needed to know everything.”

“You saw as they hurt me as a young child and did nothing?” He asked angrily.

“What would you have me do? They had already told you I would kill everyone you knew and loved. If I came there angry, angry because they hurt you, do you think you would have willingly left with me? I could not play into their monster stories. But if you had asked me, I would have taken you away. I had hoped you would have asked.”

“You lied to me about so much.” He mumbled as he clenched his fists.

“Because I knew you were going to kill me!” She snapped. Caleb’s gaze shot up to meet hers. “You can’t be angry with me for lying. My end goal was not to kill you! But that was your goal! I refused to mate with you until I knew you weren’t going to hurt me. I tried so hard for years to get you to change. I wanted you to be with me the way I wanted to be with you. But I had to safeguard my own safety! The safety of all of those around me. You can be mad at me all you want, but I was fighting to live.”

“And even then, even knowing you were going to kill me, I still loved you. Through it all, my feelings were not a lie. Everything I did was to be with you. Only once have I faltered in my love. Only once did I regret you. And that was the night you tried to force yourself on me. That night, Giizis was ready to kill you. Only my love protected you. But that night, to protect myself and my people, I needed to reject you. I was ready for the pain that came with it.”

“When you later sought me out to apologize, I was talking with Theo... with that stuffed wolf, trying to build up the courage to reject you. I was preparing myself for the pain. And that broke me. I was not scared of the pain that was going to come. I was afraid of seeing you leave. I was afraid of losing you. But then you came in, and you apologized. I selfishly didn’t reject you. I let you stay, even though you were a risk. But I had hope. I had hoped you wouldn’t betray me.”

“And you didn’t. I watched how you changed. How you refused to see Bennett. And then, you surprised me. You were changing out the perfume pouch without me ever knowing. You did something for me, to remind me of my first mate. Even though it made you feel unwanted. And then I couldn’t hold back the urge to complete the mate bond. All I could do was hope it wasn’t a mistake.”

“Do you think it was?” He asked. He felt hurt; he felt guilty. He felt torn. But all he wanted was to be in her arms.

“No,” she answered quickly. “I don’t regret it. I don’t even regret lying to you. I did what I could to get us to where we are. And this isn’t how I wanted to tell you. But is there ever a good time to admit when you have lied? Especially over many years?”

“I guess not,” he said as he looked at her.

How could he be angry when all she did was try to stay alive? He looked at the tears that ran down her cheeks. She was hurting, just like him. He opened his arms, inviting her over to him. She went to him and wrapped her arms around him as she sat on his lap.

“There’s one more thing,” she said as she took one of his hands in hers. Her lips quivered as more tears fell. “You need to know. You need to watch.”

Caleb looked at her worryingly. But he listened. His eyes went red, and he watched her memory. He saw a meadow. It seemed early, and there was a thick fog. He heard someone yell out in pain. Then he heard a voice, a voice he had heard through Calliope’s memories. It was Theo. He gasped as he realized she had watched him die.

He watched Theo fight. He could hear him beg Calliope to stop watching. He watched as the chains held Theo down. But then, he saw him. He saw his great-grandfather. He had seen him so much through his own Grandmother’s memories. There was no mistaking him. He watched as he raised the sword, and then, there was only darkness.

Then he heard Calliope in her memory. He listened to a blood-curdling scream that reverberated through his body. It sent chills down his spine. She screamed for several minutes, not stopping. And Calliope had him watch all of it. She didn’t bypass anything. She wanted him to see it all. And then, she held her memory in the darkness. She needed him to see.

“Because I was looking through his eyes when he died, I became blind. I was permanently stuck looking through the eyes of my dead mate. For 62 years, I was blind. Only my wolf could see. So, for 62 years, I spent most of that in my wolf form. I’d go years without ever being in my human form. I was more wolf than human at that point. But then, you came along.”

She then showed him her first memory of seeing through his eyes. He watched how he stopped and looked off in the distance. He now knew that was west, that he had looked toward the palace. That was the first time he ever felt her, and he didn’t even know it.

He blinked his eyes back to normal. He looked at Calliope. He looked deeply into her blue eyes. He touched her cheek and pulled her in for a kiss. It was a kiss of longing, of needing one another. And in that moment, it felt perfect. It was perfect despite all the tears, anger, and sadness. This is where they were meant to be: with one another.

Author's Note: 😭

Another song!! I actually came across this song recently, and it just really fits all the emotions going on here:

Still worth Fighting for by My Darkest Days.

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