Callista.My room is cozy and spacious, with a quaint little fireplace lit already. A white door leads to a tiny bathroom already stocked with generic toiletries. There is a four-post bed with a white comforter and grey pillows, a little dresser that looks antique, and a desk near the only window in the room along with a wardrobe. This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a wardrobe. The floor of the room is made of stone and covered with soft rugs. There is a musty air in here like the room hadn’t been used for a while.All in all, it’s not a bad prison cell. Suppose I should be glad that despite his words, the King ordered his underlings to make me comfortable. For a moment there, I was certain I’d be thrown into the dungeons for my insolence.It’s far better than the accommodations I was given the last night I spent at my birth pack.Home. My heart twists in my chest, and unwillingly the sound of the maniacal howl rings in my ears. I am placed right below a wolf in the process of
Callista.Well, that is a bummer to hear. I guess Theon took Farris’s story about me attacking the guards back in the Leighwen pack quite seriously. With a sigh, I trudge to the desk in the room and focus on the tray.My dinner consists of steak, roasted asparagus, and a dollop of mashed potatoes. It’s quite rich, and I’m surprised at being given food that tastes like it’s been cooked for the King himself. Because I’d missed plenty of meals since the coming-of-age ceremony, I basically shovel the food in my mouth. After every morsel had been consumed, I tried to think of my next move.I lay all the facts I know in my mind.One, I’m the stealer.Two, Farris lied and sold me off to the Alpha King of North America. Without my consent.Three, the Alpha King Theon Valenti Rexellen of the Rexellen pack is my Mate.Four, because of the conniving madness of my family, he believes my sister is his Mate. How do I know this to be false? Ruelle told her mother that she didn’t feel a pull toward T
Callista.A week goes by, and my life becomes one series of events repeating from sunrise to sunset.Every morning I am woken up before dawn and given food. After, I’m taken for a walk around the inner courtyard. That’s what the friendly guard meant when he came to take me outside the very first day it happened. I’d been afraid that the King had finally had it with my nuisance and decided to dispose of me before I could become a real problem. Then I wondered it I’d been transferred to the dungeons. But neither of them happened. As the friendly guard says, Theon had thought that I needed some daily exercise to help me fight off the effects of being drugged with Wolfsbane. I’m a little touched by this, and I scold myself for being pathetic. The man had literally bought me, for Goddess's sake. Whether it’s knowingly or unknowingly did not really matter to me when I was pissed.After that, I’m taken back to my room, where I am to spend the day as I please. I have been given a heavily form
Callista.“What the actual hell?!” My mate growls, storming his way into my room. The guards are standing outside, silent as stone. Theon is seething, his lips pulled back into a snarl.Yet all I can think is how good he smells, and how much I just want him to take me in his arms and maybe just kiss me a little.'Pathetic, Callista, really pathetic.' I tell myself. The man looks like he wants to murder me! I need to grow a spine someday soon, I don’t owe him anything, much less subservience.“I save you from exile and give you a comfortable place in my castle, yet you don’t do the single thing I ask of you?”Oh, is that what he thinks this is about?“Comfort? What’s the use of comfort when I’m a prisoner here! It doesn’t matter if it comes with a shower and some cushions, a jail cell is a jail cell!” I yell back at him. “I’ve been ripped from the life I’ve led and locked up in a tower! The last thing I’d do is find it cushy!”For a second, Theon seems stunned at my outburst. Good.“Y
Callista.I remain near the bed as my adoptive sister circles me, like I’m prey caught in the web she has woven. Her face is deadly serene as if she doesn’t have a care for this world, yet her voice is hard as steel when she talks.And again, she is wearing my clothes. These further cement my theory on how she’s deceiving my mate.The audacity of this woman, I swear.“What’s up with your closet recently, Ruelle?” I ask, instead of answering her question, “Did Mommy and Daddy forget to pack your own million-dollar walk-in closet or something?”“Answer my question!”“Pass.” I sneer.She halts her pacing and stares at me. “Were you trying to tell him about feeling his scent again, Callista?” She asks, “What did you say he smells like, wet fur and dog vomit…”“What the-no, he smells of pinecones and sea breeze and everything warm and nice!” I burst out. Immediately, I realize what I said, and curse myself for giving Ruelle that information. “Oh, you bitch.” I'm blushing like an idiot.It
Callista.The crunch of Ruelle’s nose breaking under my punch is so, so satisfying.I’ve never been a violent person, hell, I've never even liked violence, which is kind of contradictory to what I’ve witnessed all my life. When you’re a werewolf, violence is an inherent part of life. So are blood and death. If a wolf wants to challenge their Alpha, they will challenge the Alpha to fight till the death. Then, the one who lives gets to be the next Alpha. The punishment for most crimes here is death or a gruesome beating. Or, if you’re really unlucky, a whipping. Jail is really a privilege for a crime, wolves weep in relief when they get life sentence with hard labor. The worst of it all is being exiled. I’ve actually heard some wolves say they’d rather be killed than be exiled. It’s a matter of honor. Personally, I prefer the latter option. Being without a pack doesn’t seem all that bad to me, especially when being in a pack is proving to be such a disaster these days.But I digress.“Y
Theon.“Ruelle!” I yell as I run down the stairs of the tower, chasing after my mate.My wolf is rebelling in my head. Before, after I had spoken to Callista and returned to my office to take care of pack business, my wolf had suddenly screamed at me that my mate was in danger. Immediately, I had taken off, my wolf guiding me up the stairs that led to Callista’s quarters. My vision had immediately gone wolf-like, the colors paling around me, and my mind had become singular focused. I had barely kept from turning into a wolf.When I’ve seen Ruelle on top of Callista’s, her fist colliding with the stealer’s eye, my wolf had roared. I didn’t have control of my body anymore.If I had, I wouldn’t have done what I’d done.With my actions, I have deeply hurt my mate. She had been the bleeding one, but I’d cruelly shoved her off in favor of Callista, the stealer. I hated myself for that. Yes, she had been hurting her, yes, I didn’t know what had happened, but Ruelle was the one who was hurt m
Callista.I look at my face in the mirror, hours after the assault, and realize that yeah, I do look as horrible as I feel.My face is swollen with purple bruises, and my eye which got hit was blackened. My eyes are tinged with red from all that crying, and my white t-shirt is white no longer. I look like I’d gone a few rounds in a boxing ring and lost the fight at the end.I have no one but myself to blame for this whole thing. If only I had controlled my temper and not fallen into Ruelle’s ploy... A knock comes from my door, and boy, I’ve had enough human interaction for the day.“Go away,” I reply petulantly, cringing at how wounded my voice sounds. Ugh, it’s going to take a while for me to heal, given how I was still wolfless.“Yeah, not doing that.” The friendly guard says as he opens the door. I turn to him, only to see him holding a Ziploc bag in one hand and my dinner in the other. I didn’t even realize it was nighttime already, and I don’t particularly feel hungry, but the