Her family
1256 Words
*Callista*
I stand outside Chase's office, trying to muster up my courage. I had wished my family would have waited a bit longer to visit, and hoped the ache in my heart would have dulled by now. Taking a deep, shaky breath, I step into the room.
Riley is sitting in a chair, holding his head. I guess the whiskey is to blame, not any sickness. Blaise had looked pretty much the same at breakfast this morning.
Rowan and Ryan are by my father's side. He pushes himself out of his chair, looking older than I wish he did.
"How are you, daughter?" He asks.
I move further into the room and take a seat. "Fine. I’m fine."
My father sits back down and leans forward. "Did the bastard hurt you last night?"
I'm taken aback, realizing Chase has never spoken about any member of my family with such disdain. He has never insulted them or suggested they were anything less than honorable.
"No, Father, my mate did not harm me." I say
"He didn’t hurt you at all?" Rowan asks.
Looking up, I catch Rowan's puzzled look. "No, Rowan. Did you expect him to?"
"Did he f**k you?" Rowan presses.
Riley suddenly looks up. "I don’t see where that’s any of our business."
"She came to him a virgin," Rowan states. "A virgin always feels pain. Did he or did he not f**k you last night?"
I'm shocked and hurt by Rowan's blunt words, feeling like my heart is breaking all over again. I wish I had the courage to ask them to leave.
"Answer him, girl," my father insists.
I stare at them, doubting if I truly know these men. I feel like I couldn’t answer even if my life depended on it.
"Sweet Goddess, you better not have denied him his rights last night," Rowan adds.
"Do you think he would have pulled the fence back if she had denied him?" Riley chimes in.
"I just want a simple answer, Callista. Yes or no," Rowan demands. "Did he f**k you?"
"That is absolutely none of your business."
I whip my head around to see Wade standing in the doorway, his hand on his gun. He nods at me. "Didn’t mean to barge in. I was looking for Chase."
"He... he had to check on the herd," I manage to say.
Wade nods again. "Well, then, I feel confident in speaking for him. You gentlemen need to be heading out."
The way Wade uses ‘gentlemen’ makes it clear he doesn't regard them as such.
Rowan scowls at Wade. "That sounded like an order. This ain’t your house."
"I’m gonna do you a huge favor, Windscar. I won’t tell Chase what I just heard. Now say goodbye to your sister and head home." Wade says in a tone cold as ice.
My father gets up. "We were leaving anyway." He pats my head as if I'm a pet. "We’ll keep in touch."
He and my brothers start to leave, Wade stepping aside to let them pass.
Riley pauses at the doorway, giving me a miserable look before he exits.
Wade takes the seat my father had just left. "Are you all right?" he asks.
I nod, pressing my trembling fingers to my lips, trying not to cry.
"Think there are any lemon drops left in Chase’s desk?" he wonders.
I shake my head. "I don’t think they could take away a sad this big."
I don't know how it happens, but suddenly his arms are around me and my face is pressed against his shoulder.
"Go ahead and cry," he whispers quietly.
The sobs come hard and heavy from me. "They don't care about me. They only want the land. Chase only wants a son."
His arms tighten around me. "I can't deny it looks that way, but sometimes things aren't always the way they seem."
Stifling my sorrow, I work my way out of his embrace. He hands me a handkerchief, and I wipe the tears from my face. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I ask, "How is Maggie this morning? Is her tummy alright?"
"She's right as rain." He says with a kinda crooked smile, due to his scars.
I hand his damp handkerchief back to him. "Thank you."
"You're more than welcome. I take it things aren't much better this morning." He says softly.
I shake my head. "Chase frightens me."
"I know. He frightens me, too, sometimes."
His words startle me. If Chase scares his own brother, what chance do I have of ever feeling comfortable around him? "Yesterday, when we were all in here, and Maggie ran to him, I was so afraid..." I sniff. "You were here. You knew how angry he was, but you let her approach him anyway." I study him, remembering how slowly, calmly he had come to his feet. "You knew he wouldn’t harm her."
"With the exception of doors, Chase isn’t one to direct his anger at the innocent." He says.
He wraps his hands around mine, just as Blaise had earlier. The small gesture is incredibly comforting. What I would have given if my father or brothers had done the same for me instead of badgering me for knowledge about my wedding night.
"It’s probably not my place to say this," Wade says quietly, "but it might help you to understand Chase a little better if you know..." He lowers his gaze.
Alarm rushes through me, and I scoot up in the chair. "Know what?"
He gives me an awkward smile. "I can talk to Briony about the war, but I had forgotten how hard it is to talk to others about it."
"The War Between the packs?" I ask.
He nods. "The War of the Northern packs Aggression is how Chase refers to it. I was twelve, he was fourteen when our pa enlisted us."
"Fourteen?" I ask, shocked.
"Yep. I was Pa’s drummer, and Chase... Chase was his second in command. A lot of the men resented that a pup was giving them orders. In the beginning, they gave him a hard time, and seemed to take delight in doing the opposite of what he told them to do. It bothered him, bothered him a lot. One night, I heard Pa giving him a dressing down because he had discovered some men hadn’t followed the orders Chase had given. Pa told Chase, ‘They don’t have to like you, but they gotta respect you and they gotta obey you.'"
I could easily imagine my father saying a similar thing.
Wade shakes his head. "Chase stopped caring whether or not they liked him. He stopped asking them to do things, and he started telling them. The habit stayed with him, even after the war ended."
It certainly did.
He leans forward. "I guess what I’m trying to say is that he doesn’t mean to sound angry or hard, but a lot of people depend on him... and he’s simply forgotten how to ask." He releases my hands and stands. "Well, I need to find Chase and head back home. Will you be all right now?"
I like the way he says ‘home.’ As though he knows of no finer place in the whole world.
"I’ll be fine." I say.
For long moments after he leaves, I simply sit in the chair and remember the comfort of his touch, the calming resonance of his voice. I can certainly understand why Briony had overlooked his scars and fallen in love with him.
- Writer
