Ryan’s P.O.V.Being a brother to Bella and her siblings; it came naturally to me. I never had to try a thing or mould myself for that role. It was like I was born for it but since the past year I think I’m failing at being a brother miserably. I don’t like seeing her going through all that shit alone. She ignores all of us and closes herself up. But most importantly, she closes up on me, she never does that. We are the kind of brother and sister who have been through each other’s happiness and troubles. Hell, I was there when she first got her period and I till date know when it’s about to arrive.
It’s like my duty to fill her kitchen with junk food, ready to cook fries, ice cream containers, etc; right before her periods arrive. I stay at her place, sometimes crash in her bedroom as well; because the cramps and back pain that she suffers are too much to handle for her. She faints due to the pain, sometimes pukes her guts out, some days she doesn’t eat at all and some days all she does is eats. I have been through her mood swings, which no one can handle, except for Rose.
I’ve been with her since the first time she rode a bicycle to the time when she got her license and even when she got her first car. I’ve been there when she got her first pimple to the time when she went to her prom. So I am basically a part of her life just as much important as she is of mine. I don’t think even my own sister would love me and care for me as much as she does and same goes for me. But whenever she distances herself like this, it hurts.
We all know for a fact, that her punishments are turning more brutal and scarier day by day. It’s nothing wrong because she punishes people based on their crime. Once we caught a rogue, who crossed our pack borders. He was a spy and was not ready to say shit about things like which pack he belonged to or who he worked for. So Bella kind of took things a notch up. She beat him up, to say the least.
The beatings were harsh; his body was all black and blue from the bruises. She asked him a couple of times to open up, he didn’t. She took the truth serum and inserted it in his bloodstream; then wired his body with an electric shock machine. The serum and the machine are made in such a way that they co-work together. The machine senses the change in the electric impulse in the body, so whenever he lied, it passed an electric current of about 100 watts.
After a few shocks, he started speaking up and soon he told us everything about himself, about his old pack, about the one he works for and everything else. Once Bella was convinced that there wasn’t anything more left to know, she increased the charge of current to 350 watts. I still remember her words, all she said was, “Thanks for your service. See you in hell” before she flicked the button on and let him jolt a few times, until all that left was an empty, lifeless vessel.
She has her ways, though they are brutal but justifying at the same time. The rogue belonged to the group who were planning war on us; not just war but their plan was to kill the males and capture the females so that they could use them for satisfying her own personal needs and kids for some kind of experimentation. We never got any information about what kind of experiments were they planning to do, but no such things happened again, so we never bothered about it; yet kept an eye open for security purposes.
It doesn’t bother me how many people she kills because that is her duty being the Warrior head of our pack. It doesn’t bother anyone, including Matt and Caleb. What bothers us the most is the drawback of her toil; the shortcoming of her action, the downside of her deed. The silence that follows after her work is done is deafening. She avoids us, she avoids me and that’s the only reason I don’t like it when she takes up tasks by herself.
It’s the same shit going round in circle; she get a prisoner, interrogates, kills, gets guilty, closes ups, avoids us, stays quiet and all alone, slowly starts working again, turns normal, after a few days she gets a new prisoner and the cycle continues.
She did some really terrifying things tonight, things I can’t even imagine about. She didn’t look nervous even for a second while she was at it. We were watching it from Matt’s Office, but after a few minutes I just couldn’t do it anymore because I was petrified by looking at her actions. The guy was at fault and he did something for which he should be killed, but chopping, NO, slicing someone’s balls of his body is a major step to take especially if it’s a girl doing it. And she wasn’t satisfied with it so she burned him alive; not to forget the mini torture with the leeches.
When she interrogated that spy, it was her first time; after the work was done she closed up for about 4 days. We didn’t even see her, except for the part when she passed us in school corridors. This was way more brutal than anyone can think of, only the Moon Goddess knows how long she will close up for this time.
***
The morning after, it’s around 7.15 am when I make my way downstairs, determined to go and meet Bella before she leaves for college. I know she is going to avoid me but one can try. As soon as I reach the living area, I see that Matt and Rose are already settled on the dining table and Caleb is sitting on the couch flicking through channels on television. Everyone looks tired.
No one actually slept last night, the interrogation carried on till around 4 in the morning, after which she left the cell to visit Ava. And that is the exact time when we thought that it was finally over and went to sleep. We woke up around 6.30 am and decided to check the cams when we realized that David, the culprit was no longer there; instead of him, the cell floor was covered in something disgusting that was on fire. Matt called Michael to inquire about it and that’s when he informed us about the burning climax.
To say that everyone was speechless would be an understatement. No one knew how to handle this news and how to react at it, what to say to Bella or what to ask. I turned towards Matt to tell him that I was going to meet Bella when the front door opened and standing in front of me were Iris and Mia.
“Where is she?” is my question when I see them enter the pack house with their brothers’ tagging along.
Mia just gives me a small smile as Iris replies, “She left for college around 20 minutes ago.”
“WHAT?” shouts Caleb.
“She is back to her silent ways and she didn’t even eat breakfast today” says Mia, concern etched to her face.
That is exactly what I was worried about.
I glare daggers at Matt for his stupidity to let her handle it herself, he looks guilty, but that’s not going to change anything, is it? She is already messed up and now we don’t even know for how many days she is going to avoid us. If only we could get her to talk to one of us. She already left, that means Rose can’t talk to her unless she is back home, which will be around 4 in the evening, it is too goddamn late.
What can I do? What should I do?
I’m busy with my thoughts, when suddenly Matt’s phone starts ringing. He furrows his brows as if he didn’t expect a call from the said person. And all my questions come to a rest, when he answers the call.
“Mason?” is his first word as soon as he picks up the call.
I don’t know what Mason says, we all see Matt shaking his head listening to him and then reply with a few hmms and yes, finally with an Okay he disconnects the call.
“What did he want?” asks Caleb.
Matt ignores Caleb’s question which is laced with jealousy and turns towards me and says, “Bella called him. Though I don’t really think she is going to eat much, but she asked him if he wanted to have breakfast with her.”
“What the hell?” shouts Caleb.
“Shut up Cal” I reply irritated by his behavior now.
“What do you mean, shut up? He is stealing Bella from me and you want me to sit quietly?” is his dumb reply.
He did not just say that.
“She was never yours for him to steal, you asshole. Stop talking about my sister as if she is some trophy to be won”
“Fuck you Ryan” he yells.
“He is much better than you and you know that she is happier with him. So stop behaving like a jealous asshole when we have bigger problems to deal with” I bark at him.
Iris and Mia come downstairs; I didn’t even realize when they went up to settle the boys in bed. Thank god they did, the boys don’t need to see this. I am busy looking at my younger sisters when Caleb says, “Bigger Problem? Her closing up is not a problem. It’s just how fucked up she is, it’s not the first time she is doing this. So get over it.”
Hearing this, I’m furious, how dare he say this? But before I can even say anything, Iris shouts, “What the fuck did you just say?”
Oh Boy, she looks mad.
Mia is usually the ‘calm’ one and Iris was always the ‘live in the moment’ kind of girl. On hearing Iris say that, everyone turns towards her; but what catches our eye is a fuming Mia walking towards Caleb with her hand forming a tight fist. She stops to stand in front of Caleb, grabbing him by his collar and shout in his face, “Some sick kind of love you have towards her, don’t you? If I ever see you near her or talking to her, I’ll kill you. Do you hear me dickhead?”
“You heard her jerk. Stay away from our sister” adds Iris.
“Okay, enough with the fights. Iris and Mia, go to school. NOW” booms Matt’s voice.
They look at Caleb one more time with disgust and leave for school. Rose doesn’t look so good herself. I don’t know about Matt, but I know Rose is just as pissed at Caleb as I am. She notices my pained expression and comes towards me engulfing me in a hug and says, “She will be fine Ry. She finally got someone who really loves her and is there with her to help her through tough times, unlike some prick. Don’t worry. Let’s see how she is at college today and then we’ll take it forward from there.”
I acknowledge her idea and start walking towards my room. She grabs my wrist and asks, “Where do you think you’re going?”
I just shrug and reply, “My room.”
“No. You are not skipping your breakfast. You heard Matt, Mason is with Bella and if I learned something about him till now is that, he knows how to handle things and I have a feeling that Bella will be having breakfast today. SO stop being a baby and come have breakfast with us” she rants.
“I’m not hungry Rose” I whine.
“Oh. No mister. You don’t get to play the ‘I’m not hungry card’ on me. Bella will kill me if she knows that I let you go to college without having breakfast. And I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE” she replies to my whining, more like shouts.
Girls! I tell you.
“I hope Mason knows how to touch her heart, when we can’t” I murmur slowly making my way towards the dining table.
Rose replies, too confidently, “Oh. He does and he will.”