Caleb Wyler
The cells with their disgusting aesthetic was part of being locked up. They were anything but pleasant, but I already knew this from the few times I'd been down here to chew out unruly pack members too drunk to hold their heads up. I'd told a member one time that he should have thanked the patrol for bringing him in and not letting his mate see him in such a state. Once he'd sobered up, he did say thank you.
I just hadn't guessed I'd ever be on the other side of it.
I fixed the rock hard pillow behind my head while the broken spring mattress poked me in the kidney. Water leaked from between the brick crevasses and trickled down through the moss. The single drain set in the floor, I could see backing up in the spring from melt, without fail. It was a shit hole, and that was giving it too much credit.
In the dark, musky hours I spent staring at the ceiling, I tried hard not to think of my mate and newborn pup. Left in the hands of an omega patrol wolf I'd never paid much attention to, I'd never guessed that would happen either. He had to have balls smaller than a cockroach. Maybe he liked that angle, maybe he enjoyed a submissive lifestyle where his mate had him in a cuckold. Maybe he got off on that. For the life of me, I could not grasp why though.
I enjoyed the pressure of bills, a high stress job, and above all, the daily responsibility of looking after a mate. Providing for Olivia had been the biggest honour I'd ever and would ever be given. If I failed to make it out of here alive, it would make me a disgrace. I owed her my survival. I owed her my life.
“Wyler!” A guard stepped into the entrance. “Look alive.”
I sat up with less enthusiasm than requested and stayed sitting on the bed as Bryon marched over to the iron rods.
“Olivia and the... pup have been recovered.” His glare came with less authority than a mouse but he did try to come off with more balls – had to give him that.
I approached the limits of the cell. “They need a doctor.”
“It's not my concern.”
“If you're playing Alpha, it is your concern.”
“Oh, I see. Playing am I?” He smiled at me. “Does that make her mine then?”
As much as I attempted to stay calm, I felt the rage slithering it's way forward into a growl.
“Don't worry, once you're overthrown officially – I'll take good care of her for you.”
A quick surge of wolf instinct did it. I lunged forward against the bars and grabbed a fistful of his poly cotton blend. He collided forehead first against the cage and gripped the rusting iron like a sailor about to be thrown off a tossing boat.
I took his throat and directed his attention back on me. “I promise when you mercy under me in the fight...” His eyes bulged when I started to squeeze. “I won't stop until your guts are all across the floor.”
“Drop him!” The guards ran towards us and I gave him one last snarl before letting him go. Bryon fell to the ground for the second time in front of me, this time wheezing and gripping his throat like a pussy.
“Punish him!” Bryon was lifted off the floor by the other guard.
I squared my feet into a defensive stance, just in case they decided to try it.
“What are you waiting for! Beat him!” Bryon demanded.
The guard turned away from me. “The patrol boss told us not to touch Caleb.”
“I'm Alpha! Do as I say!”
It made me snort out a laugh when the guards refused, even after the theatrical display of his whinny shouting method. “Why don't you come in here and do it for them?”
Bryon's eyes snapped to me. “You cocky bastard, remember who has access to your mate and pup!”
I kept my mouth shut and let him feel his win. It would be the only he got anyway.
“That's what I thought.” Bryon strode away. “He gets no supper!”
The guards both looked to me with their uneven breaths.
I questioned all their morals just then. “You're going to blindly follow that?”
Their shoulders deflated and one muttered, only loud enough for me to hear, “sorry, Alpha.” I'd given him this guard job in the prison. He'd been a part of the garbage pickup team before.
The males shuffled off and the door shut behind them. In the silence of the cold, damp cell, I put my head against the iron bars. I was hungry. I couldn't remember the last time I ate but it had to be close to forty-eight hours. Worst than my need to eat was my fear for Olivia. I knew they wouldn't let me see her. I knew this because I knew the prisoner laws – and that meant I had zero rights, aside my one right to Alpha that I had to win back. The brutality of that weighed on me. I hadn't thought I'd been a bad Alpha, but Lara had put a black mark on my portfolio.
My forehead cast the indents of the iron bars into it as I leaned against the hold of them. If one thing was certain, it was that those cells were made to withstand the force of a few angry male wolves all at once. Not even I, pissed off, could break out.
Hours passed like the slow ticking of a bomb. I waited but I didn't know what for.
“Alpha.”
I opened my eyes as I looked up from my stance at the bars. The young guard from before stood before me, holding something wrapped in foil.
“I brought you this.” He walked forward with definite hesitation and extended the offering.
My mouth watered as the air in the room shifted the smell of beef into my nose. “Thank you.” I tore back the foil and bit into the juicy canteen burger – hot from the patrol supper.
“I'm Paul.”
I did remember that once he'd said it. “I interviewed you for this position.”
“Yes, sir.” He swallowed.
“Do you like the job?” I asked between bites. I'd almost finished the burger and wished there were ten more to devour.
“I do and I don't smell like trash anymore so that's a plus.”
I smiled. “That must help with the ladies.”
“It – I – yeah...” He finally nodded after the roundabout of his embarrassment. “I'm hoping I find my mate soon. I've been saving money to build us a house with this new salary, it makes it easier – that's if I ever find her.”
“I'm sure you will.” I wadded the empty foil in my palm and held it out for him to take.
“Sorry you have to be here. I would have never stuck you in here – I think Bryon just wanted your house.”
I growled from the thought. “I'm sure he's enjoying all the perks.”
He sighed. “For what it's worth, I didn't vote against you.”
I nodded. “Thanks for the food. I know you broke orders.” It hadn't been enough food but it had been better than nothing.
“Starving you gives them an unfair advantage. Anyway, I better get back to the door post...”
I watched him leave. “Paul.”
He turned back before leaving.
“Is Olivia alright?”
“I'm not sure... I heard though, she's with her parents.”
It was good enough for me. as long as she wasn't in that house with Bryon alone I could rest that night without much worry.
He lifted a hand in a wave and the iron door was shut and locked again.
The cot across the cell invited me like a whore with syphilis might. I sneered as I lied back to stare up at the ceiling, as it slowly dripped water to the second hand mattress. If hunger didn't do it, the state of breathing in mould spores just might make me lose my winning edge. I snorted at that thought and shut my eyes hoping the cold would put me to sleep if nothing else.
#
“Caleb.”
The grogginess over the past three days had been my undoing but the familiar voice pulled me straight out of it. I turned my cheek and looked across the cell, past the iron bars, to Johnathan. I got to my feet and hoped it wasn't a delusion. “John. You're alive.”
His patched up throat with gauze and medic tape had a nice Frankenstein aura to it. He swallowed as I approached. “Bryon will be here in a few minutes to go over the challenge rules.” My Beta lived, I didn't give a shit about the challenge rules.
“It's good to see you--”
“Caleb.” He shifted uncomfortably. “I'm just here to recite the rules.” From his coat pocket he plucked a rolled wad of paper. “Once Bryon gets here...”
“I know the rules... and why the fuck aren't you in the top position at the moment? You are the Beta.”
“It's for your best interest we go over the rules.” Johnathan spoke to me like I was nothing more than a prisoner. Coming from my Beta, it struck a painful chord inside me I detested. “More importantly, it's for the best interest of Silvermoon. You understand... it's business.”
The door opened and Bryon walked in wearing a slick leather jacket that looked familiar. I was surprised he fit his fat shoulders in it.
“Is that my fucking coat?”
Bryon paused from whatever was about to come out of his mouth and turned toward Johnathan, speaking in hushed voices.
I rolled my eyes. “Read the rules already!”
Bryon looked up at me with a grin as Johnathan unrolled the wad of paper and cleared his throat.
“You will fight all contending males one on one, shifted, to a forfeit or death. There will be a ten minute break between matches. If you are successful, your Alpha title will be reinstated to Silvermoon. If you lose a match, that male is given your position in the fight. You have no right to forfeit...” His eyes lifted to me. “You must fight to the death.”
“No right to forfeit?” I repeated the information.
Bryon narrowed his eyes on me. “That's right.You either win or die.”
As disturbing as it all was, I didn't let it affect me. “How many challengers are there?”
“Twelve males have risen to the challenge,” John said. “That includes Bryon and myself.”
My eyes flashed up to him as I approached the bars. John let out an uneven breath while trying not to let my stare affect him. “You, John?” I'd never pegged him as wanting Alpha. he'd been a good Beta right until the bitter end. When I'd come across him on his deathbed, he'd still stayed loyal to me and helped save Olivia. Without John fighting for his life in the name of our pack, I never would have found her. This new turn of events did affect me. It almost made it unbearable and I wasn't sure if, when it came down to it, I'd be able to fight him.
John brushed it off like a pro and diverted his attention to folding up the paperwork. “Any further questions, Caleb?”
“No.” I growled.
“Great.” Bryon clapped his hands after a moment of severe silence. “See you tomorrow at the challenge.” His eyes snaked off me as he turned and left. John stepped back with a bow of his head in my direction and trailed behind. I couldn't tell if it was shame or just that Bryon had gotten to him and broke his loyalty to me. I'd felt many things in life but abandonment from my entire pack wasn't one of them.
When the door shut, I lost all my cool. The yell that erupted from my lungs made me rage toward the only thing I could and I flipped the mattress on end across the cell. It didn't make me feel any less fucked though. Sure, I'd made mistakes before but none would compare to this and who suffered the most would not be me but my mate and pup.
If I failed this, I failed them.