Queen Of The Night ×Wyatt Lykensen×

•Old Resentments•

✴️Caleb✴️

I open my eyes and look around the room. My eyes are drawn to the window and I see that it's almost time for the sun to set which means we'll be leaving to attack the Reapers in a few hours. I look towards the sleeping hunter next to me and see that his back is facing me. We must have separated in our sleep.

I watch as his shoulders move with each breath he takes and I smile. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I'd be this happy. Alec is the reason why I'm so happy. He's going to head back to New York soon and I'm going to have to leave Seabrook to track down the remaining members of my clan. Who knows how long that'll take.

I know one thing though I'll come back and so will he. No matter how long it takes we'll see each other again. Knowing I won't be able to go back to sleep and I don't want to risk waking Alec with my restlessness I carefully slip out of bed. I grab and pull on my clothes and as quietly as possible I slip out of the bedroom.

I head downstairs and enter the kitchen, finding Cade leaning against the counter, staring down at his phone with a furrowed brow. At my entrance he glances up at me while I open the fridge to grab a bottle of water. "Couldn't sleep, either?" I ask after closing the door and turning around to face him. He shakes his head and I untwist the cap and take a drink.

I screw it back on and try to figure out how to start the conversation I want to have. "Um, Alec told me that you helped him out. Told him to keep trying to bring me back."

"So what? All I did was tell him to use common sense. No big deal." I sigh internally there's the stubborn and dense Cade I know so well. "I'm trying to say thanks."

He scoffs and looks up from his phone with a disbelieving expression. "Listen, I don't know what the point of this conversation is, but I know it's not worth my time."

"Cade, we used to be best friends—"

"Oh, I'm definitely not in the mood to have this talk. We used to be best friends, key word: used to! What daddy dearest did to you screwed you up, you basically became leader of the Clan at age 12 and suddenly you were too good for me. For anyone. You stopped talking to me ever since, like I wasn't worth your time."

"Cade, that's not—" He slips his phone into his pocket and glares at me. "Do you have any idea what you did? Huh? What you put me through? You left me alone! I was considered the runt of the litter, the black sheep, the outcast. And you just suddenly act like I no longer exist! You didn't even have the decency to at least tell me why you wouldn't talk to me. To explain why you were suddenly icing everyone out. You isolated yourself by choice, but you have no idea what it's like when it's forced upon you."

I stare at him sadly as he curls his hands into fists and the light reflects off his shiny eyes. "You think you had it bad? At least you had one parent that loved you. My mother died during childbirth and my father blamed me! But you already knew that. And because of who my father was made me an outsider. The bad seed. All because we're related to the asshole that caused the downfall of our clan. That got them trapped all those centuries ago. I was labeled a villain since I took my first breath so I just became the monster they always told me I was. You were the only one that thought I was worth a damn until that day. Then I was just a piece of trash that you couldn't be bothered with."

"Cade, please."

"No! I don't want to listen to anything you have to say ever again. I don't want an apology, an explanation, or whatever it is you're about to say. I'm going to save Cordelia, the one who's been there for me since I was thirteen, and I'm going to leave Seabrook. Just like you wanted." He pushes away from the counter and heads past me towards the hallway that leads to the stairs. "You were the first boy I ever had feelings for." The words come tumbling out before I could stop them in my desperation to keep him from leaving.