Forever Hers | 18+

C h a p t e r 10

It was obvious neither of them wanted to do it, but I could care less about what they wanted right now.

All that mattered was that after multiple seconds of staring him down, Alec drew a key from his pocket, unlocking me from the headboard before moving off of me entirely.

His green eyes didn't meet mine again as he tossed Caleb the key that once kept me chained, not saying another word as he left the room with a fuming silence that left me more sick than it did satisfied.

I barely had time to contemplate it, though, before the sound of Caleb clearing his throat brought my senses to him, even as I kept my gaze down on rubbing the ache away from my wrist.

It was my insistent tugging that made it hurt as bad as it did, but that still didn't stop the man at the door from walking over to my side, placing down what appeared to be some sort of grilled chicken with a homemade salsa spread over the top of it.

I winced as my stomach growled the second the smell hit my nose, but I was too focused on Caleb to really care.

This was the first time I was really able to look at him without all of the other chaos surrounding me, yet I almost missed the distractions of it all as he sat down at my side.

He made no moves to touch me, though I could tell he very much wanted to. Instead, however, all he did was run his fingers through thick strands of his white-blond hair, watching me as I made no move to get away this time.

To run right now would just be a waste of the energy I didn't have.

"You realize he was just trying to make sure none of your wounds get infected, right?" Caleb says, his voice barely above a whisper from how quiet he was.

I know I had got a reaction out of Alec, and that was what I'd wanted, but I suppose this was one of the very few downfalls of there being three of them.

They were all complete opposites of each other, each who targeted a side of me I needed to shield against. I'd stopped fighting last night because their touch had made me realize how exhausted I was of running, but I don't think I could be who they needed me to be anymore.

I don't even think I'm who I need myself to be right now, and it was awful.

The adrenaline of saving Nina is all coming to a crash on me right now, and when I found two pills to go along with the meal Caleb had heated for me, I knew they were the reason I wasn't screaming in pain right now.

"He shouldn't have touched me without asking first." I say, even though his words from earlier kept echoing in my head—about the blood and the fact I looked sick to him.

I hadn't had the courtesy of looking in a mirror recently, though I wouldn't be surprised if I looked like every bit of the hell he painted me as right now. I'm surprised I didn't smell to be honest, even with the new clothes.

"You're right." Caleb nods, not trying to argue or deny or divert. He was simply here, and he didn't demand anything of me in the process. Maybe that was why my heart slowly began to calm down after the panic that had just ensued, not just with the fact that I feared Alec was right but also the fact that they had handcuffed me in the first place.

"But," He continued, sitting down next to me, "Alec is also more scared than I've ever seen him before, and this... change in you probably isn't helping."

I watched silently as Caleb pulled the plate from earlier onto his lap before he began to cut the chicken into strips that were easy to eat, pertaining a kind of calmness I hadn't expected to feel from him.

Caleb seemed a little at peace right now as he spared me glances in between cuts, at one point stopping to offer me the pills he'd brought along with the water bottle already on the desk. While I kept quiet, I also accepted as I took the red capsules from his hand, noticing his pause as he watched me take them without fight.

Once he was certain I'd swallowed them both, he returned to slicing up the chicken breast, not stopping until all of the pieces were divided into manageable bites.

"Can I feed you?" Caleb asks after a long stretch of silence, food already speared on the fork in his hand. I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, he was already stopping me. "And yes, I am well aware that you're capable of doing it yourself. I want to do it anyways." He adds, offering me a boyish smile that made my chest hurt.

It was so familiar, so easy, so Caleb.

It took any words that I was about to say straight from my lips, instead leading to a single nod of my head before I opened for him.

I don't know why I did it, why I was feeling guilty for the way I spoke to Alec, or worrying for the fact Xavier still had yet to make an appearance. It didn't really matter, not right now at least.

The second Caleb brought the fork to my mouth, pulling it away only once I'd taken the chicken from the utensil, the hunger I felt became a much more dire focus of mine.

"Nina didn't seem this desperate for food when she woke up this morning." Caleb prodded the second it became clear how much I wanted more, my traitorous stomach rumbling yet again from how little I'd eaten in the last forty-eight hours.

Defensiveness arose all over again at the words that felt like an accusation, but I forced those feelings down as I instead said, "I made sure she was well fed before I gave her the NyQuill."

I can tell he had so much more to say, but he soon fell back into silence as he continued to feed me, tension unwinding from my body after enough bites managed to curve the raging hunger inside of me.

I saw that Caleb had a similar reaction, only his was for entirely different reasons.

He was being soft and gentle with me, trying to make sure I was cared for in the ways Alec so blatantly called me out for neglecting. It's not that either had a right approach, but that didn't change the fact that both still left me with more conflict than I could handle right now.

"So what?" I ask with a small sigh, continuing to eat from Caleb's hand bite by slow bite. "Is this some sort of game of good cop/bad cop to see which approach can get me to cooperate the most?"

My question was genuine even though there was a little bit of resentment to it, despising how different all of this was compared to what we once were.

Even if so much of it was my fault, none of us were innocent in this. I just didn't know what to do now that so many pieces have fallen out of place.

"Nothing about this is a game, darling." Caleb frowned in response, using my nickname with a kind of mellowness that opposed the obvious harshness of his face.

Of course it wasn't.

I knew that, but the problem is that it was the only thing I was certain about through all of this.

Everything else was a mystery, one I was terrified of uncovering.

"I know." I muttered, his eyes flashing to mine as though he hadn't been sure of that. The truth is that none of this was a game, and that's what made it so hard to face. "What I don't know is what you want from me."

Alec seemed like he wanted to strangle me as much as he wanted to kiss me. Xavier tried to kill my father only days ago, despite holding me last night like it didn't change things.

Caleb, he was taking care of me just like he used to a year ago—he took care of me as though I hadn't ruined everything by turning into a person I barely recognize half of the time.

"We don't want from you, Mads." Caleb says sadly, placing the mostly empty plate down on the table. When he then reaches out to touch me for the first time, his palm cupping the side of my face, I lean into his hold, even if it's just for a second.

One sweet, blissful, ignorant second.

"We just want you, darling. Nothing more."

- End of Chapter 10 -

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