76. Caleb

**Caleb**

Ben looks at me, and recognition flashes in his eyes. I take out the ash wood dagger because I want to inflict as much damage as possible before I kill him. “You can leave,” I say to Tatiana as I get closer to the bastard that abused Red for so many years. He mumbles something about me ‘being shot’ and ‘dead.’ I suppose he heard nothing about my recovery.

“When shall I return for you?” Tatiana asks as she stands next to the portal.

“When I am done with this piece of trash!” I say, not looking at her. Tatiana disappears inside the portal. “Do you know who I am?” I ask him as I play with the ash wood dagger.

“A-Alpha Caleb B-Black,” he stutters. “But y-you are supposed to be d-dead. P-Paul sh-shot you w-with a silver b-bullet.”

I shrug. “It seemed the Goddess had other plans!” I casually say as I show him the scar left by the bullet. “But I am not here to talk about that.”

“I had nothing to do with the destruction of your village! I promise! The Vampire Queen and the Demon King are the ones who ordered everyone to do it! Said he would kill everyone if we didn’t do it. I was trying to run away from the battle when the witch caught me and brought me here!”

I narrow my eyes. “We will talk about the Rogue Village later. Right now, I want to talk about Rain Blackwater! Remember her?”

He grits his teeth. “She is my son’s soulmate,” he replies.

Raven growls.

“Was! Until Jordan rejected her because he caught you abusing her and thought she was with you willingly! He never stopped to think his father was a pedophile and took pleasure in abusing young females from the pack!” I snarl at him. “Jordan might be your son, but thank fuck he is better than you! You had him beat up for almost two weeks, so he would force a mating bond on Rain! You are the father of the year!” I say ironically.

Ben realizes why I am here and pulls at the handcuffs holding him to the chair. “Please!” he begs. “That little bitch is lying. I never—”

**‘Did he just say what I think he did?’** Raven growls.

I growl, and I am upon him in a blink of an eye, the dagger pressed to his neck. “Did you just call my soulmate a ‘bitch?’ I dare you to say it again while you look into my eyes!” Ben whimpers when I push the dagger harder against his neck, cutting him.

Ben swallows hard, blood running down his neck. “I-It w-was a mistake. I did not mean to call her that.”

I look into his eyes for a few more seconds, knowing that’s exactly what he wanted to call Red because that’s how he saw her. The pain I am about to inflict to this male! I take a few steps backward because if I look a second longer into his eyes, I will forget about everything and kill him quickly. “We both know you are lying, so drop the shit. Now, if you confess what you did to Rain, I might let you walk away from here, but if you keep lying to me, I will kill you! Slowly and painfully!” I say while ice knives appear in the air. His eyes widen with fear. “Do you understand?” I snarl, and he mumbles something. “How old was she when you first touched her?” I growl my question because I already know the answer, and it makes me sick to my stomach just to think about it.

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Ben whimpers.

I say, “Wrong answer,” and one of the ice knives cuts off part of his left ear. He cries out in pain. “Let’s try again, and you better give the right answer because if you lie to me again, you will lose the entire ear!”

“Please!” he begs some more.

“How. Old. Was. Rain?” I snarl each word.

Ben does not reply, and I command my magic to cut off his left ear little by little.

“Ten!” he whimpers.

Raven paces inside my mind. ‘Son of a bitch!’

The ice knife stops. Blood comes out of what is left of his ears. “Ten,” I say back. “You sick fuck touched an innocent child that had no parents to protect her from you, her Alpha! The male that was supposed to take the place of her father! What did your soulmate say when she felt the Pain of Betrayal?”

“My soulmate was dying, and I told her I was sleeping with another pack member!”

“You are disgusting!” I say. “While your Luna was sick, you took advantage of young females!”

“I am sorry!” he says. “Please!”

“Sorry?” I bark. “What exactly are you sorry for?”

“For touching Rain!”

“So, you are sorry for putting your filthy hands on Rain?” I growl, and Ben nods. Fear flashes in his eyes as a knife moves closer to his left hand. “Did she ever beg you to stop?”

“Yes!” he replies when the knife starts to cut into his thumb. “Please don’t kill me! You said you would let me live if I told you the truth!”

“And did you stop when she asked you? When the other females begged you to stop hurting them?”

“No,” he whimpers his reply.

“Then why should I?” I ask as the knife cuts his thumb and he howls in pain. “Besides touching Rain, you hurt her with your fingers!” When he loses his index finger, I ask, “Was that the finger you used?” He mumbles something while the knife slashes the next finger. “If you don’t reply, you will lose all your fingers!” I snap as the knife cuts the remaining fingers from his left hand and moves to his right one.

“I don’t know,” Ben replies in a weak voice while I order my magic to remove his remaining fingers.

Next, the knife cuts his pants. “Not only that, but you forced her to touch your disgusting dick! Among other things!”

**‘That is not a dick; that is a worm!’** Raven scoffs as we catch a glimpse of his prick.

Raven and I take our time, torturing Ben for many hours and inflicting as much pain as possible. He begs for forgiveness until I remove his tongue. When I am done with him, I bet that even his mother will not recognize him.

Not long after Ben dies, a portal appears in the cell, and Tatiana steps out of it. When she sees Ben, she covers her mouth with her hand. “Did you have to skin him alive?”

I shrug. “I once watched an episode of Game of Thrones. It inspired me.”

“I don’t want to ask about the other things you did to him because it is making me want to vomit. Where is his dick?”

“Up his ass!” I reply as I approach the portal. “Can you have him taken away from the Werewolf Palace?” I ask as I step inside the portal, and I am taken to the battlefield.

The sun is about to set, and I look around. The bodies have been removed, but the snow is still covered in the blood of the fallen warriors. So many have died today. I drag my feet inside the Palace and find my pack gathered inside the banquet hall. Instead of laughter and happiness, there is only tears and sadness for the ones we lost. The coffins have been placed close to the walls and Red is in the middle of the banquet hall, comforting pack members.

In a corner, Hannah is crying over one of the coffins. When we were preparing for the battle, Holgan was talking about how happy he was because he had finally found his soulmate. He and Hannah wanted to have their mating ceremony as soon as possible. Conon and Jeremy are close by while Katherine, Sarah, and Viki are trying to comfort Hannah. Next time I see Tatiana, I need to ask her to thank the witches who saved Conon’s life.

I force myself to enter. Red comes to me, and together we talk to the pack. I express my regrets and promise to avenge the dead. Time passes in a blur, and I don’t know what time it is  when Red takes me back to our suite. Sky is already in her bed, sleeping. Red leads me to the bathroom and helps me remove my clothes. The jeans I wore during the fight are ripped and full of blood, while the jacket stinks of death. Red gets the hot water running and is about to leave when I grab her hand.

“Stay,” I tell her, and she nods.

She takes off her clothes and steps inside the shower. I push her against the wall and kiss her as if it is the last time I will do it. She clings to me, and I roam her body with my hands. Goddess! How I need her. The only thing stopping me from fucking her inside the damn shower is that I am still covered in blood.

Once I am clean, I take Red to the room and put her on the bed. I kiss her, and when she is ready, I fuck her fast and hard. It doesn’t take me long to finish because I want to feel something else besides this excruciating pain that is making it difficult to breathe. After that, I take my time, exploring her body with my hands and lips. I lose count of how many times I make her cum.

“I love you!” she whispers while my body covers hers.

I slip inside her mind, and I see her memory of the first time we kissed. Red was so nervous, but the first time our lips touched, she felt sparks between us, she loved how I made her feel. The memory changes and I see us in the magic grove when we made love for the first time. The desire she felt for me back then was so strong it makes me hard again. 

“I love you too,” I whisper back.

My mouth finds hers, and I enter her body. Red bites my bonding mark, and for a moment, I panic, thinking it will hurt, but all I can feel is immense pleasure. I knot her and bite her back.

Sometime later, I let Raven take control, and he spends the rest of the night with Safia.

In the morning, we bury our dead. The pack spends the time mourning while Red and I get ready for the meeting with the other Alphas and Lunas.