Chapter 28
The Boys- Graydon
My phone starts ringing. I look at the caller ID and smile when I see Callyn’s name. Her dad must not be home because that’s the only time she would risk calling. She wouldn’t be afraid of being heard.
I answer, “Hey, Callie bear.” I hear her whimper.
“Help me,” she whispers.
My heart drops.
“Guys, we have to go now,” I yell. “Hang on baby, we’re coming.”
I don’t hang up. I want to hear in case something else happens. Plus, I need to keep Callyn on the line. I am checking my pockets for my keys when Zeke, Luke, and Max come rushing into the room.
“What’s wrong?” Luke asks.
“It’s Callyn. She’s on the phone and something is wrong. She just asked for help. We have to go.”
The look on their faces was shock, but every one of us run out the door, and across the street toward my truck, it has the most space. I need Callyn to tell me what is happening.
“Sweetheart,” she doesn’t answer. “Callie bear,” she still doesn’t answer. “Callyn,” I yell. Nothing. “No, no, no,” she has to be okay. I look over at Zeke, “She’s not answering.”
“Go, Graydon. We need to get to her.”
I nod, turn on the truck, and go as fast as I dared to get to Callyn’s house. We don’t even bother knocking. All of us rush in, I am floored by the sight of Callyn laying on the floor. I rush over to her, my hands are shaking. I place two fingers at the pulse point on her neck. I sigh in relief when I feel a steady rhythm beneath my fingers. I look to the others, who are all staring at me.
“She’s breathing.”
Lucian comes over and kneels beside her. He moves her hair from her face.
“Callyn, come on baby, open your big brown eyes. Please, baby,” his voice barely a whisper.
Max and Zeke come over and kneel next to her. All our hands hovering over her, afraid to touch her. After a few moments, we hear a groan, everyone visibly relaxes. Her eyes flutter open.
“Luke?”
“I’m here baby,” he says.
“So am I, Callie bear,” I say.
“We’re here to sweetheart,” Zeke says.
She breaks down and starts sobbing and it guts me.
“Baby, can you tell me what’s wrong? What happened? I’m afraid to move or touch you.”
“He beat me and it hurts so much,” she says through the crying.
“Where baby?”
“My back hurts the most.”
“Do you care if we look?” She shakes her head. Max who is the at her back, slowly moves her shirt up. Callyn lets out a whimper, the same time Max sucks in his breath.
“Oh, angel,” he says. He looks up at us and you can see the tears welling up in his eyes. It must be bad. The rest of us shift to look. I gasp, you can see the old bruises in some areas, but the ones, the new ones are horrendous. Some are so bad that they started to bleed. Her whole back is covered. We need to get her to the hospital.
“Baby, do you know why your father did this?”
She nods. I swear to all things holy that I will beat the fuck out of her father. How could anyone do this, especially to his own daughter? This beautiful, smart, wonderful, girl.
“Why, Callie bear,” I say as soft as I can, as I try to control my anger. She clenches her eyes.
“He knows,” she whispers.
“What does he know?”
“About you guys,” she states as she starts crying even more.
“We need to get her to hospital. Once she gets looked at, we can figure this out,” Zeke exclaims. Everyone nods and he moves closer. “I’m going to pick you up sweetheart.”
All Callyn does is nod. He scooped her up and she lets out this ear-piercing scream before falling silent. My heart is breaking after hearing that sound. My bear is restless, wanting revenge for the harm done to our mate. I can’t blame him, I want it too. I move closer to check on her. She passed out. Zeke cradles her to his chest, as we all stand. I hear a door being opened from down the hall. A man stumbles out, clearly drunk, her father. I clench my fists fighting every instinct to go and beat the shit out of him. My bear is roaring at me. He likes that idea. Her father deserves to get back everything he did to her and more. This asshole touched my girl, hurt her, for years.
“So, you’re the friends. What, is she screwing all of you? Are you the reason she is acting like a whore?” he slurs.
OH. HELL. NO.
Lucian
Graydon makes a move to go after Callyn’s father but I grab onto his arms. He looks at me and I shake my head.
“I’m not going to stand here and listen to him talk to and about her like that,” he growls.
“We’re not. We’re going to take Callyn to get the help she needs and make sure she never has to set foot in this house again. Go help Zeke get her in the car. Max and I will make sure he doesn’t come after her.”
He lets out a ragged breath, letting me know how wound up he really is. Graydon looks back at her father before turning to me and nodding his head. He moves ahead of Zeke to grab the door.
I turn to look at her father. “If you ever come after her like that again, I won’t stop him from coming after you. He won’t be the only one,” I said menacingly.
“You dare threaten me in my own home, boy?” He takes a step toward me and I take one towards him. I won’t back down. He stops. He knows I’m not intimidated by him. I’m not a small, defenseless girl.
“Threaten? No. Warning? Yes. Unlike Callyn, you don’t scare me. Lay one hand on me, my friends or her and I promise it’ll be the last thing you ever do.” I gave Max a nod of my head to signal for us to leave.
When we approach the truck, we see Zeke and Graydon in the backseat with Callyn laying across their laps. I take the driver side and Max the passenger. The keys are already in the ignition. I glance back and see her eyes are still closed. I don’t know if that is a good or a bad thing. A part of me wants her to sleep so she doesn’t feel the pain. The other part of me needs to see her eyes, to reassure her that she will be alright and we will be there with her every step of the way.
Turning back, I start the truck and head to the hospital. I’m constantly looking in the rearview mirror to check on her. At one point, I see Graydon rubbing circles on her ankle and Zeke rubbing circles on her shoulder. I don’t think they are even aware they are doing it. They both are staring out their windows lost in their own thoughts.
This brave girl. We knew. She fucking told us, but she downplayed everything. Now, I’m wondering how many times he has done this to her over the last couple of months. Well, not anymore. No way my girl is going to go through this again.
The Council cannot let this continue. Human or not, Callyn could have very well lost her life. It doesn’t matter that they abhor the fact that she is our mate, she is still a person. They must help now, there is no way they can let this continue. I won’t, no we won’t let this continue. If I must stand up to the Council and my grandfather, I will face each and every one of them down. From this moment forward, I will protect my mate, no matter the cost.
Maximus
We are quiet on the drive to the hospital. That silence has extended to the waiting room. We all called our parents, to let them know what’s going on and all of them rushed here. So, now all our parents are here waiting to hear any scrap of news on how Callyn is doing. It’s been hours. I’m going out of my mind and I’m not the only one. Graydon keeps getting up and pacing. He’ll do that until his father tells him to sit down. Then a few minutes later he’s up and doing it again. Lucian keeps running his hands through his hair and Zeke is staring off into space bouncing his knee. I keep running my hands down my thighs, not knowing what to do with my hands.
I can’t take the silence anymore. “Guys.” They all stop and look at me, even our parents. “What are we going to do? She can’t go back there.”
“First, we make sure she reports this to the police. I’m not letting that asshole get away with this,” Graydon states.
“Graydon, you need to calm down,” his father injects.
“I can’t, not until I can see her. But I’m serious dad, he can’t get away with this.”
“And I’m not saying he should. You are right, she needs to talk to the police. She must be the one to do it though. You can’t force her,” he says.
We all nod. “What are the chances of her having to go into foster care? She’ll be eighteen in a few months. I don’t know if I can take not seeing her anymore. I don’t want her to leave. She can’t leave, we just found her,” Lucian says, his voice is thick with emotion.
“How about we worry about all this after we can see her. I don’t care about that right now. I just need her to be okay. I need to see her eyes open. I need to hear her voice,” Zeke growls.
We all fall quiet. I have to agree with him. I need all that so much. I didn’t even know how much until then. My girl is laying in a hospital bed, who knows how broken. All I want to do is make sure I’m there to help her piece herself back together, I’ll even use gorilla glue if I have too. I’ll make sure she comes back better and stronger than before. I listen to what I’m saying. Holy shit, I like her. I mean I knew that, but it really just hit me exactly how much. I take a deep breath.
I can’t…we can’t, hide our feelings about Callyn anymore. Not to each other, and especially not to Callyn. She has a long road ahead of her. She is going to need all the love and support she can get. I know three other guys willing to do whatever it takes to help her through this. By the looks of it, our families will be there helping us along the way.
Zeke
I can’t believe I just said that shit out loud. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. If I’m honest, she had me hooked from that first day. My wolf from the moment we smelled her scent. The man, not soon after. The more time we spent together, the more I started to like everything about her. She is kind, sweet, and sexy. I can sit for hours and listen to her talk. As everyday passes, I fall a little more. Now, I’m sitting in a hospital waiting room trying not to breakdown, because I can’t be back there with her.
My sweet Callyn. My brave, yet timid girl. I hear a sound and see the doctor coming through the doors. All of us stand, but me and the guys move closer to the doctor.
“She’s awake. A couple of you can go back and see her. I can’t tell you anything about her injuries since none of you are her legal guardian. However, I can’t stop her from telling you.” We all nod. “I’ll take a few of you back to her room. Who’s coming?”
“I am,” all four of us say at the same time.
“Alright, then. Follow me.”
The doctor leads us down the hall and turns right. He stops at a door on the left about halfway down the hall. “Now, she might be a little loopy. We gave her some medicine to help with the pain.” He turns and walks away.
All of us just stand there looking at each other. I take a deep breath. Screw this I’m going in, they can follow or not, but I’m not waiting another second to see my girl. I push open the door. Callyn is laying on her side when we enter the room. I move over to her bedside and hear the shuffling of footsteps behind me. Graydon, Max, and Lucian come to stand around her bed. We basically form a protective wall. Good. We’ll make sure nothing ever hurts her again.
“Callyn,” I whisper. She moves slightly looking up meeting my eyes. She quickly glances around and sees the rest of us are there too. Her eyes light up like a Christmas tree. The smile she gives us, almost brings me to my knees. I want to grab her face and kiss the shit out of her. And I know right there, I’m a goner, stick a fork in me done. Callyn owns my heart and soul.