dark cravings

Caius Winters

A live band was playing inside my skull when I managed to crack my eyes open.

The ugly patchwork stone of the pointed ceiling was the first thing I saw before Dante’s heady scent scratched at the back of my mind.

“Hell?” My voice sounded alien even to my ears, and apparently, the one growl was all I could muster before my tongue flopped back heavily.

A dark chuckling noise purred somewhere close to me and I recognized it as Dante’s.

I hadn't imagined him…The Alpha…he was here! 

Did he have a chance to search me yet? 

The letter was damning evidence of treachery…if it got into the wrong hands…the Alpha’s hands…

I didn't want to imagine what he would do to me for that kind of betrayal.

What on earth had I been thinking?

I shifted uneasily, trying to feel around my pants for the commander’s letter which I’d tucked in my belt, but it was useless.

“Rise and shine. Isn’t it funny, I prayed you didn't wake up so I would have a reason to kick your ass.” Dante’s deep, resonating baritone rumbled as he moved around the space, jostling things I couldn't see.

My breath hitched instinctively before the fog in my eyes cleared and I saw him. All of him.

His dark hair was ruffled like he’d been running his hands through his hair the entire night, and diet smudged the porcelain skin of his high, gaunt cheekbones.

His jaw was tight, and I could have sworn there was fear for me in his eyes when his gaze held mine.

I expected him to be enraged…murderous even…but instead, he looked broken.

Had he found it then? 

I swallowed hard, wincing when the saliva itched painfully at my throat.

I tried to speak, but my tongue lolled uselessly in my mouth so I could only groan..the noise rattling through my throat. Foreign and ugly.

What in tarnation happened to me? Where was I?

Every inch of muscle I could feel hurt like i’d been stabbed through it with a few hundred sparkling silver nails.

Dante must have caught me glancing around because I heard the smile in his voice.

“Oh, this little heap? You remember the stone tower don’t you? Fancy old place where we used to play before Father’s death.” He commented, and my midriff pulled tight when the rattle of chains echoed.

It was like he’d read my mind, and I almost choked on the spittle pooling under my tongue.

Blood and teeth scattered across the surprisingly neat stone floor when I spat out a bloody phlegm and my jaw fell open in surprise.

“Don’t worry…It’ll grow back.” 

Dante’s shrug and casual manner was too out of place…almost eerie even, but I didn't trust myself to speak just yet.

I glanced down to realize a thick band of dirty silver cuff had been placed on the V of my hips, and my teeth gritted when he hammered at something…a nail…to hold me down.

Many more of the chains extended from banded cuffs that had been hooked around my wrists and ankles, and I swallowed the flare of panic that rushed through my body.

That bad? 

Had my infection gotten that bad that he was scared of me escaping?

Or was this my punishment for betraying him? Rotting in obscurity without food or water?

Wolves were damned near immortal…i couldn't imagine anything worse than withering in isolation.

“You do remember, don't you?” Dante paused, night-blue eyes flickering to my face as a nail glinted off the space between his teeth.

How could I forget the place where the shadow rebels murdered his father?

Kiernan never came over to visit after that..and then years later, took yet another thing that mattered to Dante. 

Leila.

Shit!

My eyes widened when the blurry memory of Mara’s limp body in my arms flashed through my mind and I swallowed hard, shooting to my feet too quickly so that a wave of vertigo dent me crashing to my feet.

Mara! I’d hurt Mara! 

Flashes of her horrified porcelain face as she screamed wordlessly at me cut through my mind and I let out a deep guttural groan that would have put Ronan’s defender howl to shame.

Was she alive? Had I killed her? 

My claws tightened to fists at my side before I tried yanking on the chains, its heavy rattle only exhausting me.

The Alpha turned back tk watch me struggle, his eyes taking on a dead look until I stopped struggling and he continued hammering away at the human-sized nails.

Was he trying to open a crypt with those things?

“Easy tiger. My mate is recovering. A minute longer and she wouldn't have.” Dante said airily, wiping a hand on the leather vestcoat he wore over the long-sleeved linen shirt he wore.

White…stained with grease and dirt…and blood.

“Don’t worry, its not yours,” he joked, following my eyes to the conspicuous stain on his sleeve before waving a hand in dismissal, as if there were more important things than losing half a pint of blood.

I could feel something of his essence inside me now, stronger than the bond I now shared with Mara…its stubborn current knocking around the vilemess I felt sitting in my veins like lead.

“Gave myself an aneurysm earlier, wondering what the hell it was you were doing in The Darkness without telling any of your best friends,” the light note in his voice was deceptive, I knew from the tense way he hammered the nails in, the metallic force vibrating through my body.

He wouldn't look at me, I wished he would…for some reason his malice hurt more than his anger.

It wasn't the same as our fight over Mara…this was different…more personal.

Everything looked the same as the last time we’d been here.

Well…almost everything.

I tried not to look at the latch of stone that had become permanently darker than the rest of the gray.

The spot where the former Alpha’s dying blood had sat.

“Everyone okay?” I tried again, and my voice came out as an odd, disembodied gargle.

Was there something wrong with my throat? My face felt heavier than usual, and goosebumps scattered through the fur on the back of my neck when I felt thick raised welts beneath the fur.

I managed to turn my head, my gut sinking at the sight of the small metal bed in the corner and the metal bucket only feet away from me.

Was that for…No… no I wouldn't think of that now.

Just how long did he expect to keep me here?

“Caius?” 

My mind went blank at the curious note in his voice but I tried to keep my breathing steady when his gaze burnt into the side of my face.

I had always been shit at keeping secrets…at hiding things. 

Hell, the only reason we always got caught in all of our escapades was because I cracked way too easily. 

I was scared of disappointing the people I looked up to..Dante’s father…the father figure I always wanted but never had.

I wanted to be his favorite, tried my entire life to fit in so someday he would stop looking at me as the son of a dead king and start seeing me as his son instead.

“Why can’t Caius go with us, Papa? I want to play with him up in the range too!” A young Dante’s childlike voice played back in my head.

I could still remember the way i’d paused before the large wooden doors of his room, holding my breath excitedly.

It was a chance for me to train with all the royal elites.

To have the warlock who was Dante’s father teach me his skills and battle tact, but the words that had left his lips made me stagger back in shock.

“Listen to me carefully, Ant. A wildling is always a wildling. You m teach that Winters boy all your secrets and one day, he wouldn't be happy with just that. One day he’d want your throne too…then what are you gonna do?” 

“Share it?” Dante answered cutely, but his father’s dark barking laughter made my eyes widen until they bulged from my head.

My heart raced wildly as i’d struggled to clamp a hand over my mouth, careful not to misstep and alert him.

Much like Dante…if there was an uncanny ability his father had, it was his Eagle eyes and hawk-like hearing.

“No, sweet boy. If he ever tries to take your throne you put the wildling down like a good dog. You kill him.”

I couldn't have heard anything after that because my head filled with blood and I walked back to my smaller, crampier room on wooden feet.

It had been the first time I’d truly missed my father, and the last, because I never asked to go with them to the range again.

Not until Dante’s father decided I was ready.

Better have a wildling who knew how to fight than know who would be shit on the front lines.

The Alpha’s ringed fingers brushed my hair now,    and my jaw clenched when he dug in deep, his claws stabbing into my sore scalp.

“Can you hear me, brother?” He mumbled, leaning in close so that I could smell the ale on his breath.

Laziel has always been the one with a wine problem, but this was much worse.

I feared he’d been drinking since he found me, and guilt carved a line through my heart until I feared it would shatter.

I could hardly swallow, only just managing to nod when the Alpha’s dark eyes sharpened.

“Why DID you go into The Darkness?” He was almost sympathetic in his interrogation, as though he would pardon me if I confessed I almost plotted to murder him in his sleep.

And that Commander Winters had everything to do with it.

How long had it been since that sordid night? Three…two days?

I raised my head to peer through the wide windowless squares of the cell, and my stomach sank when I saw the red setting in the horizon.

Evening. It had to have been at least a day. I couldn't remember anything after reaching for the gates.

Nothing except short bursts of images that flashed occasionally through my mind.

“Will you not tell me, even now?” Dante’s deep voice had hardened and soured…like old yeast, rising until it was unsightly.

Blood drained from my face but I kept my lips pressed tightly together, knowing he could use his Alpha voice or Laziel’s pretty confessor to get the truth out of me and yet somehow hoping he wouldn't.

The vulnerable look i’d seen in his eyes vanished a second after as he leaned back on his feet, glaring down at me silently.

‘Hit me…i know you want to,’ 

My face seemed to say, but he unlocked his jaw, running a claw through his hair when a creepy distant smile stretched the corners of his lips.

“I don't know what it is you’re hiding, Winters. And I won't ask. But don’t ever betray me, you need to inform me when shit starts getting ugly, understand?” Dante hissed, the silver medallion he always wore around his neck bouncing off on the glossy gray stone above my head.

He was beautiful in a rugged kind of way. Like a diamond in the rough. The kind that gave you glass cuts.

“I won’t survive another stab in the back after Leila. And if you have anything to do with it, goddess help me, I will make sure we all go down together.” He breathed with an air of finality that made the chill in the room feel like lava.

“Can I at least get a mirror? Or is that a hazard in this prison?” I tried to joke, missing the mark when his face remained frozen and my voice came out too slow and uneven.

Thickly-lashed blue eyes raked over my body while his lips pursed quietly.

Oh fuck.

Fuck…I must look like a horror show. It was the only reason I could think of why he wouldn't give me another one of his smart-ass comments or sarcasm.

I watched my best friend leave, the cold sweat colliding on my brow when he tugged lightly on the chain, flashing me a punishing grin.

“Don’t worry, the silver will root the poison from your body before it actually starts hurting you.”

The door rumbled shut before the metallic click of the lock connecting made me exhale the weight I hadn't realized had been resting on my shoulders.

I was tired…so tired from keeping my eyes and ears open that my head was pounding and blood pooled again in the back of my throat.

My head sagged into the crook of my shoulder blades as my vision faded all too quickly...to black.