Page 292 of Caged

I frown.

“In under an hour,” he adds.

I blink. “Why would she put it in soil?”

“That doesn’t matter,” He snaps, raking both hands through his hair. “What does matter is that your father had blood with magical properties hidden inside your home. Blood that he’s using to hurt other people. Things I know you know about.”

“I don’t. I don’t know about anything he was doing.”

Despite the way my voice wavers, I push on. “We’ve been over this, and my answer isn’t going to change. I don’t know what my father did. I only know what he did to me. I don’t know who he worked with outside of Alexander or what the blood he had was for. All I know is what I’ve already told you.”

I pause to take another deep breath, then decide… to hell with it.

“Caelan is my Mate.”

Dax rolls his eyes. Vae exhales as if I’ve disappointed him.

“He is.” I insist. “And when he wakes up, you’ll have to believe me. You’ll have to listen. You’ll have no choice.”

I laugh, but it’s not a funny sound. “Do you think I wanted this? Do you honestly believe I was some mastermind pulling strings for the man who kept me locked away for years like an animal?”

They don’t answer, and that just makes me angrier.

“Do you think I volunteered for this?” I demand. I stand and take a step closer, heart pounding with fear and anger. “That I wanted to be the daughter of a man who locked me in a basement just like this one for days without light, or food, or water?”

Vae flinches. Just barely, but I notice it. Like what I’m saying makes him uncomfortable.

Good. My whole life has been uncomfortable. It’s only fair he’s forced to acknowledge it.

“I spent my entire life tiptoeing around the moods of a man who was supposed to protect me. Who was supposed to love me. I was his daughter.” My voice breaks. I don’t even try to fight back the tears that fall. There’s no use.

“I thought if I could just be good enough, quiet enough, obedient enough… he might finally love me. So I stayed away from him. Stayed on my wing of the house. Read books and thanked him for allowing me two meals a day like I was some pampered guest in my own home.”

I scoff, bitterness coating my every word like venom. “Do you know when I finally stood up for myself?”

Neither answer.

“The day after I met Caelan. Father came to my room and realized someone had been there because my door wasn’t locked from the outside anymore.”

Dax tenses, but Vae’s body goes completely still. My voice is steady, even though my limbs continue to shake.

“He threw me against a wall, used Alpha Command to try and force an answer out of me. Then choked me until I nearly passed out.”

I narrow my eyes at Dax, and then at Vae.

“I never told him, because even then, even after only a few minutes, I knew Caelan was important to me. I kept my mouth shut.”

I straighten my spine, even though fear has sweat blooming on my palms. The air is stifling now, so much warmer than it had been minutes before.

”Right before he left my room, he told me that he’d find out who I was protecting and he would ruin them while I watched. Then he said he would bleed me dry.”

In the next breath, a sob tears out of my chest. I can’t hold it back anymore. I’m so tired. So exhausted. So sick of reliving the horrors over and over again, just to be dismissed and called a liar. All because of some misplaced loyalty and extreme self-denial.

Do I understand why they believe what they do? In a way, yes. I understand some of it. I understand what they heard and how what I said when I was concussed probably sounded, but they’ve been unfair. They’ve been cruel. They haven’t listened to me or given me a single chance.

And these are my Mates. On top of all of it, these males are supposed to be mine. They’re supposed to be the ones who will protect me and have my back and love me no matter what. Fate made us for each other.

I just… I can’t do it anymore.