Broken [In Revision 2023]

Chapter 12 - Divisions

He felt like he was floating, he had expected pain but the only thing he was aware of was voices. They sounded way off, or perhaps in a different room. They sounded angry, but he couldn't remember why.

The pain woke him sometime later. His head felt as though it had been cracked in half and incompetently put back together with some cheap sticky tape. He could feel the bruises blossoming on his skin and the sting of the hundreds of small cuts from being thrown in the bed of his uncles truck.

His name was being spoken with venom in the hallway, it was all he could pick out of a heated discussion being held in hushed tones. It was the first time he wished he could have his equine hearing, so he knew what he was facing when the door eventually opened.

It opened with enough force to knock the vase off of the cabinet it collided with, not that Caleb's mother noticed, she was too focused on her son. Her face was puce with rage, the veins in her forehead throbbing dangerously. For a moment all she could do was spit fury at him, none of the words in her head seemed adequate for the situation in hand.

Any hope of feigning sleep was lost, the smashing vase had made Caleb jump and he knew his mother had seen it. His mouth felt painfully dry, but he managed to croak out an apology.

"You have no idea what you have done," she couldn't look at him instead she focused her gaze on one of the oil paintings on the wall behind him, "you've ruined everything, and for what? What have you achieved?"

"I'm sorry," Caleb repeated.

"Aidy got stuck Caleb, you have no idea how scary that is. You promised to be there for her and you bailed on her, you knew she was scared of being left here on her own but it meant nothing. You let your jealousy win."

"That's not what happened," Caleb said tiredly, "uncle Adam..."

"Save it," his mother snapped, "Your father has had to drop everything to come up here and patch things over with Adam. You're ripping this family apart, enough is enough Caleb, we're taking you home and then you'll have to figure something out for yourself."

"Mom please..." Caleb struggled against the ropes that bound him to the chair.

Tears were welling up in her eyes as she spoke. "No, Caleb. No more." It only took one look at his battered face for her resolve to start crumbling, her anger subsiding with it.

"You're forgetting something," Adam said casually as he walked in, "He almost got us shot." Sensing drama he took up prime position, resting his backside against the dark wood sideboard under the window. "Connor, Aidy and I all went on the look out for him and his 'friend' took a shot at us."

"What?" said Caleb's parents in unison, his father hovering in the doorway. All eyes turned to Caleb.

Caleb wilted under the pressure, he already felt queasy due to his head injury, but now his insides tied themselves in knots. "I didn't...," he struggled to chain his thoughts together, "you took the risk... Jake would never have shot Aidy."

"Jake? Who the hell is Jake?" His father looked to Adam in confusion.

"The human he's been living with I presume, Randy, the one who gave him the clothes and a place to stay," Adam said, struggling to conceal his smug grin.

"Great, this just gets better and better." His father shook his head and started pacing.

"I haven't told him anything," Caleb said defensively, "He doesn't know what we are."

"We," Adam shouted, incredulous, "You are not one of us, you are not a shifter, but you are bound by our laws to keep our secret, as a carrier." His nails dug deep into the varnish of the cabinet he was perched on.