Choleric

Chapter XXV

[Unedited]

PS: The pendant is the one from the first few chapters that Aleara gave Celia as a gift.

"My heart was oaken before you set it on fire. It will continue to smolder, long after the flame that ignited it has gone." ― Natalia Marx

"So who knows about you? About what your father did to you?" Celia asked as they watched the sunrise through the trees. No one had slept last night and the two had spent the entire time sitting in the middle of the clearings, putting their weight against each others backs. Her head had begun to feel heavy and she knew she would soon regret her decision to drink last night.

"Only my mother and Cash... and now you," he replied softly, staring into the sky.

They were silent for a minute. "And why does this all relate to the bad souls?" She asked and he sighed.

"Because I don't want to be a monster, Celia. I hate that it controls me... that I have no control over it," the last part came out in a whisper and Celia was beginning to realise why he was the way he was. He tried to control the outside world because he couldn't control what was within him. He wasn't scared to fall in love and have a mate. He was scared of the fact that after so many without feelings, they are now consuming him, drowning him and pulling him into their depths. It would be a terrifying thing to suddenly feel so deeply when he had been cut off from it at such a young age.

He shuffled a bit, waking up his aching muscles. The small movements against her back sent goosebumps down her arms and spine. Her perspective of him had changed dramatically overnight. SHe saw his true colours for the first time. The way he spoke of his father – not of hatred or distaste, but of sadness. It engulfed his deep, silky voice and had brought a large lump to her throat. She hated herself for making him talk about such things. Thinking back on the nights events she was nothing short of a dreadful bitch.

"When they were doing the experiments I was becoming someone entirely different to who I was born to be. My mother saw this and begged for him to stop the treatments... she had always hated him for what he did to me but she couldn't stop it. He was too strong for her."

Celia dragged her knees to her chest and held them tight. "I was sixteen when they took away my feelings. To this day I still don't know how they did it. I remember being dragged into the lab by my father and two warriors. He told me my feelings made me weak. I remember feeling so scared when they chained me onto the operating table and it was the last thing I ever felt. When I woke up I didn't feel a thing. Gradually over the years I figured out how to get close, although my methods weren't always pretty," he laughed to himself softly.

"But the thing was I was no longer scared of the operations. The doctors thought it meant everything was coming along fine. Anyway, one day I lost control and they realised their mistake. I became so blind with rage I killed just about every scientist there. When I snapped out of it they put me in chains and threw me into a box made of silver. I was there for two months. When I came out they put me back on the operating table and locked up the beast they had created. The only thing strong enough to break the cage they put it in is the full moon, but because of the time it spends pent up I can't control it."

"That was my mother's breaking point," he whispered after a moments silence. "She no longer saw her little boy but a monster in sheep's skin. An abomination created by the man she was supposed to love. It was her idea to lock the beast up and of course my father had refused. He said I was perfect now and if she tried to ruin me he would kill her."

A small gasp left Celia's lips, but he paid the shocked sound no mind. "That night she murdered him in his sleep. We threw him in the dam before people noticed and told the pack he had passed away in his sleep. My mother then made the doctors lock the beast up and put the key in the pendant father had given her the day before."