Kaya & Caleb Pt. 1 - Age 5

*What developed from Caleb’s first appearance in After Midnight.*

Then:

“DADDY! I’m gonna be a Princess!” Kaya smiled looking at him. “Caleb said I get to be in charge like you and Mommy and I can stay home from school!”

“Yes and you wouldn’t want to disappoint your daughter now would you, Alpha? Just look at the excitement in her eyes. She’s mine; I’m just making my rightful claim. You should be proud. Soon she’ll have command over the most powerful pack of lycans this world has ever seen.”

She giggled as his fingers danced across her belly and she pushed the wolf’s hand away. “Caleb said we’re going on a vacation to see my castle!”

“Yes and we’ll be leaving very soon. Why don’t you go and hug Daddy goodbye?” Caleb whispered in her ear before pecking her cheek and lowered her to the ground. She rushed towards Lobo with her arms outstretched but the moment she was out of harm’s reach, he charged for the intruding wolf.

But Caleb moved quicker and threw his entire body into the blow that connected with the elder wolf’s midsection. Lobo doubled over in pain. With his failing strength as his mate lay dead in the adjacent room, he found his opponent much tougher than he’d expected.

Lobo gasped for a breath as Charlie moved towards Kaya and collected her in his arms. “Get her upstairs and get a bag packed,” Caleb ordered as Lobo fell at his feet. “I don’t want her to see this.”

Once his brother exited the room, Caleb moved slowly towards the man as he tried crawling to his feet. With the tip of his toes he kicked him until he was on his back and looking up at him. “Please don’t hurt my Baby. She’s all I have left.”

“She’s no longer your concern, Alpha. And I intend to take good care of her.” With another sharp blow, Caleb’s clawed hand swung high above his head and straight across Lobo’s throat, ripping away flesh and much of his esophagus. Kaya’s father fell hard to the ground beneath him, dead before his head bounced off the carpet.

Now:

Caleb could hear giggling in the closet as he sat the tray down on the night stand. Playing along he glanced around the small room and smiled to himself not seeing the little girl anywhere. “Hmm now where did my little Princess go? Is she... BEHIND THE DOOR?!” he growled and shut the door looking behind it.

“No, she’s much too clever for that,” he smiled hearing her giggling louder and watched the closet door shake from her tiny body pressed against it. “Is she...UNDER THE BED!?” he asked and lifted the blanket to peer beneath it. “Nope, no...wow I’m really lost now. Where would I hide if I were a pretty Princess?” 

He moved slowly towards the closet door and turned the handle. Kaya rushed out giggling louder and hurried for the bed as he gave chase. Once he caught her, his fingers danced over her belly making her snort with laughter. Her little feet kicked and she struggled to pull the wolf’s hands away from her tummy and catch her breath. “YOU FOUND ME!” She sighed as he ended the assault. He pulled up onto his elbows and moved the tray towards her watching her snack on grilled cheese and animal crackers. She handed him a giraffe and together they put on a jungle hunt.

Biting the head off of the hippo in her hand Kaya peered up into Caleb’s eyes. He followed her gaze and brushed a strand of her curly tresses from her face and finished off his giraffe. “Am I going home soon?”

“Don’t you remember Kaya?” he asked cocking his head to one side as he looked at the little girl. “You get to go home once we build your castle!”

“Oh yeah,” she giggled and chewed on another cracker. “Will my Mommy and Daddy get to come and see it?”

“Once they come back from vacation, they’ll be here.”

The knock on the door made the smile on her face grow wider and she dropped her sandwich half to the table and jumped from the bed. “Charlie! Charlie come see what I drew for you!” Grabbing the man’s hand she tugged him towards an art table in the corner of the room and pulled out a sketch book. He took the glittery purple book from her hand and helped turn the page.

On a page labeled “Charlie” was a picture of him in wolf form as she’d first seen him. His bushy tail curled around his hind legs and his shoulders were low to the ground, squared and ready for action. The wolf’s jaw hung open exposing sharp, pointy fangs throughout and a spot of drool dripped from the corners of his jowls. Bright yellow hues painted the irises of his eyes and he looked every bit as vicious as he’d imagined a wolf should. He turned in surprise towards the little girl and smiled, “You drew this?”

“Yup!” she replied dragging out the word and letting the “p” sound off like a pop.

“Who is it?”

“It’s you silly! When you were a doggy.”

“And you remembered how I looked?”

She nodded emphatically and hurried back towards the bed to finish her dinner. “What is it?” Caleb asked pulling up from the pillows and moving towards his baby brother. He took the notebook and eyed the artwork for himself with just as much awe as Charlie held. “Wow this looks amazing!” Turning towards his child mate he beamed, a prickling of pride filling his chest as he thought about her incredible display of intelligence. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

Charlie watched her take a bite of the grilled cheese and innocently wiggle her feet as she enjoyed the creamy taste of the sandwich his brother had prepared for her. Pulling Caleb deeper into the corner he spoke softer to keep Kaya from overhearing. “Have you decided when you’re going to tell her?”

“Tell her what? About the mating?”

“No of course not. I mean about her parents.” Caleb’s expression fell and Charlie quickly moved to explain. “Far be it from me to throw stones or get involved in how you decide to go about telling her but, she has to know at some point that she’s never going to see her parents again.”  

“You don’t think I know that? She’s asked me about them the last three nights we’ve been here. I know she misses them. But I can’t tell her right now.” He glanced over his shoulder to find her smiling at him as she took a sip of her chocolate milk. “She’s much too happy for that right now. I need her to trust me a little more, get used to being around here and then I’ll tell her.”

“You know the longer you wait the worse it will be. She’s still expecting them to walk through that door and see her princess room. She has no idea what you’ve done Caleb. I know that you are only trying to protect her right now but you have to think about what’s in her best interest. Children have a way of coping with tragedy. They have a higher threshold for it because their little minds don’t quite understand it. So right now you have the best chance of keeping her trust if you’re honest upfront.”

“I know Charlie. There’s only so much I can do to keep avoiding her questions before she starts to lose hope, I know that. When she looks at me with those eyes and asks that question, it’s like a knife through my heart every time. I’ll tell her, soon.”

“Caleb will you read me a story?” Kaya asked climbing off the bed and walking towards him with a large green and gold leather bound book clutched in her hands. It was one of the few items Charlie had liberated from her bedroom. Seeing the wear on the cover and remembering the words of their little spy he knew it to be her favorite and took what he thought would help her become more comfortable in their home.

“Absolutely Kaya!” He leaned down to retrieve the book and Charlie nodded towards him as he made his way to the door. “And what have you selected tonight? Should I guess?”

“The princess!” She beamed as he read the title of the book. For the fourth night in a row she had chosen The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault as her bedtime story. He was beginning to memorize the book word-for-word as she had. 

He carried her back towards her bed and waited for her to get comfortable before climbing in behind her. Opening the book, Kaya shook with anticipation and it made him chuckle watching the excitement on her face.

“Once there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen. She had, by a former husband, two daughters of her own, who were, indeed, exactly like her in all things. He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but of unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best creature in the world.”

“No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the stepmother began to show herself in her true colors. She could not bear the good qualities of this pretty girl, and the less because they made her own daughters appear the more odious. She employed her in the meanest work of the house. She scoured the dishes, tables, and cleaned madam’s chamber, and those of misses, her daughters. She slept in a sorry garret, on a wretched straw bed, while her sisters slept in fine rooms, with floors all inlaid, on beds of the very newest fashion, and where they had looking glasses so large that they could see themselves at their full length from head to foot.”

“The poor girl bore it all patiently, and dared not tell her father, who would have scolded her; for his wife governed him entirely. When she had done her work, she used to go to the chimney corner, and sit down there in the cinders and ashes, which caused her to be called Cinderwench. Only the younger sister, who was not so rude and uncivil as the older one, called her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, notwithstanding her coarse apparel, was a hundred times more beautiful than her sisters, although they were always dressed very richly.”

Before he read deeper into the tale, Kaya had curled up beside him and was sleeping soundly. He glanced over at the little girl with a smile and closed the book up. Sitting it on the bedside table he swung his legs over the side of the bed causing Kaya to moan and stir behind him. It would be another night he’d stay at her side. Unable to tear himself away from her, he pulled the covers back and shifted her into his arms.

Kaya rested her head against him as she sucked her finger between her lips. With a contented sigh she rocked herself back to sleep and Caleb watched her amusedly. He blew the candle out behind her, tucked her deeper against his body and laid his head against her pillow as he quietly drifted off to sleep.

Continue ---->