Queen Of His Heart ♚ | On Galatea

♚〡SIXTEEN

"When my parents left a few nights ago, I saw Eros outside. He was in wolf form. His paw was injured; I helped him. He lived with me and I fed him. A day later, he transformed and told me what he was. He's just a boy. He didn't know. He didn't mean to expose you all. He told me about a King. Will the King punish Eros?"

"No. He's safe," Adlaric stated, sternly. Eve looked up and nodded, relief filling her to her core.

"He told me his pack was killed a few years ago. His Alpha, Luna, and parents were killed by those people. Scoundrels he called them. They took Eros to some sort of facility and experimented on him. He said he was forced to shift early. I don't know much else."

"Do you know why he came to you? There are dozens of houses on your street."

Eve shook her head at Dimitri's question. "No. I don't know."

Eros began to shake in her arms and she closed her eyes as she felt his limbs crack and realign themselves. It all still made her queasy. Suddenly, the wolf was gone and replaced with a naked little boy. She wrapped her arms around him and stood up.

"May I sleep? Can he sleep with me?"

She wasn't asking anyone in particular. She quietly went to leave the room when she remembered the doctor. Eve turned around and looked at him.

"He's a child who has trauma. You, as a doctor, have an obligation to make your patients feel comfortable. You failed. Do not make the same mistake again because next time it won't be a human you piss off."

•••

"Good Eros!"

Eros smiled at how brightly Eve looked at him. She encouraged him to be better. It didn't take a genius to realize that because of Eros' upbringing, he lacked basic knowledge of the world. So, this morning when both woke up, Eve decided to give him a little lesson. They started in the kitchen, naming objects, then moved to the living room, and now they were outside.

It was late February, so there was a fresh blanket of snow covering the grounds. Crystals lined the bare branches of trees and the conifer leaves of others, making a beautiful winter wonderland. Eros had been in awe at first, but once he was no longer distracted, he could pay attention to what Eve was saying.

Both had climbed up a small tree and were now sitting on a branch. Eve had a book in her hands that was open to display small words. It was her favorite book; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. She would read a page and then Eros would read a few sentences. His reading level was definitely not where it should be, but Eve would help him. She would tell him to sound out the word and remind him of the sounds each letter made.

"I like reading, Evangeline."

She smiled and kissed the top of his head.

"Eros, can you tell me more about where you came from..."

He stayed silent. He looked up at her and then back down at the book on his lap.

"They kept us in four separate rooms. They were all white, but the walls were glass so we could see each other. When one of us did something bad, they made sure the other's watched to make sure...t-to make sure we saw the consequences."

"Why were you there? What did they do to you?"

"They wanted to see if they could trigger early shifts or change humans. Each of us were on a different schedule; I had doses every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Others had theirs the other days. At first, they would just evaluate us. After a lot of weeks, the doses began."