KAVEH
I walked in with Jenna's hand in mine, my heart pounding. Chad's words resounded in my head spiking the fear in my heart. Aleksy stood with his back to us, hiding my sister from view.
"The doctor needs more time to tell us how severe the damage is." He said and I heard the venom in his voice but I didn't understand it and I didn't spend too long pondering over it either. I wanted to see Elaheh.
"I'll leave you to it and you can meet me in my study when you're ready." He said and with that, he left.
My heart stopped when I saw her. There was a painful pounding behind my eyes and my vision got hazy. Jenna let out a loud sob and collapsed into my side. I couldn't even recognise her. My baby sister's beautiful face was no longer what it once was. It was bruised everywhere and it seemed that the blood had recently been cleaned. Her nose looked a little crooked like mine once was after I broke it and had fixed it back. It had healed and looked good as new after a few days but I recognised a broken nose when I saw one. Her bruised cheeks looked sunken in and her closed eyes were black and swollen. I didn't dare pull down the sheets to see the rest of the damage. I just wasn't brave enough.
Jenna sobbed next to me and I felt my own eyes fill with tears...what had they done to her? How could that bastard have hurt her like this? She didn't deserve any of this. She was so innocent and happy. I pulled Jenna tighter against me and wrapped both my arms around her shaking body. We used each other for support. I felt my own body tremble as I was overcome by grief for the girl that lay before us. The girl I'd sworn to protect with my life and failed. Because of me she had been locked away for two months, going through hell and I hadn't done anything to save her. If I had just swallowed my pride and asked Aleksy for help before, I'd have found her sooner. I could never forgive myself.
"She's already healing."
I spun around to see a pair of tired, powdery blue eyes peering kindly at me. The eyes were framed by the gently lined face of a man with salt and pepper hair dressed in a white coat, grey pants and heavy orthopaedic shoes.
"Her wolf is weak but she's doing the best she can. The silver that she was exposed to is making things more difficult." He said
His words made my blood run cold. Jenna stiffened beside me.
"Silver?" I asked, not bothering to mask my horror.
He sighed sadly. "The wounds around her wrists indicate that she was in contact with silver. They're severely burnt."
"W-what are you saying?" Jenna asked, her voice shaking.
"The welts around her wrists tell us that she was kept bound by silver. I'll take a look at her now and see what other injuries she has suffered. The poor thing seems to have gone through a lot." He said and my heart constricted with guilt. It was all my fault.
"How about you'll come back in some time and I'll give you more information?" He asked and I nodded silently, although I was unwilling to leave her again. He told us that his name was Dr. Timothy and I introduced Jenna and myself to him.
Silently, I pulled Jenna along with me and we left the room.
We walked to Aleksy's house in silence. Jenna cried silently and I reached for her hand rubbing circles on the outside. My heart was broken. He had made Elaheh pay for something that I had done. I had killed his mate and he tortured her in return. How would I ever be able to face her? Anger consumed me. I would find him. I would kill Sloan for laying his filthy paws on my family.
We reached Aleksy's house and I struggled to reign in my anger. My wolf fought to come out and he would...soon. We let ourselves in and I led the way to his study and knocked on the door.
Chad came out to meet us. "Before you go in, I think it's best that I warn you...your sister is my Alpha's mate." He said and I froze.
His what? My sister was this monster's mate? I growled in anger and Jenna snarled in response. This couldn't be.
Chad didn't look fazed in the slightest. He looked like he'd expected our reactions.
"There's no way," I said. Was he even capable of having a mate? How would he treat her? Sure...he'd saved her but that didn't really prove anything.
"We should go in." The Beta said and I resisted the urge to tear his head off.
We walked in to see the Alpha staring at the map on the wall. Aleksy gestured for us to take seats which we ignored and Chad went to go stand by the door.
"Is it true?" I asked, my voice tight. "Are you her mate?" He said nothing.
The only indication he gave of hearing me was the tick in his jaw.
"Sloan wasn't there. He had a bunch of rogues guarding the place." Aleksy said still staring at the map.
My anger doubled and I moved to attack him but Jenna pulled me back. I looked at her incredulously but her eyes were not on me.
"How was she when you found her?" She asked softly. I could hear the nerves in her voice.
Aleksy took in a sharp breath but when he turned to look at her, his grey eyes were cold and emotionless.
"She was suspended from the ceiling by silver chains. She was beaten and battered and she couldn't heal because she couldn't feel her wolf. My guess is that they were only feeding her enough to keep her alive. She was also..." He began, his voice hardening, but he stopped.
"She was also what?" I growled in anger but he turned back to the map not giving anything away.
"She was singing." He said, sounding thoughtful. Although his eyes were on the map I could tell that his mind was far away.
"What?" I asked surprised. Elaheh was singing?
"That's how I found her. I heard her singing." He said. Then he turned back to face us, his eyes emotionless. "She looked like a corpse."
The growl ripped from my throat before I could stop it, not that I wanted to. All I wanted was to finish him off. Him, Sloan and anybody else who wanted to come near my sister.
"How can speak so casually about your own mate?" I snarled. "Did you not feel anything when you saw her hanging there you heartless bastard? She's your mate!"
I didn't even see it coming. One minute I was standing there snarling at him and the next I was on my back with Aleksy looming over me. The pain of the impact had me flinching and his hand was on my throat, putting enough pressure on it to almost cut of my air supply.
"Don't take that tone with me, wolf." He spat. "I'll kill you so fast your mate won't have time to beg me to spare your worthless life."
Jenna snarled viciously from behind me and he let me go. She rushed to me as I sat up glaring at Aleksy. His eyes never moved from mine. The warning was there though the rest of his face was serene.
I stood up facing him and Jenna stood by my side, tensed for a fight should the need arise. Her mate had been threatened. Her first instinct was to protect me as mine was to protect her.
"Tell me more about Sloan." He said.
"He was with us a long time. My father had taken him in as a pup. Elaheh was just a baby. He would fawn over her and he'd go on about how pretty she was. " I said and I saw Aleksy become rigid but I continued. " He was an intelligent guy and my dad had big plans for him. But as he grew up, he began changing. He became more reserved, he'd had a place of his own and he wouldn't come out for hours. I'd go and see him and spend time with him. I was basically his only friend. Then the killings started. We'd find body parts of our wolves but there was no scent on them to lead us to the killer." I said frowning at the memory.
"Moonflower," Aleksy said and my eyes snapped to his.
"I thought those had become extinct long ago?" I asked and he just nodded so I resumed my story.
"One day he invited me into his house and said that he had something to show me." I felt the colour drain from my face at the memory. It still made me feel sick. "He'd stored parts of his victims in this refrigerator. He'd crammed them in along with his food. He begged me not to tell anyone but it made me sick. My friend was a murderer. He was insane. How many times had I let him near Elaheh? I ran to my dad ignoring Sloan's pleas for me to come back. My dad had decided that Sloan had to be killed but when we went back, he was nowhere to be found. We were thirteen. He'd just disappeared. Then at seventeen, our parents died in battle and I became Alpha. I was about twenty-three when I met Jenna. A year later, his mate came for Jenna. She said something about me ruining Sloan's life. That if I'd kept my mouth shut we could all be living in peace. But for taking away his happiness, he had to take away mine." I reached for Jenna's hand and she gave mine a gentle squeeze. "I came back in the nick of time. Jenna could hold her own but in my rage, I ripped his mate's head off. I had just ruined him again. So now at twenty-six...he came for the only other thing he could use to hurt me. Elaheh."
"If his mate is dead, shouldn't he have died too?" Aleksy asked.
"His thirst for revenge is the only thing that's keeping him going," Jenna said quietly, her voice faltering slightly as all eyes turned to her. But then the shy look in her eyes turned into a glare which she directed at Aleksy and her hand tightened on mine. " If someone hurt Kaveh, I wouldn't stop till I held his heart in my hands." I was impressed by her bluntness but worried that she had spoken to him like that. As a precaution, I placed my body in front of hers, braced to defend her if he decided to attack.
His expression hardened at the obvious threat and his fist clenched. He took a step forward but stopped when his eyes glazed over.
"It's time to go see your sister." He said. His voice was bland but I saw how his posture went rigid. My mate's unacceptable threat forgotten, he was out the door in a flash.
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I found it difficult to process the doctor's words as they washed over me.
"She has six broken ribs and a broken nose. Multiple lacerations on her stomach, thighs, arms and back. She has burn marks in several places on her body, and the marks on her wrists are from the silver, as you said was used to suspend her from the ceiling. She has suffered major injuries from the beatings she received and is severely malnourished and dehydrated." Dr. Timothy said. He removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. Every word he uttered felt like it was breaking something inside me.
"Even for a wolf, it's a wonder how she was able to hold out for so long. She is a strong girl. Because her wolf is weak at the moment, her healing rate is slower than normal but she will heal...physically at least. I don't really know what her mental state will be like when she wakes up. You need to feed her as regularly as possible. In the beginning, she'll throw everything up since her system won't be used to it so I suggest smaller portions and plenty of water. Once her wounds heal enough you can encourage her to take longer walks."
I just stared at him helplessly but Jenna listened intently as he rambled on. Then he cleared his throat and my attention snapped back to him but he was looking at Aleksy.
"One more thing." He said. "You were right. She has been sexually abused...multiple times."
My breath left my lungs and the temperature suddenly seemed to drop as it felt like the ground beneath my feet had just disappeared. The anger and the grief erupted inside me and coursed through my veins. I could hear my blood pumping in my ears. My claws came out and I felt my fangs elongate until they rested heavily on my lips. He dared to violate my sister! My blood! I would rip him apart, limb from limb and relish his dying screams as I slowly ripped his heart out of his chest.
"-baby! Kaveh!" My mate's pained voice brought me back to reality and I realised that I had been digging my claws into her arms. Guilt flooded through me.
"I-I'm so sorry Jenna." I stuttered and she brought her hands up to cup my face, her eyes filled with worry and understanding.
"Considering she'll heal on her own, you can take her home. She needs to be somewhere she'll feel safe." So saying, the doctor left the room.
"She will stay here with me," Aleksy said and it was clear that he didn't want any arguments.
"The hell she will." I retorted.
"I'm her mate." He said matter of factly and I scoffed.
"You don't even care about her."
"I've seen how safe she is with you, dog." He snapped.
I felt my wolf about to break out when Jenna stepped up. His eyes moved to her small frame, his gaze turning icy and I felt myself tense.
"After what she's been through...sexual abuse, how can we leave her with a man she doesn't know? A man we don't know?" she asked him.
His eyes narrowed at her and he asked, "What are you implying?"
"Not what you think," she said quickly and I could see her struggling not to cower under his gaze. "She needs to be with people she is familiar with and your pack is filled with men she doesn't know. They will feel like a constant threat to her. Please, all I ask for is your patience...for her sake." she finished.
He looked at her with cold grey eyes and then turned to look at Elaheh's unconscious figure. I wanted to rip his eyes out for looking at her.
"One month." He said before walking out, slamming the door behind him.
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