“Aaron!”
The sharp voice pulled me out of deep slumber. The darkness in the room clouded my eyes and I reached up to clear them before realizing that the comforter had been pulled over my head which was now ducked under the line of pillows. My knees pulled towards my chest, and my arms had cradling my head, shielding me from the world beyond the blanket and trapping the scents that comforted me.
Light from another room poured into the small space that I had created for myself as I moved the blanket away, even though it wasn’t much, it was still enough to make my eyes water.
The same voice called out again only louder, closer, causing movement in the doorway. I felt my heart race as the sudden movement startled me, my head ducking just low enough that my face was hidden by the blanket, but I could still keep a watchful eye on what was around me.
A dirt covered baseball cap came into view as the person wearing it jolted forward. I recognized the tired hazel eyes and shaggy, dark brown hair from the diner. In my head I could almost see the people dancing around him and cheering him on while Ethan separated himself from the group, but in here Ethan wasn’t available to save me. The space where he was once sitting was now empty and I felt my breath catch in my throat at the thought of being here without him. With people I knew less than him and people I didn’t trust, even if he did.
“Marie?” Aaron asked quietly in attempt to keep me from waking, “Up here.”
I heard the sound of quick and heavy footsteps coming up a set of stairs as another woman’s scent filled the air. Somewhere at the base, my wolf could tell the similarities between her scent and Ethan’s, relaxing only as much as my human mind would allow her to while I kept my eyes on Aaron.
In my mind I was surrounded by men, who were all licking their lips in anticipation as Vlamir’s hands closed around my breasts. They were all monsters to me, and the deep sounds of a male’s voice only made my heart beat faster. Before Vlamir I wouldn’t have cared.
“Aaron!” the woman growled letting out a huff of air as Aaron hushed her, “What the hell is going on? You and Ethan both were telling me to get back here immediately. With all this talk about rogues, I thought one of you was seriously hurt. Do you have any idea how sick with worry I was?”
“Well-”
“No, you don’t.” She cut him off with a low hiss, “I was in the middle of a lesson. Do you have any idea how hard it is to teach wolves half my age how to pick the right herbs for silver poisoning? Making sure they understand that one false move could make-”
She fell silent as she sniffed the air, and when she gave a low warning growl, I knew that she had picked up my scent. I moved as far away from the doorway as I could without moving off the bed or causing my muscles to ache, and I could hear a small struggle just outside the doorway as Aaron held her back. I peered breathlessly over the blanket to see the woman’s light blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Her lips were pursed at Aaron, a sign of frustration, but after realizing that she wouldn’t make it past him, she backed down.
“He brought the rogue back here?!” she hissed, “Does he have any idea how pissed our father is going to be if he finds out?”
I bit into my lip after the way she said ‘father’. In my heart I knew that she meant Alpha, but if that was the truth, it meant that Ethan was the Alpha’s son. He would be next in line to take over the pack, and currently I didn’t have the best track records with Alphas.
“That’s why he’s not going to.” Aaron answered quickly, “We’re going to keep it quiet as long as we can or at least until she is in better health.”
“He wants me to treat a rogue?” I watched as she ground her teeth together, a small box shaking in her hands, “Why?”
“Because she’s his mate,” He stated simply, “and you’re the only one he trusts to do it.”
The shaking in her hands slowly came to as stop, and though the strain in her eyes still gave way to her frustration, her overall body language had become more understanding. She may not want to do it, but somewhere in her being she understood her brother’s actions, “Where is Ethan now?”
Aaron finally relaxed under the calmer tone, and my breathing began to smooth out as well, “He went to go let off some steam. He was starting to get pretty pissed and he didn’t want to risk shifting around her.”
“Good,” she let out a slow breath as she rubbed her fingers across her temple, “I’ll treat her while he’s gone.”
“But she’s-”
“Wide awake, listening, and we’re scaring her.” She scowled at him making me go still when she looked in my direction, “Now go make yourself useful and get me a bucket of ice.”
I watched Aaron look back to find my eyes over the blanket and nodded before moving away from the room and heading down the stairs. My lip began trembling as the woman stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, and I came to realize how much I hated my fear being this obvious. It only made me feel weaker and more vulnerable.
Sensing my discomfort again, the woman stopped just a couple of steps from the door, placing her hands on her hips and waiting while ice could be heard hitting a hard plastic surface distantly. She found my eyes over the blanket as well, giving a small sigh as I turned them towards the sounds of Aaron’s footsteps. The walls around me immediately went up as he opened the door and handed the bucket over, standing there for only a moment before the woman was furiously shooing him away from the area.
“There.” She stated as she set the bucket on the small table beside the bed, standing closer this time, but still patiently waiting for me to make the first move, “Just me and you.”
I stayed quiet, watching her carefully as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. While it was true, my mind no longer could see the faces of monsters, and my body was no longer quaking with the fear of being touched again, trust isn't something that I could see on the horizon. Somehow she knew it too, and it only strained her patience more.
“Look,” she breathed, “Ethan trusted me to take care of you, and right now I’m willing to do so, but I need you to be open to that.”
She waited again, but when I still kept silent, she continued, “How about this? My name is Marie. I’m Ethan’s older sister, a Sigma, and our father is the Alpha of our pack. I’m finishing my training and schooling for veterinary and doctoral practices, which would be why I’m here. I gather that you were hurt enough that you couldn’t run, and hey, on the plus side, I could always get you back up to health and if you still feel the need, you could make a run for it at any time. I couldn’t promise that my brother won’t follow you, but you could still run.”
She had a point. I only really needed to stay in this town long enough to get back up to health. Afterwards I could run at any time that I chose. I could time it for when Ethan wasn’t around, and I knew how to hide my scent well enough that he wouldn’t be able to follow. It wouldn’t be easy being this close to him before disappearing, but the monstrous faces that showed in the back of my mind would keep me going.
“Jessica.” I tried to say my name, but my hoarse voice cracked, making me aware of just how painfully dry my mouth had become.
Without another word, Marie had taken a hand full of ice cubes from the bucket and walked towards the bathroom that was attached to the room. I could hear the sounds of them clinking against a glass surface shortly before the sound of running water filled the room. I began to roll onto my stomach, bracing my hands against the mattress as I attempted to push myself up, but I only made it a few inches from the sheets before my arms screamed in agony and gave out. Pain clenched in my chest as it hit the mattress again and my eyes watered as I tried desperately to find a comfortable position again.
“Here.” I looked over to see that Marie had returned with a glass of water and had set it on the end table next to the bucket before placing a pair of gentle hands behind my shoulders in attempt to help me up.
I hissed in response, blood beginning to pound painfully in my ears as she carefully backed away. Once more I placed my hands against the mattress and shoved myself away, bringing myself to my knees as I fought quietly for a breath of air. The comforter fell in a pool around me, and I thanked everything that there was no light source in the room as it did. Cool air blew across my forehead and I looked up to find a small vent that was blowing in my direction. I closed my eyes as it began to surround me, dimly nulling the pain of my movements.
The ice clinked against the glass again, making me open my eyes. Marie stood silently, holding the glass of water in front of me as her eyes traced over the blood on my lip, and when I didn’t move, she shook it again, “Drink it and then we can start.”
I stared at the clear liquid as I lifted one of my hands towards it. My arms felt like they weighed a ton, trembling and aching as I wrapped my fingers around the glass. Marie stood beside me, hands ready to catch anything as I lifted it towards my lips. Cool liquid ran over my tongue and down my throat, soothing the ache and coating my mouth as I took swallow after swallow. I hadn’t realized, even before the diner, that I had been this thirsty.
“I don’t like to be touched.” I whispered as I lowered the glass towards the bed.
“Fair enough,” She replied, taking the glass from me and setting it back on the table, “but that’s going to be a problem for you if you hope to get any better.”
I nodded to show that I understood, but I continued staring at my wrists. Dark circles covered them beneath my sleeves, making my eyes water as the faces came back. They had been grinning as they bound my hands behind my back, cackling as they pressed my shoulders so far into the ground that the pebbles had cut into my skin.
I jumped in my skin as I felt Marie’s hand on my chin, her fingers touching it so lightly that it wouldn’t have been felt on a human. When I looked over, her eyes were peering back into mine with an intensity that made it feel as if she were looking into my soul, evaluating it just as they seemed to be evaluating the situation.
I must have looked tired, and there must have been pain reflecting in every tear that rolled down my cheek, because her body instantly relaxed. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, just as Ethan had, and then offered a warm sympathetic smile.
“Let’s get you cleaned up, ok?” she said it in such a soft and nurturing voice that I began to nod, “Do you have any clean clothes?”
I looked towards my bag that was now hanging on hook just behind the door. My thoughts were on the clothes that were inside, and the weeks on end that I wore them, and the blood that stained a shirt that I had stuffed in the small pocket that sat on the front. The one that I had been wearing that night...the one that left a sour taste in my mouth as I thought of it.
“No.” I whispered.
“That’s alright. I have a few things that you can borrow.” She pulled her hand back with a sigh, “Do you think that you can get your top off while I get them?”
I considered it for a moment before nodding.
“Good, I’ll come back and take a look at you, and we’ll see about getting you into a warm bath.” She continued, offering a chuckle as she added, “Bubbles available on request.”
I nodded again and watched as she turned away. My hands curled around the sheets when the door shut quietly behind her and my brows pulled together as I leaned forward in attempt to reposition myself. I pulled one leg before me ignoring the way that it began to ache as I braced myself to move the other, biting into my cheek as my ankle burst with pain. It felt like a thousand pieces of metal splintering into my bones as I carefully set it on the soft pillow I had been laying my head on.
Pulling the other leg up, I rested my forehead against my knee, taking a moment to breathe before I brought my hands to rest on my stomach. I could feel the burning on my sides were Vlamir had dug his nails into me and my insides still ached every time that I thought about what happened. It made the bruises on my back hurt that much more, made my stomach churn in ways that I never thought possible, and made my body feel so heavy that I didn’t want to move...even when I knew that I had to.
I let out a small groan as I began lifting my arms over my head. The muscles in my shoulders ached just as bad as the day before, but the blood that had come from the wound on my back had dried against the fabric of my shirt, causing it to pull at the scab when I pulled it away. I could smell the small amounts of blood as I pulled my head through the collar, and leaned forward more as the cool air from the vent began to touch it.
My shirt and hands were tucked neatly against my chest and my head was turned away from the door, setting on my knee in a way that allowed the air to drift down my back and soothe the burning it had brought to life.
“I brought you a couple of other things.” I could hear Marie’s voice as she entered the room and I turned my head to see a shirt, pair of pants, an unopened pack of underwear, and what looked to be a couple of bottles filled with scented liquid, “Underwear, unopened mind you, because I wasn’t sure if you had any, sweatpants, and the shirt is a tad small on me, but for you it....it...should fit just fine...”
My eyes followed hers as they took in the sight before them. I watched as her eyes began to water and her jaw had been left hanging open, at a loss for words as a breath was caught and held in her chest. Her jaw began to clench as I attempted shrink further into the shell that I had made for myself, and the look on her face as she closed her eyes to adjust herself, matched Ethan’s when his eyes had traveled over the bruise on my shoulder. Then when her eyes opened again, her eyes were just as angry and just as sorry as his had been.
“These are recent?” she asked quietly and looked to be pursing her lips after I gave a nod, “Are there any more?”
My fingers curled at my sides as I whispered, “My legs.”
“Well, if it’s alright with you, I’d like to take a look at that cut first.”
“Ok.” I whispered again.
“I’m going to turn the light on, ok?”
I answered by burying my face in the crease of one of my elbows and listened as she flipped the switch. Light filtered in through the small crack that I had left open to breathe and I heard her curse under her breath before she crossed over to me. She was silent as she set everything down on the pillow beside my foot, her hand lightly hovering over my ankle before she let out a breath and backed away. Her touch was gentle and her voice was sad as her fingers feathered over my back.
“You’re a Deserter aren’t you?” she asked quietly as her hands carefully moved over the cut.
I nodded. A Deserter was a rogue that abandoned their pack in a time of need, whether it be their pack’s or their own. They often left quickly and without warning, leaving hardly any trace behind them. Leaving nothing, just as I had, and yet somehow he still managed to find me.
“Your pack did this to you?”
I sucked in a breath as she brushed a cloth over the wound, and a cool liquid began burning against the damaged flesh, “I left him long before he did this to me.”
“I don’t understand how someone can justify this kind of punishment.” Marie let out a frustrated sigh as she carefully worked to clean away the new blood, “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. There’s a limit between torture and execution, and whatever happened...He shouldn’t have done this to you.”
My arms wrapped around my sides, cradling my stomach as I pulled my other leg in as far as I could. I began grinding my teeth together as the images filtered through my mind. First was every fist that he gave to me, and every word that slipped past his lips. Then after they were said and done, his laughter and bloody smile would always be there to haunt me.
“That wasn’t all he did.” I whispered.
She stayed silent. Not because she didn’t know what to say, but because deep down, she understood what I meant.