"And what about your PTSD dear?"
"That..." Her grandma heard her whimper. Which she rarely did unless she was in pain. Xael sat back down on the floor next to her and wrapped her arms around one of her legs, resting her head on her grandmother's thigh. Ms. Emma gently stroked Xael's hair.
"We were out one day going to a new camp to check on things. The vehicle hit an IED, but none of us were injured too badly, which was a miracle. The guys had managed to weld extra safety plates underneath the vehicle earlier. I don't think the IED was built that well. Anyway, one of the locals took us into their house for safety, but it came under fire. I took the family to the back room and told them to stay there. Two guys got hit, so I went into action but... but some type of explosive device came through one of the windows as the others were returning fire and I was treating one of the guys."
That's where I got my burns from. We lost 3 that day along with the entire family cause they ran when the explosive went off. They were all shot as they ran out of the house. I would have died that day if it wasn't for Toven. He was one of the three. He..."
Xael started to tear up, her pups rushed by her side, feeling how upset she was becoming. "He tried to throw me from the blast instead of getting away himself. I still caught the edge of it. I tried to get to him when I came to, but... one of my guys pulled me out of the house. I passed out after that. One thing I never told anyone is that..."
Xael broke down. Her grams comforted her as she continued telling her about what happened.
"Toven... Toven was my Mate. Toven Red Cloud. He was one of a handful of Wolfen at the base. All of us were Native-American, which was odd. We all kept our status hidden, especially me. It's easy for me to present as an Alpha, so I lied about my real status. There's no way they would allow an Omega to enlist. All the Wolfen kind of stuck together, so we got close. Neither of us expected it, but it happened. We were alone one day and I ended up scenting him. Later I told him I scented him as my Mate, he was actually happy about it. He told me he thought we might be, but I never allowed him to scent me back. Toven didn't seem to care. He said if I scented him as my Mate, then we were. We never had a chance to Mate bond. He was pretty protective of me and wanted to make sure I was safe when he wasn't around.
After the incident, I was in the hospital for almost 2 months. They told me the skin on my leg was melting off when they brought me in. Luckily I was Wolfen the Dr. said, otherwise I would have died from the injuries. Josh Brightwood, one of the guys from our unit, saw Toven save me and told me what happened. He figured out that the two of us were Mates. He gave me these before he left because he knew how close were all were in the unit. They considered me their 'little sis'."
Xael showed her grandmother the 4 dog tags she kept with her. One of them had the name Toven Red Cloud.
"These are the ones I've lost. Me and the other guys, Chris, Eli and Josh remained close. Even after we were discharged, we lived close to each other. Chris and Eli were in the next city while Josh and I was in the same. Chris and Eli were the ones that helped me get away from the 'Asshole'. But Josh... he killed himself a couple of months after we got stateside. The three of us took it hard, but we were there for each other and pulled through it. But.. When the explosion happened, a piece of shrapnel went through my gut. So I can't have kids anymore."
"Xael honey, I'm so sorry. So sorry hun. All they told me was that you had been burned and would be discharged after they released you from the hospital."
Xael was tired of holding the pain and just let the damn break once again, her broken body wracked with sobs as her grandmother and pups tried to comfort her again. Xael cried like that for close to thirty minutes. When she finally stopped, she could tell her eyes were even worse than before.
"Honey, have you talked to anyone about this, like a therapist?"
"I've seen four therapists and have been put on enough high dose drugs to kill a herd of elephants. Nothing will take the pain away. I've just learned to cope with it as best I can. Some days are better than others."
Her grandmother had no words to comfort her. All she could do was stroke her hair, which seemed to relax her a bit. Tears continued to fall, but Xael remained silent, her pups plastered to her side. Before they knew it, the men had returned from the lodge.
Someone was knocking on the back door.