Chapter Eleven - Stronger than Words

“Now gentlewolves, you need to remember as you see this that Selene was barely fifteen when this memory was made. The room is dark, so there aren’t any objects in the background to gauge his size from. She said she had been living in this room for several months before her first escape. This memory is what happened after he found her.”

The faces of all three main drew into pained scowls as Marie began to share the images from Selene’s memory with them. A dark room slowly took form in their minds and a bone-chilling cold caused them to begin to shiver almost instantly. The smell was muted at first, the images hard to make out as though they had walked from outside on a bright, sunny afternoon into a darkened room. A large shapeless figure loomed high over the original viewer. Most of his shape was just a black mass, long, stringy hair in the shape of the head was the only thing that made it look human. From the vantage point of the original set of eyes, he seemed at least three feet taller. They could smell fear and hear a woman’s voice begging, “please, no more. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please. I was only missing my mother.” Her voice was scratchy, as though it pained her to talk. She sobbed as the man lifted a whiskey bottle to his mouth, taking a large gulp. The image was mainly focused on a long black stick the man was holding in one hand. It seemed to have a tip that glowed red in the dim light of the room. Stretched across the middle of the image was a thin wire that rose straight up in front of Selene’s face like a silver slice through the world in front of her. No end was visible in either direction. Slowly the memory cleared and took over their minds so they could see what the girl saw, smell what she smelled, hear what she heard, and even feel what she felt, both physically and emotionally, as though it was happening to they themselves in that very moment. The present room and people disappeared as they became fully engulfed in Selene’s memory.

Their hearts were racing painfully in their chests and the feeling of hunger clawed at them. Thirst made their throats ache as though they’d swallowed a thorny branch and their skin felt wet and cold. They could tell their lips were cracked, but there was no moisture in their mouths with which to wet them. Compared to the other pains, that was nothing worth mentioning. The black figure seemed to move towards them, swaying unsteadily. They tried to shrink away from him and felt a wire biting into their necks as though the cable in front of their faces was holding their neck to the ceiling and they could only lean away so far without strangling themselves. Their shoulders ached. There was a cold burning on their ankles and wrists made them aware that they had silver shackles on. When they moved their legs it pulled on their wrists, so it seemed likely their ankles and wrists were bound to each other. They knew no amount of tugging would ever free them, but still, they struggled against the metal cuffs. Their knees scrapped on the floor as they tried to move. Their hips were aching too, and something was digging sharply into the insides of their knees. Their muscles were wound tight and felt as though they burned with every effort to move, but it didn’t matter, they still struggle fiercely, somehow knowing that worse was coming, even though the men had no idea what that might be. Terror suffused every nerve in their bodies.

The cloaked figure bent and put the bottle on the ground, then he stood up, swaying awkwardly as he did. The smell of whiskey and raw seal blubber filled the air as he stepped up close, his putrid breath on her face as his empty hand grabbed her crotch, his fingers ramming up into her causing her to gasp and wince in pain. “I locked you safely in a den and kept you fed. All I asked in return was sex whenever and however I wanted it. You need to do nothing but submit to me! And you repay me by running away while I slept!” The fist that was holding the rod smacked her hard across the face. The cable pulled taught when her head snapped back, then loosened when she lolled forward, fighting for consciousness. “Did you let a stranger touch you here, bitch?” His fingers dug into her channel painfully, scratching her inner walls as he pulled them out. They could smell a tiny trickle of blood and knew the werewolf had used his claws when he withdrew from her. She sobbed but didn’t answer. “I bet you did, you little slut.” He growled. “I’m gonna starve you until you die or go into heat proving you aren’t carrying a bastard pup.” He stepped away and picked up the bottle again. “That traitorous cunt of yours better prove your womb empty soon. You’re on the day what ten...or eleven with no food? I’ve lost count,” he sneered. Movement shimmered in the darkness again, the stick drawing nearer as the men tried to shrink away from the image in their minds. They felt their thighs trembling with the effort to draw themselves together. “Please, no more,” the girl sobbed. It felt as though the words had been wrenched from their own parched, strangled throats. “I only wanted to find my mother.” Their limbs became more and more pained, every muscle in their bodies shook, their lungs screaming for air as the cable around their throat tightened until they couldn’t breathe. A warm trickle ran down their neck and the smell of blood reached their noses just before the tip of the stick disappeared from view. Then a powerful, sudden shock shot into them, and horrible heat erupted from between their legs. The pain coursed through their bodies, radiating in waves from their most tender center. The stench of burning flesh filled their noses. Gasps and the screams of a young woman filled their ears. The pain lessened. For a moment the girl’s sobbing was the only sound in the room as she looked up at her attacker. The image was obviously blurred by lashes of eyes that could barely open. A thin shaft of silver moonlight from a tiny window seemed to be the only light source in the room. It made the monster’s hair glow and glinted sharply off the cable that was strangling her. “I killed your mother and ate her heart while your father watched,” he sneered, “your father still wouldn’t give you to me, so I ripped out his heart too and ate it while it was still beating. You are mine now!”

They could make out some movement in the darkness but didn’t know what was happening until the scent of urine came to them and the warm wetness of it pelted against their neck and ran down their legs. It stung sharply as it ran into the freshly created wounds. “See! You are mine! I’ve marked you!” The girl’s head lolled forward, she was still conscious but could see nothing. “You should be thanking me for punishing you.” They heard the bottle scrape on the floor and knew he’d picked it up again. Through slanted eyes they focused in on the stick again as it moved, swinging up slightly so both she and her attacker could see the tip’s faint glow. “Almost ready for another round,” He said, his voice sounding almost cheery. The girl whimpered and sobbed out something that sort of sounded like “thank you, sir.”

“Not good enough! Say ‘thank you for the correction, master!’” the beast growled, “and then maybe I will only punish you with the prod one more time. SAY IT NOW!” They wanted to do as he asked more than anything. They heard the girl’s voice attempt to comply, but she could barely make a sound. The stick swung freely by his side while he took another long swig from the bottle. “Looks like we have a bit more work to do before you’ve learned your lesson. Maybe three or four more rounds?” The girl whimpered but could offer no more resistance. “Complain of hunger again and you will eat your own hand! Do you understand me!” The girl nodded, the silver cable scraping at her neck as she did. “Say ‘yes master’”

“Yes master,” the words were barely a whisper.

Another swig from the jug. This time as he lowered it they saw his wolf-shaped yellow eyes and the sneer on his thin lips. The stick began to move towards them again and they braced themselves for the pain, but the image went black and their minds came back to the present. Tears were streaming down David’s face. Mark had gone white and was trembling slightly. Jake had collapsed onto the floor, shaking and gasping with one hand between his thighs as though trying to protect himself from the glowing stick.

“In the name of Gealach, David muttered to his wife, his Gaelic accent stronger than it normally was, “why have you not shared that burden with me before now? You must have ached so.”

“Selene made me promise not to,” Marie said simply, leaning onto her husband for mutual support. “She made me promise before she would show me. She felt it was shameful.”

“The shame is not hers,” Mark growled. He looked at the old woman asleep in her cot and then down at Jake. He bent and offered a hand to help the man to his feet, but Jake wouldn’t take it. “Your wolf has decided the bond is made,” Mark said to his Alpha, “it doesn’t matter that she has little wolf, yours yearns for her, you even feel strongly for the suffering of her mother. I thought you were needing a reason to reject the calling so I was trying to give you one. Forgive me.” Jake nodded and let Mark pull him up. He held Jake by the shoulders, his wolf sending an apology as well as strength and healing through his touch to bolster the wolf of his Alpha. “There is one thing I still don’t understand though. If you feel the bond as strongly as this, why have you not held her to let your wolf heal her?” The astonished look on Jake’s face gave everyone the answer to the question they had all been silently wondering.

“You had forgotten the power of the mate bond works before the mating,” David said sadly. “I wondered why you weren’t helping her even though we knew the toxin was well washed off. I didn’t want to question your personal choice though, it’s not our way. I’m sorry.”

“Yes,” Marie said, her voice sounding more relieved than sad. “That explains it.”

Jake shook himself and stepped away from Mark.

“Everyone out,” he said so gruffly that the younger girls jumped. “I need to be alone with my mate.”

Elsie got up instantly to obediently follow her parents out of the room, Ellie, however,

stayed seated at Liana’s head “But I want-”

“Now Ellie,” Marie said. Her voice was soft but left no room for debate. “Alpha Jake has scented Lia as his mate, he can do for her in five minutes what all the healers in the pack have not been able to do in four days. We’ll wait outside. Jake will call for you when Lia is about to wake, then you can come back in.” Marie turned to Jake, “I know this will be hard for you to hear, but I think it should be Ellie and Elsie who are here for Liana when she first wakes.” Jake looked at her, his expression blank. “It’s just that you are still a stranger to her,” Marie continued, “she hasn’t even seen you as a human yet. She will be more comfortable with people she knows.” He nodded reluctantly. “I also think they should be the ones to talk to her about who she is and who you are,” Jake scowled at that, but Marie continued, “it will be easier to accept what two of her lifelong companions tell her than what she hears from the lips of a stranger. Especially given what she has been taught the word ‘mate’ means for a woman.” Jake was still scowling but nodded his understanding. “Come now Ellie, let’s give them some peace.” Reluctantly the girl got to her feet and shuffled towards the door, her accusing grey eyes never leaving Jake.

Jake began to strip off his clothes and looked down at his mate. This was why his wolf had been giving him such a hard time. He should have listened more carefully. He’d thought the beast within was telling him to get naked and crawl into bed simply because he was wanting to claim his mate. He hadn’t turned his concentration inwards enough to clearly listen. His wolf had been telling him to get naked and gather his mate to him, but not to claim her. Skin-to-skin contact with a soul mate could transfer the stronger wolf’s energy to the sick or injured one of the pair, which would heal her at a pace unmatched by anything else. He should have remembered it worked before the mating, it had worked for Dylan and Zinnia right from the first time he’d scented her. Jake had no idea if it would work for a werewolf who had yet to shift, but it was worth a try. Full body contact would give maximum effect and heal her fastest. He bent and lifted Lia off the cot into his arms and then sat on the bed with her on his lap. Her minty smell enveloped him and he closed his eyes, amazed that even the animal inside him was completely focused on healing her, not her naked human body.