“You know about me being whipped and the scars it left…”
“Details, Tiny. We want to know every detail about your worst moments. Share the pain with you now when you remember because we weren’t there for you when it happened.” He buries his nose in my neck again and tightens his hold on my waist.
“It’s going to be hard, Bitty, but that’s okay we are all here for you, let it all out. The sadness, the anger, everything.”
I can’t find it in me to be stubborn and hold it in anymore. They asked for it.
“You better get comfortable, this is not a fun story.” Oliver and Dakota move to sit on the sides of my hospital bed. Cam stays behind me but shifts to sit a little higher so the other two fit. The errant thought that these guys are so big, I don’t know how all four of us are in the bed together runs through my head until I see Dakota’s wrist. I reach for it and he lets me touch him gently. The marks are red, but they don’t look angry or painful. More like a stain on his tanned skin.
“They don’t hurt anymore, but the marks don’t seem to want to go away.” He pushed his long sleeves back and I can see more trailing up his arms. These are the marks I got when I was first imprisoned with Mike and kept hurting myself trying to get out of the shackles. “Your marks look like my injuries when I first got captured by Mike.” I sob and tell them about being beaten and chained up with Jena and desperately trying to get free.
They all keep their thoughts to themselves and just listen. “Can I see your back?” I look at Oliver. He doesn’t even hesitate to turn and pull his shirt up. I see the same red stains or his back that match my whip scars. “Those are from Kaley and two guys, I couldn’t smell them so I don’t know if they are pack or not.
All because of not giving her answers to a test and standing near you guys because I had a question for Mateo.” More tears, but I don’t stop. They want this pain, they can have it. I looked behind me at Cam and took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
“NO!” he whisper yells into my ear. “You said he didn’t touch you.”
“The question you asked implied if he had sex with me or touched me sexually. The answer is still no. I was too unpleasant to look at I guess, I don’t know. He did not have sex with me or do anything sexual to me. He did seem to have a thing for forcing me to watch him take Jena repeatedly. He always took her from behind so he could stand and didn’t have to sit or kneel on the floor and he couldn’t wrap his hand around her neck like that so he wrapped his hand around mine instead. He liked to hit during sex so he hit us both. I think we were lucky to be chained the way we were, we didn’t have the range to hit each other, otherwise he probably would have gotten off on that too.” I take another deep breath and sigh it out. I don’t feel lighter or better, but I also feel hollow after telling them. Maybe it’s a step in the right direction.
“Thank you.” They said in tandem. Do they even realize they are doing that?
“What did the healers say about me leaving? I hate being in the hospital, I want to go home.”
“You need to rest, Bitty.”
“Yeah, I think you forgot who you are talking to. Rest is not really a thing I do.”
“It’s not happening, Tlny. Not until they release you.”
“I want to talk to Elena and Gentry.”
“No, they said you should rest too, Smalls.”
“Apparently I can beat all three of you, do you really want to have this fight? Get me Elena and Gentry and I will stay in this bed. If you don’t I will get up and walk right out that door and go find them myself. Better yet, don’t bother. I will put my team on it.”
“You can’t mindlink from the hospital.” Dakota looks smug. “Just lay down and rest. Cam will even keep you warm.” He winks at me.
I reach up and pat his face. He really is cute. “You might not be able to mindlink from the hospital. I am not you, I am better and it’s already done and Lil is bringing them now.” I smile my most confident smile. “Sky one, Dakota zero. Maybe next time Tiger.” I settle back into Cam, who seems to be perfectly comfortable being my pillow for now.
None of them argue after that, which is funny. I thought they would put up more of a fight. Oh well. Oliver gets me water and Dakota orders us food. Lenny and Martha are on a roll with food prep. All of the warriors have started rotating in to help them when they aren’t on patrol shifts.
Our food, Elena, Gentry and my team all file into the room together, but the witches shoo everyone but the twins and Oliver out before anyone has a chance to get comfortable.
“Well that was far more intense than we planned. How do you feel, Skylar?”
“How can you be so calm about all of this?” Cameron is angry behind me.
“Because it’s done and there isn’t anything anyone can do to change it.” I snapped at him. “We need to focus. They can’t all be like that, it really will kill me. I don’t know if I can relive those memories again, my mind will break, there won’t be anything left.” I know I sound panicky, but I feel safe with these people, I can be scared and vulnerable.
“We don’t think that will be an issue…” Elena starts.
“What do you mean ‘you don’t think?” Kota’s on the angry train now.
“We don’t know the magic that was cast so we are working with our best educated guess to eliminate the black cloud that has been cast over your pack. Are you going to keep interrupting us or can we get to solving your problems?”
“No, We apologize, but this whole thing is really hard. Watching her go through that was torture and we don’t want to force her through that again.” He’s put on a politically calm voice.
“Unfortunately, it isn’t a choice for her or you or any of us to make really. She is the only one literally designed to do this task. Fortunately we think that that was the worst of it. You broke the connection the pentagram had, so that layer of magic has been subdued.”
“That layer?” Oliver asks. “I don’t mean to interrupt, I don’t understand.”
“Each of the five points is a layer of magic and therefore protection on the pentagram. The outer layer and the innermost layer are usually the worst. The outer layer is the defensive spell, keeping anyone out that would want to dismantle the incantation.”
“I have to do that sh*t four more times?! We did break the one around the wolfsbane right?”
“Yes, we did. And you were brilliant. You gave all of us a run for our money though, I’m glad your guardians were built strong enough to withstand you.”
