ROWAN.
It is huge.
And black.
And menacing.
Too… much to be an average wolf.
Maybe a beta or… an Alpha.
“What do you think?” Rina asks quietly.
“I think we better get that girl to the clinic before she dies of fright,” I reply as my eyes rove over the girl.
She is quaking in terror as she watches Louis wolf circle her while also sniffing at her.
“What is he doing?” Rina asks again.
“No idea,” I say as we carefully approach them.
“He is checking if she is hurt or bleeding,” Lisa responds.
Oh.
I don’t like it.
Him worrying over another person.
But I will be damned before I say that out loud.
“Hi,” I say quietly to the girl as I kneel before. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
She shakes her head in the negative, her eyes never leaving Louis’s prowling form.
“That is enough, Louis,” I call out to him. “She is okay.”
He huffs in response before walking away. Out of the corner of my eyes, I see one of the gathered wolves hand him a park of slacks.
Turning back to the girl, I focus my attention on her.
She is pale, clammy. Her heartbeat is accelerated and her hands are held protectively against her.
In defense.
“Did… did someone attack you?” I ask, my voice deceptively calm.
Whoever it is going to meet a brutal beating, if not death.
“N-no… no,” she stutters as her eyes lock into mine. “Nobody. It was nobody,” she says.
“What is your name?” I ask gently.
“Tanya.”
“Tanya. You can be honest with me,” I assure her. “No one will come near you again. Who hurt you-”
“Nobody,” she insists, cutting me off. “It was… it was a nightmare. I am sorry.”
A nightmare.
Yeah, that would make sense.
The idea that one of us will intentionally harm another, after all we have been through is… inconceivable.
A nightmare will explain her panic.
“You were sleeping? It is barely past eight,” I remark.
“I was having a nap and Lost track of time.”
“I see. Well, come on now,” I say as I get to my feet and extend a hand to her. I wait for her to willingly put her hand in mine before lifting her up. “We will get you to the clinic, make sure that nothing is broken okay. And maybe we will find someone to spend the night with you.”
“Oh, no!” she exclaims as she tries to wave my offer away. “I am fine.. It is just, I am just… it’s…”
“Don’t worry,” Rina says as he appears by her side. “We don’t mind.”
She begins leading her away while I tag along behind them. A few seconds later, Louis appears by my side.
“Will she be alright?” he asks quietly.
“Hmm. It was a nightmare. Many of us have trauma from our past.”
“Hmm.”
I send him a side glance and notice how deep in thought he is. Gone is that charming aura around him, now he is surrounded by an aura of deep contemplation and possibly realization.
“That was some quick reflexes you had there,” I comment.
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“The way you leapt and broke her fall,” I explain. “If you had not been quick enough, it would have been a whole different situation we would be in.”
“I only did what anyone else would do. Only faster.”
“That statement again,” I say with a wry smile. “You must be some kind of guardian angel wherever you come from.”
“Somehow I doubt that. Are… are they always like that?” he asks, changing the subject.
“Like how?”
“Scared, panicked,”he answers.
“Some of us. You have to understand, we didn’t all choose to be rogues. Some of us… some of us were made that way. By our packs. By those we trusted. Abused. Tormented. Left for dead. It takes a while for us to begin to trust again, even longer for the trauma to fade.”
“Does it? Fade, I mean?”
“Not completely,” I answer. “Sometimes, we can go a long stretch of time being fine and okay and then just one, insignificant occurrence, sound, word, anything really, and all that work is undone. A nightmare is the least of the things we have seen.”
“Really? She fell of the building. Like she was chased as fell off the balcony. What could be worse than that?” he asks as he stares into my eyes.
“Have you seen someone trapped in his own mind, lashing out because he believes his friends are out to kill him? Or how about trying to end your life because of one silly mistake but you have been told repeatedly that you are a waste of space? Repeatedly, we have had to talk people down from their panic, we have had to be talked down. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t. That is the world we live in, where those who are supposed to protect us cause us the most harm and strangers are the ones with the living touch.”
“I… I am sorry,” he says quietly.
“What for?” I ask with a sad smile. “You have nothing to apologize for, at least until you get your memories back.”
“Hmm.”
We arrive at the clinic and all take a seat while one of the healers looks over Tanya.
Eventually, someone shows Up, Dawn.
“How is she?” I ask.
“She is asleep,” she answers. “I had to sedate her, her heartbeat was out of control and her blood pressure was through the roof. I would have recommended some sleeping pills but I don’t think that will be suitable. The last thing we want for her is to be trapped in a nightmare.”
“Of course. Any bruises?”
“Only from where she fell. I have to go, others to check up on.”
“Sure, thank you.”
The moment she leaves, I turn to Louis.
Time to get over this.
“What?”he asks.
“Let’s talk about your wolf.”