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Say My Name (Book 3 of The Claimed Series)

Chapter 1 

“Hold up! I smell something!”

Blake Patterson closed his eyes, using all his senses but sight to try and track down the mysterious source of the odor.

Blood. Thick, coppery, and strong, it rankled at him, and he had to force the beast inside him to back down. Whatever the source of the scent was, it surely had to be dead by now. The overpowering fragrance emanating from it was that intense.

But there was also another, fainter smell beneath it. A more feminine spice. It didn’t smell rogue, but it was definitely a foreign wolf. Maybe someone who had gotten lost from a neighboring pack.

Whoever it was, they were on death’s door, if not already gone.

Not bothering to shift since the smell of blood was so potent, Blake moved southwest towards the road. Not a lot of visitors ventured on this particular highway and this far north in New York State unless they were heading to Canada, so the possibilities of them running into anyone they didn’t already know were pretty slim.

Blake had to travel much farther than he thought he would, and was almost right on the road when he saw a small movement in the leaves at the edge of the small ravine that was abutted up against the pavement. If he had blinked, he might have missed it completely.

“Trace! Caleb!” Blake called out to the Delta and Gamma who were hovering back several hundred yards. They were his back up. If there was an injured she-wolf, who knew what had caused her affliction? They were being safe and protecting their Beta, their second in command.

“Blake?” It was Caleb. He came out from behind a tree and looked at him. “What did you find?”

“Look.” Blake was pointing to the small body of a foreign female. Beaten, battered, her face more purple than healthy pink skin.

Sniffing, Caleb’s nose crinkled at the overwhelming metallic smell of her blood.

“Her heartbeat is faint,” Trace stated as he came up from behind them. The two other men jumped at his voice, startled. Trace had a basso-profundo tone that went well with his thick body, but it still rattled them to hear him speak when it was relatively quiet like now. It was almost as if the forest was silent in reverence of the dead. Or dying.

“What do we do?” Blake asked, almost to himself.

“She’s as good as dead,” Trace stated. “Just leave her here.”

That didn’t sit well with Blake, and he frowned. He was a protector at heart. “I wonder if she was the one that set off the alarm at the border.”

“I doubt she got here by herself in this state,” Caleb said, looking at the deep gashes on her skin from afar. “Someone must have dropped her off here after beating her bloody.”

“I wonder what she did,” Blake surmised. “She’s so small and incredibly slender.” The female looked too young and too frail to have been the cause of much trouble. Who would do this to such a petite woman?

The small woman’s bare ribs stuck out through the tattered remnants of her shirt, the tears most certainly made by the claw marks of another wolf. Maybe even a rogue.

The three men were all looking at the girl when her eyes slowly slid open and she gazed up at them. They were a startling clear blue, giving her an innocence that made Blake realize that he couldn’t just leave her there. Even if she was near death, something in him made him believe she deserved a chance at life. The chance they could give her.

“We can’t just leave her here,” Blake stated, his voice low but certain. “I don’t believe such a frail creature could have done anything to deserve such a death as this.”

“Then you can be the one to deal with Liam,” Trace warned him, effectively washing his hands of the stray wolf. He knew Liam hated to deal with foreign wolves, especially females. He thought them sly, silly creatures for the most part.

“I’ll handle Liam,” Blake told him as he made his way down the small gulley next to the highway. “He’s not been as bad as all that lately.”

“Says you,” Caleb tossed out. He had been punished only a week before for fraternizing with a rogue that had fled a neighboring pack. The rogue had claimed he was seeking refuge from a cruel Alpha to the south of them. The man had once again been tossed away by their own Alpha like a rotting banana peel, just to the east of their land. Let him seek refuge there, proclaimed Liam.

“The Alpha has no female,” Blake reminded the Gamma wolf. “He is bound to get...irritable.”

“Then he should seek s****l release with one of the many willing females,” Caleb spat back at him. “It’s not like there aren’t any eager, unmated women to be had at Plumbrook.”

“It’s not his way,” Blake reminded him. “If he is to take a female, it is for life. You know Liam, so don’t act a fool.”

The small female groaned as Blake tried to lift her from the ground. The large man winced, knowing his actions were probably hurting the fragile-looking creature. When Caleb and Trace protested again, Blake cut them both with a look.

“Get the car, you bunch of ingrates,” he told them, ignoring their looks of consternation.

Female stray found in the woods, Alpha, he mindlinked to Liam once Caleb and Trace had gone.

Leave it be, Liam instructed, a growl in his tone.

She’s near death and...she’s so f*****g tiny, Blake told him, his voice conciliatory.

Blake could almost hear the man sigh in his head. Blake and Liam had been best friends since they were pups, and if anyone could get through to the irritable Alpha, it was Blake.

Fine, Liam told him, his voice resigned. Bring her to the infirmary. We will have Evelyn tend to her and then send her along her way.

Blake, having been satisfied that the young female was going to be taken care of, waited for Caleb to bring the car around so they could get the unknown girl the help she so desperately needed.

***

Evelyn D’Amato frowned at the unconscious female in the white hospital bed. The Alpha was standing next to her and listening to everything the doctor was saying.

“These,” the doctor told Liam, gesturing to the deep gashes on the female’s stomach. “Are all claw marks.”

“That, I could have guessed,” Liam told her, arching a brow. “She was obviously attacked by another wolf. This is not news. Why did you bring me here to show me what I already could have guessed?”

Evelyn looked at her Alpha and blinked.

“The marks on her back are not claw marks,” the doctor told him. “They are whip marks.”

That, however, surprised Liam.

“Whip marks?”

“Yes, Alpha,” Evelyn told him, nodding. “She has been severely whipped and beaten. More than once. She also has fading scars under the open gashes on her back. I am surprised that she lives at all. She’s lost a goodish amount of blood.”

Liam’s jaw ticked, his eyes growing dark.

“She does not smell rogue,” Liam stated. In fact, after she had been cleaned of all the blood and dirt, she had a pleasant, flowery smell. Like a mixture of jasmine and freesia.

“I don’t think she is rogue,” Evelyn told him. “We would smell it.”

The woman hesitated and looked away from the Alpha. His brows knitted, wondering what she was keeping from him.

“What is it?” Beaten and battered, what else could possibly be wrong with the slight female before him?

“I...well – when I had the nurses bathe her, they told me something disturbing,” Evelyn told him in a measured tone. “After doing a more thorough check, I found that she was not only beaten but...abused.”

Liam’s jaw clenched again, a sure sign his wolf was becoming agitated within him. Liam was quite displeased as well, much to his own chagrin. She was foreign and he shouldn’t care.

“You mean...raped?” he asked, looking down at the fluttering of the unconscious female’s eyelids. He hoped she was having a good dream, whatever it was.

“Several times over,” Evelyn told him, nodding her head. “And quite recently. She had tearing of the anus and vaginal walls, and she is very swollen. I don’t think she was raped by a man, but by some other, foreign object. I could tell by the healing lacerations.”

Liam felt disgusted. The poor woman before him was as frail as Blake had described, and though he was no fan of strays, he felt bad for the one before him. Horrible, in fact. He wanted to break something, tear into someone’s flesh to be rid of the cold, coiling nausea he had rolling through his gut.

Instead of spilling the contents of his stomach into the nearest toilet, he simply nodded at the doctor before heading toward the door of the private room in the ICU wing of the pack hospital.

“Thank you, Doctor,” he told her as his hands met with the cold surface of the doorknob. “Call me when she wakes. I have questions for her.”

Liam waited until he was out of the hospital to shift into the black beast that was tearing at his insides trying to get out. He may not have been a fan of visitors, but it was not as if this one had come to his land of her own volition. The doctor had been certain. She had been dropped there, possibly even tossed from a vehicle. Left to die next to the road that led to the Plumbrook Pack in northern New York State.

Hours later, Liam’s beast was finally sated. He had ripped apart several rabbits, a deer and – surprisingly – a mountain lion. That last was a shock. They were rare, even in the area north of the Adirondacks.

Slipping on some clothes he had hidden in a tree near his home, he walked in through the back door of his house to find Blake sitting at his kitchen table, eating a sandwich.

“That better not be the last of the roast beef,” Liam warned him as he opened the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

“I’ll get you more,” Blake told him, his face blank.

“What’s up your ass?” Liam asked him, uncapping the bottle.

“The female,” Blake told him.

“You have a mate, Blake,” Liam reminded him, arching a brow.

“It’s not that,” Blake said, shaking his head. “I went by the infirmary before to check in on her. She was being sedated.”

Liam froze and looked over at his Beta. Water from the open bottle spilled over, and a few drops splashed onto his shoe as his brows furrowed above his eyes.

“Why?”

“Nightmare. Night terror. Whatever you want to call it. She was thrashing around like she was being viciously attacked.”

“Did she...did she say anything?”

“She could only scream,” Blake told him. “If there were any words in there, they were unintelligible. I made Dr. D’Amato tell me everything.”

Liam nodded. He understood now why Blake was acting so odd. Rape was an offense in the Plumbrook Pack that was punishable by death. Torture and then death, if the female was already mated and taken against her will. It was one of the gravest offenses one could commit.

“At least she’s not pregnant,” Blake stated. “Evelyn got the blood tests back before I came over. But then again, she’s pretty sure the rape was with a foreign object, not someone’s d**k. Blunt force trauma.”

“s**t,” Liam muttered and resumed draining the bottle.

“I’m glad she’s not pregnant. No one needs a daily reminder of their repeated rape,” Blake agreed, nodding at him.

“When will she be awake?”

“Who knows?” Blake shrugged. “With the amount of sedatives they had to give her, it could be hours, maybe even a day, before she finally opens her eyes.”

Liam’s eyes widened a trace.

“That bad, huh?”

Blake shuddered a bit. “I can still hear her screams. They were terrifying. Like she was being f*****g murdered right there in front of me.”

Liam nodded. He had his own demons and nightmares too. But that was then. Years ago. Too, too many. And yet the memories, the dreams, they always felt so fresh, like an open sore that refused to heal.

And the guilt. It ate away at him every day. If only he had known what would happen, had been able to see the trouble brewing. Maybe...just, maybe...

“I’m heading to bed,” Liam told his friend and Beta. “I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything from Dr. D’Amato.”

Blake merely nodded and finished up the last few bites of his sandwich as he stared blankly out the window.

Wondering. He wondered where the female had come from, and thought back to Caleb’s rogue wolf. Had that wolf come from the same pack this female had? It would only make sense if that were the case. Not all packs were as peaceful as Plumbrook.

After washing his lone dish and a couple of utensils he had used to make his food, he placed them in the dish drainer and left out the front of door the Alpha’s home, locking it behind him.

Instead of heading off toward his own home to see his mate, Colleen, he headed off toward the trees in search of solitude.

Chapter 2 

“And why would I want to mate with a weak f*****g b***h like you?” Jeremiah seethed, his breath scaldingly hot against the skin of her cheek.

“We...we’re mates,” Giselle whimpered out, tears sliding down her face faster than she could swipe them away.

“Stop crying!” he yelled back at her, the irises of his eyes being taken over by full-on black. He was pissed. He always seemed to be when it came to his weak mate. “You look ugly when you cry!”

His words only made Giselle cry harder. What had she done to have such a cruel man as Alpha and mate?

“I-I’m s-sor-ry,” she stuttered out, flinching away from him. He would hit her for stuttering. Or for talking. Or for...whatever else he wanted to hit her for that he deemed necessary to punish her.

“Do I have to ram my c**k down your throat to keep you from speaking?” he asked, his voice both lower and deadlier. “Because if that’s what it takes, I’ll have you gagging all night on it.”

It had been six months since she had turned 18 and found her mate. She thought she had been lucky, at first. Many she-wolves waited for months, years even, to find their other half. Her parents had hoped that when she did find her mate, that he would be kind and caring. Now, besides Alpha Jeremiah and his Beta, her parents were the only ones that knew she was mated to the cruel Alpha of Blackriver Pack.

Her belongings had been immediately moved into the Alpha’s home when he had found her, but it was not the gesture of a loving and caring mate that made him make the transition so quickly. It was his jealousy, his desire to possess, that fueled him. He would have his mate with him at all times, to please him when he so desired, though no one but a few would ever know of the weak Luna he had been gifted with.

Though Jeremiah Bluth made it abundantly clear he didn’t want Giselle Kincaid as his mate, he wouldn’t reject her, and intended to keep her by his side. She was more or less a form of s****l release and a female to beat on when his temper got the best of him. Instead of beating his omegas or taking out his anger in training with his warriors, he went back to his home at the end of the day where he would punish Giselle for crimes she had no idea she had even committed.

Talk back to the Alpha? Ten lashes with the whip. Do poorly in training? Twenty lashes. Speak without first being spoken to? Sing or hum? Thirty.

If there was some sort of formula or algorithm for these trespasses, it was beyond Giselle, and she stopped trying to figure it all out. It was pointless anyway. No matter what, he would beat her bloody every day.

It only irritated him when he came back home and found she was partially healed from the beating the day before. He felt the need to brand her again with his own marks of injustice.

“Please,” she whimpered out. She hated to give him any sort of pleasure. At first, she thought relinquishing control to him would have helped with his obvious anger management issues, but he continued to beat her even after he had dominated her body sexually, and to his own pleasure. More so, in fact. It was like he was angry with himself that he took pleasure in his mate’s weaker body, and it brought out his inner rage. At her. At himself. At everyone.

“Suck it, b***h,” he told her as he unfastened his belt and pulled out his d**k. It was semi-hard and still painful for her to even look at. He was a well-endowed man, and he beat her even harder if she couldn’t take him all the way down. Which she never was able to do. At least not fully.

Clearing her throat of excess phlegm that had accrued due to her sobs, she took him into her mouth slowly before his hands locked around her head and his c**k was shoved into her mouth, stabbing the back of her throat. She gagged.

“s**t, I love when your throat locks up around me, my little b***h,” he said, tossing his head back while forcing himself further down her throat.

Almost vomiting, Giselle did what she always tried to do. She relaxed her throat and thought of something else. Anything else. Baking with her mom when she was little. Fishing with her father out on the lake. Hiking with her siblings. Many of them were older and gone from the pack now after having found their mates, but her older brother was still around, working in the pack clinic.

Chase was 26 now, with a mate of his own, and she rarely ever saw him. Though she was abused daily to the point of passing out from the pain, she was never taken to the clinic and was attended to by the Beta’s female, Kate. Kate was a nurse and completely caring – unlike Jeremiah – but she couldn’t do anything to help her other than bandage her lacerations and bring her medicine when needed. Usually strong pain medications.

A few times, Giselle thought to hoard the pain meds so she could escape the world completely one day. An overdose would be a welcome relief after the constant pain that was inflicted upon her daily. But she also knew that since she was a werewolf, it would take more pain medication than the clinic’s pharmacy probably had stocked to effectively do enough damage to kill her. f*****g werewolf genetics didn’t allow for them to be as affected by maladies, alcohol, or medications as a human would be. Sometimes Giselle wished she were human. She probably would have been beaten to death by now. Painful, but final. This slow death of her body and soul was too much for her to bear.

After Jeremiah f****d her throat until he came, it felt raw and ached. He was not gentle, and it hurt when she had been forced to swallow down his seed.

Throwing her back on the bed, he then continued to f**k her anally until she bled from her ass, the usual lacerations replacing the old ones.

“f*****g pathetic,” he hissed out at her as he finished on her face.

Jeremiah left her there to clean herself up, his come still slowly dribbling down her face as he walked off to take a shower. Probably washing away the evidence that he had been with her.

Why not just come inside her ass? It was not like he could get her pregnant that way and have another reason to keep her around. He was merely biding his time until he totally lost control one day and killed her. Then he could take one of his other whores to mate and become his Luna. Though he didn’t want her, he couldn’t seem to bring himself to kill her purposely either.

Giselle eventually limped over to the bathroom and used a wet towel to wash his seed from her face and then turned on the bathtub. She couldn’t put any bath salts or bubble bath in it. Even if he had kindly provided her with some, it would have stung her privates too much to use. Instead, she would have to hope that the scalding hot water would be enough to help soothe her aching and bruised muscles. Either that, or burn her flesh off her and ultimately kill her.

Giselle had once been a part of a loving family at Blackriver Pack. Two caring parents, a protective older brother, and two more sisters. She was the youngest, the baby of the family. Coddled and spoiled, she had thought that having her mate would be all sunshine and rainbows. Her experiences in life had never prepared her for this grim reality.

She sat in the tub, the water gradually cooling to a normal temperature while her red skin turned a light pink. The water was discolored as well with the blood seeping from between her thighs.

She didn’t even realize that someone had come to visit until a soft hand came down upon her shoulder.

Giselle flinched before looking up at the visitor.

Kate. Thank God. Or the Moon Goddess. Or...whomever.

“We need to get you cleaned up,” Kate told her softly. “Carter’s in the other room with one of the pack doctors. Don’t worry. It’s not your brother.”

Carter was Kate’s mate and Jeremiah’s Beta. Giselle had begged for none of them to tell Chase what was happening. She was afraid he would try to challenge the Alpha and be killed in the process. He had a mate and two children that needed him, so it must have been Dr. Dandridge that Kate or Carter had summoned.

The blood continued to seep from between her thighs after she was washed, and she didn’t bother to put on any panties with the overlarge t-shirt of Jeremiah’s that she wore. They would be ruined by the blood and would probably have to be taken off anyway so Dandridge could sew her up. It wouldn’t be the first time. Or the last, most likely.

Sighing as he placed stitches around her vulva, the doctor looked disheartened.

“I...If this type of abuse continues, she’ll be dead before the year is out,” he told Kate and Carter softly as he walked over with his soiled gloves to toss them into his red hazmat container. “There is only so much a wolf can take, and she is getting more fragile by the day.”

Giselle was used to them talking about her like she wasn’t there. For all intents and purposes, she wasn’t. She was merely a placeholder until the Alpha would eventually kill her and take another to mate. The man had never believed in rules and bucked all traditions when he could.

Carter and the doctor spoke a bit more before the Beta thanked the man and allowed him to leave.

Walking over to Giselle who was seated on the bed next to Kate, he spoke lowly but clearly.

“Luna,” he said. “This can’t continue. You heard Dr. Dandridge. We need a plan to get you out of here. For good.”

Giselle simply gazed up at him, looking numb and feeling like a heap of trash. If it hadn’t been for the fresh trickle of tears falling down her face, Carter would have thought she hadn’t heard him.

“Then kill me,” Giselle said after a brief moment.

There was a pleading quality to her dead voice, and Kate let out a soft sob. Carter’s pained eyes flickered over to his mate before they slid back over to Giselle’s.

“You know I can’t do that,” he told her. “And I know you don’t deserve that.”

“I don’t deserve this,” Giselle said quietly, gesturing about the room. “It’s like I’m in prison for a crime I didn’t commit. I have no life anymore, no friends. I’m forbidden to see my family. I...please – I just want to die.”

Carter’s jaw ticked with agitation. He had known Giselle – mainly through her brother – since she was young, and this was unlike the vibrant girl she used to be. She had always been a little shy until you cracked her outer shell, but she was kind and warm to everyone. He had never imagined she would become Luna only to be beaten down by his Alpha. An Alpha whose head had grown too big with the power of his title.

Yet, maybe she had something there. If Jeremiah thought she was dead, he would probably request for her body to be taken off his land and then blame a rogue on her disappearance and death.

“I have a better idea, Elle,” he said to her, using her childhood nickname to garner her full attention. “Now listen carefully...”

***

Giselle woke with a start. An irritating beeping noise was coming from somewhere, and she looked frantically around the room to figure out where she was, and what the sound meant.

The room was dark, but her heightened wolf senses could still distinguish almost everything in the space.

The last thing Giselle remembered was Jeremiah’s eyes. They were black with rage as he pulled back his fist before connecting with her face.

Then...silence. Complete and utter nothingness. It was a relief.

She thought she had dreamed about waking up in a forest and seeing a few men surrounding her, but it was only a flash and then it was gone.

But...where was she now? It smelled heavily like the antiseptics of a sterile environment. She had only been to a hospital once growing up when she had received a compound fracture to her leg falling out of her treehouse. The leg had to be set quickly before healing kicked in, and she remembered that this is what it had smelled like there as well.

So, she must not be in her own pack lands since she wasn’t ever allowed out of the Alpha’s home. Carter’s plan must have worked, somewhat. But where was she? How far had he traveled in order to get rid of her body? And was Jeremiah unaware that she still lived? God, she hoped so.

Giselle tried to call out.

Nothing. No sound.

Clutching at her throat, she felt bandages there and decided to try and get to her feet to find someone. She needed to know where she was. Though she was certain that this wasn’t Blackriver territory, she wouldn’t rest until she was completely convinced.

Her legs gave out from beneath her when she stood, and she nearly stumbled before moving away from the bed.

One faltering step. Two steps. Three.

She made her way gingerly over to the door and flicked on the light switch.

The room bathed itself in fluorescent lighting, and she cringed away from the harsh glare of it in her eyes.

The beeping started to escalate, the invasive sound becoming more rapid with each passing moment.

She started to panic, and moved away from the door. She needed to make the beeping stop. Pulling at anything on her body, Giselle found she had something clamped to her finger. It was a foreign object. And there were circular pads on her chest, gleaming white and stuck onto her skin with little wires attached.

Giselle pulled everything off of her body and the beeping stopped. Only then, it was followed by one continuous loud noise. Like the beeping had turned into a high-pitched shriek that threatened to break her down with its insistence.

Giselle clamped her hands over her ears to try to quell the sound, but it was almost useless. She could still hear it, and her hands only dampened the sound the slightest bit.

On her knees now, she crawled over to the corner of the room in her flimsy hospital gown and panties, folded her knees to her chest, and wished she could make a sound. Any sound. Just so someone could find the source of the noise and make it go away.

As the tears poured down to her chin, the door to the room opened swiftly, and Giselle looked up to see a female in a white coat.

The woman seemed to be mid to late 20’s and was a pretty blonde with sparkling blue eyes. She was of medium height, maybe five foot six or seven, and wearing sensibly low heels under black slacks.

Looking over to the small creature huddled in the corner, Evelyn D’Amato saw her flinch away from her as she moved to come closer.

Giselle gave a high-pitched scream and another nurse came running into the room.

“Call the Alpha,” Evelyn told the frightened nurse. “Tell him the patient is awake.”

“Is...is she rogue?” the nurse asked, nose crinkling.

“Does she smell rogue to you, you i***t?” Evelyn asked, immediately becoming irritated with the moronic nurse. “She is a patient only. Now, do as I say.”

A few minutes later, Evelyn was waiting in the main lobby for Alpha Liam, who had been awakened from a deep sleep for this.

Seeing him in his black leather jacket over a muscle shirt and black jeans, he rushed into the facility and went straight to Dr. D’Amato.

“Where is she?” he asked, voice still thick from sleep.

“She’s awake and in her room,” Evelyn told him. “But there’s a problem, Alpha.”

“What is that? Does she refuse treatment? Send her away if she does,” Liam spat out, irritated that he was being awoken for a non-compliant, trespassing she-wolf.

“No, Alpha,” Evelyn told him. “She doesn’t speak.”

“She refuses to or cannot?”

“I believe a bit of both,” Evelyn told him. “She tries to make sounds, but nothing comes out. For all intents and purposes, she is a mute.”

***

Liam took Evelyn’s information in with a few rapid blinks. It was difficult for him to fathom that any damage done to such a hearty species would cause this psychological and physical trauma in one so young.

“I will get her to speak,” he said firmly. “Where is she?”

“Alpha, the girl is not only traumatized, but her throat was nearly torn from her neck,” Evelyn warned him. “It is not just that she is unwilling through some sort of psychiatric cause, but her throat needs time to heal as well. It would be unwise for her to strain it until she is completely recovered. It may also traumatize her further. If you need to question her, at any rate, please be gentle.”

Liam slowly closed his eyes and thought for a moment, thinking of a way to get the information he needed without breaking the girl. If anything, at least get her to tell him which pack she hailed from.

“Evelyn,” Liam finally said. “Do you have a spare notepad and a pen? I will ask her questions that way.”

“Of course, Alpha,” she said. “Give me a moment to fetch them.”

The doctor went to the reception desk and pulled out a thick yellow pad and a ballpoint pen. Walking back to him, she bowed her head in respect and gave the items to him.

“Now bring me to the girl.”

Evelyn took him back to the last room on the right and again warned him of the frailties of the girl, emphasizing her fragile mental state which seemed teetering and unwieldy at best.

Opening the door, Evelyn went in first before Liam followed. The room was blindingly bright and he looked over to the bed, watching as the girl sat up straighter, pulling the thin sheets up farther, as if to hide herself from the unwanted visitors.

“Miss, this man is Liam Stark, Alpha of the Plumbrook Pack,” Evelyn told the girl gently. “No harm will come to you in his presence.”

The girl gazed over at Liam, looking even more frightened and seeming to tremble slightly in her bed.

Unfazed by her trepidation, he walked over a few steps towards her and watched as she flinched backward, a high-pitched whimper the only sound in the room.

Liam took the girl in. She did not look dangerous, but danger could sometimes come in a pretty, pint-sized packages. He knew that all too well.

Large, blue doe-eyes made even wider by fear looked back at him while her hair tumbled in gentle waves down past her shoulders. It was jet black and looked fine as silk, though it might have been ages since it had been properly cared for.

“Little wolf,” Liam said in a calm manner. “Your beaten body was found on the edge of my lands near a highway. I need to know what you were doing there and where you come from. But first, please, tell me your name.”

He pushed the pad of paper and pen towards her and watched as she stared blankly back at it before blinking and taking it from him.

He watched as in slow, methodical cursive, she penned her response.

My name is Giselle. No surname. I cannot tell you where I come from and why I’m here.

Reading the words, Liam’s bright blue eyes seemed to grow cold as he looked back at her after he finished reading her response.

“Why can you not tell me? Do you not know, or do you refuse to answer an Alpha’s question?”

Though he tried not to, the words came out sounding cruel and blunt, and Giselle jerked back at his tone. Her eyes immediately became glassy and a tear spilled down her cheek, though she made no other sound but for a loud sniff.

Fuck.

“Alpha,” Evelyn murmured softly so that only he could hear.

Liam closed his eyes again, trying to remember that this was no rogue, no interloper. At least not of her own free will. She could not have made it from the nearest pack in the condition she had been found.

“My apologies,” Liam told her, his voice a bit softer, bordering on contrite. “We are mistrustful of strangers here at Plumbrook, and I need to know you are not a threat to us. If you could, please, answer my question.”

He gave her the pen and pad back and watched as she reluctantly put pen to paper and wrote her response.

I know where I come from, but I do not belong there anymore. I am afraid that if I tell you, you will send me back and I only just escaped with my life. I did not know where I would be left. I passed out before being dropped at the side of the road.

Liam read again and understood. He nodded at her.

“Is there a reason you had to flee, or were you being punished and escaped from your pack’s cells?”

I am no fugitive. I am merely someone who wishes to start fresh. The only way to do that was to flee.

“And what or who do you flee from?”

That – I cannot tell you. You would surely send me back. If you make me tell you, you must promise to kill me before sending me back there, because I am as good as dead if I return.

Liam read it through twice. Then a third time. He didn’t understand fully, but he was certain she did not, and would not, tell him the truth if he pressed her for an answer now.

Liam caught a movement in his peripheral vision and saw that Giselle was motioning to take the notepad back. Perhaps she had more to say after all.

Why can I not speak?

Liam deferred to Dr. D’Amato for this information, and Evelyn explained the physical trauma first.

“You may regain your voice back in time, though it is up to you and your mental state on how quickly you learn to speak again,” she told the younger woman. “It will take time and hard work, but I am sure that if you put your mind to it, you will regain the ability to speak eventually.”

Evelyn smiled at her and Giselle’s face seemed to break into a soft, demure smile as well, her cheeks becoming pink at the kind words. She’d had so very few of them spoken to her in the past six months.

Giselle motioned for the pad with a small, slender hand. Evelyn gave it back, and motioned for her to write what she wished.

Am I still in New York State? When may I leave the hospital?

“Yes, you are still in upstate New York and as you are awake and stable, you may leave any time you like,” Evelyn told her, looking back at the Alpha who was watching their exchange with rapt attention. Like he was trying to solve a riddle.

“You should not move around much for a while, but there is no need for you to stay here,” Evelyn continued. “Alpha, is there a place in the Packhouse where Giselle may stay?”

At that, Giselle froze and her face paled. She was not good around strange people – or, in this case – wolves.

“The Packhouse is full at the moment,” Liam said after blinking.

Evelyn looked back at him and tilted her head. The last time she knew, there were at least four unoccupied rooms in the Packhouse and she hadn’t heard of anyone moving in these past several months.

“If you would like, you can stay in my home,” Liam said, continuing smoothly. “I have several unoccupied rooms and some spare clothing my sister left before finding her mate. She was about your size but has gained some since having given birth to her son.”

Giselle took in the man with her own scrutinizing look before nodding her head in assent. Whether she was too scared to decline his offer or just wanted to leave the hospital was anyone’s guess. It was not like she had anywhere to go.

“I will have my Beta get some things from my home for you to wear and we can leave,” Liam said before turning to walk out the door.

Before leaving the room, Liam turned back, his eyes downcast, staring at the floor.

“You may take your respite on my lands for the meantime,” he told Giselle. “If you wish to join our community, we may talk about that in the future. Just...something for you to think about.”

He walked out the door, his heavy boots making a hard, clomping sound on the linoleum as he moved past the other rooms in the hospital.

***

“You what?” Blake hissed out, irritated he had been woken from his sound sleep to play fetch-the-foreigner’s-clothing. He was not some lady-in-waiting or maid. 

“It just came out,” Liam said, cutting his eyes at Blake. He didn’t regret offering Giselle home and hearth. She seemed like a gentle soul, and he found he couldn’t toss her aside after only just recovering from her horrific wounds. The girl had been broken both physically and mentally, and something in him was convinced she was no danger. When he had offered her a place to stay and possibly more, it was on a whim, an instinct. He trusted his instincts implicitly, and knew better than to ignore them.

“You were the one who brought her here,” Liam reminded his Beta. “You wouldn’t have brought her if you felt she was a threat, so don’t turn this around on me now.”

“Yeah, I offered her a place to recover, not to stay forever!” Blake frowned at the Alpha’s rash, in-the-moment decisions, especially the one where she lived in his home with him. For the longest time, no one had lived with the Alpha. Not since her.

“Let me worry about where she sleeps,” Liam told him. “You just worry about getting to my house, picking up something for her to wear, and getting back here. You’re not the only one that wants to go back to sleep.”

Blake cut a glance at his friend and Alpha, and loped off toward the clinic door before turning back.

“Hey, Liam?”

“Yes?”

“Uhm...underwear?”

Liam thought about that. He didn’t know if she would be averse to wearing another female’s panties, but he realized that that may be too intimate of apparel to share with someone else. Even if they were clean.

“No bra. Just grab a pair of my boxers, some sweatpants, and a t-shirt. She’s not going to be modeling in Milan any time soon,” Liam finally told him and watched as Blake’s wide body left the building.

***

Once Giselle was dressed in clothing that was even larger on her small frame than he had originally thought, Liam walked her toward his house, which was the largest and most extravagant building in the community. It was also the brightest, as he had left the lights on before heading to the hospital.

“I know you cannot speak back to me, but for what I have to say, I don’t need an answer right away,” Liam told her, watching as she nodded gently back at him.

“I understand your trepidation about telling us which pack you come from, but at some point, I will need to know,” Liam told her and watched as her form faltered slightly on the asphalt of the small backroad. “If you are to become one of us, we will need to know if there is a danger posed to us from whoever is pursuing you. Once you break the bond with that pack, their Alpha may feel it as well.”

Giselle slowed her pace, thinking. She hadn’t thought about the bond that the Alphas had with their pack wolves. They could feel when someone was out of their territory or if they pledged to another pack, and that last part frightened her the most. Surely Jeremiah would feel when – or if – his true mate pledged to another pack.

Liam coaxed her along and led her into his home before watching her look around the foyer of the house. It was large and bright, unlike the darker, more foreboding looking home of Jeremiah.

“I will give you a tour of my house tomorrow,” Liam told her before walking toward the curvature of the stairs. “Your room will be next to mine in case you need anything, though I doubt you will do much but sleep tonight.”

She nodded her head again at him, this time tilting it at him afterward, as if trying to figure the man out. Liam truly wished he could tell what she was thinking. If she wasn’t so fragile, he may have forced her to speak.

“I will have some paper and pens brought to you in the morning so you can communicate,” he told her and stopped in front of a large oak door before opening it up for her.

The room was large, but not ostentatious. It was simple in design, with a queen-sized bed and oak dressers bookending it. There was an overstuffed chair and a few bookshelves that Giselle immediately wanted to inspect. They were her favorite part of the room by far.

“This is my sister’s old room,” Liam told her. “She had left some clothing when she found her mate, and you are welcome to anything in here as she will not be needing any of it anytime soon.”

He watched as Giselle immediately went to one bookshelf and started to run her hands over the spines of the many books that lined it. Liam’s sister was a book fanatic and devoured any genre that could be read, so there was a good mix of them to choose from.

Liam couldn’t help but smile a bit at the apparent bookworm. He had never been one to read anything more complicated than the sports page, and his sister had been the voracious reader among the two of them. Just like their mother before her.

Giselle started to slide out a book and seemed to stop herself. Her head snapped to Liam’s and she looked frightened, as though he might be mad if even one book was out of place.

“You may use anything in here as well,” he assured her. “My sister has mated halfway across the country and is living in the Rockies at this time. Even if she were to see you in here touching her things, she would not fault you and insist you read as much as you like. She is a very generous woman.”

Giselle seemed to study him again, as if to test to see if he was telling the truth. Slowly though, she picked up the book. It had been one of his sister’s favorites when she had still been living in the Alpha’s home. Thirteen Reasons Why. They had made the book into some TV show so it was no wonder that Giselle had gravitated toward it. It had been quite popular at the time it aired.

“Did you watch the show on Netflix?” Liam asked, gesturing toward the book.

Looking confused, Giselle looked down on the book as if it was in some foreign language. Shaking her head, she walked over to the bed and set the book down on it, looking at it before opening the front page and caressing the dustjacket.

“I will let you rest,” Liam told her, heading toward the door. He had been standing in the corner by the closet. “There is a bathroom through that door for you to wash in the morning. I usually get up early and my housekeeper comes to cook for me as I do not know how. If she is not around, please help yourself to cereal, or eggs and bacon. Just don’t burn the house down. I’ve come quite attached to living here.”

She looked over at him again as if terrified. When she saw his small, teasing smile, she returned it shakily and nodded at him in affirmation.

“Goodnight, Giselle,” he told her before closing the door behind him and moving toward his bedroom. He felt like he could sleep for another eight hours, but he doubted he would be able to rest for that long. He was never one for too much sleep these days.

Chapter 3 

Giselle woke up the next morning wondering where she was. Her heart raced for a few moments until she sniffed the air and realized she was not in her own bed at Jeremiah’s house and was far, far away from the brutish man.

As her heart slowly calmed, she thought of the Alpha whose house she was in. He seemed nice enough, but so had Jeremiah at first. Then again, most of Jeremiah’s issues were borne of his jealousy and anger. Jealousy that anyone should touch what was his, and anger that his future Luna was a lowly Omega. He felt he had deserved far better, and used to tell her so often.

Looking over at the clock on the wall, she saw it was just past 7:30 AM. She wondered if the Alpha was gone or still in the house. She needed to find out some things and talk – well, write – them out for him.

Clothing. She needed clothing, so that meant she needed money to purchase it. She had left with none and if she used any credit cards or debit cards she had been given, it would give away the fact that she was not as dead as she hoped Jeremiah believed.

In order to get money to buy clothing, she would need a job. A job in the nearest town would only draw attention to her as the newcomer, and she didn’t have any skills with which to offer this new pack. If she decided to stay that is. She wasn’t so sure about that. She would be both a liability and a weight on the community. Useless, like Jeremiah had told her so many times.

Walking into the bathroom, she decided to take a shower and hurried her way through it. Scrubbing herself and then brushing her teeth, she found a comb in one of the drawers and she meticulously picked her way through her hair, irritated with the multitude of knots.

When her hair was smooth and straight, she figured she would let it dry naturally and then took the stairs to the bottom floor, making almost zero sound on the hardwood flooring.

Using her heightened sense of smell, she made her way into the kitchen and looked into the fridge. She had only eaten oatmeal and some dry cereal while living with Jeremiah, so she opted for the first hearty meal she’d had in months.

Bacon. Sausages. She found a dozen fresh eggs, and decided to make herself some of those as well. She could use it for putting on some weight. Giselle knew she couldn’t really rock the whole skeleton-esque look for very long, and it was beyond unhealthy. 

As she was pulling out some pans and a bowl to whisk eggs in, she sniffed the air, sensing another presence with it.

The Alpha. So, he was still at home.

Looking toward the door, she saw him come through the entranceway, doing up the last few buttons on his shirt.

When Liam looked over at the tiny female, he noticed she was wearing tiny shorts and a long-sleeved shirt. The sleeves were far too long on her and drooped over her hands unless she rolled them up.

“You should roll up the sleeves so you don’t catch fire cooking,” he told her and watched as she put down the utensils and pushed her sleeves up her skinny arms.

“No...like this.” Liam walked over to her and folded her sleeves up meticulously, roll after roll. After he finished, he stepped back.

“There. Much better,” he said and walked over to the fridge. He didn’t like the strange, wide-eyed look she gave him. It was unnerving, piercing. She looked at him as if she could see inside him and witness the mess he was.

She made a sound – an ugly, strangled one, and he looked over at her. Gesturing to the food, she pointed at the bowls, food, and then pointed at him.

“You want to know if I would like some food?” he asked.

Nodding, she smiled softly at him.

“Sure, though the housekeeper should have been here by now.”

Liam looked off into the distance, presumably trying to reach out to someone through the pack’s mindlink. He eventually hummed in understanding.

“She is still at home. Her littlest one is ill,” he told her, though she didn’t understand why he felt the need to explain. “Go ahead and cook if you have the mind to cook for a ravenously hungry wolf.”

While Giselle whisked eggs, Liam left the room for a moment and came back into the kitchen with a pad of paper and a pen.

“You should always bring this with you, whether you think you will need them or not,” he told her. “Not everyone is as good as I at reading your hand signals and gestures.”

She nodded at him and turned to place strips of bacon on one skillet and the freshly beaten eggs in the other. She let them simmer as she walked over to the pad of paper and wrote.

How do you like your eggs? was the simple question.

Looking up at her after reading it, he blinked and breathed out.

“I’m not picky,” he told her. “Scrambled, omelet, whatever you make is fine.”

Cheese?

Nodding and smiling, the Alpha said, “Sure.”

Breakfast was quieter than Liam was used to, and he found that he didn’t mind it one bit. His housekeeper was always chattering on about her children. Which was okay the first 57 times she told the same story. New teeth, colic when they were little, vomit, and diapers; they weren’t topics he really wished to discuss over breakfast, nor at any other meal.

Giselle picked up the pad of paper and wrote for a long time.

Why aren’t you at work already? I thought you would be gone long before this. I hope I didn’t throw off your routine. Also, I need to get clothing. Underwear mostly, and would like to know how I can earn my keep so that I may be able to afford them.

Liam took a while to read it, and answered her questions as he went along.

“I was supposed to go in earlier, but I slept too long,” he said. “I guess the middle-of-the-night call to the clinic woke me up and kept me awake far longer than I anticipated. You didn’t wake me. I got up around 7:15. As for clothing, I will have someone come around to get your size. Do not worry about earning your keep for now. We have a rainy-day fund for such instances as this and we hardly ever use it. As for your occupation here at this pack – what are your skills, or what is it you like to do?”

Giselle thought for a moment and then wrote.

I’m sorry to have kept you up last night with the visit to the hospital. As for clothing, I would like to earn my keep, just like everyone else. I can still do some things, but my skills are limited to pretty much anything I can do around the house. Cooking, cleaning, things like that. I haven’t had a job before. The only other thing I like to do is sing.

Liam smiled sadly. It was ironic that what this girl would love most was something she was unable to do at the moment.

“Well, we have no jobs open for Resident Songbird, so cooking and cleaning would suit nicely,” he told her. “In fact, since you are staying with me, I think it’s best you become my housekeeper instead of Sofia. She can be loud and obnoxious, and as much as I love kids, I feel like I’m living with hers without the benefit of having them around.”

Giselle looked like she was almost about to giggle. Almost. No sound came out though, and she looked down at her empty plate, saddened by the fact she couldn’t make even the simplest of sounds.

Liam put his hand on her shoulder and then tipped her chin up to him with a callused hand.

“You’ll get your voice back, little wolf,” he told her softly. “Then you can sing me lullabies every night so I can finally rest.”

Grabbing the pen and paper, she wrote quickly.

You have problems sleeping? Have you tried warm milk with honey?

Laughing, the usually stern Alpha shook his head.

“I’ve tried everything except medicines,” he told her. “And I don’t wish to become addicted to a substance due to the amount that it would take to put me down for the night. I get by just fine with a few hours a night.”

May I ask why you don’t sleep well?

Liam’s face fell for a moment, but he schooled his features and gave her a lazy half-smile.

“Tell you what,” he spoke, using a napkin to wipe around his mouth. “When you tell me where you come from and why you’re running, I’ll tell you why sleep evades me. Deal?”

Giselle nodded, but still looked uncertain.

Standing from his seat, Liam looked down at the forlorn creature and sighed.

“I’ll have one of my she-wolves come around and get your sizes,” he told her. “Bras, underwear, and some clothing that will actually fit you. You’re swimming in my sister’s stuff.”

Though he had to admit, they looked damn good on her anyway.

***

A knock roused Giselle from the book she was reading. Going to the door, she looked out the side window first before seeing it was a female wolf with red hair, a snub nose, and sparkling blue eyes. She opened the door, not knowing what to expect of the woman outside of it.

“Hi! I’m Colleen, the Beta’s mate,” the woman told her before coming into the house after Giselle opened the door. “I’m surprised to see Alpha Liam actually has a visitor, though I know you are an unintended one at that.”

Giselle nodded and looked for her pen and paper. She had kept it nearby as Liam had advised, but had left it on the coffee table near the couch she had been sitting on.

“Blake told me you can’t talk, and Liam said your name is Giselle,” Colleen kept prattling on. “It might be better if you don’t talk around me. I talk enough for three people and it can be overwhelming for some. But let’s go ahead and figure out your sizes.”

They eventually looked around Giselle’s bedroom and found the smallest of clothing that Liam’s sister had owned. They still floated around her smaller frame, but it gave them a starting point. Jeremiah hadn’t allowed her underwear or bras as he only ripped them off her when he was of a mind to. Not that any of them would have fit her anymore.

“I know Liam said you are somewhat on bedrest and that you shouldn’t go now, but we should have a girl’s trip to go shopping once you’re better,” Colleen told her, smiling.

Giselle didn’t know what to say to that, so she just nodded and watched as the vocal young woman walked out the front door with her list of things to purchase for her with a hearty “see ya later”.

Sitting back down on the couch, Giselle eventually ended up falling asleep while reading her book.

***

Her nose was high in the air, sniffing for the wonderful scent. She had just turned 18 a few days ago and she knew what that smell meant.

It meant that she had found her mate. Following it to the source, she saw the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta all training with the pack warriors. Dozens of men on the grounds, and one of them was hers. She didn’t know how to differentiate which, so she just waited and watched.

Watching the men battle each other in both human and wolf forms was always interesting. A lot of horseplay along with some well-intended smack talk was to be heard, and the Alpha would sometimes break up the fun to get back down to business.

A storm was due this afternoon; she could sense it from the way the breeze suddenly shifted that it would soon be upon them. Dark thunderclouds could be seen to the west and Giselle got up reluctantly to head inside before the rains came.

Standing up from her place beneath the tree she was nestled under, she felt the winds shift again and the sound die out as the warriors moved away from the impending torrents of water they would see from the downfall.

Giselle started to walk towards home until she heard a shuffling noise behind her. Frightened, she turned around and caught a whiff of the scent moments before she saw who it was.

“Alpha,” she said, lowering her head in respect. “M-my apologies if my presence disturbed the warriors.”

“Look up, little one,” the strong voice of Jeremiah Bluth demanded. “What is your name and rank?”

“Giselle Kincaid, Omega rank, sir,” she said in a low voice. She was not ashamed of her rank, but it was not often that an Omega was paired with an Alpha. Like was mated to like most often.

“I see, little mate,” he told her, voice stiff. “And how old are you?”

“18, sir,” she said, not looking directly into the cold eyes of the Alpha. She hadn’t known such a rich, chocolatey brown color could be so icy, so dead.

“I need to meet with your parents, Giselle,” he told her, forthright. “You will need to come with me to my home. As future Luna, it is yours now as well.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, cowering beneath his cold, hard glare.

His eyes...they were the first things she saw, and they should have told her all she needed to know.

Jeremiah Bluth was as coldhearted a wolf as anyone had ever known. 

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