The Quiet Luna

Chapter 4. Torin

I managed to wake her enough to get half a bowl of soup into her. I wanted to curl up next to her, to sleep beside her, knowing she was ok. I wondered if she had nightmares, and if so, would I know to come in to comfort her if I wasn’t lying next to her in bed?

I’d almost managed to justify staying when Wynne linked me, “Torin, you need to eat, too.” I sighed thinking maybe I could ignore him. “And you need to tell me what’s going on. After what I saw, I need a whiskey, so you need to join me so Candice doesn’t yell at me for drinking alone.”

He had a good point. I needed a drink. My stomach made a gurgling sound. And food, I admitted to myself, I needed food, too. “On my way,” I linked Wynne. I stole a last look at my beautiful mate before turning off the lights and quietly leaving the room. Her guard, Felix, was standing just outside her door.

“I’ll link you if she needs you,” he said as I nodded to him.

I headed downstairs to the den where Wynne was waiting for me with a sandwich and a whiskey. I practically inhaled half the sandwich, suddenly realizing I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast.

Wynne watched me and took a sip of his whiskey. “So?” he asked as I took a bite of the second half of the sandwich.

I c****d an eyebrow at him. “So?”

He sighed at me. “What did the doctor say?”

I put the sandwich down and took a sip of my whiskey. “Nothing good,” I admitted. I didn’t really want to talk about what I’d seen or what the doctor had told me, but I knew Wynne wouldn’t drop it. “She’s probably nineteen, and has been severely abused for a while.”

Wynne whistled low. “Abused? So, like, beaten and stuff?”

“And stuff,” I growled out. “Honestly, there’s not an inch of her that isn’t bruised. And she panicked any time she thought I was going to leave her side. I’m not actually sure if it’s a good idea to leave her in her room alone right now. What if she wakes up and I’m not there and she panics again?”

“So, she feels the mate bond?” Wynne asked. “That’s something at least.”

“Yeah, maybe. I…” I hadn’t really thought of it, but the way she looked at me. Maybe I was imagining things, but I could’ve sworn she looked at me how I always thought my mate would look at me- with trust, and maybe even a bit of lust? I had to be imagining the lust, though. With what she’d been through, she probably had zero interest in being intimate with me. I hoped I could change her mind, but I figured it might take a while for her to understand I wasn’t going to hurt her.

“What’s her name?” Wynne’s question pulled me out of my thoughts that were spiraling out of control.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, feeling like a pervert. Here I was thinking about touching her soft skin, seeing her writhing underneath me, and I didn’t even know her name! Ugh, I needed to get a hold of myself.

“What do you mean you don’t know? Didn’t she tell you?” he asked astounded.

“She can’t speak,” I told him. “Dr. Patel thinks her vocal cords have been severed.”

Wynne’s eyes went wide. “Severed? You mean that prick cut her vocal cords? Why would anyone do that?”

I shrugged and downed the last of my whiskey before pouring another one. I couldn’t think about it too hard or I knew I would go into a murderous rampage. “Honestly, I don’t think anything is beneath that scum. She was r*ped, too. And since she’s only nineteen and Dr. Patel thinks this has been going on for a while, it means she must have been a minor when it began.”

Wynne clenched his jaw, his eyes gleaming with a hard look. “I’ll draw up papers to submit a formal complaint about him with the council in the morning. Does she have a wolf?”

I winced at the question. I thought I could sense something in her, but it was weak. It was possible she didn’t have a wolf, but I couldn’t be sure if it was because she never did, or something had happened to it. With the injuries I had seen, it was highly likely her wolf had died trying to save her. I downed my whiskey in one gulp and refilled both our glasses.

“This means war with Deep Waters, right?” Wynne growled. “Tell me it’s war because there’s no way I can be around anyone who did this to my Luna.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. “Yes, it means war,” I confirmed. “Even if the council won’t sanction it, I won’t stand by and do nothing.”

“If he was abusing an underage pack member, there’s no way the council will let him get away with that,” Wynne pointed out. “Besides, all our allies would be on our side with this.”

“I know, but I’m not sure if we can prove it!” the words burst out of me with more force than I had intended. I was frustrated beyond measure by the whole situation. “I can’t even talk to her!”

“Mark her,” Wynne said simply. “Then you can link her.”

“I can’t mark her, not right now,” I said sadly.

“Why not? She’s your mate! Mark her!” Wynne argued.

“First of all, she’s in no shape for me to mark her right now. You know what being marked by an alpha does to people in peak shape,” I reminded him. “She’s too weak right now, it could severely hurt her.”

Wynne nodded and sipped his drink thoughtfully. “Still, marking her would solve a lot of problems.”

“I’m not marking her until I’m sure it’s what she wants,” I growled at him. “She’s been through enough already, I’m not going to be just another in a long line of abusive assh*les.”

“Whoa! That’s not what I was saying,” Wynne said quickly. “I’m sure she won’t see you like that. You’re not like that at all!”

“I know!” I yelled, exasperated and stressed. “But I don’t want to further traumatize her. We need to figure out a way to communicate because I’m not doing anything to her unless I have her consent.”

Wynne sighed and finished his drink, setting the glass aside. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out.” He stood to leave but paused at the door and turned back to me. “I’m sorry it turned out this way, man. But at least she’s here now. She’s safe. We’ll figure out the rest later.”

I nodded, but couldn’t say anything. At least she was safe. I would cling to that thought like a life line.

“Mate is stronger than she looks,” Hunter linked me.

“I know, but I wished she hadn’t needed to be,” I linked back.

He grumbled in my head, but I knew he felt the same. “Let’s go sleep next to mate,” he suggested.

I shook my head. “She needs her rest and her space. You heard what the doctor said, we need to take it slow with her. You don’t want to overwhelm her.”

“We won’t overwhelm her,” he insisted. “She’s mate! She wants us close to her.”

“She doesn’t even know us,” I pointed out. “I’m not even sure she feels the mate bond. She might not be a wolf, you know.”

“I do know,” he said smugly. “I know she’s a wolf and she wants us close to her.”

"How do you know?” I asked him.

“Because it’s my job to know,” he said in an irritated tone. “My stupid human doesn’t pay attention, so I have to.”

I rolled my eyes. “My conceited wolf thinks he knows everything, but he forgets not everyone is raised to know what the mate bond is. Even if she is a wolf, she might not understand why she feels the way she does.”

“I’m not conceited,” he whined. “I’m right and you know it.”

“We sleep in our bed tonight,” I told him firmly. “It’s close enough if she needs us for anything.”

Hunter huffed in my head. “With the connecting door open.”

“No,” I told him, “the door will be shut. She needs her space.”

He started grumbling, but moved into the back of my head. I understood how he felt, I wanted her in my arms desperately, but I couldn’t mess this up. If I moved too fast, I was afraid I’d scare her and more than anything, I needed her to know she’d always be safe with me.

I sighed and finished my drink before heading up to bed. I nodded to Felix as I walked in my door and checked to make sure the door connecting my room to hers was unlocked. I stood at the door for longer than I possibly should have, but I couldn’t seem to will myself to put any more distance between us. I rested my head on the door and sighed deeply.

“Go to mate!” Hunter yelled at me.

“She needs her sleep,” I repeated, trying to believe it.

“She would sleep better with us next to her,” he pointed out.

“Right,” I scoffed. “She would love waking up with a strange man in bed with her. Probably with morning wood, no less. I can just picture how well that would go over.”

I imagined her waking up with me pressed against her, panicking, and seeing me as just another man taking advantage of her.

“I don’t think she’d think that,” Hunter said thoughtfully. “But… maybe morning wood is too much for her right now.”

“Thank you,” I said, happy that he was finally seeing the situation a little more clearly.

“But soon,” he insisted.

I nodded at him. “The moment she’s ready, we’ll spend every moment we can with her. When she’s ready.”

I managed to crawl in bed. I fell asleep holding my pillow, wishing it was her.