Chapter 8 - The truth and how much it could hurt.

LENA DIDN’T WANT the only thing she had left from her past, burnt to a crisp just so she could get away. It was sad to think, but in her current condition she wouldn’t be able to get away. She was weak after not having eaten properly in days, and with her injured wrists, she doubted very much that she would be able to do any magic. Something she didn’t want the beasts to know! She wanted them to think that she could do magic! She wanted them to be scared of her! Well, most of them.

Little Rebecca was a creature all on her own. Lena thought of the little girl as the doctor cleaned her wounds and wrapped them with clean bandages. He didn’t look happy to be putting the cuffs back, but he didn’t say anything as Alaric handed him the keys to lock them back into place. When he had to clean the wounds around her ankles, the doctor made it clear that he wanted to see her on a regular basis as he pulled Alaric to one side.

Lena couldn’t hear the conversation, but from their body language she could tell that Alaric wasn’t happy about being reprimanded in front of his prisoner. A blood witch no less! She fought the urge to giggle when the doctor returned looking furious and started to clean the wounds around her ankles.

“Are you allergic to iron?” He frowned when the cuffs were removed and Lena shook her head. She had never been allergic to anything, but the doctor didn’t seem convinced, so he asked Alaric if he could do some tests. Alaric threw his arms in the air and rolled his eyes, deciding to leave rather than be put through any more of this! She was their damn prisoner, yet the doctor was acting as if she was the damn Luna! Did the man suspect something? Oh, goddess, no! Did he know?! Alaric paced a short part of the passage outside of the doctor’s office while waiting and that was where Maximillian found him.

“I thought you were keeping a close eye on my sister?” Alaric asked, sounding exasperated.

“Pffft!” Max laughed, waving his hand through the air. “Nobody can do that. You know as well as I do when that one puts her mind to something, very little is going to sway her to change it. She seems to have taken a liking to the witch and now she is going to do everything in her power to take care of her. You should have bought her more dolls, or at least a pet of some kind. If her little hands were busy nurturing something, she wouldn’t have cared so much about our guest.” Max looked amused and it irritated the living daylights out of Alaric, but he knew his friend was right.

Rebecca had always been a nurturer. She would make a great queen one day, if anything ever happened to him and she had to take over the reins. The door to the doctor’s office opened, and Alaric frowned when the doctor helped a hopping Lena to leave. He gave strict instructions that he wanted to see the prisoner every single day after her shift, and that they could bring her dinner to his office as well. Then he looked straight at Alaric as he told him that he had chosen to save her life, now he had better look after her.

Alaric sighed and on the way back to Lena’s room remembered why he barged out of the doctor’s office in the first place. He asked Max through the mind link if anybody, including the doctor, knew that Lena was his mate and Max frowned, wanting to know why. Alaric said that it was just something in the way the doctor had spoken to him that made him wonder, but Max confirmed that nobody but Rebecca, Max and Alaric knew at that stage.

Max had been making sure that nobody knew and Alaric breathed a sigh of relief that his friend at least got that right, even if he couldn’t keep track of little miss Rebecca. When they reached Rebecca’s room, Alaric rolled his eyes. His little sister was proudly standing in the middle of the room with her hands tightly clamped behind her back. The cage had been removed and replaced with a neatly made up single bed, a desk and a chair.

Alaric knew that there would be no use in fighting with her about it when she told him that it was doctor’s orders that Lena sleep in a proper bed. Things were NOT turning out the way he planned, and it was all his damn little sister’s fault! He needed to speak to her, and that was all. He had to explain and she just had to listen to him for once in her damn life! Without caring what happened to Lena, he grabbed hold of Rebecca’s arm and dragged her out of the room.

Max asked through the mind link what he should do and Alaric told him that he didn’t give a damn as he dragged the protesting little girl to her room. It was time he told her the truth! The real truth about what Lena’s people did to their parents and why he didn’t want her to go anywhere near Lena ever again!

LENA WATCHED AS Max looked around the room. She really didn’t want to help them with anything, but the poor guy looked so damn lost and it was clear that Alaric was on the verge of losing his patience with the people around him.

“You can link the chain through the top of the bed here.” She sighed, holding up her hands to show him and he smiled thankfully but didn’t say a word as he locked the chain in place. She was so tired after not having been given a proper meal for a few days that all she wanted to do was sleep. She didn’t care whether they locked her away in a damn dungeon. She just wanted to close her eyes and drift away into a world where her parents were still alive and she was happy. She heard the beast say something, but was off to dreamland before she even heard the door close.

A strange sound woke her and she blinked to find that the room was dark. The strange sound was Rebecca sitting beside her sniffing and her arms instinctively went around the crying girl, but the chains made it difficult. Softly asking what happened, she tried to figure out why the normally happy child was now crying and Rebecca quickly told her that Alaric had ordered her to stay away.

“I don’t want to stay away from you.” Lena could see her big sad puppy eyes fill with more tears and she pulled her closer.

“I know, honey. You have been my only friend.” She tried to console the little girl who pulled away.

“Did your parents really kill my parents?” Rebecca sniffed and Lena felt a shock wave shoot through her entire body. What the hell was Rebecca talking about?

“No, sweetheart.” She answered immediately. It seemed Alaric’s lies had finally infiltrated Rebecca’s mind! How could he lie to his sister to keep her away?! “My people never hurt anybody. I don’t care what your brother or the other people say!” Lena’s heart started to race as she thought of all the lies that were told at their so-called festival! Her people would never even hurt a damn fly! Why would they harm anybody else? She asked Rebecca what Alaric told her and she was shocked to the core. Apparently, her own father was the one who came into their camp with a group of blood witches and killed the Alpha and Luna in their sleep!

Lena was so shocked that she didn’t know what to say! All she could think of was to deny it … Vehemently deny it! She told Rebecca how she grew up and how she was taught to respect life. That her mother didn’t even allow her to kill a spider that she found hiding in her bed. At least, that made little Rebecca laugh a little, but Lena couldn’t stop thinking about what Rebecca had told her. She eventually convinced the little one to listen to her brother. For a while at least, just so she could get out of trouble. She promised Rebecca that once he had calmed down, she could come back for a visit and that seemed to put her mind at ease.

Rebecca flung her arms around Lena’s neck, giving her a tight hug before she left, and Lena lay back thinking about what Alaric had told his little sister. What kind of man told such lies to a child? To his sister no less! This time, when Lena fell asleep, her dreams were again filled with images of the attacks. Images of the day her father was killed by Alaric. She woke up with a start and realized it was morning.