Abused

Chapter Six

Realization

I spent a long time in the bright medical room. I wasn't permitted to leave but they let me start walking around after the third day. It wasn't so bad. The windows had bars and the door was always guarded but the doctor woman, Patricia, was there when it got dark and even though she had to turn out the main lights she left her desk light on for me when she left for the night.

Eight days had passed in the medical room. On the ninth Doctor Patricia told me I was being released tomorrow. I knew she didn't mean released from the pack house, just her work room. I would be returned to Lucas's room again. The thought always brought on more anxiety.

That's how he defined mates. I didn't know much about intimacy, especially physical intimacy.

Neither Caleb nor Lucas came to see me more than a couple times after I first woke up. My main source of company was Doctor Patricia but she used a lot of words I didn't understand. I wish Caleb would come more often, he would explain these things to me.

"Hey Patty," a man said around noon. He, like the doctor, looked to be in his forties. He nodded at me while I remained curled up on the far end of the hospital bad. "Luna."

I frowned. Luna? What is a Luna? My mind could only think of bad meanings. I looked behind the man. A child peered at me with big green eyes from behind the man. Her eyes were the same color as the doctor's but she had the man's tan skin and brown hair. Their child?

"Don," Doctor Patricia said, crossing the room to pressed her mouth to his briefly. She turned to me. "This is my mate Donald and our daughter Amy." She turned back to the two. "This is Jessica, she's Alpha Myer's mate."

Alpha Myer? It took me a second to realize that Lucas would be Alpha Myer. Lucas Myer.

"Are you sick?" the child asked curiously. She couldn't be more than seven or eight.

I shook my head as an answer.

She came around her father, big eyes narrowing in on my arms. I was still wearing the same scrub-like clothing because Doctor Patricia insisted on keeping the tub going into my arm allowing a clear liquid in. The bag hung from a stand with wheels in it because I was being allowed to walk very short distances now. Doing so caused the burning in my chest to flame up from the low embers it'd reduced to. I didn't like any of it. My arms, my scars were left on display.

"What happened to your arms?" the girl asked. It was hard for our kind to scar. Caleb told me that. This was probably the first time she'd seen someone with such extensive scarring, I hadn't seen anyone else with scars like mine.

"Amy," Doctor Patricia scolding softly. "We don't ask things like that."

"It's okay," I said in a hoarse whisper. I looked at the girl. "It's unusual huh?"

She nodded. I liked children. They were honest, good or bad they told the truth that they saw. They didn't have the complicated emotions that adults had.

"Will you be okay if Amy hangs out here for a little bit?" the doctor asked. "There are people right outside if you need anything," she said after I nodded.

"Thank you," the man, Don, said. "We won't be more than an hour or two."

After her parents left Amy crossed the room to the hospital bed I was on. "Are you here because of those?" she asked, looking at the scars on my arms.

I shook my head for the second time, unbuttoning the first two buttons so my newest injury and next scar was visible. Amy's eyes widened and she leaned forward for a second to look.

"Wow," she remarked, leaning back. "Is my mom fixing it for you?"

I nodded. "Do you want to sit?"