WILD

thirty

The slightly smaller and disheveled girl gasped and grabbed onto Lorena for dear life, sobbing in relief. "You're alive!"

Lorena frowned and looked up at Orion who looked even more confused than she did. "Well, why would I be dead?"

Vera pulled away and wiped the tears from her eyes so she could see better. "When my mate and I left the arena, I wanted to search for you, but he wouldn't let me and I started to believe the worst. I started to smell your scent, but it was gone. I thought he had killed you," she nodded in Orion's direction, gesturing towards him.

Orion rolled his eyes. "I'm standing right here. You look like hell, by the way."

Lorena didn't know how to feel. She missed Vera and wanted to find her again, sure, but not like this. She did look terrible. Her high ponytail was a mess, her clothes were dirty, and she didn't have any shoes on.

She shook her head and placed her hands on Vera's shoulders, looking her over worriedly. She took Orion's jacket that she had tied around her waist and draped it over Vera. "What happened to you? Where's your mate? How did you get all the way out here?"

She shook her head. "We can't talk here. We have to leave now, Lorena."

Vera grabbed Lorena's arm and tried to pull her away. Lorena pulled back and Orion decided to put a stop to the whole scene. "Alright, that's enough. Vera, we're going to get you cleaned up and fed, and then we'll sit down and talk. Does that sound good?"

Vera looked at Orion nervously and then back at Lorena to see if she should trust the alpha at all. Lorena nodded and smiled softly. "He isn't going to hurt you."

Vera nodded, still watching Orion carefully.

On the walk back, Orion kept a few paces behind the girls as Lorena led Vera to the pack doctor's office. He sensed that something weird was going on and until he figured it out, he needed to be on alert. He had to watch over everyone, his priority being Vera and Lorena at the moment.

He and Lorena sat outside the room as the doctor looked Vera over and he could literally smell the worry all over his mate. He reached out and grabbed her hand, turning his head to look at her and resting it on the wall.

"She's going to be fine."

She shook her head and stared into her lap. "I don't know, Orion. What if her mate is tracking her down? What if he's the one that did this to her?"

That was Orion's concern as well. Vera looked really messed up, and if her mate had anything to do with it and he came looking for her, Orion would probably have to fight him off. Technically, since Vera was marked in every sense of the word, he should let Vera go and let her mate have her to avoid conflict, but Lorena would never forgive him for that, and deep down in his heart he knew it wasn't the right thing to do.

The doctor came out of the room and approached the two of them. Lorena perked up and Orion turned his attention to her. "How is she, Hanna?"

The doctor shook her head. "There's a lot of damage. She's been through it, alpha. She has bruises all over her and there's evidence of sexual assault."

Lorena gasped a little bit, but neither her or Orion were exactly surprised. This sort of thing happened too often between young werewolves.

Hanna turned to Lorena and nodded. "Maybe you can speak with her, Luna. Find out what happened exactly. I have a feeling she trusts you."

Lorena looked up at Orion to see if he agreed and he nodded, giving her a tiny push towards the door. She reluctantly opened the door and went inside.

Vera sat up when she entered and gave her a tired smile. Lorena smiled back, but furrowed her eyebrows in concern, sitting down by Vera's bedside.

"Um...are you feeling okay?"

Vera quickly nodded. "Yeah. Just a little bruised, but, you know...I'm doing okay."

Lorena decided to get right to the point. "I need you to tell me what happened to you."

Vera cocked her head to the side. "What? Nothing happened to me."

Lorena shook her head. "Please don't lie, Vera. It's obvious that you didn't just pop up here. You were panicked and you looked like someone had been beating you. You have to tell us what happened if you want protection, Vera. Or else we have no choice but to send you back to where you came from."

Vera sat and looked at Lorena, crossing her arms. "I thought you would be happy to see me alive after what we went through. I'm happy to see you alive. Why does it matter what happened? I'm here now. Isn't that all that's important?"

"I am happy to see you alive, but you were barely alive when you came to us. That's the issue here. If there is a threat coming to my pack, you need to let me know. If you were being abused, you need to let us know who did this so we can put a stop to it."

Lorena knew that Vera had gone through hell. It was obvious. Even if they hadn't known each other for very long, what they went through brought them together and she hated seeing Vera like this. She was almost like a little sister to her in that arena, even if it was only for a short amount of time.

The once calm, reassured girl she met before was gone now. She was jumpy and defensive and Lorena didn't know if she could get through to her.

Lorena stood up and decided that she did what she could. She wasn't going to try and force Vera to speak when she didn't want to. She slowly made her way towards the door and stopped when she heard a sob from behind her.

She turned to face Vera and frowned, sighing. The girl had her hand over her mouth to stop the sound of her cries from coming through and her eyes were clenched tightly shut, although the tears were already leaking out.

"Vera..." She walked back to her side and placed a hand on her back to comfort her. "Let it out."

Vera shook her head. "Please don't let him come here! He- He's a monster!"

Lorena sat down, interested in the information being given. "Who?"

"S-Sean. That's his name. I-I thought he was sweet at first but...he gets angry a lot. Hence the bruises."

Vera wiped the tears from her eyes and looked into her lap, her arms sitting loosely at her sides and her back hunched over in defeat.

"And he...he-"

Lorena shook her head, not wanting Vera to have to talk about that moment. "We know. The doctor said that there was some damage."

Vera looked ashamed and covered her face with her hands. Lorena pulled them away. "This is not your fault. Please don't be embarrassed."

Vera bit her trembling lip, feeling the tears burn her eyes again. "I know that he had to do it sometime, but I asked him to wait and he wouldn't. He told me that I belonged to him and that I could scream and cry for help all I wanted and nobody would come to help because he was the alpha. But I tried to fight him off, I did!"

"Shh..." Lorena stood up and hugged her tightly as she sobbed into her shoulder.

Orion threw the door open, causing both girls to flinch and pull away from each other. Lorena was beginning to give him a peice of her mind, but he shook his head, cutting her off.

"You two need to hide. Now."