His Wolf

Fifteen

Getting her to the bathroom was difficult, to say the least. She hid under the bed, ignoring anything Kara and I did to get her to follow us to the bathroom so we could get her bathed. It wasn't until Kara got a bowl of kibble and shook it around in the bowl, did she even look up at us.

When we finally were able to get her into the bathroom, I closed the door behind us so she wouldn't be able to run back out. She flinched slightly but held still as a ran a hand through the matted fur on her head and down to her neck and the collar that rested around it. Taking in a breath I unclipped the buckle that held it in place, suppressing the growl that threatened to come up my throat, apparently doing a terrible job as I saw the raw skin underneath.

Once the collar was removed and I had calmed down some more, I couldn't help the words as they slipped through my lips, "I'm sorry"
I don't know why I said it, but I was sorry, sorry that I wasn't there for her, sorry that it took me too long to find her, sorry that she was ever treated the way she was.

I was sorry.

But I also wondered if she even knew what that word meant.

Kara turned the water onto the bath tube, turning to grab the bath soap from the cabinet and the shampoo, I went to carefully push my mate closer to the water, only for her muscles to lock up and start shacking. Her ears went flat against her head as she hunched low to the floor, her whines of fear reaching my ears as my eyes widened in surprise.

Kara, having placed the soap and shampoo down in the side of the tub, bent down to try and move her closer only to be met by a dangerous sounding growl from the throat of the wolf in front of us. Kara paused for a second but then continued to reach out for her. Bad idea. As soon her hand was in reach, my mate lunged forward and snapped at her fingers causing Kara to jump back, tripping over the rug on the floor and crashing into the tub that was still running. She started cursing up a storm as she scrambled to get right herself, but one glance at terrified wolf cowering in the corner, teeth bared and hackles raised, her eyes flashing from fear to red and back again, Kara stilled and shot me a glance as I tried to pieces together what had caused my mate so much fear.

Then it hit me.

The images of the room with the wooden troughs, water pooling on the concrete floor, making it slick as it mixed with her blood. I don't know why I didn't think of it before.

Keeping my eyes on my mate I spoke to Kara, "Get out of the tub, slowly" she didn't respond, just carefully lifted herself from the water, using the wall to brace herself before stepping out on the mat, the sound of water dripping from her clothes and slashing down on the hard tiles being the only sound other than the thunderous growls in the room. Carefully I stepped until I was beside her in front of the tub, leaning down slightly I asked if she was ok. She nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine,"

After making sure Kara was ok I slipped off my shoes and carefully stepped into the warm water, the soap suds tickling my feet as I eased myself down into the warm water that came up over my waist. I looked back over at my mate in the corner, the way her ears remained flat and eyes down on the floor, but her lip still peeled back in a threatening snarl in Kara's direction. I took a deep breath, regretting what I had to do, but knowing there wasn't a safer way to get this done. So I whistled lowly, her ears perking up instantly, the growling cutting off short as she looked in the direction of the place my hand had tapped on the side of the bathtub.

She seemed to be fighting with herself, deciding on what to do, weighing her options and which one would cause her the most pain. After a moment, she stood herself up on shaky legs, the cast one wrapped in plastic for this moment. Once she made it to the side of the porcelain she tried to lift herself up onto the side only to have her claws slept on the hard floor causing her to fall off, crashing to the floor. I held my breath, unable to react in time, waiting with dread to hear her skull slamming into the floor. But I didn't.

I exhaled slowly as I realized Kara had caught her, much to my mate's disapproval it seemed as her eyes flashed red, seeing it as a threat, not realizing she was on trying to help. Kara struggled under the size of the wolf she held, even though she was extremely malnourished, she was still a werewolf so her size was still large. Once she got some weight back, I had no doubt that she would be larger than the average alpha.

Once Kara had her over the water, that's when she started to panic. As soon as her eyes landed on the water underneath her she started to thrash in Kara's hold, whining and growling all at once, stuck between fear and anger. I reached up to help but the sheer mass of the wolf in her arms was too much as they found a way to slip out of Kara's arms. She crashed into the water with so much force that water spilled out of the side, drenching the floor more than it already was. My mate went into a state of panic as she tried to right herself only to fall back into the water and suds face first as her paws slipped out from under her. She was such in a frantic state that she did not realize that, if she was just sitting, the water would only just come up to her stomach.

I was about to reach out and risk a lost finger or two in order to help when she accidentally got soap bubbles up her nose. She let out a large sneeze that sent a handful of them flying into the air. She froze at that moment, her legs still sprawled out around her. Lifted her head out of the water, bubbles still clinging to her chin and nose. She watched as the suds fluttered through the room, tilting her head to the side. Slowly, very slowly, her tail lifted from the water and flopped back down in a happy manner.

As soon as the splash sounded from behind her she spun around with a start, causing more water to splash, but I didn't care because as she did she ended up backing into me. She panicked again and spin to face me, bubbles flying as she did so. My world stopped as green eyes met my own. There was pain and sorrow, but also confusion and curiosity hid behind the fear that seemed to be rooted in its place.

I slowly reached out my hand, stopping myself as a small snarl came over my mate's features, but just as quickly as it came it was gone.
The next thing I knew my hand was running through her damp fur, the knots becoming worse because of the water that was quickly turning brown around us. I give a nod to Kara who hands me the bottle of shampoo. Putting some in my hand I hold it out so that my mate will know that it is harmless. She looks at it for a second before sniffing the vanilla-scented substance; she tilted her head in curiosity, but let me rub it into her fur. After she seemed to relax some, Kara began helping me scrub her fur clean.

It took over an hour to get out all of the dirt. We had to replace the water in the bath three times; when we first did this, her panic came facing back but we were able to get her to calm down with more bubbles. It was almost funny to watch had it not been for the fact that the only reason she was acting like this was that she had probably never seen things like this before. The same thing happens every time we had to rinse the soap from her fur that showed itself to be a deep black that was so dark it looked to have a slight blue tint to it after we had gotten her dry.

We tried to use a hairdryer, but from the second Kara pulled from the draw her green eyes flashed a vibrant red, a stark contrast against her now clean coat. So we settled on towel drying. Once that was done we took off the plastic around her leg and called Shar to check on her other injuries. I let Kara lead her back to the man room, my mate's boney shoulders instantly relaxing some as the door was re-opened. I stayed behind rinsed out the tub and take a shower myself, asking my sister to bring me and Kara some more clothes. Once I was done showering, I stepped out of the bathroom with my towel wrapped around me, still waiting on my sister. When I stepped out into the room with the newly cleaned wolf in it, I couldn't find her anywhere while glancing around the room.

"She ran back under the bed the moment we left the bathroom," kara said, turning to the place she speaking of, "I think she's tired, but she won't let herself sleep with us still here."

I nodded slowly, my eyes trying to make out the shape of the large scrawny wolf under the bed, "it would make sense, considering," we fell into silence as we waited patiently for new clothing. That is until Kara broke it.

"How did-" she stopped for a second thinking, "-why did she panic the way she did when she saw that water?" She glanced back over at me, meeting my eye as I struggled for the words.

"When we went back for her, she was in this room, a kind of training room from what I have gathered. Against the far wall, there were these...these wooden trough that half-filled with water..." I trailed off thinking back to that memory, thinking of all the things that must have been going through mate's head when she saw the water pouring into the bathtub.

"...long story short, those sick people basically drowned her as part of her so-called training."