“Oh, child,” Elden mutters. He sounds sad. “Of course, we accept you.”
“Any good pack would,” Liam agrees before the look in his eyes grows hard. “Yours was just terrible.”
His words make me smile. “Thank you,” I say. “And now…”
“Marina,” Elden finished my sentence. “Let’s see what’s going on with her.”
twenty-eight
The Crushing Truth
*GWENDOLYN*
Now I know why Liam started with me and said it would be simple and not take long, because both he and Elden spend a lot of time with Marina. They carefully approach her, making sure to sit down and not to hover above her. Marina doesn’t even wince.
“I don’t feel her getting scared,” Liam mutters.
Elden nods. “That’s bad.”
“Why?” I ask quietly.
“Because obviously, she is heavily traumatized. A tall, strong alpha, actually two of them, approaching her should at least dosomething to her. But it doesn’t…” Elden pauses. “I wonder how deeply her emotions are buried.”
“It would be a lot easier to handle fear or anger,” Liam explains to me. “Or any other trauma response. Because if Marina showed any emotions, it means they would be there, on the surface. Fear and anger are reactions to a trauma, and we could work with them. We could hire a therapist and help her through it, but this…” he pauses, not finishing his sentence, and I don’t have the heart to push for an answer.
The two men don’t say any more, instead start to do what we came for. I can only sit on a sofa chair in the room, watching them without truly knowing what’s going on. I notice the look of highest concentration on their faces, and the flashes of emotions they allow to appear before they lock them down.
Worry. Shock. Worry.
I wish I had one of my pets with me to cuddle and to hold on to. While I am still sitting there, waiting anxiously, Titan jumps through the open window. He doesn’t pay anyone else attention, just comes stalking towards me. The demon cat. It makes so much sense now that I know for sure he isn’t a real cat.
Titan circles me before jumping onto my lap, lying down there and just looking at me, before poking my leg with his paw. I reach out my hand, gently petting his head, surprised by how soft yet sturdy his fur is. “Thank you,” I whisper.
Titan looks up at me, the expression in his eyes almost human. He looks like he is gauging me, like he wants to talk, but can’t… or doesn’t want to.
Can demon pets talk?
I don’t know how much time passes. The nurse, Cindy, returns, then leaves again, and returns once more. All the while, Titan stays with me, preventing me from paying too much attention to Elden and Liam and the expressions on their faces. That is, until Liam draws back and moves to sit down on thesecond sofa chair, sighing deeply. Elden follows him briefly. Neither of them says anything, and I don’t have the heart to ask. Eventually, Cindy returns once more.
“I have met them,” she says. “They will return soon.”
“She is talking about Faye and her nanny,” Elden tells me briefly, before nodding at the woman. “Thank you, Cindy.”
I watch how Cindy brings Marina something to eat. It’s her usual time for an afternoon snack, but to my shock, Marina doesn’t reach out for the food. Cindy casts a gaze at Elden. “I will try again later,” she says. “But…she needs to eat. This is not good.”
“Did she have breakfast?” Elden asks.
“A bit, but it took a long time for her to eat. She skipped lunch already. She will need to go to the infirmary if she won’t eat.”
“Yes, it’s too much of a risk,” Elden says. “Let’s wait until tomorrow before we make a decision.”
She nods. “Yes, Alpha.”
Elden turns to look at me. “Let’s go to my office,” he says.
We leave the room, walking to Elden’s office completely in silence. Titan is right behind me, following us all the way. Once in his office, I finally can’t keep it inside anymore. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” I blurt out. “If it were good, you would have said something.”
Elden’s eyes flash over. “One of the maids will bring us something to drink,” he tells me.
