"My Bruns and I, you understand, we are only in this office about six times a year. We are working on a pet project of his and travel to different locations. So, we didn't know about what was happening here.
"The other doctor, he was following outdated procedures and taking some liberties. He won't be doing that anymore."
Nope. He would not. Kane had ordered that he receive no medical attention. The man was already dead.
"I do have some questions. Your records are strange, my dear. Do you mind? Can you answer?"
"She can," Kane answered for her.
Sasha cut her eyes to him. Kane's cold, shuttered facial expression didn't match the weird thing that had happened to his eyes, or the way his nose flared every time the pain gripped her and that wet came out of her. There was a rigidity to his body that made it feel like he was keeping himself in check. Despite the scary beast that he was, that didn't give him the right to answer questions for her.
He pushed more soup past her lips and looked at her pointedly.
Sasha swallowed. "Yes. Alright."
"Thank you. So, you made all your regular checkups as a child. But there also seems to be some injuries. Broken collar bone, broken radius, some broken fingers. Do you remember these?"
Sasha looked at her hands. "No."
Kane tipped her chin up with his thick finger. He offered the filled spoon again.
"That's fine. Did you know that those injuries healed abnormally fast? It looks like your father and a drone named Silas took you to a free clinic for these appointments. It says here that they had to re-break your fingers because they healed too fast and in the wrong way. The bones were offset. Do you remember that?"
"The re-breaking, yes. I think was eight."
"Cause of original injury?"
"What does it say?"
"All of your injuries are listed as childhood accidents. I don't believe that to be true. They are very consistent with physical abuse." Sara's eyes held kindness, but her expression was determined—a woman after the truth.
Her father had protected her mother. He felt bad about her insanity, bad about giving her a baby girl she didn't want. He said it to Sasha all the time. Maura was insane, but it wasn't her fault. They just needed to be more careful.
It didn't matter now. Kane needed to understand the levels the woman would go to hurt Sasha. She had come to him for help, for shelter from the threat of her mother that would follow Sasha even after Maura's bones burned.
"My mother. Do you have her records? She was clinically broken when she had me."
"You were not born with a breeder's blessing, but with her curse," Sara confirmed.
Sasha nodded. "That would be it."
She grit her teeth as another wave of pain hit. It was all kinds of awful. She wanted her bed, her pillows and stuffies around her, some of those soft blankets from the tent, a dark room, and to be left alone. All these people smells, emotional waves, Kane's spice—it was an irritation on top of an agony.
Sasha could do pain. She had dealt with pain. But she wanted to deal with it alone, not pressed in on or picked at, forced to eat and drink when she did not want to.
"So then you healed yourself. As a little girl. Before taking a mate. You may not know this, Sasha, but that is very, very unusual. I have a few notes from your father too. They were retroactive."
"Retroactive?"
"He had a private file that he kept on you that unlocked after his death was recorded. Many fathers do this for their daughter's future alpha. I wish yours hadn't, though. Had we known half of what was happening in your life, the danger you were in, plus what you were capable of? You would have been removed to a safer environment. My husband would have sent the enforcers himself."
"My dad was there. He was a great dad. He did what he could to protect me."
Sara's eyes went to Kane's, and they silently disagreed with her.
Feeling defensive for her father's sake, Sasha started to explain to her the depth of her mother's calculating, hateful insanity. Kane shoved a spoon of soup in her mouth and then another.
Sara patted Sasha's knee. "In your father's notes, he records your ability to heal yourself and him as well. You even healed his hangovers." Sara chuckled. "You also took care of the drones. Your father kept a stable of them." The censure in her voice was clear, but Sasha didn't understand it.
