Chapter 408 Chapter 408
Emersyn sat on the small couch, her foot propped up on pillows, and watched the interaction with the others. The ice pack on her ankle was helping to dull the ache but she found without the pain, she had no distraction from thought.
“Are you sure you don’t want more to eat?” Shaelan peeked her head around the door of the kitchen and smiled at her.
“No. Thank you.” She hadn’t eaten much, but she felt too full. It had been a long time since she’d had that much food available to her. She frowned down at the mug in her hands, she wasn’t even sure how many days had passed since someone had come down to feed her.
Was she really free? Keeping her gaze on the liquid in the cup, she went over the night before in her head. He’d came and freed her, that wasn’t a dream. Lifting her gaze, she looked over to where the man, Noah, stood. He’d been standing there by the window since they’d all eaten. He hadn’t said a word or looked at her, but he’d freed her. He was her mate; she’d heard him say that while they were trying to take her collar off. She frowned and raised a hand to her throat, checking once more it was gone. It still felt like it was there. When her fingers brushed over the chaffed skin, she smiled despite the discomfort of touching it.
Turning her head, she looked at him. “Thank you.” She said in a hoarse voice.
His head snapped to look at her.
“For-for freeing me.” She offered him a helpless smile, “I don’t think I said that.”
He just nodded his head a couple of times and then stood there, muscles taut, silent, and watching her. His brows were furrowed, and the angst bled from his eyes when they connected with her own gaze. “How’s your ankle?”
His voice was deep and softer than it had been when she’d heard him talk at the meal. “Numb right now.”
His head moved slightly again, acknowledging he’d heard her, then he turned and looked back out the window again.
Shaelan came into the room. “Are you feeling up to a few questions? We need to figure some things out and you may be able to help.”
Emersyn looked at her. “About finding my daughter?” She straightened.
“That and a few other things.”
The caring look on her face, made Emersyn’s voice fail her, so she nodded and started to shift off the couch.
“No, you can stay there, I’ll just sit on the floor.” Shaelan came over and sat down. “Some of this is for the Alliance, piecing things together sometimes takes many perspectives.”
The Alliance? It was real? She’d heard whispers about it before. If she had to answer questions to get her little girl back, she’d do it until no voice remained.
“How old is your daughter?” She opened a notebook and set it on her lap.
“Aspyn will be five this winter.” She glanced to see Kobie come in and sit in the chair on the other side of the room. The tall man that looked like her baby’s father came in and stood beside her, leaning against the wall. She still couldn’t believe how much he looked like Lindon. Dragging her eyes away from him, she looked back to Shaelan, her expression was patient. “Uh, I don’t know her birth date, just that the snow was deep when she was born.”
Shaelan wrote something in her book. “Had you shifted before you had her?”
Emersyn shook her head. “I’ve—” she looked around to see the other man had come into the room as well. “I’ve never shifted.”
Shaelan turned and gave the man, Calum, a quick look. “The collar prevented it?”
Emersyn lifted her hand to her throat, having to check once more it was truly gone.
“You already know that Shaelan,” Noah said in a low voice.
She gave him a quick look and nodded, before writing more. “I know, Noah, but we have to keep checking in case other methods are used.”
“Like drugs?” Emersyn added.
“Yes,” Shaelan nodded.
“I was given a choice, drugs or a collar.” She put her hand on her stomach, “I was pregnant, so I chose the collar.”
“I see.” She looked to Calum again and the expression on his face when he glanced at her told Emersyn they were mates.
The thought made her look back at Noah. He wasn’t looking at her, just staring at the floor in front of him.
“Are you able to share more details? When you were taken and,” Shaelan lifted her hand, “the events after.”
Events? Emersyn wanted to laugh but didn’t. She lifted the cup and took a sip of the tea, while she thought of how to tell these people what she’d been through. “I was eight. There were a few of us taken, we were,” she sighed, “being kids, playing too far from the village.” She shrugged, there was nothing to add to that. Once she had a normal life and was a normal child. She cleared her throat, “they took us to a camp,” she looked down at the cup, finding it easier to speak without looking at the compassionate look on Kobie and Shaelan’s faces. “Uh, it was in the mountains, buildings with many beds in them,” she frowned, “barracks, I think they called them.”
“Do you know where in the mountains?”
She looked up to Calum and shook her head. “No. I don’t remember the trip there. I think they drugged us.”
“Please continue.”
Dragging her gaze away from the large man, she turned back to Shaelan, “we were treated well, games, food,” she blew out a breath, “the women watching us were nice.” She blinked, trying to recall what any of them looked like and couldn’t. “We were grouped in; I think what clan types we were from.”
“How many were there? How old were you when you left?”
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. She opened them again but looked at the pattern on the couch and not at any eyes filled with pity. “I can’t be sure, twenty, maybe.”
“How long were you there?”
“Fifteen, I think,” she shrugged, “we didn’t really celebrate birthdays, so I can’t be sure.”
Shaelan nodded and wrote it down. “Were you taken somewhere close?”
Emersyn shook her head, “no, we went on a boat,” she grimaced, “I was sick the whole trip.” She paused when Calum and Blair exchanged a look, “then, uh, a plane, then to the house.” She looked away from them back to Shaelan, “not the house you got me out of, another one.”
“Okay.” Shaelan looked over at Noah, “sounds similar, minus the boat trip.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her, a cold expression on his face, “there were no games for the boys.”
“True, and we know they separate the boys and girls into different camps.” She said quietly as she watched him.
He watched her for a long awkward moment, “at least I know my sister was treated well for a while.”