Chapter 176: The Girl in My Arms

(Scarlett)

I can feel every tremor running through her. They move in quick little waves through her shoulders and down her spine, through the arms she has wrapped tight against herself, through the knees still drawn up even now that I’m holding her. She weighs almost nothing. She’s far too light for a grown woman.

“You’re alright now,” I murmur, keeping my voice low. “You’re safe.” She moves further into me, tucking her face into my shoulder. Her hair is rough where it brushes my throat, tangled and dirty and full of little bits of leaf and bark.

The boys stay where they are. I can feel them behind me. All three of them are so still it’s almost strange. Their wolves are pressing hard through the bond, all instinct and worry and protectiveness, but none of them moves. They know this moment needs to stay quiet. After a while, I glance over my shoulder.

“Felix,” I say softly. “Can you grab the medical kit?”

He nods at once and moves toward where I dropped it in the leaves. The second he steps closer, the girl jerks hard in my arms with full-bodied panic. She presses into me, and a broken sound leaves her throat as her hands fist in the back of my shirt. Felix stops immediately, and I flick my eyes between them.

The girl won’t look at him. Her whole body has gone tight and small again, trying to disappear into me like I’m the only thing between her and whatever she thinks he might do. I tighten my hold gently around her and keep my voice calm.

“Felix, take a step back.” He does it without question, and the girl’s grip on me eases by half an inch. I look down at her.

“Are you scared of him?” She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t even really look at me. Just keeps her face turned partly into my shoulder while her eyes flick in Felix’s direction and then away again, fast and uncertain. I wet my lips, thinking.

“Okay,” I say quietly. “Felix, can you just reach out and pass me the kit? Don’t come any closer.”

He crouches where he is, picks it up, and holds it out. The second his arm moves toward us, even from where he is, the girl whimpers and curls in tighter again. That answers that.

Felix goes still, his expression changing in a way that hurts to see. I can see he’s a little wrecked by the fact that she’s afraid of him.

“It’s okay,” I whisper to her, turning my face slightly so she can hear me more clearly. “He won’t hurt you. None of them will hurt you.”

Her eyes lift, finding my face through the curtain of her hair.

“We’re your mates,” I tell her softly. She stares at me with confusion and tears. She tilts her head like she’s trying to make sense of my words.

“Do you know what a mate is?” Nothing. No answer. No change. Just those green eyes fixed on me.

“Can you speak?”

Her mouth parts the slightest bit, but no sound comes out.

“Can you hear?” I tap lightly at my own ear. This time, after a second, she gives the tiniest nod. Okay… So why isn’t she speaking?

I keep my face soft as I reach for the medical kit myself, dragging it closer over the leaves. The girl’s body tightens all over again when I open it. Her hand grabs at my wrist when I reach in, stopping me.

“Hey,” I say softly. “It’s okay. I’m just going to help.”

She doesn’t believe me. I don’t blame her. I let her see everything I touch. I move slowly, making sure my hand stays where she can track it as I push the sharper things gently aside and pull out bandages, salve, and a clean cloth instead.

“There,” I murmur. “See? Nothing bad.”

Her eyes stay fixed on my hands. I pick up the cloth and wet it lightly from the little bottle in the kit, then hold it in front of her for a second so she can smell it if she wants. She leans away first, suspicious, but she doesn’t lash out.

“That’s it,” I whisper. “You’re okay.” Very, very slowly, I bring the cloth to one of the angry marks around her wrist. The second it touches her, she flinches, but she doesn’t pull away.

“You’re doing so well,” I tell her. “I know, sweetheart. I know.”

Behind me, the boys are silent through the bond until I finally push a thought toward them. “She doesn’t act like a human.”

Felix, quieter than usual, asks, “What do you mean? You think she’s feral?”

I almost glare over my shoulder on instinct.

“No. Not feral.”  I clean another scrape along her wrist and keep my voice in my head as calm as the one coming from my mouth. “She just… she acts like a wolf. Maybe no one ever let her be anything else.”

Kieran’s voice comes low and cold. “You think someone kept her like that on purpose?”

“Yeah,” I say into the bond. “I do.”

I work slowly, talking the whole time in a soft, steady rhythm I barely have to think about anymore. The words matter less than the tone. I think she’s listening to that more than anything else. Her body starts to loosen in tiny pieces the longer I keep touching her without hurting her. By the time I’ve covered the worst of the skin on her wrists and dabbed salve over the raw patches, she isn’t flinching every time I move. Her hand still clutches the front of my shirt, but now it feels more like holding on than bracing for pain. I shift carefully and glance down at her legs. Her feet are bad, far worse than her wrists.

The soles are torn and dirty, with little cuts and bigger ones layered over each other as if she’s been running barefoot over rough ground for too long. There’s no way I’m letting her walk back to the packhouse like that.

“Okay. We need to get you somewhere warm where I can clean all of this properly.” Her eyes blink at me, uncomprehending. I glance back at the boys.

“Can you give us some room?”

They move instantly, and the girl’s eyes go wide, flicking from them to me and back again, and for one brief second, there’s something like wonder there under all the fear. I can’t help it. I smile. “Yeah,” I say, and a little laugh slips out of me, “They listen to me. They’re good guys.”

I shift my body just enough to show her what I mean before I touch her. I slide one arm carefully behind her shoulders, the other under her knees, pausing there, waiting. “I’m going to pick you up,” I tell her. “Okay?” Slowly, she nods, and I gather her up. She is heartbreakingly light in my arms, as she melts into me all at once. Her face turns into the curve of my neck with a small shuddering breath, and every protective instinct in me locks down hard.