Chapter 22: She Loves Me Not

Carter "Come on Carter it's been like an hour now and we are still doing this whole song and dance. Stop it so that we can tell you what's going on with your mate." I thrashed against the arms keeping me pinned to the chair as I tried to get up. "I don't need you to tell me you just need to let me see her. I need to explain that I'm not going to hurt her, she has to know that I wouldn't do that. I have to be with her so that she can remember, I NEED TO SEE HER!" I was beginning to tire from all of this fighting. "Carter, that is quite enough," My body stopped moving against my own volition. Ecstan was standing in the doorway looking terribly exhausted as he stared over at me. "I know how hard this is for you Carter, she's my daughter and seeing her like this is disheartening. This whole thing is a nightmare, but we have to try and keep it together so that we can help Elinn. Think about what she is going through for a minute and stop thinking of only yourself." His eyes were glowing gold, but my wolf wasn't having it. "Our mate is hurting and we need to help her. She is in pain, we can feel it now let us see her," He demanded, but no one moved an inch. "Luca, you and Carter both have to understand exactly what has happened to Elinn. They just told me and I can barely keep it together right now so sit your sorry ass down and listen to what I am going to say. I don't care what you are feeling at this moment because if you so much as try to leave this room for the next twenty minutes I will personally throw your ass in the dirt and beat you until you can't move." This time my wolf and I both bowed out heads in submission. Whatever they had told Ecstan had royally pissed him off and I had no idea what had made him this aggressive. My body and wolf couldn't refuse his Alpha tone and it refused to move at all. I tried desperately to get my fingers to move, but they refused to respond to my own will. All I wanted was to be by my mate's side but no one seemed to be listening to what I had to say. They didn't care that I was here needing to see her after nearly two months of her being gone from my life. "Everyone else out of the room right now, you can all go to the waiting room and I'll let you know if I need any help." Slowly the others hesitantly left the room. If I had been able to move I would have made a break for it but my body was not my own at the moment. "Aurelio used to be my best friend, he was my Beta before all of this happened. I trusted him with everything and he used it against me. He took the power that I had given him and twisted it trying to get others to follow him, but my pack knew better. I had no choice but to demote him, he was causing to much trouble and I couldn't let it go on any longer. That was when he attacked me, I hadn't expected him to do something that drastic. He felt that I was keeping all of the power to myself and he was jealous of the respect the pack had for me. He had coated his claws in wolfsbane so when he hit me the first time it was already nearly over. But he kept tearing at me and ripping me to shreds, his bloodlust was insatiable. I know what he is like, probably better than anyone else on the whole planet, I know exactly what he is capable of. So when I learned that it was him who had taken my daughter I knew that when she came back she wasn't going to be the same. Aurelio always had an interest in learning how to take things apart, mostly living things." This information didn't surprise me, what did was that Ecstan was willing to share it with me. He had been quiet and reserved ever since I had met him and now he was telling me a little more about his life and what the had been through. "When he left my pack I heard rumors, whispers about what he was doing and where he was. Most of it was about him recruiting others to become rouge and help him to take back what he believed was his. A few joined him, but they never stayed with him for long. All of them recognized exactly how crazy he was and got out before they were in too deep to get out. That was when I started to hear about missing pack members. Not just from my pack but from those that surrounded us as well, we had no clue where they were or what was going on. After a few days, a body was dumped at the border of my pack lands and I ran out to investigate. I assumed that it was just a rogue who hadn't been able to make it to safety before another one attacked him, but I was wrong. The poor things was torn to shreds, but I could still recognize who it was. A young woman by the name of Yestrel from my pack who had gone missing nearly a week before. Her whole body was riddled with burns, slashes, and mutilated flesh. I knew at once that it had to be Aurelio who was doing it and immediately set about trying to find him and stop his madness. I never could though, he was always just a little too quick for us to catch. He got more and more sadistic in his experiments and his victims began to last longer and longer. Sometimes he would leave them for us to find, not caring if we found them alive or dead so long as he got his message across. We weren't clever enough and if we weren't careful he would get us too. Now I wish he had gotten me us, if he had maybe he wouldn't have taken my daughter and…." His voice trailed off and I could see tears forming in his eyes. Tears for his inability to protect his little girl from something that he had been chasing after for years. "I had one of the doctors take a look at her along with one of the psychiatrists and they both had little good news. Elinn's body will heal though it will take a while, not as long as the last time, although she wasn't fully healed when she was taken in the first place. She is willing to let people touch her on a very limited basis and with some forewarning. That's one of the few good things to come out of this situations," His eyes were finally beginning to return to their regular hue and I was able to get some movement back into my fingertips and toes. "Doctor Britton gave me the full report on how she is doing physically. They don't think she has eaten anything substantial since she left and all the weight she gained while she was here is gone. When she left about fifty percent of her body was covered in scars, now it's around sixty but that doesn't include what's healing right now they are doing their best to get them to heal without scaring though they can't guarantee that will happen. She has a few broken bones, mostly ribs and some fingers that should heal within the next five or six weeks. There are most lacerations on her back along with gashes and marks along her body that will take a while to heal. It isn't pretty and it's obvious that she hasn't slept since she's been gone as well." Ecstan sounded like a robot as he recited what the doctor had told him. More feeling returned to my hands but I couldn't find the strength to stand. "The psychiatrist's news was, so much worse than anything I could have ever imagined." I began to fear that the worst had happened. Aurelio had finally broken Elinn, her mind hadn't been able to take the abuse and something was irrevocably damaged. I didn't even want to consider that idea. "She appears to have developed Stockholm syndrome, Aurelio was able to convince her that he was her savior and was doing her a favor. He also got her to start following his rules again, I don't know what that means but I was told that you would. He got her to believe that we were going to hurt her." Now I was confused, I had enough control of my body to speak. "What do you mean we?" "Anyone that ever showed Elinn any kindness. Anyone who was part of her rescue or that Aurelio knew would be around. He used a machine and brainwashed her."