by Maia Dylan
“Fuck that,” Faith spat out, “and fuck you, Tyler, for believing that of me.”
“Faith, you packed up your stuff. You had a job offer up north that you had never even talked to us about! You e-mailed the hospital. What was I supposed to believe?” Tyler asked. His expression showed his confusion and hurt.
“In me, Tyler! You were supposed to believe in me! Had anything I had done in the time we spent together, anything I had ever said led you to believe that I was that type of person? That I would have left without talking to you or saying good-bye to the two people who had come to mean more to me than anyone else in my entire stinking life?” Faith breathed heavily as she let that sink in for a moment.
“He took me, Tyler. I left the hospital after my shift that night, and Parks was waiting on the curbside in a van with blackened windows, and he took me.” Faith watched as the color drained from both of their faces. “He hit me, and we fought, and I tried to fight him off, but then one of his brothers stepped in to help. I didn’t go easily, and I certainly did not go willingly. If there was an e-mail, it most certainly did not come from me! And I never packed up my stuff, so that tells me that he knew who I was and that this was orchestrated.
“When I came to, I was tied to a bed frame with no mattress. My right wrist was swollen so bad they had had to tie it down with rope instead of the handcuffs they used on my left wrist because it wouldn’t fit. I was beaten repeatedly in that room. Hurt in ways I had never even imagined before. They thought they would eventually break me, but they didn’t. They couldn’t because I believed, Tyler.” Faith stopped on a sob.
Tears streamed down her face, and she was surprised to see tears on their faces as well. “I believed that you would come for me. That the two men that I lo—my two best friends in the world—would come looking for me and nothing would have stopped them from finding me. That belief kept them from breaking me no matter how many times I was beaten, no matter how many times I was punished.” Faith lowered her eyes, not wanting them to see her shame in these next words. “No matter how many times I was raped.” Her whisper was so low she didn’t think they heard her.
Tyler moaned as his legs gave out and he fell to his knees. Trent dropped to his as well as her words registered with them.
“But you weren’t looking for me, were you? No, you believed that I had simply decided that there was something better elsewhere.”
Something suddenly occurred to her. “I would still be there if that tornado hadn’t struck, wouldn’t I?” She waited for an answer from either man, but their eyes dropped guiltily. “Wouldn’t I? Goddamn it, answer me!” Both men flinched at the hysteria in her voice.
She knew she was hysterical, and her blood pressure was no doubt reaching critical, as she had become somewhat light-headed.
“Yes,” Tyler whispered. Trent, who knelt quietly beside her with tears falling unashamedly down his face, nodded once. For the first time they were not in unison.
Faith threw her head back and screamed. She screamed for the girl she had been, innocent and excited about the future. She screamed for the scared girl she had been, lying in the dark on that bed frame, silently telling herself that they would come for her, that they were looking for her. When her screams gave way to sobs, she became aware of her surroundings once more.
She heard movement and became aware that the room had more people in it. She had no knowledge of when they had entered the room, but the doctor from before and what looked like two ambulance medics stood at the back of the room, horror on their faces, fists clenched.
“Tyler and Trent, you need to leave.” Faith welcomed her rage back, and her voice hardened. “You need to get out of here and go back to believing that I don’t exist.”
“Faith, baby, please.” Trent moved to grab her hand again, but she pulled it away from him and glared back at them both.
“Get the fuck away from me! Now! Doctor, get them the hell out of this room.” Faith continued to scream for them to leave, to get out of her face. She couldn’t stop. She felt hands holding her down when she started to thrash across the bed trying to claw the pain out of her own chest with her fingers.
Voices were raised, and she heard growls, and footsteps running, then felt a pinch on the inside of her left arm. She felt the medication move up her arm. Before it had even reached her shoulder, she plunged thankfully into the numbing dark void of the safe room she had erected in her mind. The door slammed behind her, and she welcomed the silence.
Chapter 3
Tyler struggled against his betas as they dragged him from his mate’s room, his pain and rage lending him a strength he didn’t realize he had. Both Brendan and Cody would leave bleeding, as would he. The sounds he made were inhuman. He felt stripped bare, completely flayed by the words of the woman he had been born to protect and love. His mate. Fuck! He didn’t deserve a mate.
When he tried to bring his grief under control, he turned inside himself to calm his wolf and reached instinctively for his brother along their bond. Although Trent was calmer than Tyler, exhibited more control of himself, and was able to stumble from Faith’s room unaided, Tyler flinched from the level of pain and rage he felt coming from his brother. What made it worse was the understanding that a lot of that rage was directed at him.
Finally able to pull free of Brendan and Cody, Tyler turned back toward Faith’s room. He didn’t know for sure whether he would have headed back into that room knowing it was not what Faith needed and clearly not what she wanted right now, but his wolf was demanding they guard her, protect her as they hadn’t done that fateful night. He never even got the chance to make that decision.
He never even saw the punch his brother drove into his jaw, just felt the connection and then white-hot pain. “Fuck!”
Tyler fell back a step and wavered but didn’t go down. Trent was suddenly in his face. “Do you have any idea what the fuck we have done here today, Tyler?”
Ty locked his gaze with his brother, and the room shimmered with the power of alpha.
“We broke her, Ty,” Trent continued, his voice cracking, but he never broke his brother’s gaze. “Fucking broke her. Something that bastard Parks tried to do to her time and again over the past two years, but he was never able to do it. We managed it in less than thirty minutes alone with her.”
Tyler closed his eyes as the pain of that truth hit home and crashed down on him. Closing his eyes may have granted him a reprieve from his brother’s misery and anguish but brought to mind the look on Faith’s face: white as a sheet, with bruises standing out in stark contrast, eyes wide, shimmering with a mixture of shock and shame, tears falling unchecked, and so lost and alone. Tyler felt his heart begin to pound, and his whole body started to shake.
Trent must have seen something, or more likely felt something along their bond, as he gasped. Tyler’s eyes flew open with a low growl.
“Tyler, go.” Trent spoke quickly. “You are about to shift. Your wolf is trying to protect you. You need to get the hell out of here and let your wolf run.”
Tyler hesitated, unsettled that he was unable to maintain the ironclad control he was known for, especially over his own wolf.
“Go!” Trent actually pushed him toward the door.
Listening to his brother, he tore out of the hospital and took off through the parking lot, heading for the adjacent forest. His skin began to itch and feel uncomfortable as he ran. Nearing the woods, he let out the primal roar of pent-up pain that had been building in his chest since they first found Faith.
As soon as he breached the trees of the forest, Tyler let go, his wolf charging forward. He changed midstride, clothes shredding as he allowed for the very first time his human consciousness to cede control to his wolf.
* * * *
Trent stood stock-still as he watched his brother leave the hospital, reeling from what they had heard, seen, and felt in the last thirty minutes. Breathing deep, trying to calm his wolf. He had felt his brother’s desperate need for control sha
tter and perceived the danger immediately. He heard a roar coming from the parking lot and knew that it came from his brother. He knew the pain and anguish in that roar, as he was making the same noise on the inside.
Taking another deep breath, he turned to Brendan and Cody, who stood quietly behind him. They always supported him and Tyler, were always there. He saw the sympathy in their eyes but also the glimmer of rage.
“Cody and I are here for you, Alpha. We will make sure you have the time with your mate you need.” Brendan spoke quietly.
“Thanks, B. Tyler needs to come to grips with what we have learnt today.” Trent went to move past them, but Cody placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“So do you, Trent.” Cody looked at his brother. “He also has to forgive himself for a whole range of things that he is no doubt blaming himself for, not least of which will be the feeling that he wasn’t there to protect her when she was taken.” Cody gave Trent a little shake. “You both do.”
Damn betas and their insightful observations. But forgiveness was easier said than done.
Nodding, he placed a hand on each of their shoulders as he passed, and made his way back into Faith’s room.
Chris, who had just finished sedating her and making her comfortable, looked up as he entered. Trent saw the shimmer of blue in his eyes that signaled his wolf was close. What the hell?
“Chris? Is she OK?”
“I let the fact that Faith was your mate impede me from being her doctor,” Chris spoke, the self-disgust evident in his voice. “We got her comfortable, rehydrated, ensured that it was exhaustion and the knock to the head that kept her unconscious, but I never completed an in-depth physical for fear of upsetting my alphas. I should have examined her completely, and I would have been able to see the abuse this poor woman has had to endure. I could have warned you, and then perhaps that scene I witnessed may never have happened.” Chris paused, and his gaze fell on the sleeping woman beside him before clashing with his again.
Trent felt his alpha power stir at the subtle show of dominance. The fact that the other wolf did not even waver almost made Trent smile.
“But never again. I don’t care if you bring your kids in here, when the gods grant you that gift. I will handle them as I will any patient, and if that makes you uncomfortable or drives your possessive wolves crazy, then quite frankly, I don’t give a fuck.” Chris continued to meet his gaze, and Trent saw the true value of this man as a pack healer.
“Chris, you are absolutely right. When Faith, Ty, and I bring our pups in here to see you, we will submit to what you need to do.”
Chris’s jaw dropped at Trent’s deliberate use of the word “submit.” Submission was not something a wolf gave up easily. Or in the case of an alpha, ever!
“Of course we may have to actually sedate Tyler for that to happen.”
Chris’s jaw closed with a snap as he no doubt weighed that option in his mind. Nodding, he deadpanned, “We’ll have to invest in a dart gun so we can shoot him from a distance.”
Trent barked a short laugh at that.
Moving toward the bed, he placed his hand on Faith’s. She felt cool to the touch, and his wolf whimpered. Trent didn’t know what to do to fix things from here. He was barely hanging on himself but knew if he had any hope of bringing his triad together for the happily ever after they so richly deserved, then he had to stay strong.
He reached out along his bond to his brother and sensed more wolf than man. Trent hoped that Ty would be able to come back from this. There were cases in their history when a wolf was able to protect their human by taking over completely. Some even opted to live in wolf form until very little of their human side remained.
Trent knew that Tyler wouldn’t allow that to happen forever, but he sure hoped he managed to work his way back sooner rather than later. He didn’t know how he was going to be able to help heal Faith, but he knew he needed Ty to help him, that they would only be able to achieve that together.
He pushed out along the bond to his mate, but that barrier was still there, and it seemed stronger. Before he had been able to get a sense of her behind it, an echo of fear and pain that had led him to her, but now there was nothing. And that scared the shit out of him. What if they couldn’t get her back? What if when she had broken, she had broken completely and they were unable to put the pieces back together again?
Trent shook his head at that thought. Hell. No. They had Faith back, and once Tyler was here, the two of them would come up with a plan. Faith would be theirs. Completely and forever. He would accept nothing less.
Determination flooded through his system as he pulled the chair closer to his mate’s bedside. Then he sat down and clasped her hand in his. He had no idea how long it would be until Tyler came back, or until Faith woke up again, but he was prepared to sit here and wait. Luckily he was a patient wolf.
* * * *
Tyler slowly pushed his consciousness forward, taking control back from his wolf, who wasn’t overly pleased at being pushed aside. Persistent, Ty pushed until he was in control and his wolf stood behind him. Tyler looked around him through the eyes of his wolf. At first he was unsure of where he was, but his nose told him that he had been here before. He could scent his brother, as well as Brendan and Cody, and…He drew in a deep breath. Faith.
His wolf had come back to the compound! Tyler was shocked for a moment, as it was outside their territory, and his wolf liked to be near the pack in case he was needed, but obviously his need to be here was greater. Ty lowered his head and scented along the ground, following his mate’s scent, wanting to see and learn as much as he could while he was here. In a short while, he found the remains of a building where her scent was the strongest. There was nothing left, but Ty could see the remains of a bed frame within the debris.
His heart clenched as he realized this was where they had kept her, where they had beaten and raped her, trying to force her submission to them. The thing that really pissed him off was that they weren’t that far from pack lands. If only he and Trent had looked for her closer to home, rather than trying to find her in another part of the state. They had been completely fooled by the Reverend’s subterfuge. If only they hadn’t believed that she would leave them without a word. If only, if only, if only. He needed to make a decision, either let go of the if-only’s of the past and move on or stay here and wallow in the what should never have been. He either manned up and helped his mate through this next phase, groveled at her feet, and begged her forgiveness, or he live without her. He had done it before, closed himself off to the bond between her and his brother, and he had been fine.
But he now knew he hadn’t been. He had existed but not lived. He had turned within himself and had cut himself off from the two bonds a wolf fought his entire life to sustain. Looking inside himself, toward those bonds, he finally admitted something to himself. He hadn’t reopened the bond between him and his mate and brother as completely as he should have. His anger and rage at the thought of Faith opting for a life that did not include him had held him back from truly opening himself to that bond. He was going to have to let go completely and commit to his triad.
Faith had never given up. She had always believed in his brother and him. Her belief shamed him but at the same time impressed the hell out of him. She had endured so much in this hellhole. But she had remained who she was. He was proud as hell that Parks and his cronies had not been able to take away who she was. His mate was strong. To be worthy of her, he had to be just as strong. Turning within himself, he released the last strand holding him back from their bond. His mate needed him.
“Our mate, asshole.” Ty smiled as Trent’s voice came down their link.
“Too true, Brother. Our mate, and one with no equal,” Ty sent back. He sensed his brother’s smile at that and continued to walk through the debris, trying to find peace with everything. If they were going to get Faith back, then Ty needed to find peace with what had happened.
“How is our mate?” he asked
as he went back to sniffing through the remains of the structure. At Trent’s hesitation, Tyler paused, nervous at what he was about to be told.
“Ty, you’ve been gone for almost three days.”
Three days! Fuck.
“When the drugs wore off, Faith came to, which is good.”
Tyler felt relief at that, but it was short-lived.
“But she hasn’t spoken a word since then, Ty. She simply lies in her bed and looks out the window. When I speak to her, she looks right through me, as though she doesn’t even comprehend that I’m there. She eats whatever you put in front of her, but it’s like she’s on autopilot or something.”
Tyler could hear the frustration and fear in his brother’s voice.
“It’s like she’s left this place and is happier inside her own mind.”
Ty could understand that. “OK, we will have to make the present and future so fantastic for her that she wants to come back to us.” He heard the confidence in his own voice.
“You think we can?” Trent asked quietly.
“Fuck yeah we can, because failure is not an option in this case. I abso-fucking-lutely refuse to lose our mate again.” Ty’s voice hardened with resolve, and he sensed his brother’s grin.
“Welcome back, Ty.”
“See you soon, Little Brother.” Tyler whirled away from the debris the tornado had left behind and sprinted back toward Grey River, the irony not lost on him at all. Despite the destruction and deaths that tornado had caused, Tyler was thankful for its wrath. For their future was saved from a living hell and delivered back safely into their arms as a result of it, and he and his brother had another chance at a life. Who wouldn’t be thankful of that?
Twelve hours later, Ty made it back to the hospital. He would have been back a couple of hours earlier, but he had stopped to shower and to call into the station and let their staff know that he and Trent would be off duty for the next week. Word must have spread through the pack fairly swiftly, as they were not surprised, and the rosters had already been adapted to account for them.
