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I shrug. “You have your secrets we have ours. What about the rest of what you were saying?” I prompt. “What about the spell? And why did you say her becoming immortal soon is a bad thing?”
His intrigue turns to seriousness once again.
“The spell wasn’t strong enough to do on an immortal. It was hard enough to make it to be strong enough for a mortal. When she turns immortal, the spell wears off. It wasn’t ever a long term solution. It was just to buy some time until a more permanent solution could be found.”
Fuckity fuck fuck.
If Roslyn gets hit with all those memories at once, they’ll tear her apart.
“Then we’ll find something long term,” Gage says with a sense of confidence that already has me feeling a little more at ease.
“We need to know what she faced in there, as much as I don’t want to hear it. We need to be prepared just in case. You saw it, right? You saw her memories?”
Tears fill his eyes again, and I already dread whatever he’s going to say.
“You want to know what she faced? She faced something worse than hell. You talked earlier about your girlfriend,” he says, looking over at Dice. “Your girlfriend might have suffered, but I assure you it has to be mild in comparison, otherwise she wouldn’t be sane.”
Dice’s hands turn to fists as fury blazes in his eyes.
“I mean no disrespect,” Reese adds. “I’m stating the facts. Most of the prisoners were kept in cages where they could see everyone else. They had contact with other beings at all times. Werewolves have to have contact with others. It’s why we travel in packs. Hell, it’s why we’re in packs. A wolf has to have some semblance of a family in order to remain sane and healthy.”
Taking a deep breath, I try to keep my temper down as I ask, “She was kept in solitary confinement, wasn’t she?”
“For two years,” Reese says while looking down. “To a werewolf, that’s like fifty years. It’s painful to be without contact with someone else for that long. The only interaction she got with a breathing being was when they came to beat the hell out of her.”
A few tears trickle from his eyes, and my jaw grinds as my beasts try to claw their way to the surface.
“She got to a place in her broken mind where she looked forward to those moments, because it was the only thing that soothed her need to be around someone. That’s how broken she was. They wanted her that way. They needed to break down everything about her so they could slowly become what she depended on.”
Dice’s hands uncurl, and he looks over at Reese with apologetic eyes. My skin actually hurts, because it feels like it’s on fire right now.
“She didn’t have fingernails left when she got out. She clawed the walls and floors so much that she broke every one of them off. She was frail, pale, and almost dead. They made one mistake. That one mistake is what freed her. They blood starved her.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rise. I knew she was feeding as a wolf, but…
“She needs blood now? As a mortal?” I ask, confused. “How did that save her?”
He nods. “She’s always needed blood. Even as an infant. That wasn’t an easy task, but I managed. I had to enlist some help along the way from someone I trusted, but she has always been fed. And she needs immortal blood to survive. Going longer than three days isn’t good. She went two years in there without a drop of blood. I don’t think they realized she needed it, and they never listened to her or even spoke to her.”
“Motherfucker,” Gage says on an exhale, running a hand through his hair.
Kimber has tears falling from her eyes as she listens to a horror story even worse than her own. No wonder Roslyn’s mind was fucked when she got out.
“It saved her because, unlike night stalkers, when we’re starved, we get desperate instead of weaker. We get deadlier by the day. She broke the chains that were meant to hold her in place while they beat her. Chains that bound her there by magic. And she managed to escape by dematerializing through the walls also bound by magic. But it’s also why she fed like a starved animal when she escaped. Because that’s what she was. You can’t hold her accountable for that. I know Alyssa’s policy is no killing unless—”
“No one here is worried about any rules she’s broken,” I interrupt, glaring at Kimber like I’m daring her to object. She doesn’t even look at me as she wipes away her tears.
“We’ve only found a few,” she says.
Reese’s lips tighten. “I cleaned up a mess already. Personally, I don’t think she did any damage to anyone who didn’t deserve it, but then again, there aren’t many of us who haven’t earned a death or two.”
No one says anything for several long minutes. I’m trying to catch my breath, but it seems to be too hard to do.
“Can I see her now?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I whisper, unable to form a stronger tone or even move. “She’s upstairs. Knock first. Make sure she’s decent. You can tell her to come down, and we’ll move this to the living room. We’ll pretend we’re all normal for the rest of the night.”
He growls, causing me to snap my eyes up.
