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“Then where is he?” I question.
“I don’t know, but I haven’t looked through the rest, I was too scared to in case…”
“In case you found him dead.” I swallow and he nods, taking the pictures and placing them back inside. He closes it, and I draw back on my smoke, my hands shaking.
Casen leans against the hood of the car, we don’t speak, pondering what we just saw in those pictures.
“None of this makes sense,” I murmur after a few minutes. Casen says nothing, instead grabbing the book, and I move to the back of the car, opening the back door.
“Where to now?” Casen asks, looking at me over the roof.
“I need to see my sister, speak with Dominic, but drive to Rose’s pack. I will leave you there, and ring you when I find out more,” I tell him, and he nods, climbing in the driver’s seat while I climb in the back with my mate. Casen puts the scrapbook in the glove compartment and the key in the ignition, while I pull Temperance onto my lap.
“Let's go home,” I whisper to her, tucking her closer as Casen starts the car. My eyes meet Casen’s in the rearview mirror, and I nod to him and he nods back, starting the car.
ChapterSeventeen
The closer we get to my uncle's pack, the more nervous Casen becomes. Temperance is still passed out cold in the back seat. However, I had moved to sit in the front, so I could try to work out the puzzle inside the scrapbook of horrors Casen had found.
Pulling over, we stop to get fuel. The moment the car stops and Casen climbs out and shuts the door, Temperance stirs. Malachi presses forward, nervously watching her. She blinks, rubbing her eyes, and stretches on the back seat. However, the moment she does, she jerks wide awake.
“Nova?” she whispers, and her heart races, pounding in her chest loudly as she frantically looks around before her eyes fall on me. The seat belt that was left loose wraps awkwardly around her body, and she panics, thrashing yanking on it trying to make it release her. Leaning over the back, she freezes. I hold my hands up in a placating gesture, trying to show her I am not hurting her, and press the button on the buckle to unclip her. The moment she is released from its awkward stranglehold on her tiny body; she snatches the blanket, tugging it around her body.
Her eyes are wide as she stares at me, petrified for a second. “Your mate?” Her brows furrow like everything is coming back to her, and I can feel her confusion through the bond loud and clear. Almost like she believes she dreamed everything and expects to wake back up in the cage.
“I’m right here,” I tell her as she presses back against the seat, her knees tucked to her chest when Casen returns, opening the door. She jumps, scooting across the seat back toward me to get away from him. “I didn’t know what she would like, do you think—” Casen’s words cut off when he notices she is awake and he hesitates to climb back in the car.
“It’s Casen, my friend. Remember, Temperance?” I ask. I hate seeing her so confused, like she has trouble differentiating between hallucinations and reality. Temperance nods slowly, her eyes wide as Casen waits for me to tell him to get in the car.
“I am going to climb over the seat and into the back with you.” I tell her, unclipping my belt. Her pink and blue eyes dart to me, and I move between the seats, she watches me warily and it irritates Malachi how skittish she is toward us. He understands her fear. We lived it for years alongside her, she is untrusting, and since we still can’t sense either of her wolves, we know this is not only a new experience for her, but one where she knows she is completely vulnerable and on her own.
I fall into the seat beside her. Her nose twitches as she sniffs the air, inspecting my scent, like she thinks I am not who I say I am. Finally, she exhales. And I do too. I nod to Casen, he climbs in the car and I don’t miss the way her eyes track his every move, her heart rate spiking when he shuts the door. “He won’t hurt you, we have just stopped to get fuel and food,” I tell her.
Casen opens the bag, taking out a sandwich and bottle of water before turning in his seat to hand the bag to me. He gives her a small smile, and I take the bag from him. Rummaging through the bag, I offer her a bottle of water. Her eyes on it, she hesitantly takes it pressing back against the seat as far as it allows.
“I didn’t know what she likes, so I bought…”
“Half the store.” I chuckle at him, opening the bag to find nearly every pie, sausage, and sandwich you could think of. I set it between us waiting for her to grab something, but she is too busy trying to open the cap on the bottle. Her hands shaking and knuckles pressed tightly under the skin as she tries to twist the cap off before resorting to bringing it to her mouth. Reaching over, she stops looking at me, pinching the cap between two fingers as she clutches the bottle, I twist the cap cracking it.
“I don’t like how weak she is, she can’t even open a bottle,” Malachi growls.
“She’ll grow stronger, plus she is used to Nova and Shadow doing everything, I don’t think she has spent this long in control of her own body,” I remind my wolf. Malachi growls in my head, upset at my words. Temperance drinks her water and I pick up and offer her food, holding them out to her, but she declines. Yet I can tell she is hungry, feel it through the bond and hear her stomach gurgling, yet she only holds a death grip on her water bottle.
“Eat Temperance. Take what you want,” I tell her, but she shakes her head.
“Why won’t she eat?” Malachi demands, and I notice Casen's eyes dart to us in the back, they flit to her worriedly and even he tries to coax her to take something; still she refuses.
“If you eat, Nova might return faster,” I tell her, and she looks at me but shakes her head.
“What will you make her do for it?” she asks me and my eyes move to Casen’s in the mirror. His eyes flicker as her words slowly sink in.
It sickens me that her pack would use food against her. “They made you do things to earn food?”
“I…. I don’t know. I think so.” She looks confused, and I can feel it through the bond.
“How do you not know?” I ask.
“Nova.” She glances down at her lap nervously, playing with the cap of the water bottle. Her shame hits me like a slap in the face. “She used to pretend to be me, I…think they did things to her if we needed food. I don’t remember eating except the other day,”
