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Her family! God, she hadn’t given them a thought since she’d opened her eyes. She tried to sit up but couldn’t. It was a huge reminder of what she’d been through.
“How long?” she asked softly.
“Twelve days,” he reminded her, but she shook her head.
“How long was I held in those caves?”
“If you were taken during the time of the attacks on the Holloway Den then almost six years now.”
“Six…” Her voice tapered off as her tears poured out.
A sob ripped up from her gut and was followed by more and more until she was shuddering with them. Strong arms wrapped around her, bringing her against a warm chest. Her family had to believe her dead. The day of the attack filled her mind, jerking her back…six years. She’d been laughing at something one of her brothers had said, though she couldn’t recall what anymore. In fact, most of what she remembered were sounds, smells. Maybe, her mind wanted to block what she’d seen.
“Tell me.”
She glanced up at the man holding her. Her mate? Could that be possible? She hadn’t even asked his name.
“What’s your name?”
“Fletch,” he murmured. “Fletch Calderson. Your mate.”
“How is that even possible? My bear is—”
“You’re mine. I know it. My bear knows it. I know you feel it.”
She nodded. It wasn’t her intention to deny him as her mate. Though her bear was still silent inside her, she wanted to think of this man as hers. Either way, her nod of agreement seemed to settle him.
“Tell me what happened,” he prompted again, tugging her tighter against him and stroking his fingers through her hair when she laid her head back down against his chest.
“Laughter,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “We’d just celebrated my birthday.”
“Birthday?” he interrupted.
“My seventeenth.”
He swore but didn’t say anything else, so she continued.
“I don’t remember—” She paused as the sounds of the past came to her. “I remember laughter one moment and screams the next. My sister went down first. My father was yelling. Then my mother screamed. I was down at that point. I saw someone grab my sister. Then nothing.”
She shuddered, and he held her tighter.
“When I woke up, I was in that cave surrounded by other female shifters.”
“Your sister?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know where they took her. If she’s even alive. I have no idea what happened to my family that day.”
“We’ll find out,” Fletch swore, but whatever else he’d been about to say was left unspoken as there was a knock on the door, followed immediately by it being pushed open.
“Good. You’re awake.”
It was a Holloway that filled the door, stepping inside and heading toward the bed. When he grabbed her wrist and seemed to check her pulse while visually assessing her, she assumed he must be Jensen Holloway. The physician. She’d heard him mentioned among the others who’d been captured. He sat beside her, running his hands along the tops of her shoulders before inspecting her arms then moving his fingers along her ribs. She whimpered there, and he paused.
“They’re not broken,” Helen stated then glanced toward Fletch when he growled.
“How would you know that?” the Holloway beside her asked.
