~Matheau~

I heard my mother shout Alyce’s name and went running down the stairs. Alyce had been my best friend since she arrived in our pack. She hadn’t always been so mistreated. Overworked and treated like trash, yes, but the physical abuse hadn’t started until she was about 12 or 13 and her personality really started to shine through. Thankfully Aramyth came on her 13th birthday and has been able to help keep her strong the last 4, almost 5 years through it all. I jumped the last 3 stairs and growled as I watched Alyce pass out in my father’s arms, “I’m going to kill them one of these days, I swear it!”

“Calm down Matheau, she’s safe. She will be ok, she is the strongest person we know. Outbursts like that will only make things harder for her than they already are.” My mother spoke softly, sorrow in her eyes, “Let’s get supplies ready.”

“I’m going to take her up and bathe her. We can’t help her unless we can see how bad it really is.” I moved to take her from my father so he could help my mother get supplies to tend to her injuries. Alyce was the daughter she always wanted, my honorary big sister. She was 6 months older than me, but she let me play the big brother role despite being younger. We were more like twins than just siblings, we knew each other so well and were so intune with each.

My father didn’t fight me, handing her over to me. My mother would have been the most appropriate one to do this, she was a pack nurse after all, but I knew Alyce wouldn’t mind and mother needed to prep. I like boys and she always told me she felt safe with me.

I carried her up to my bathroom and stripped the sweats and t-shirt off her and stripped down to my boxers. I turned the shower on, adjusting the temperature and pulled the removable head down, letting it hang down. My shower was a large walk-in one done in smokey blues and grays. I carried her into the shower and sat on the floor with her.

I got the first real good look at her injuries once I had us settled in place to be able to clean her up. Immediately I saw red, my wolf, Xavier coming to the surface with a roar. It took all my self control not to shift right then and there. Alyce’s back was shredded, some of the lacerations wrapped around her left rib cage. I could see older scars underneath the fresh wounds, which meant they had used wolfsbane on her again, to stack the scars so to speak. Livid didn’t even come close to how I was feeling right now.

My mother had always been the one to care for Alyce after a trip to that sadistic place. I usually never saw the wounds before my mother had cleaned her up. The one time I had it was after the first time she’d been sent to the hole. The first time they’d used wolfsbane on her. I threw up at the site of it, we were 15 at the time. No one that age should have to see or endure that.

I grabbed the hanging shower head and started to run the water over her body, watching the water turn dark pink as it washed the blood from her. The more the water washed away, the more I could see the details of what had happened to her. The lashings were varying depths, some having started to scab over if they were more on the surface, the deeper ones still seeping blood.

Her body was black and blue, bruises on her breasts and thighs. She’d never shown up with bruises like that before, and they looked like hand or finger marks. I knew she had never slept with anyone. Then it hit me. They didn’t, they wouldn’t. Even they weren’t that cruel, were they?

*Mom! Mom! I need you to come take her! NOW!* I shouted to my mother through the mind-link. I was shaking, barely keeping Xavier under control as I heard my mother haul ass up the stairs flinging my door open. I swiftly switched places with her barely getting out of the shower before I shifted into my wolf, Xavier snarling, fur raised, furious.

My dad appeared in my doorway, drawn up by all the commotion. He took a brief look around, taking in the scene before walking towards Xavier slowly, “Hello Xavier. I understand you’re upset, but I need you to calm down. I need you to let Matheau back. You can’t help your sister like this.”

Xavier growled again, snarling at my father. We shared the same body, but were two separate entities. I tried to calm him down, *Xav, Dad’s right. Alyce needs you to calm down, we need to tell them our suspicions so Mom can help her properly.* I inched forward, trying to gradually take the reins back from him.

Xavier was dancing back and forth on his paws, growling and whimpering as he weighed what we were telling him against his desire to rip the people who hurt Alyce apart. He took in a deep scent of the clothing Alyce had been wearing, growling more as we recognized Vincent’s scent. After a couple minutes and a bit more coaxing I was able to take control back, shifting back into my human body and throwing on a pair of boxers and some gym shorts.

“Are you ok Mat? What set Xavier off so extremely. I’ve never seen either of you like that, you’re the cool headed one of the family.” My dad questioned me, my mother looking over at me from where she was scrubbing the dirt out of the lacerations on Alyce’s back as gently as she could while being thorough.

“I… I think they raped her…” I swallowed the lump in my throat, tears threatening to spill. “She has bruises on her thighs, on her breasts. The clothes… They… they smell like Vincent. He shouldn’t have been anywhere near her. How did she end up in his clothes?”

My father walked over, wrapping me tightly in his arms as he looked over my head at my mother, probably with a look that was pleading with her to help calm me, or to help calm him. I could feel his own anger radiating off him. Alyce was his daughter too. He was a man of few words, letting his actions speak for him.

“Mat, I will examine her, I will help her. She will be ok physically. Mentally and emotionally, well we won’t know until she’s awake and we can talk to her. You two go on, help your dad finish prepping.” My mother’s soft but firm voice came from the shower.

I looked over my shoulder at her, tears streaming down my cheeks at this point, “P-promise?” She nodded at me and I let my father take me downstairs with him and distracted myself with helping him set up.

We cleared the kitchen table, spreading a clean sheet over it. I set up all my mom's medical supplies on the kitchen counter, “Dad, where is the betadine?” I looked in the cabinet, shuffling stuff around on the shelf before spotting the bottle, “Nevermind, I found it.” I pulled it out and set it on the counter with the rest of the supplies.

Mom carried Alyce down the stairs a few minutes later, having wrapped her in another clean sheet once she had finished cleaning her up. I only needed to take one look at my mother’s face to know that what I had suspected was true. I took a deep, shaky breath to keep myself calm. Alyce needed me right now, and that was the most important thing at the moment. Justice, revenge, whatever you wanted to call it. That could wait, it was best served cold anyway. I helped my mother get Alyce on the table, laying her on her stomach with a small pillow under her head.

Dad pulled the sheet down, so that the wounds were exposed and we all washed and gloved up. We spent the next hour cleaning, bandaging and in a few cases stitching up her wounds. I checked her vitals a few times throughout the whole process. When we were done, mom went to get some clean clothes for Alyce while dad and I cleaned up.

“I’m glad she’s ok. Why didn’t she ever tell me how bad it was?” I looked at my dad, “Why didn’t you guys tell me?”

“She made us promise not to Mat. These ones aren’t the worst she’s ever shown up with. She didn’t want you to know, she didn’t want to burden you with it.”

“She’s my sister by choice, my best friend. She is never a burden. How can they get away with this? They raped her, took away the last of her innoncence Dad!'' I was getting worked up again, but some stirring from Alyce brought me back from the edge.

I rushed to the head of the table, kneeling down so I could see her face. I pushed her hair out of her face as mom came down the stairs with a stack of clothes. I was pretty sure they were mine since mom was tall and lean, most of her stuff was too small for her, “Alyce… Alyce, are you awake?” I whispered.

I watched her lift her head, but it wasn’t Alyce’s green eyes looking at me, it was Aramyth’s green ones. I could only tell the difference because Aramyth’s had flecks of red in them, “Hi Aramyth. Are you ok? I’m glad to see the wolfsbane is wearing off.'' I had never seen Aramyth, none of us had. Alyce had never shifted, but I knew she was present when I saw her eyes.

*I’m ok. Tired, but ok. I have nothing on Alyce though. I’m only here to thank you, thank you all for taking care of her when I can’t. In ways I can’t. She is special and she will need you all when she realizes how special she is.* Aramyth’s voice was gruff, the exhaustion coming through in the mind-link as I heard her in my head.

*It’s ok. You rest, I will tell them what you said. You are both family. We will always be here for you. Both of you.* I replied before closing the mind-link. Alyce’s head laid back down on the pillow and she was out again. I relayed the message to my parents and we spent the rest of the night watching over Alyce in shifts, leaving her on the table because we didn’t want to risk reopening her wounds now that they were starting to heal.