== Enna’s POV ==

I calmed myself down little by little while he let me cry my soul out into his chest, gently stroking my back and telling me that I was alright, that I was safe. When my tears had dried, leaving my eyes red and prickly, I raised myself out of his embrace. I needed to get it out of me now.

“Are you feeling better?” he asked me, his voice was the softest I had ever heard it. I nodded, not because I was feeling much better but because at least, I wasn’t drenching him with my bodily fluids anymore. “Do you want to keep talking…or do you prefer to wait a little bit? I know I wanted answers but I don’t want to….”

I put my hand on his mouth to stop him. “I need to explain everything” I simply said. He nodded, taking the hand I had placed on his mouth with his hand and holding it. He sat back onto the forest’s floor and it was the first time I realized that during this whole time, he was probably in the least comfortable position ever. He had been sitting on his heels holding my crying body without moving an inch until I calmed down. Now he sat cross-legged in front of me, keeping one of my hands in his on his knee.

I inhaled and exhaled deeply before I kept going with my tale of horror.

“I was so scared when I woke up. I was in a small cell, there was no lights and I heard noises. I think some of the prisoners were going crazy and they were doing all kind of animal sounds. At the time, I didn’t know other people could shift in other things so I didn’t even dare to move but Gerard was with me” At the mention of his name, his hold on my hand tightened a little bit, if I wouldn’t have found it endearing a day earlier, my new mindset thought it was almost cute.

“I guess he heard me stir” I kept going, “because he asked me if I was awake. Of course, I screamed and got the furthest away from the man’s voice in the dark but he said I would be ok. They left me with him for a few days. We received very little food and the only light came from the hallway, when one of the guard turned it on while on patrol. And then, one day, they came from me.”

His body tensed, I could feel him slightly tilt forward, as if he was getting ready to hug me at any moment if the waterworks started a new show.

“They dragged me to a room with doctors and asked me all kind of questions about me and my parents. They wanted to know how I was conceived and if I was already fertile, they wanted to know if I could heal and how it worked. They said they would let me go if I told them…”

Tears welled up in my eyes before breaching to roll on my cheeks. He reached to take my other hand, his entire energy seemed to engulf me in a soothing warmth.

“So you told them…” he concluded for me. I nodded in response and then rose my eyes to the sky, taking a breath of fresh air and trying to calm my tears.

“Now that I think back on it, I’m not mad at myself, I was only eleven and I was scared. My world was made of Human school, playdates and my lovely parents. I didn’t know how to survive in a hell hole like that. I was so naïve, I told them…”

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== Simon’s POV ==

Sobs had been shaking her shoulders for over ten minutes, her oh-so-lovely face buried in my chest. Her sudden movement towards me would have made me happy if it wasn’t for the reason behind it. I wanted to envelope her in a blanket of warmth, love, comfort and security until her time in captivity would be erased from all memories, especially hers. She slowly calmed down and, although I wanted to know everything, I didn’t feel like pushing her forward but she assured me that she needed to. I sat back still holding her hand in mine as she kept going with her story.

I couldn’t believe how they had treated her. We treated rogues better than that. From her quivering voice, I could tell that the fear she had felt back then was still very much fresh and imprinted in her mind. She started crying again as she explained that they interrogated her and she didn’t know better than to tell them.

I started stroking her arm again as she struggled to tell me what she told them that was so important. Then, instead of explaining, she pulled her arms away from mine to move her hair away from her neck and show it to me. On the back of her neck laid a big scar, it was still pink and slightly raised. When my eyes fell on it, it was like a dagger pierced my heart, it must have been the most painful wound ever. She moved again to drag down her dress' collar and reveal other marks on her torso underneath her collarbones.

“What did they do to you?” I murmured as shock and sorrow filled every part of my being, I could even feel my wolf staggering to keep up with what we were seeing. She pulled her collar back up, hiding those marks from my view and placed her hands back in mine. I held them tightly to give her some courage.

“Apparently, all shifters have a gift, mine is to heal. I didn’t take them much time to figure out how to use me. My…specie…or type…of shifters heal with one thing…our spit.”

The image appeared clearly in my head, I didn’t even need her to describe to me what they did for me to get it. If it was her spit they wanted, they probably had her in some kind of harness to make her spit out everything, but to leave marks like that, she must have been left in there for days…or months. When she had healed my men, she had been so tired afterwards so I couldn’t imagine the pain and exhaustion she had to go through for all of these years. I had to close my eyes as anger crept up again in my core, I didn’t step back this time because I didn’t want to let go of her hands.

“Did they do anything else to you?” I asked between my teeth. My rage made me unable to relax my jaws as I spoke. I kept my eyes closed and her hands firmly in mine as my body shook out of anger.

She didn’t answer directly, I felt her eyes on my face and I could hear her breathing. I opened my eyes to see hers searching mine. She looked into me for a moment, maybe she was looking for courage, for thrust, or for some resolve to tell me the end of her tale, I do not know. She took a deep breath.

“They wanted but they couldn’t. I got beaten for it, but I was gladly taking that over the other option” she said in a low and sad voice.

“The other option?” I asked, freeing one of my hand to reach for her chin and raise her gaze back to mine.

“Ultimately, they wanted breeding. They wanted to make stronger wolves, see if we could breed between shifters. In theory, it is feasible as we all breed in our Human form, but it is possible that our DNA wouldn’t be compatible…so they tried” she explained.

“Did they force you to have sex?” I asked with a voice much deeper and louder than I had wished. I couldn’t help but feel incredibly angry and jealous at the idea of another shifter touching her. She squeezed my hand tightly and shook her head.

“For all of us, we need to be fertile first…” she said, then she dropped her head down and murmured, “I never got my period”.