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== Simon’s POV ==

Her injuries were superficial but she insisted she wanted me and not my mom to help her with those. It took me a minute to realize that she didn’t want my mom to see the scars. I led her to our bedroom’s bathroom. She stripped down to her underwear and stood in the bathtub, her arms holding onto herself, trying to hide her midriff. I turned around and tried to think only about pulling the few shards of glass left in her wounds away. Only of that.

It took a moment for her to calm down but less than last time. James was updating me on the situation outside as he took care of the burning mess they left. Besides that, my mind wandered a little. She was standing half naked in my bathtub after all. The situation didn’t make me horny but I couldn’t help but enjoy the sight.

I dressed her wounds quickly, she didn’t seem very phased by them, not even wincing at the pain she must have felt every time she moved, it only hit me later that it was probably almost insignificant compared to the pain she must have felt in her past life. I watched her, sitting on the bed, pulling a pair of socks on her feet, I could tell she was lost in her thoughts, until her weird eyes raised to meet mine. She sighed, sitting up straight. She started fiddling with her fingers and mumbled, “I think it is time to tell.”

“About what?” I asked, crossing the space between us to sit next to her.

“About who I am and why they are coming here. We’re putting everyone in danger, we’ve got to let them know, at least James, your mom and Nathalie” she explained. Her eyes were pleading mine but as much as I wanted to protect her, my mind was already set on doing so. It was only a matter of days until Collins visited the pack, and I needed my closest men, for lack of a better word, ready for anything, and mostly, able to react and deal with the situation. I nodded and laced her fingers with mine.

“I agree. I need them to be ready for anything and understand why you matter, not only because you are my mate, but because of what they are doing and did to you.” I pulled her against my chest and kissed her forehead.

“Let’s go then” she answered pulling back. She stood up, still holding my hand.

___

== Enna’s POV ==

I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea to tell my story, mostly because it caused me to relive my pain, but also, because I didn’t want to be pitied. I knew Lara and Nathalie would probably accept me the way I am though, it’s not like they hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t a damaged good with a deranged mind. I was worried because I feared that my secret would be out. What if other people want to use my powers? What if Simon’s pack asks for me to be enslaved in exchanged of the lives they lost? Or worse, to be shipped back to where I came from? I had no doubt in my mind that Simon genuinely cared for me, and he was the Alpha, but there were many members in his pack, and I could count a few that wished me gone.

I had to trust that at least with Nathalie, Lara and James informed, as a beginning, it would be sufficient to make progress, not only to find who did it and where they were, but also, help to stop the attacks and protect the pack.

I walked to Simon’s office holding his hand. It was odd to say but I could literally feel his energy, feeding me courage and comfort. He said he mind-linked his mom, Nathalie and James to join us in there. It was soundproofed and we could all sit comfortably in there.

Simon and I took our place on one of the couches, his hand on my lap still holding mine and they walked in, one by one. Nathalie and James sat opposite of us while Lara took place in one of the arm chairs. There was a little moment of silence until Simon cleared his throat and Lara made an obvious excited whimper.

“Don’t tell me you are pregnant?” she half-whispered with excitement.

“No, mom. We’re not” answered Simon coldly, squeezing my hand as if it was an apology to his mom’s behavior. I couldn’t hold it against her, she wanted grandchildren and she didn’t know I was as barren as a desert. “It’s about Enna, and the attacks…”

He looked over to me, to let me take the lead. I cleared my own throat before I started explaining.

“When you found me in the forest, I was hiding from people chasing me. I had been running for a while and I was with a young girl, called Leïla. We escaped from a research facility somewhere to the east of here. I don’t know exactly where. Calling it a “research facility” is definitely an understatement…”

I was looking at the ground while talking, unable to raise my eyes to my audience. My voice was rather matter-of-factly sounding. I didn’t want the emotions to overwhelm me like they had with Simon.

“I would call it a torture prison. I was brought there when I was eleven. They abducted me while I was on vacation with my parents. They killed them. I’ve grown up in the facility until now, my reality was a cell and the daily beatings, and the experiments…”

I stopped as my eyes welled up with tears. I could barely see anything through them. Simon’s arm slid around my body to hold me a little closer, his hand still wrapping mine with warmth.

“What did they experiment on you dear?” asked Lara in a soft motherly voice.

“I was brought to the facility because I have very unique abilities. I guess you understood by now that I’m not human…”

I raised my eyes to see all of them nod. I could see now because my tears were crashing down my face like tidal waves of painful memories.

“I’m more like you” I explained, taking in a big breath and sighing, “I’m a shifter. I don’t shift into a wolf though, I shift into a raven”

“You’re a bird?” asked Nathalie with her eyebrows raised. I nodded, watching her reaction carefully. “You can fly?” she asked again, to which I nodded as well. “That’s so cool!” she exclaimed in a hushed tone. Simon ignored her and squeezed my hand once again to let me know I should keep going.

“There are plenty of shifter out there, I mean, besides wolves. Most of us are extinct though, or living in hiding. We’re not like wolves, we don’t live in packs, we can’t protect ourselves in most cases, and we live scared of the humans and what they could do to us. In most minds, we were only legend and children stories, but not to them.”

Just thinking about them, about what they did, about that place, a shiver ran up my spine in a rush of anger and fear.

“They never discussed it in front of us, but their plan was pretty clear to me. They tried to force us to breed, to create a new race of hybrids. See, each of our species has a special power. You might have noticed that I can heal people quite fast, well, others have their own specialties. There were witches there and vampire as well, but mostly, a lot of werewolves, including their chief. They even had wolves in captivity. Most of us were used for reproduction purposes…”

I heard Lara gasp. “I wasn’t” I said, looking right up to her. “I’m sorry Lara, the only reason why they didn’t use me as a surrogate mother is because I’m barren…”

Surprise, then sadness, crossed her eyes, but I could tell it wasn’t because of her lost potential grandchildren, she was sad for me.

“As a raven, my spit is what heals so they…” I released my hand out of Simon’s grip to pull my hair up and away from my neck, “…had me attached. Definitely felt like a milked cow.”

Lara’s face was white and her eyes seemed to carry all of the sadness of a mother, Nathalie’s eyebrows were knitted together, I couldn’t tell if she was about to burst into anger or vomit, and James was sitting, his arms crossed and his lips so thin, I could tell he was holding back.

“You might wonder why they are still looking for me. Obviously, I could tell about their secret, and to my knowledge, I’m the only raven left, so it could be about my healing talents, but I don’t think this is what the problem is. When I was there, there was a man. I think he was the chief, he wanted me….as his wife or baby-maker, I’m not certain. When they told him I was barren….he…..he didn’t take it really well. I don’t even know why he wanted me in the first place. I was able to escape, but I think he’s looking for me because he didn’t get what he wanted…because I was able to leave.”