Chapter Twenty-Nine
Despite being a very patient man—wolf?—the doctor became intransigent when it came to allowing Freya to visit the garden.
Not that she wanted to, given that the general weakness that afflicted her was aggravated by the fact that she wasn’t eating, but the doctor believed the fresh air would do her better than the sterile air of the hospital.
Afraid she’d fall flat, and given that she continued to feel very dizzy, a nurse brought a wheelchair and took her to the hospital garden, leaving her sheltered under a tree by a pretty fountain. Freya remained absent-minded, a bandage covering the ugly wound on her head.
The garden was well-kept, and the fountain lent an air of serenity to the surroundings. Freya watched with a vacant expression as sparrows landed on the fountain and refreshed themselves.
“May I sit down?” asked a voice to her left, discreetly.
Freya raised her tired eyes. In front of her stood a young woman, heavily pregnant, who looked at her with a half-smile on her lips.
Freya didn’t answer, and the woman took the silence as agreement.
She sat down with a grimace, trying to balance her spine and stomach at the same time.
Freya continued to stare ahead, oblivious to her surroundings.
The woman splashed in the fountain water for a while, seeming to find genuine pleasure in watching the drops trickle through her fingers.
“There was a time when I thought I’d never find pleasure again,” she said in a low voice. “When I wouldn’t feel the sun on my face, or the wind in my hair. When my world was dark and enslaved.”
This last sentence caught Freya’s attention, and she raised her head and looked at the other woman.
The woman smiled sadly.
“I too was taken by Lewis,” she said, and Freya shuddered. “I was his chosen mate.”
Freya’s eyes widened when she looked at her belly, and Lily said, “It’s not his. But it could have been if we hadn’t been rescued.”
Freya’s eyes filled with apprehension. She had just realized that the woman was also one of them.
“At the time, I was just a woman, or so I thought. I had no idea that shifters existed. When I met Dane, I thought he was just an ordinary man, although nothing in him was ordinary...” she smiled, wistfully, but Freya’s expression remained stubbornly blank.
” I was told since I was a child I had a health issue and took a pill daily.
I lived with my parents almost all my life, and I hadn’t realized just how under their thumb I was.
Not until they arranged for Lewis to take me. ”
Freya gasped in horror. To think that parents would willingly do such a thing to their own flesh and blood...
“Later, I discovered I was adopted by the Winchesters and that they knew I was a shifter. The so-called medicine was to keep my wolf at bay, dormant, and keep me pliable. They had wanted to sell me in marriage to another man, but I think Lewis made a better deal.”
“How...” Her voice came out hoarse from lack of use, and she cleared her throat. “How did you escape?” she whispered.
“Dane. His pack came to my rescue, but not before...” Lily bit her lip, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, “I learned about shifters that very night, when Lewis allowed his mongrel to come forth. And he showed me... He showed me you, in that cage, hurt and unconscious.”
Freya lowered her head, shame in her eyes.
“I didn’t know for how long he kept you in that cage, but I was horrified that a woman could suffer so much and still be alive. Dane rescued me, but not before Lewis had his way with me. And with another woman that he kept as a personal slave.”
An image formed in her mind: that of a young woman, perhaps only slightly older than herself, in a long white dress, without underwear, with a chain on her feet and a kind of collar around her neck.
“He killed her wolf with all the drugs they gave her ... at least she thought the wolf was dead. But her spirit remained strong, and she did help save you.”
“Why are you saying this to me? What do you want?” asked Freya, warily. She was tired, she just wanted to close her eyes and forget everything that had happened. She wanted ... oblivion.
“I was afraid of Dane when I woke up in a hospital bed. But then...” she sighed, almost dreamily. “I felt a pull to him I couldn’t explain. I feared him, but I wanted him by my side. At the same time, I wanted to be the same oblivious woman I was before the abduction.”
Although she didn't show it, she felt strangely drawn to what the woman was telling her.
It was as if, in a way, their stories were identical.
Ignorance had been a blessing, knowledge a painful curse.
But the young woman showed that it was possible to overcome pain.
When she spoke of her husband—mate?—it was with longing and love.
She surprised herself when she heard herself whispering, “Is it possible, then?”
“What?”
“To forget it?”
Lily shuddered.
“I’ll never forget. I still have nightmares. There are nights in which Dane has a hard time waking me up, because ... I’m there. Reliving the assault, the fear ... everything. But then I open my eyes, and the love of my life is there for me. And I put it to rest again.”
She caressed her belly with love in her eyes.
“And now we’re having a little one that is constantly kicking my bladder, and that I already love. We already love.”
She stroked her belly again and looked at Freya, understanding lighting up her hazel eyes.
“And yes ... it is possible to love them. There’s love at the end of the road. Just not right afterward.”
Lily grimaced and awkwardly stood up.
“And speaking of kicking my bladder, I really need to find a bathroom. I hope we’ll meet again, Freya.”
Looking up, Freya saw her walking away with the unsteady gait typical of pregnant women.
“It wasn’t an accident you being here,” she whispered, more to herself, but Lily heard, stopped, looked back, and smiled.
“Of course not. But it would happen sooner or later. I felt I needed to know you since the first time I saw you in that cage. You’re one of the strongest women I have ever met.”
Lily didn’t wait for an answer before turning and entering the building, leaving Freya to her thoughts.
Dane and Connor were hidden behind a tree. Their keen hearing hadn’t missed a single word of what had been said, and both men had swallowed hard. The two young women were survivors. All that remained was for Freya to find the inner strength that Lily had found with Dane.