Song of my Heart

Chapter Twelve

"So, Miss Winton," the portly wolf who was leading the interviews glanced at me over the top of his reading glasses. I didn't know werewolves could get so... round. "It says here that you prefer to be called 'Az'. Is that correct?"

I snapped away from my ridiculous distracting thoughts and nodded to him, deliberately ignoring the other eyes on me. We were in a meeting room in the pack house basement, designed for secure, important meetings, the walls soundproof and the seats uncomfortable. All seven High Councillors were here, along with Maria, Marcus, Jace, and two other Alphas from local packs. The Alphas made me uneasy, but no one would have known by looking at my face. I had my deepest, strongest mask on, something that I knew was causing Marcus to radiate concern. Maria was the only person in room that I had asked to be there. She needed to know some things, things I had never told anyone before, that were about to be dragged into the light.

"Yes, sir, that's right."

"Well... Az... we have been conducting interviews for the last four days. There are only a few females left to hear from, including yourself. And do you know one common thread that we have discovered?"

I shifted on the hard wooden chair, not quite ready to hear this. "No, I don't."

"We have found that, in every story, you are there. You seem, without exception, to be the most prominent of the survivors, having helped every single female here in some way or other."

"Well," I forced myself still, ignored the urge to dart from the room. "The ones that didn't like me left Haven, I suppose."

The Councillor – Jeremiah, he said his name was - twinkled at me, showing a hint of humour. Apparently, I knew him before I was taken. He was one of the many details that I had lost. "All six of them. Six, out of forty rescued wolves, not counting yourself. It also appears, from what I have gathered, that you were already held in captivity before each and every one of them arrived, unless the last few females after you have a different story."

"No. No, that would be right. I was there before all of the survivors."

"Before every other female who was taken, Miss Winton?"

I met his gaze, knowing this was the tipping point, that all the poisonous truth was about to spill from my body and taint the very air we were breathing.

"No. I wasn't the first one taken. I was the sixth." I turned to Marcus, surprised to find the slightest urge to cry build up within me. I hadn't cried in a long, long time.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to him. "I'm sorry you have to hear this."

***

He liked to take female pups from their homes, between ten and twelve usually. He kept them as his pet, and then when he grew tired of them, he kidnapped a new girl, began to train her up to replace the old one. That was a pattern he kept up until I was the new girl, a bit over ten years ago, now.

"I'm sorry, he?"

"He liked me to call him Master, never gave me his name." I paused for a second, gathering my thoughts. "I was taken from beside the pond near the edge of this pack, and after about two months of conditioning –"

"Conditioning?" He interrupted again.

I was annoyed this time. "Do you really need details?"

Jeremiah's mouth hardened. "Yes. We need to know."

He didn't, but okay. "Fine." The words came flying out of my mouth; I couldn't catch them, couldn't hold them back.

"I was taken to a mouldy, rotting basement underneath a shack in the middle of nowhere, and for two months the rogues that took me broke me down. I never knew when I would get food or water, and when I did it would be randomly poisoned, or they would hit me every time I took a bite, that sort of thing. It only took a week before I couldn't voluntarily force food into my mouth. Then, the physical torture started. They broke my fingers, reset them, broke them again. They cut me, whipped me, strapped me with their belts. They kept me awake for three straight days, shocking me with a taser every time I started to drift off. They drowned me and resuscitated me, I lost count of how many times. And then, after two months of that and more, when they'd decided I had lost any will to fight, they brought me to Master."