Their Marred Boy

Filler 5

His breath hitched in his throat. Clogging his airway.

He'd been expecting the question of course. His body was beyond maimed to not raise questions and being his mates, the men had every right to know how their mate had gotten to that point.

Yes, he'd been expecting the question, however, it didn't make the situation any easier to deal with. He hadn't allowed himself the luxury of preparing himself for when the inevitable conversion would take place, mainly because he was afraid. He had no idea how the conversation would pan out. Would his mates think differently of him?

"I- well..."

He started, though the rest failed to tag along. He helplessly looked at his mate.

Skyler was frozen in place with his amber irises on full display owing to his widened eyes, he was seemingly surprised by the question himself, though once he caught Harper's eyes, he frantically shook his head.

"I'm really sorry! You don't have to answer that! Oh my god Harps, I'm so sorry..." Skyler's arms waved around like a madman, though the man had failed to notice, he'd set on assuring that his mate wasn't offended or hurt from the question.

"It's okay." He was certainly not feeling okay, though he'd blind his other eye before he intentionally made Skyler feel guilty.

"No. I'm sorry, it was so insensitive."

Harper sighed. "I understand that you want to know. If I were in your place I'd be curious too."

Skyler nodded. He couldn't deny that he needed to know. That Soren needed to know. It was a natural response of a bonded soul, not knowing what horrors the person who made you whole had lived through was hell. His safety was also another matter of concern, was Harper still being hurt?

Though unlikely, the scars could very well be the result of an illness that needed intense treatments. Harper had mentioned a lab a few times, and maybe that's all it was a health issue. Skyler inwardly scoffed at his efforts to assure himself that whatever it was, couldn't be so bad.

Though before he could ponder any longer, Harper started speaking.

"Well... remember I mentioned this... lab?"

Skyler didn't speak, he just simply nodded to confirm. He didn't want his interference to snap Harper out of the talkative state he was in. And partly because the waver of his voice would indicate how he wasn't ready to hear what his mate had to say.

"Right so that lab was focused on shifters', mostly werewolves' biology. Basically, they research illnesses and find treatments for them."

Amber eyes threatened to bulge out of their sockets. The man could feel his heartbeat pounding in his ears as his mind worked on putting the pieces together. He'd formed a pretty solid idea of where this was going, but he refrained from commenting. He wanted his mate to be able to comfortably share this part of his life.

"I was one of the weres they worked on. I got my scars with each new medicine being put on the market." He grimaced, "Because I didn't have any illnesses to cure, I was most useful for external injuries. They'd break or cut something, then attempt to fix it with their concoctions."

The glum look on his face quickly morphed into a desperate one as he caught his mate's eyes, "I know it's horrible of me to complain, but I don't really like talking about those times. They weren't very fun."

As Soren was picking up on his human's emotions, the wolf began to restlessly pace in his mind, causing Skyler's words to come out harsher than he intended, "They hurt you, Harps. You have every right to complain."