A Heart Bound In Shadows

Chapter 8

Jace

The hallways were empty as I made my way toward the infirmary with long, hurried strides. Willow was light in my arms. Far too light. It felt as though I were holding a tiny bird with every bone in its body broken. She had buried her face against my neck, her small, trembling fingers clutching my black T-shirt as though her life depended on it. The salty, bitter scent of her tears seeped directly into my skin, and every muffled sob tore through my chest like a silver blade.

Lexi, Zane, and Caleb followed closely behind me. No one said a word. The pack silently closed ranks around us, forming a moving, impenetrable shield around the trembling girl in my arms.

When we reached the infirmary, Lexi stepped forward and pushed down the handle without knocking.

The school doctor, Dr. Miller, was bent over some paperwork at his desk. To most students, the man in his fifties, with graying temples, was nothing more than a kind, boring doctor.

But we knew exactly who he really was.

Dr. Miller was one of the oldest and most experienced members of our pack. His job was to look after us younger werewolves and cover up injuries that were perfectly normal in our world but would have been impossible to explain to humans.

When the door opened, Miller snapped his head up.

His sense of smell alerted him to the trouble immediately. For a fraction of a second, his eyes flashed yellow as he caught the scent of the raging Alpha fury rolling off me, along with the blood and fear coming from the girl in my arms.

"Lock the door!" he ordered immediately, jumping to his feet. "And close the blinds!"

Caleb obeyed at once, and the lock clicked softly into place.

Carefully, as though she were made of the most delicate glass, I lowered Willow onto the white, paper-covered examination table.

The moment I set her down, she curled into herself, pulling her knees toward her chest and trying to bury herself inside her hood. She was trembling so violently that the metal frame of the examination table rattled softly beneath her.

"What happened?" Miller asked quietly as he rubbed disinfectant onto his hands and cautiously approached.

"Someone shoved her. She landed on her left leg," Lexi growled behind me, her voice still shaking with suppressed anger. "But the way she reacted to the pain... that wasn't caused by a simple fall. Something's wrong with her thigh. And her hand has been split open since last night."

Dr. Miller nodded.

He moved with extraordinary slowness and calm, trying not to frighten the tiny human prey in the room.

"It's all right. Willow, isn't it? I'm Dr. Miller. I need to examine your leg. I'm not going to hurt you."

When he reached out his hand, Willow recoiled hysterically, her back slamming against the wall.

"No!" she cried hoarsely. "Please, don't touch me! Men... please, no..."

Her words struck me like a physical blow.

Men.

That one word told me everything.

My stomach twisted with helpless rage.

"Back off, Doc!" I snarled at Miller.

He nodded in understanding and took a step back.

Lexi approached the examination table and gently took Willow's trembling, bandaged hand.

"Willow, look at me! It's me, Lexi. I won't let anyone hurt you. But we need to see your injury so we can help you. Please."

Willow struggled to breathe, her desperate gaze darting between Lexi and me.

Finally, very slowly, with tears streaming down her face, she nodded.

With the gentlest movements imaginable, Lexi rolled up the leg of Willow's loose pants, past her knee and farther up her thigh.

When the fabric moved aside, the air in the entire room seemed to freeze.

Zane muttered a quiet curse of disbelief.

Caleb turned his head away.

An enormous, grotesque bruise covered Willow's left thigh, a horrifying mixture of black, purple, and greenish-blue. The surrounding skin was swollen and throbbing.

This injury was far older and more severe than anything a simple fall could have caused.

Miller's nostrils flared as he leaned closer.

"This..." the doctor whispered, barely managing to suppress the wolf rising inside him. "This wasn't caused by the corner of a table. This is the mark of a kick. A heavy boot with a hard sole, to be precise. Whoever did this kicked her with enough force to nearly break the bone."

Rage erupted inside me like a volcano.

A strangled growl tore from my throat, and my claws pierced the skin of my palms.

I slowly backed toward the wall before I lost control completely.

My breathing came in harsh, ragged bursts, and my mind was filled with nothing but images of destruction and revenge.

Someone, a man, had kicked this fragile girl with that much force.

Lexi's eyes filled with angry tears.

"Willow..." she whispered, gently stroking the girl's hair. "Who did this to you?"

Willow's entire body went rigid.

At the question, her eyes widened even further with terror.

"No one... I fell..." she repeated the lie, but her voice grew increasingly hysterical. "I'm just clumsy. Please, leave me alone! I can't say anything!"

"Of course you can!" I stepped forward suddenly, unable to control my instincts. "There isn't a single bastard in this world you need to be afraid of while I'm here. Do you understand? Whoever did this, I'll kill him!"

"Jace!" Miller snapped sharply.

But Willow had already clamped her hands over her ears.

"No! You don't understand!" she sobbed, her expression filled with pure desperation. "If he finds out I talked... if you go after him... he'll hurt Ellie! He promised! Don't hurt him, please! You can't!"

Ellie.

Who the hell was Ellie?

Questions piled up in my mind, but I could see that Willow was on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown.

I couldn't ask her anything else.

The devastating pain in her voice brought my Alpha to his knees.

Miller sighed and lowered her pant leg.

"Listen to me, Willow. I'm going to give you a strong painkiller, and we'll put an ice pack on your thigh. I'll write in your medical note that you strained a muscle after taking a wrong step, so no one at school will ask unnecessary questions. But you can't go back to class with your leg in this condition. You need to go home and rest."

The moment he said the word "home," it was as though an electric current had shot through her body.

Willow sprang off the examination table, but her leg immediately buckled beneath her.

If I hadn't caught her around the waist, she would have ended up on the floor again.

"No!" she screamed, frantically trying to push herself away from me.

Her eyes were wild with overwhelming panic.

"I can't go home! It's not even evening yet... if he sees me at home during the day, he'll think I got expelled from school! Please, don't send me home! Anywhere but there!"

Her words echoed through the small room like the final plea of someone sentenced to death.

The place that should have been her sanctuary was nothing more than a torture chamber to her.

And there was no f*****g way I was sending her back into that hell.

I was still holding her in my arms, pressing her against my chest as she trembled and struggled for breath.

That was when Lexi stepped closer and gently cupped Willow's face, guiding her gaze toward her own.

"It's okay, Willow. Shh, you can calm down," Lexi whispered with a sisterly tenderness I had rarely seen from my younger sister. "You're not going home."

Willow blinked at her, breathing hard.

"But... where would I go? I have nowhere to go."

"You're coming with us," Lexi said in a voice that was firm but infinitely kind. "My brother, the guys, and I live in a huge villa at the edge of the forest. It's an impenetrable fortress, believe me. There are plenty of empty bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. You can have a room as quiet and dark as you want. You can have a warm meal and sleep without being afraid of anyone."

Willow shook her head in disbelief, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"I can't... I can't be a burden to you. You don't even know me. And... and I'm scared..."

That was when I very gently drew her head toward my neck.

I leaned down until my lips almost brushed her ear and whispered in my deepest, most reassuring voice, with all the pure sincerity of my wolf.

"You would never be a burden, Willow. Not for a single minute. And I promise you... I swear on my life... that as long as you're in our home, no one and nothing will hurt you. There won't be any shouting. There won't be any pain. Just you and safety. Will you let me take you there?"

Willow slowly looked up at me.

She stared into my emerald-green eyes, searching them for any trace of a lie for several long seconds.

But an Alpha had no lies for his mate.

There was only truth.

The promise of unconditional protection.

Slowly, with a tiny, almost imperceptible nod, she surrendered.

Her head fell back against my shoulder, and her body went completely limp in my arms, as though the last of her strength had finally drained away.

"We're leaving," I told the others.

Dr. Miller quickly pressed a bottle of painkillers and an ice pack into my hand.

Zane was already opening the door, while Caleb checked the hallway to make sure the coast was clear.

As we stepped out of the infirmary and made our way through the school's secluded rear exit toward the parking lot, the air finally cleared.

I carefully laid Willow across the back seat of my enormous black SUV.

Lexi immediately climbed in beside her to support her head.

When I slid behind the wheel and started the engine, I headed toward the pack's home.

Toward the safety of the enormous villa hidden among the trees.

I was going to protect this girl from every monster in the world.

Even if I had to become the biggest monster of them all to do it.