Her Mortal Mate

Chapter Twenty Three: Tasks

Adam

I pulled out the other chair and gingerly sat down. My body was still achy and sore, but I wasn't as tired.

"Well, you've got a plate full of food to eat and I've got some broth to try and keep down. Looks like we have plenty of time, baby girl." I reached onto the tray, picked up her plate that was piled high with delectable goodness, and set it in front of her before picking up the bowl with the broth. As much as I may have wanted to steal some of what was on her plate, I decided to play it safe.

She looked less than amused, however she obediently took several bites.

While she started eating, I took a few sips of broth and boy howdy! I never thought plain ol' chicken broth could taste so good.

"When I was still living with my father, before Caden and I became a thing, I was having a very hard time dealing with my past traumas," she started, unprompted. "I became extremely depressed. I couldn't sleep. I never wanted to eat. I kept myself busy with pack chores. I would even offer to take on added shifts because I needed to feel as if I was doing something. I needed to have something to do in order to keep my mind from dwelling on the very real nightmares that were haunting me, because when I wasn't busy, when I was forced to take a break, to sleep, I felt worthless. Useless. My mind would keep me awake, even though I needed to sleep. And, in those blissful moments when I was able to drift away into that blissful coma, nightmares would wake me up only after a few measly hours. Anyway, it got to the point where I was barely eating, sleeping and drinking enough to survive. Several health concerns and issues arose because of it. I developed anorexia and my father felt he had to force me to do the bare minimum to keep me alive," she stated sadly.

I could feel my heart starting to break. She hadn't told me any of this last year, though to be fair, it never came up. Plus, she probably didn't want to drop something so heavy on me when I had been dealing with, and facing my own demons. It did, however, allow me to understand more about her, and how she had been so understanding and knowledgeable about what I was going through myself at the time. "Force you as in?" I asked for clarification.

"As in using his alpha powers to command me to eat, sleep, drink," she clarified. "As much as I hated it and rebelled against him for using such force, I know now if he hadn't I probably would have starved to death."

I was having a hard time following. "So, because of the depression you developed an eating disorder?"

"More or less, yes," she stated matter-of-factly. She had distanced herself from the pain. I could tell she had disconnected herself from it in order to be able to talk about it freely, without being debilitated by it. "This continued on for a while until I became of age. Now, even though I was having all of these issues going on, I was also a strong alpha and had started pulling loyalty from some of my father's pack mates. Not on purpose, mind you. It's more of an inherent, physiological thing that happens in wolf packs. And so, to protect his pack and myself, my father kicked me out off of his lands for a time. I know it probably seems harsh," she mumbled, and yes, it did sound heartless and cold, "but in the end, it was for the best. Because that's when Caden came into the picture."

I must have made some kind of sour face at his name because not even a second later, her fingers smoothed out the frown lines between my brows.

"Caden is a few years older than me. He is the same age as my older brother, Ty. And, rightfully, he should be an alpha himself. Due to his own preferences and family drama though, Caden decided not to go down that path and became my brother's beta. Before he made that decision, however, he had been cast out on his own as a lone alpha. Much like myself. One day, we happened upon each other while we were hunting and decided to form our own little unit. It didn't take but a day or two for him to realize I had some major issues going on and decided to introduce me to b**m therapy and gave me Dr. Andrew’s number. He offered to become my Dom, and to help me work through my trauma.

"We talked about a lot of things and after about a week of sitting on everything, I decided to give it a try. And, honestly, it was probably the smartest decision I had made in my life up to that point. He was there for me when no one else had been. He never gave up on me, even when I was a stubborn ass. He helped me work through all of my unresolved emotions, feelings, traumas. He helped me navigate my depression and what the root causes were.

"Now, I don't remember what I covered last year when we talked about b**m and Dom/Sub relationships. Or what you have read up on yourself, so for the purpose of understanding the entire picture, I will also explain some of the fundamentals and foundations of how the Dom/Sub relationship is built.

"From the very beginning, Caden and I knew we weren't looking for a long term, lasting relationship. What we wanted was something that could help us both and we decided on a half a year as our initial timeline. We then decided to take it one step further where we would sit down at the end of every month to discuss how we were feeling about our relationship and if we wanted to continue it, end it, or change any of the dynamics. Not that we couldn't have done any of these whenever we wanted to, but having those dates set allowed us to be held accountable and gave us space and time to bring such issues forward.

"Once that was settled, we then went into what each of us wanted out of this experience. For me, I wanted to not only face and deal with my past, I also wanted to beat my depression, beat my eating disorder and be able to sleep soundly through the night again. To help me--which was his responsibility as my Dom--he gave me certain tasks to meet every day. There were rewards and punishments that I agreed to when those tasks were or weren't met. These tasks were: eating at least one complete meal a day, drinking one gallon of water or a sufficient amount of blood, going to bed at a specific time each night, and saying one affirmation a day. The affirmation I had to speak out loud to him for three months straight before he decided I could do it on my own. And so, that is how Caden helped me through my depression, insomnia and eating disorder," she concluded.

It was interesting, this relationship dynamic. It wasn't something I was familiar with. She had explained some of this to me last year, and had introduced me to one very small aspect of b**m, but other than that I was still completely clueless. "So, Caden is obviously worried you are going to relapse?"

"You are still as sharp as ever, vanilla," she complimented. She pondered my choice of words for a moment before responding. "More or less, yes," she agreed.

"What made him believe you would relapse?" I demanded. Not only was I curious to know, I wanted to know so I could also help watch out for those same tells. Therefore, in the future, I could be the one to help her through those difficult moments.

She licked her lips nervously before pushing her plate away. It was only halfway eaten. I thought about reprimanding her, but I thought better of it. I would allow her to speak before I started hounding her. "Something happened," she said slowly.

"It has to do with my capture, doesn't it?"

"Kind of."

"Well?" I pressed when she didn't elaborate.

She huffed and puffed a little bit as she pondered over what she wanted to say exactly. All the while I patiently waited for her to spit it out. "I recognized one of the alphas, Adam," she finally gave. "My blood family is coming after me, though I can't exactly prove it."

"Who was it, the alpha?"

"Harley. My older brother."

Suddenly, everything I'd overheard them say made so much more sense.

"Caden is afraid that hunting him and, ultimately dealing with this very traumatizing ordeal, will send me spiraling back into that depressive state I once found myself in. Caden was trying to stay one step ahead of it, by making sure I put myself as a priority. By making sure I am at least eating, staying hydrated and remaining positive before I’m sent into a tailspin.”

The jealousy I was starting to harbor for him melted away and a respect I never thought I'd feel for the wolf took root in its place. He obviously had strong feelings for Jadea still, but I was sure there was good reason behind those strong feelings seeing as they'd opened themselves in ways neither of them had ever opened up before.

Looking at her as she blankly stared down at the table, I had to wonder if he was right. Was she going to tailspin back into depression? And if that were the case, was there a way I could step up and step out of my comfort zone and help her?