The kidn*pped Soul of Luna

Chapter 8 - Woman in the Drawing

Carmel was enraged, feeling violated and controlled. Alex hadn’t moved after she slapped him. The doctor and the tall woman seemed to be holding their breaths watching the Alpha-man closely. Carmel watched his fists as they clenched and unclenched… the only movement in the room. When she looked into his eyes, they were a pitch black. She couldn’t remember if they had been that color before, but she didn’t think so. She felt a flash of fear, knowing that she had pushed this dangerous Alpha-wolf-guy too far. She berated herself… she was the one on enemy territory and needed to tread carefully.

Once Alex and Anton regained control of their anger, Alex turned abruptly on his heel and walked out of the hospital room without looking back.

“I forgot that it wasn’t her for a moment,” Anton growled in Alex’s mind.

“I know. Me too. This is hard,” Alex replied. “If it is this hard for us, how is Logan going to deal with it?”

“He is a future Alpha. He will be strong.” Anton went silent for a moment as they walked toward their suite of rooms. “I will try not to kill her.”

That made Alex laugh out loud. He knew that, as long as Paxi was still around, that Anton would not harm her human… unless it was to protect Logan, of course.

Carmel was left standing in the hospital room with just the doctor and the tall, scary looking lady. There were two strong looking guys… werewolves too, she supposed, just outside her door.

“Why don’t you get some rest,” the doctor said, indicating the bed and handing her a fresh hospital gown which she took gratefully.

She looked at the bed and the straps that had held her down.

She looked up again at the doctor... “Please don’t tie me up again, Doctor…” she had forgotten his name and paused as she waited from him to supply it.

“Doctor Killian, and this is Gamma Linda,” he said, nodding to the woman who stood with her arms crossed and leaning one shoulder against the far wall.

Linda straightened herself up, and walked slowly toward Carmel. “I will allow you to be unbound for the time being, but if you strike the Alpha again, or anyone else, I will take great pleasure in placing you back in bondage.” Linda turned her back to Carmel, as if she was less than nothing, and said to Dr. Killian. “Link me immediately if she so much as blinks at you in the wrong way.”

The doctor gave a thumbs up to the scary lady, who then stormed out of the room. Then he came over and gave Carmel a little pat on the back. “Come, come, a little nap will do you good.”

“No, really, I couldn’t sleep… umm, Doctor Killian. If I may ask, do you have some paper and a pencil that I could have? It doesn't need to be anything fancy... I would really appreciate it.”

The Doctor looked at her warily, as if she planned to craft the paper and pencil into a weapon of some kind.

“Really," she pleaded. "I just want to do a little sketching. It helps me process things.”

The doctor squinted his eyes at her for a moment and then came to a decision. “Okay, it will be arranged. I need to do my rounds. You are confined to this room for the time being. Nurse Becky will be back soon. You can ask her or one of the guards if you need anything else.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Carmel said out of habit… but she didn’t feel very thankful. She was a prisoner, after all.

Once the doctor left the room, Carmel began to explore the room. There was the bathroom, of course, and the bed with a visitor’s chair next to it. She assumed that all of the medical cabinets were locked, but she didn’t check because the guards were watching her closely as if she was going to go psycho at any moment. Over by the window was the small table and two chairs where she had sat with the Alpha-man not too long ago.

“Alex,” said the voice in her head.

“What?” she said out loud to Paxi.

“Refer to our mate by his name or the title, "Alpha," please. Alpha-man sounds disrespectful to me.”

Carmel sighed. Apparently, this creature could even hear her thoughts. “Okay,” she agreed. “I will try.”

“Thank you,” said the wolf primly.

Carmel was feeling tight and stressed from all of this. She started moving the chairs and table away from the window to clear some floor space. The nurse came back into the room carrying a sketch pad and some graphite pencils.

“Is there anything I can help you with, Ms. Jacobs?” Nurse Becky asked.

“I thought that I might do a little yoga to calm and center myself. I hope that is alright,” Carmel told her.

“Oh yes! Can I get you a yoga mat?” Becky asked

“If you have one, that would be very nice, thank you,” Carmel responded politely.

The nurse put the drawing items on the bed and bustled out of the room. A few moments later, she was back with a mat, two blocks, a blanket, a bolster and some stretchy yoga pants and a t-shirt in her size.

“Oh! That is more than I expected. Thank you!”

“The physical therapy room is well stocked. These clothes might be a little big for you, but I will bring you some other options later in the day.

Carmel gratefully took the items and set up a little space for herself. After she changed into the clothes, she came back out and lay down on her back, completely flat on the floor.

“I thought we were doing yoga?” Paxi said curiously.

“We are. This is how we are starting to calm and center our breath. Just relax and let me work through the practice.”

Carmel began by concentrating on her body, feeling into each corner of it for any aches, pains, or tightness. She released and relaxed each muscle group with purpose and then began to deepen her breath, keeping her mind as blank as possible, concentrating only on the moment. She came to her hands and knees, stretching her back in “cat/cow” releases before standing in a mountain pose, weight balanced on both feet. She starting doing sun salutations to get her heart rate up and then tested her balance and flexibility by placing one foot just above the opposite knee, hands pressed together in front of her heart and then slowly raised above her head in a basic tree pose. After that she worked her way through her warrior poses, one, two and three. She noticed that her balance was there as usual, but her strength and flexibility were not nearly what she was used to, so she opted not to do some of her usual poses. At the end, she lay back down, still breathing with purpose and recovered from her work out.

“That was wonderful!” Paxi said in her head.

Carmel smiled at the wolf’s praise. “We will start every morning with that routine from here on out… until I can return to my regular life.”

Paxi was quiet at that and Carmel, now feeling much more like herself, though a little sore, walked to the bed where the paper and pencils lay waiting. She hopped up into the bed and put a few pillows behind her back, sitting cross-legged and she opened the sketchpad. The blank page in front of her was begging to be drawn upon.

Carmel closed her eyes, seeking an image. The first one popped up in her mind and her hand flew across the page. Under her pencil, the shape and shading of a wolf began to take form. She wasn’t trying to create a finished work... she was drawing until images were sketched out, just getting the bare bones of them on the page before turning to the next one. She paid no attention to the time as she filled one page after another with the images that had been burying her brain earlier. She filled the one page with the nurse transforming into a wolf and back again, another with the doctor’s withering hands, still more showing Alpha Alexander’s lips drawn tight and his eyes gone black. Paxi was her first quick sketch, however she drew her several times in different poses, including one with the boy… and then she finished with the image that she had been working on the night before, before all of this craziness had happened, the tall, pale, blond beauty… glowing, hand reaching out to Carmel, face full of love. Carmel forgot about everything else now and started filling in the details on this one drawing, bringing it to life. The woman’s face was illuminated by the moonlight and Carmel drew a lake around her, as if the woman was walking on the water on a path lit by the moon.    

When she finished, she stared at the woman’s face, holding her pencil ready to make the next mark, but it was done. It was her, whoever “her” was. As Carmel stared at the image, she thought she saw it move... just for a second, as if the woman was breathing. 

“It’s the Moon Goddess,” Paxi whispered.

Carmel felt the rightness in that name. It WAS a Moon Goddess, whatever that meant. She continued to examine the face in the drawing until she drifted off to sleep.