Fairly Bear

Four - Untrusting

Ulrich

It had been two days since she woke up; his Tessa. She still refused to eat and only drank water from the tap, and only when she’d had her eyes on the glass the whole time. That made him realize that they’d put the drugs in their food and water before. But he still didn’t know how to convince her to eat when she was clearly terrified of him; he wanted her to trust him.

But how was he supposed to do that? She had finally dropped to sleep out of pure exhaustion that first night. He could clearly see that she was still weak and that wouldn’t change for as long as she refused to eat. How was he going to convince her that they wouldn’t drug her food?

She seemed to be asleep still, so he watched her quietly. He couldn’t bear to leave; the last time he’d done that, she’d almost run away. Rupert walked into the room, casually opening a packet of mini cookies from the vending machine outside and popping one into his mouth. He noticed her flinch at the unexpected entrance, so she wasn’t asleep, just pretending to be.

“Hey man, can I talk to you outside?” Rupert said, carelessly dropping the packet of cookies on the table next to her bed.

Ulrich glanced at her and nodded reluctantly. He stood and they walked outside, leaving the door ajar so he could still see her. He wasn’t sure if it was for his benefit, but he would take it. He frowned in confusion; what was Rupert up to?

Rupert winked at him. “So I’ve been questioning those bastards and they said the serums they injected into the victims were meant to change their DNA. I have people going through what paperwork we managed to save to see if there is any information on what they injected into whom. The lower ranking workers only got codes of which serums to inject, but didn’t know what it was. Once we know what was injected into whom, we can help the recovered victims find a place to settle according to their needs.”

Ulrich blinked, why was Rupert speaking loud enough that she could hear? Rupert pointedly turned his eyes to the corner where they could see through the cracked door and he noticed Tessa was quietly trying to steal cookies from the package.

He almost grinned at that; she looked adorable, trying to be sneaky about it. And then it hit him; Rupert had heard from Miranda that she refused to eat cooked food and he had come up with a plan.

Rupert grinned at him and spoke in a low voice, so she wouldn’t hear. “Bastards told me they drugged their food to keep them compliant. She’s the only one who’s figured it out for herself. The others are wolfing their food down without a problem.”

Ulrich nodded in understanding. He’d suspected as much, but Rupert had just confirmed it. His mate was smart and determined. She’d managed to shove two cookies into her mouth and had an expression of pure bliss on her face.

He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and headed over to the vending machine. He put money in the machine and selected from everything in the machine; shoving everything at Rupert until his arms were full, while he removed the items from the machine. Then he took up half of the items and they headed back to the room.

“What is that?” Miranda demanded in a firm voice and they both turned around guiltily looking at her where she stood with her hands on her hips like a stern mother ready to scold her children. “We just got her clean of the drugs and now you’re hyping her up on sugar?”

“You know she won’t eat, sis.” Rupert protested like a child.

Ulrich rolled his eyes. Then he nodded his head towards her room where the door was still cracked open. He was not going to act like Rupert. He wanted to take care of his mate and if it meant giving her a sugar rush so she’d start eating, then he would do it.

Miranda followed his directions with her eyes and saw Tessa glancing suspiciously towards the door before she attempted to quietly steal another cookie. She sighed and turned to face them. “It would be adorable if it wasn’t so sad.” She muttered with annoyance.

Ulrich grunted in agreement.

“She’s the only one who figured out that they drugged their food. From what I got from the guy that fell out of the window with her after he recovered from you breaking his neck; she was attempting to escape when she fell into your arms. What a romantic story to tell your kids…” He sighed and waved his hand at his face in mock admiration.

Ulrich glanced at his sister and she rolled her eyes.

“You chose him; I was born with him. We are not the same.” She retorted indignantly and he smirked his amusement at her answer.

“Hey! I’m a delight; what are you complaining about?” Rupert retorted indignantly.

“You’re a menace, that’s what you are.” She answered, grabbing some of the packages from his arms and heading towards Tessa’s room.

They followed belatedly as Miranda entered her room with a broad smile. “So I had a break and thought we could all have a picnic and get to know each other. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with the breakfast of doctors, since that’s all the vending machine has.”

Ulrich followed; these siblings pretended to be annoyed with each other, but they were both good at thinking on their feet. He felt like a lumbering i***t around his mate. He’d never been talkative and he’d never needed to talk women into his bed; they came on their own. Something about his large size and quiet demeanor seemed to draw women, all except his mate, who was apparently terrified of him.

Rupert was the smooth talker and obviously got way more attention for his persuasive behavior. He had no idea what he was doing with her. It was both frustrating and sad that he didn’t know how to win his mate’s trust. What could he do to get her to trust him? On a good day he grunted his answers, because he wasn’t good with words; now he was even more tongue-tied.

Rupert shoved him with his shoulder when they entered the room, causing some of the packages to fall from his overloaded arms. “Stumblebum!” He laughed and skipped out of his reach when he glared at him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his Tessa attempting to hide a small smile of amusement behind her sheets, pretending to pull them up so she was covered enough to make space for Miranda to sit down.

Miranda promptly planted herself on one side of the bed, facing Tessa, while she pulled the table between them and then started to open the packages and arranging them all over the table. He dropped his packages on the foot of the bed and then bent down to pick up the fallen loot.

That was the moment Rupert jumped over him with his hands on his back, calling out “Leapfrog!” He heard the cutest little giggle coming from his mate before she managed to stifle it.

“You are such a child!” Miranda snorted and rolled her eyes, before she looked at Tessa. “Can you imagine growing up with him?”

Tessa gave a small smile. “He seems fun…” She said in a small, nervous voice. Obviously, she still wasn’t sure if she could trust them, but this was the first time she spoke after she’d told them her name.

“See, she gets it; I’m fun!” Rupert retorted and stuck his tongue out to his sister while they all settled down for their impromptu junk food picnic.

They ate in silence for a moment with him watching her choices out of the corner of his eye. “Mate likes chocolate and shortbread,” Unger stated with glee. “She’s just as sweet as her favorite snacks”

“She’s not food, Unger.”

“I could eat her up…” Unger answered with a lascivious grin, while he flung images into his imagination.

“Now is not a good time to give me a hard on.”

“I bet mate is going to be sweet, like honey…You should lick her!” Unger mused with a thoughtful look.

“Are you insane? I am not licking her now!”

“What are your talents, Tessa? What did you do for work?” Miranda asked with interest.

“I’m an artist. I create book covers for writers by using my digital artwork and photos from my collection. I also did photoshoots.”

“Wow, that sounds like so much fun!” Miranda said with interest.

“It could be, but it’s difficult for some clients.” She answered with a shrug, before she took another cookie and munched on it.

“We haven’t really told you much about us, have we?” Miranda answered in realization. “Well, I’m the head doctor for this hospital; we’ve all been working overtime with everyone that came in the other day. These two meatheads work in a task team that helps to save victims of trafficking and bring the culprits to justice, basically shutting down the syndicate.”

“So they’re in law enforcement?” Tessa asked with interest, finally seeming to thaw a little on her distrust.

“You can say that. Rupert is also the al…uhm caretaker of this village and Ulrich lives nearby, but out of town.”

Tessa nodded and scratched absentmindedly at the inside of her wrist before she continued eating. Ulrich glanced at her wrist and saw some kind of rash on the inside of her wrist and arm. He grunted and when Miranda glanced at him he nodded towards Tessa’s arm.

“Tessa, are you allergic to anything?” Miranda asked in a calm voice.

“Uhm…no, why?” She asked with confusion; she didn’t even notice the rash herself apparently.

Miranda leaned forward and caught her hand, glancing at the inside of her arm that had some strange rash on it. She took her other arm and the same was happening there. “I’d like to draw some blood to do a few tests, including an allergy test. Would that be alright with you?”

Tessa glanced down at her arms with confusion and nodded with concern in her features.

Miranda quickly got up from the bed and left the room before returning with a syringe and a few vials for the blood. Tessa visibly shivered at the sight and he wondered how many times they’d drawn her blood in that hell hole they’d found her.

Tessa quietly held her arm out for Miranda to draw the blood and Miranda handed the vials over to a nurse that she had undoubtedly mind-linked. “Take this to the lab for testing, please, I’ve written the needed tests down on her sheet.”

The nurse nodded and rushed off, clearly sensing the urgency in Miranda’s tone. He wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to ask in front of Tessa. So he would have to wait, since he couldn’t mind-link with them.

Then they sat down and continued their picnic, trying to find out a little more about her and make her more comfortable with them. He was grateful to Miranda and Rupert because he had no idea how to talk to her like they did.