Page 255 of The Lands Defying
“There is something in there.”
“What?” He looks into the glass. “There isn’t anything there, Rhea.”
“No, there is.” I step back, holding my weight in my left leg and then lifting the other, I call my magic to it and kick the glass.
“Rhea!” Josh shouts in alarm, but I ignore him, continuing to kick at the glass as I hear the others’ footsteps approaching. “There could be anything in there! Wait for—”
The glass shatters, raining down shards and I hold out my hand, sending multiple balls of power flying into the room.
Screams reach us, and then we see.
“Gods,” I breathe, chest heaving as so many eyes look at us. Small, old, terrified, dirty, skinny, hurt and broken.
“Little wolf!” Darius snarls, hauling me to his chest, but when he follows my line of sight, he tenses, and some of the people within still scream in fright, scrambling back.
“It’s okay,” Edward tries to calm them, but he’s a Higher, and it causes chaos.
People get up and run to the back, some crawl as they are injured, some don’t even move, just shiver on the ground in fear and I want to scream at the wrongness of this.
The injustice.
“Calm!” Darius shouts, letting loose his dominance.
“I don’t think that will help,”I tell him, however, they all freeze in place, which means they are no longer in a panic or harming themselves to get away.
Not like they can go anywhere, only to the back of this…cave.
I squeeze Darius’s arm.“Let me speak to them, you are an Elite and Edward is a Higher, it’s scaring them.”
“They could hurt you.”
“Darius.”He peers down at me and I let his dominance wrap me up in comfort.“I’m an Alpha, I can take care of myself.”
“You don’t need to.”
I smile softly at that.“But I can when I need to.”
After a tense silence, he bends and rubs his nose with mine, stepping back and letting me head toward the opening in the large room.
Darius drops his dominance, and I call more of my power, letting it light up the whole space. I carefully walk forward over the broken glass, palms up, making sure to speak gently to them.
“Hi, I’m Rhea, and I’m Alpha of a place called Eridian.” I take another small step toward a woman on the floor. Her legs look broken and she just lays there, eyes on me—but lifeless. “I have been there for over nine years now, and it is a place of sanctuaryfor wolves and others alike. But more importantly.” I bend down next to the woman and place a gentle hand on her arm. Silent tears track down her cheeks as she looks at me, body trembling, but she doesn’t utter a word. “Most importantly,” I whisper. “It is a place for those who need a safe place to live.”
Calling my magic, feeling eyes on me from in front and behind me, I let my power enter the woman.
I hold in my gasp at all the injuries she has sustained, all the pain she must be in, and I don’t want to think about the mess of her reproductive organs as I gently coax my power into her slowly, to heal her.
I start with her legs, the tearing in her lower body, stopping the bleeding from the wounds to her chest, moving to her left wrist and to her right fingers. I stitch and pull and press and push my magic through the entirety of her body.
I hear it then, the sharp intake of breath as I close my eyes to focus, the gentle cry as her leg snaps back into place, the increased breathing like she can finally get air into her lungs.
When I have done all I can, I open my eyes, panting softly as sweat beads my brow.
“I will take care of you,” I tell the woman as she lifts her hand, slowly moving her fingers like she hasn’t done so in such a long time. She then gently, and ever so slowly moves to a sitting position and looks down at her legs, her eyes widen as she moves them, just back and forth a few times.
She will still be in pain and need some serious healing time, but still, she cries.
She cries big, awful sobs and I go to her, wrapping my arms gently around her as my own tears sting my eyes at the pain she is releasing.
