“That’s enough, Dawn,” Daniel said. His voice commanded her to stop, and she stared at him. The concern was clear in his eyes. She handed the Doc back his scalpel and took her seat beside Daniel.
He covered the marks on her arms. Blood oozed between his fingers until finally the blood disappeared. Licking her lips, she stared up at him.
“Wait, you just took a scalpel to yourself,” Jake said.
“This is not good,” Doc said, moving forward.
Daniel growled, covering her with his arms. “I suggest if you intend to harm her you think again. I won’t have anyone harming my woman.”
“I’m not going to harm her.” Doc held his hands up in surrender. “I’m only going to inspect her arms.”
Several seconds passed before Daniel relented and allowed Doc to get closer. She held her arm out for him to inspect. There were no visible wounds.
“How long has it been like this?” he asked.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Ever since my transition.” It wasn’t a lie as she’d felt plenty of pain before then. There used to be a lot of pain, and over time she stopped reacting to the pain inflicted upon her. After her transition, the pain no longer mattered. Her mother wouldn’t leave her alone long enough to stop.
“There’s no way for us to diagnose it unless we made our wolves vulnerable to the humans. In very rare cases something gets shut off during the transition in the emotional receptors of the brain. The reason I say very rare cases is the majority of the condition in wolves is based around abuse. The lines get switched, and the wolf can’t decipher pain.” Doc released her arm and looked at her.
She stared into his eyes, wondering if he knew the truth about her mother.
“Someone in your family, Dawn, has to be responsible for this.”
“You mean, you can’t feel anything?” Jake asked, coming closer. “Broken bones, boiling water, you can’t feel it?”
Dawn shook her head, feeling like a freak show for them all to view.
“No, I can’t feel it.”
“Who did this, Dawn?” Doc asked.
“Is there a cure for this?” Dawn asked, ignoring his question. The conversation about the person responsible for her condition needed to be had with Daniel in private, not in front of these men she didn’t know.
“I don’t know. I’ve never met anyone with this condition.” Doc ran fingers through his hair, obviously completely baffled. “This is dangerous, Daniel. If anyone found out about her condition, she could be used in unspeakable things. You’ve got to keep her safe.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“What about the mating?” Dawn asked, turning back to look at the Doc. She couldn’t live the rest of her life wondering if there was a cure.
“What do you mean?” Jake spoke up.
“If the transition rewired my brain then shouldn’t the mating help me to rewire it again?”
Doc held his hands up. “I really don’t know. I’m not going to say there’s a cure, and I’m not going to say there isn’t. I really don’t know. There’s a lot about this disease within wolves that we don’t know. I can’t help you with this.”
“So you’re pretty much no use at all?” Daniel asked.
“The mating is worth a try. Personally, I’d try to find fellow wolves in a similar situation as yourself.” Doc stood, grabbing his bag. “Your secret is safe with me. This is not going to be good for other wolves if it’s found out.”
Seconds later Doc left the property.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
Daniel moved around the sofa, tugging her onto his lap. “I don’t like his lack of knowledge, and yet we call him a doctor. What I also want to know is where others are.”
He stroked her thigh.
She snuggled in against him, pressing her palm against his heart. Daniel surrounded her with warmth.
“What if the mating helps?” she asked.
“I don’t know, Dawn. I don’t want to put you at unnecessary risk. I’d never change you.” He kissed the top of her head.
Opening her eyes, she stared at his chest. In the past year Daniel had shown her more love and affection than the woman she called a mother had in her whole life. They hadn’t slept together, and yet he left her feeling completely whole.
Tucking some hair behind her ear, Dawn spilled the truth out for him to hear.
“It was my mom,” she said.
“What, baby?”
“My mom, she was always mean growing up, but she’d hide it away from Dad. He never knew the kind of woman he married and mated. She’s not a true alpha, wasn’t born one.” Her chest tightened as she thought of the years she’d spent afraid of the one woman she should have trusted. “They’re not a true mated couple. She was the one who caught his eye, and they had me.” She stared up at him.
“You never talk about your mother.”
“Because she doesn’t deserve the title of mother.” Tears spilled from her eyes, and she hated them. “When I was younger she used to hit me if I got my dress dirty or find ways to punish me. I couldn’t do anything right, and she would tell me how useless I was. She’d lash out, slapping, hitting me, or scaring me. All the time she did, Daddy wasn’t in the house. I noticed from a young age that she was always nicer to me when he was around. I tried to make him stay around a lot more, but he had pack work to deal with. I don’t think he loved my mother. He cared about her, and he loved me, but she wasn’t a true mate.” Her throat felt dry as she started to tell him her memories. The memories she kept buried. “Where most kids went to their mother or pack female for help, I hid from her. She was a vicious woman.”
Daniel held her tightly, and she was able to talk about all the bad memories she kept locked up inside.
“How does your father not see it?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know. Mom deals with the rest of the pack problems while he makes sure no one threatens the pack.” She kept wiping away the tears, feeling the cleansing within her soul. No one knew of what she went through. This was the truth she’d given to Daniel, her mate, no one else.
“I’m not going to let this stand,” he said.
“You can’t do anything, Daniel. If you challenge my mom then you challenge my father first. He’ll never let her accept a challenge she can’t win.”