Twenty

The day after Truent arrived, Whisper and Zane went into a tiny office to talk. Zane kept Whisper close, knowing her fear of the man might bring up some harsh memories. He may not look like the doctor who treated her at the facility, but he was of the same group: a doctor.

Truent sat down on one side of the tiny room while Zane and Whisper sat on the other side. Whisper's back was pressed firmly against the wall, her wide green eyes staring at Truent with absolute terror. Beside her, Zane took her hand and leaned closer to her, whispering in her ear, "Relax, little wolf. Nothing will happen."

She whimpered as Truent brought out a book and looked at it for some time. Whisper glanced at it, furrowing her brows in surprise as she recognized it. He was holding Children of the Moon and smiling fondly of it. When he glanced up at her, he gave her a warm smile. "Do you like this book?"

Whisper didn't answer right away, wondering if he'd use the information against her. She didn't know how it could be used against her, but doctors had clever minds for trickery. Zane squeezed her hand, breaking her out of her thoughts. If he was here, she thought, the doctor can't touch her. The doctor can not hurt her. Slowly, she nodded.

Truent's smile broadened. "I'm glad."

Whisper's heart beat raced with those two words. What is he thinking? What is he planning? How can she get away? What if Zane couldn't help her? What if—

Truent slid the book over on the ground so it stopped right in front of the female. "Can you read it?"

She bit her lip, shaking her head and pushing it back.

"Do you know how to read?" the doctor asked softly.

Whisper glanced up at Zane with teary eyes. He smiled encouragingly and kissed her head. "You can tell him."

So softly so it was barely heard across the room, she answered, "Some."

Truent nodded in part understanding then picked up the book and put it away. Instead, he took out a pen and paper and wrote something down, then clipped the paper onto a clipboard and slid that over. Whisper cautiously picked it up and looked at it. "Can you read any of that?"

'The cat and dog ate their food.'

Whisper silently breathed the words to herself, sounding out each letter. She pointed to the second to last word and looked to Zane in question. "What is that?"

"Their," he replied.

The female looked at the sentence once again before looking at the doctor. "The cat and dog ate their food."

He nodded, smiling at her. "Good job." She slid the clipboard back over to him and watched as he wrote another sentence down. When he gave it back to her, she looked it over.

'Sally collected seashells down by the seashore.'

Tilting her head to the side, Whisper concentrated. She knew the words but she thought it was hard to say. She kept messing up on the 'sh' sounds. When she tried saying the sentence aloud for Truent, it ended up jumbled and unclear. Frustration built as she tried again, but it just became more incoherent.

Truent chuckled and held up his hand to call a stop. "That's alright, Whisper. This one is called a Tongue Twister, so it's supposed to make you slip up. But you know the words, and that's all I wanted."

"A tongue twister?" she asked softly.

The doctor nodded while she slid the clipboard over. "There are several out there that can be very difficult to say. For example: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

Whisper blinked. "What?"

Truent smiled. "Exactly. Don't worry, those are not important right now." He put the paper, pen, and clipboard away then took out some kind of instrument. Whisper looked at it nervously, looking like something that could easily hurt her. "Do you know what this is, Whisper?"

The object was somewhat long with what looked like large tweezers on one end and a flat ball on the other. Inside the flat ball was what looked to be some kind of dial. Whisper shook her head, growing anxious.

"This is called a stethoscope." He held up the end with the two pieces. "I listen through here." He grabbed the other end with the flat ball. "And I put this on your chest to listen to your heart. This is just to make sure your heart is beating at a normal rate and is healthy."

"No pain?" she asked warily, glancing at Zane who was sitting back and watching.

Truent shook his head. "No pain. Do you want to listen to Zane's heartbeat?"

Curious, Whisper nodded. The doctor put the instrument on the ground and slid it over. She picked it up and looked at it, unsure how to use it. Frowning, she looked back at the doctor but said nothing. Instead, she put the flat ball on Zane's chest and tried holding the other end to her ears. Nothing was heard. Disappointedly, she drew back and stared at the device in dismay. Did she break it? She sighed and looked to Truent once again. "I don't hear anything."

He smiled. "Try putting the two pieces in your ears then listen to his heart."

She took the end with the two stiff pieces and carefully put the tips of them in her ears. Everything went silent around her and she looked around. The other end was by her stomach and Whisper faintly caught the sound of gurgling. Wrinkling her nose, she picked up the flat ball and held it to Zane's chest. 'Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.' Her eyes widened and her lips curved up into a smile, like a kid who just discovered that his new toy could talk.

Taking the pieces out of her ears, she looked at Truent. "It worked!"

The men chuckled and nodded at her. Truent leaned forward. "May I listen to your heart, Whisper?"

At this, her smile fell and she grew nervous again.

Truent saw this and nodded, leaning back in his chair and thinking for a moment. After a minute, he sighed and looked at Zane. "I think that's enough for today. I was just getting a feel of everything. Tomorrow, we'll try something different."

"What are you thinking?"

"Well, she'll talk to me, so I might try and have her talk more about herself." They glanced at Whisper who was sitting, fiddling with the instrument but not really seeing it. "I'm going to try and get her to tell me what it is she's afraid of."

"But we know that," Zane said in confusion.

"We know that. We've accepted it, but has she?" Truent leaned forward. "Think about like this, Whisper's mind stopped growing when she was given away by her mother. She was isolated and beat, then taken to a facility that tortured her in a whole new way. She's trapped in the past, trapped in the darkness that blankets her mind with memories of her trauma."

"So you want her to relive them?"

"Not in the sense you're thinking. I just want her to talk about it without the need or excuse of a panic attack. If she can talk about it, learn from it, then she'll make a better start at the life you're trying to give her now."

The next day, Whisper was asked to talk about something from her past. When she refused, she said that the last doctor who requested the information used it against her then had the rest of the staff treat her badly because of it. Truent nodded and asked more questions about this so called doctor, making her recall what he looked like and how his orders were made to follow.

Whisper spoke and answered all his questions, growing quieter and quieter by the passing moment. Her fear was rising, all questions on what he would do when she was finished making her want to run. Zane encouraged her further, but it was like he was on their side, like he was only pretending to care for her.

When she finally stopped answering all together, Whisper was curled up in a corner, hiding her face in her arms. She didn't have her normal panic attack, but the images did surface and the pain did seem real once again.

It was several hours before Zane was able to get her attention, before she found her bearings again and crawled over to the young male, shaking violently. She sat in his lap, hiding her face in his shirt and cried, telling him once again how scared she was. Truent had left earlier to give them room, and as soon as he returned, Whisper started screaming. So, he said no more would happen today. Zane ended up taking Whisper to bed, holding her close once more.

They didn't meet with Truent again the next day. Instead, Whisper was able to do whatever she pleased while Zane worked with a few of his pack mates for the day. Wren took Whisper to the glen, telling each other different things about each other, all except of course being sisters. Though, Whisper didn't need to know that to feel close to Wren. She was content to being ignorant, and Wren was enjoying not having to say so.

When they went back home, Nico was waiting for Whisper patiently. She ran up to him and begun telling him about her day with her best friend. He smiled warmly at her before telling her they were going somewhere. When she asked where, he just said somewhere important and to not worry, that she'd be safe. Whisper complied and followed him.

She had almost as much trust in Nico as she did with Zane: almost. She wasn't sure why, but she couldn't trust him fully. Nico had never done anything to Whisper, but the thought of a friend – especially a guy friend besides Zane – betraying her didn't sit well in her stomach.

What broke her out of her thoughts was the sound of metal and ferocious growls.