Chapter 1
The young woman was humming louder than she had realized. Her knee bopped up and down as she focused on an over-crinkled newspaper. The heading was like a hit to her stomach. CULT LEADER CAUGHT.
The words didn’t hold much meaning to her. She was too busy staring, teary-eyed, at the man in the picture. Her soul sang out for him, hands shaking in emotional turmoil.
The door to the office swung open, causing her to quickly crumple the newspaper back into her bag and wipe all traces of sorrow from her eyes.
“Jaelynn, hi!” A woman in a white flowing blouse, black office pants, and high heels that hid her shortness greeted Jaelynn. “I’m so happy to see you! I was sad to hear you had to cancel last week’s appointment.”
Unlike the previous appointments, the woman did not extend her hand for Jaelynn to shake. Since being captured, she avoided all human contact as much as possible. Instead, the therapist offered her warmest smile and motioned her hand for Jaelynn to enter the room first.
Jaelynn took shaky, nervous steps in and walked straight to the couch. She already felt on the edge and wanted to scream at her therapist. How could you be so happy? Can you not see how I’m entirely distraught?
"Thank you for seeing me on such a short notice, Dr. Zoneford.”
“Of course! I’m just happy I had a cancellation. What’s on your mind? Tea?”
Jaelynn wiped the clammy sweat onto her legs as she nodded to the therapist. The therapist’s pants danced as she walked calmly to make the tea for Jaelynn.
Jaelynn waited for the lady to set down the cup before speaking. “The police visited me this morning.”
Dr. Zoneford’s hand fidgeted at the last minute, causing some of the cup’s contents to splash on the table. Their eyes met with equal amounts of fear.
The therapist positioned herself in her chair, crossing her left leg over her right, adjusted her blouse, and then folded her hands together. She cleared her throat before speaking. “What for?”
Whatever strength Jaelynn had to hold herself together and get to the therapist came unraveling like a kite string in a tornado.
Her voice was meek through the tears. “You know why.”
For a moment, Dr. Zoneford’s expression was less than comforting. She quickly regained her composure and grabbed her clipboard to write notes. “Why don’t you tell me anyway?”
Jaelynn shook her head. As if saying it would summon the devil himself. No… he wasn’t the devil. He was her mate, and he was coming to get her.
“You need to talk about it so the fear doesn’t find places to hide in your mind. Facing this now will only make you stronger,” the therapist sternly spoke.
Jaelynn liked it when Dr. Zoneford spoke like this. It gave her some hidden force of courage, like meeting a lion face to face and roaring back.
“My nightmares are coming true, Dr. Zoneford.”
The therapist didn’t budge, her eyes locked on Jaelynn’s, waiting for her to speak, worried that even the slightest actions would scare this courage away.
“My mate escaped prison…”
The silence in the room was deafening, but there was a war of unspoken emotions erupting between the two. They maintained eye contact. Jaelynn held in every nervous shake that wanted to crawl out of her skin and possess her. The therapist’s pen, resting softly between her fingers, ever so slightly quivered.
It had been exactly two months from today since Jaelynn had escaped the cult.
Two whole months of breakdowns and unscrambling broken memories. They just barely scratched the surface of all the icebergs of problems. In truth, unraveling Jaelynn’s mind from all the brainwashing she was exposed to had therapists, doctors, and detectives all captivated. Dr. Zoneford was one of them, and shamefully, unprofessionally, was invested in Jaelynn’s case more than Jaelynn or anyone else was aware of.
Dr. Zoneford’s eyes narrowed in on Jaelynn’s. “He isn’t your mate.”
Jaelynn’s lips instantly quivered as her mind fought for reality. In many sessions, they had gone over this. Daren was her captor. He was far from any kind of mate. Daren’s definition of a mate entailed that he held the capabilities to turn into a wolf. This was not something a human was physically capable of doing. Which meant Daren was not her mate. Daren was her brainwashing captor. Daren was a liar.
Still… that didn’t change the fact that Daren had escaped prison. He left nothing behind but unexplainable, animalistic scratches in the cell.
Jaelynn decided to say what was battling in her mind. “He could be, though…”
Dr. Zoneford leaned forward, fascinated by Jaelynn’s ever-changing state of confusion.
“Last night was a full moon.”
