Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
“Those I’m familiar with.”
Peter felt a knot forming in his stomach. He wasn’t sure what to expect from Myka’s story, but something told him that he wasn’t prepared for what was coming.
Myka took a deep breath and began his story.
“Most adults in Spring are controlled through one drug or another. Their ability to withstand pain or their reactions in a fight, whether to run or keep fighting even as they bleed to death, is entirely dependent on the will of their master.
“Because of that, it is difficult to train against other wolves. If your entire people don’t express pain or are willing to simply stand still as you bleed them out, how can you know what an average wolf will tolerate?”
The knot in Peter’s stomach turned into hollow weight at Myka’s words.
“Simple,” Myka said with a bitter smile. “You need wolves that haven’t been trained yet, that haven’t been drugged or programmed to accept orders.”
Myka swallowed and looked away from Peter.
Peter couldn’t find words, his heart pounded loudly in his ears, and his lungs felt too small to hold the air he needed to process the anguish in Myka’s eyes.
He reached his hand out, gently touching Myka’s wrist.
Myka sniffled.
“Have you ever been to Spring?” he asked.
“Not properly,” Peter whispered. “My parents and I only skirted the borders of the great packs.”
Myka nodded and took a deep breath.
“There is… a small village,” he continued. “It’s pretty deep into the center forest, away from prying eyes or curious members of visiting packs. That’s where families go when they have small children. Birth to the wolf.”
Myka smiled and swallowed.
“I remember how pretty it was. A lake, small fields of fruits and vegetables, and flower gardens. I remember chasing butterflies with my mother. My father taught me to skip rocks on the lake. I had friends. We laughed, we played.”
Myka paused, his expression pained. He took another deep breath.
“I was eight when I got my wolf. There was a celebration for me and several others. My parents explained that since I was their only child, we would all be moving into the main city. For the others that got their wolves, their parents stayed with their younger siblings. I remember I felt so lucky not to have to be separated from my mom and dad.”
Myka sniffled and clenched his jaw.
Peter moved closer, grabbing Myka’s hand and squeezing it gently.
“You don’t have to tell me everything now… if it’s too hard,” he whispered.
Myka smiled and looked up at him with tears in his eyes.
“It won’t be any easier later,” he replied in a sad whisper.
Peter swallowed and nodded.
Myka took another deep breath and looked away.
“When we reached the city, it was like a switch had been flipped. I never saw them smile again. I never heard them laugh; my parents were gone. I had felt lucky to remain with them, but the others… were the lucky ones. As lucky as any of us could be.
“They were treated to the same experiments and tests that I was. None of us could escape that. But at least when the others were beaten, drugged, and cut open, it was by strangers in white coats and masks.”
Myka paused, clenching his jaw and then licking his lips.
“I had the added bonus of watching my mother slowly bring the hot iron to my ribcage. Forever branding me as one of Gorn’s personal test subjects. I got to continue begging and pleading for the shells of my parents to stop hurting me for more than a year.”
Tears streamed down Peter’s face; he swallowed the sob that threatened to escape his lips. His heart ached for Myka. He wanted to comfort him and make the pain stop. But there was nothing he could do to erase the past for him.
He pulled Myka to him, holding Myka’s cheek against his chest and gently petting his hair.
Myka sniffled.
“I’m fine,” Myka whispered.
“No, you’re not,” Peter whispered with a sniffle and kissed the top of Myka’s head. “But I’ve got you now.”
Myka closed his eyes, feeling the heaviness in his heart. He hesitated but finally gave in to the need and wrapped his arms around Peter’s waist.
“Gorn told them to cut me, and they didn’t hesitate. Not once,” Myka whispered. “They were… empty. My parents never existed. It was all just a dream.”
His voice was straining under the weight of the pain. He had tried so hard to shove it inside himself for so long.
Peter continued stroking Myka’s hair, fighting against the anger and sadness he felt about the situation.
They were quiet for a few minutes, each processing their thoughts and feelings.
Finally, Peter broke the silence.
“How did you escape?”
“I didn’t,” Myka replied. “I was rescued.”
“By who?”
Myka pulled away from Peter and turned to look at him. He smiled sadly.
“By a broken doll.”
“Alice?” Peter asked with furrowed brows.
Myka nodded with a smile.
“She couldn’t have been more than… fourteen? Fifteen at that time?”
“Something like that,” Myka nodded. “From what she told me recently, getting me out of the lab was her first conscious choice after becoming the doll.”
Peter was blown away.
“She saw the tests they ran on me; it bothered her. Then one day, she walked into the lab by herself during an electroshock treatment. She took the probes out of my father’s hands and put them on his temples, turning the dial all the way up as she freed me.”
Myka looked back down at the ground.
“She tried to cover my eyes as we left the room, trying to keep me from seeing his seizing body and the foam that pooled from his mouth. Or my mother’s body just outside the lab, stabbed with a small knife, blood everywhere.”
“I guess covering your eyes didn’t work too well,” Peter said gently. Inside he was terrified and unsure how to respond to Alice’s actions or to Myka’s calm reaction.
Myka looked up with concern.
“Don’t tell her,” he said. “To this day, she thinks I didn’t see. It would hurt her to know she couldn’t protect me from that. And I think it might disappoint her to know that I was thankful for it.”
“For… seeing them… like that?” Peter asked.
Myka nodded.
“I think if I hadn’t…I would have always looked over my shoulder, wondering when they were coming for me.”
“Do you think I’m a monster?” Myka asked in a whisper. “For feeling relief at seeing the corpses of my parents?”
Peter swallowed; he didn’t know how to respond. He wanted to support Myka and comfort him. But how could he?
“Not exactly,” he finally said after taking a minute to process his thoughts.
Peter licked his lips and swallowed before he continued.
“I can’t personally understand how you felt or what you went through,” he said. “Seeing my dead parents has been a nightmare I have struggled with for seven years.”
Myka swallowed and tried to pull away from Peter, feeling the shame of his admission. But Peter didn’t let him go.
“But I can… rationally… understand how you could feel the way you do,” Peter continued, hugging Myka closer. “Those people, they weren’t your parents. They were exactly what you said, shells. Your parents? They were the people by the lake. The ones that smiled, that taught you to skip rocks. The ones that made you feel safe in the world, not fear it.”
Myka squeezed his eyes tight as the emotions welled up in him.
Peter held him close and rubbed his back as he felt Myka’s heart rate increase. He was understandably upset. Placing a soft kiss on Myka’s hair, Peter did his best to distract Myka.
“So, did Alice also give you the tattoo?” he asked.
Myka took a deep breath and pulled away from Peter gently.
“No,” he said with a soft shake of his head. “Alice could only get me out of the lab with a small bag of supplies. I didn’t see her again for another four years.”
“What?” Peter asked with surprise. “She just left you on your own. When you were nine?”
Myka nodded with a sniffle. He was calming down, pulling himself away from the memory of his horrifying experience of family life.
“She couldn’t leave,” he said. “At the time, I didn’t understand exactly why, but I had seen how she was treated and how they used her. So if she said she had to go back, I knew there was a reason.”
“Still… you were a child…”
“So was she,” Myka replied. “The difference was that while I was being set free, her bindings only got tighter.”
“Oh,” was all that Peter could reply.
Alice had not been too keen to share the details of her time as a doll. But from his exam of her body, her old injuries, the brain damage, and everything he knew about her experience, he knew enough to understand that saving Myka from his parents had to have cost her a lot.
‘I have known Myka for a very long time. He is family to me.’
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?