The Black Alder Series (Books 1-3)

Dr. Lauren Pov I’m glad my cousin Serene permitted us to come. I had to get Kayla out of there. She had taken too much, and I couldn’t continue to keep sitting by. When she was raped the first time, I made a promise to myself to do everything I could to make sure it never happened to her again. I visited her every day, giving her hopeful messages and praying for her. She is like the daughter I never had. I’m not sure why, but I feel such a strong pull to protect her. So does my wolf.

She was falling apart, and I helped her get back together again. I had a long day that day, stitching up wounds, etc., until I decided to sleep. When I got back to the hospital, I overheard some co-workers talking about what happened and laughing at her pain. Something in me snapped. I went to my house to park the majority of my stuff and decided I would do the last bit later. I couldn’t continue to stay there, treating that whole pack while they did that to a human. A freaking human.

I don’t know how to pull her back from this. I put her back together last time; she was in tremendous pain, but she was barely hanging on a thread. We just pulled up to my cousin’s packhouse. I get out of the car, and my ears pick up that Serene is having a panic attack. I rushed to her immediately, checking her vitals using my wolf hearing. My ears caught twin boys saying, Mate, looking at her.

Mate? She doesn’t have a wolf. I decided to look into the matter later. I shouted at them to get her to the hospital. They looked shocked at first, and then one of them picked her up and ran with her. They are both incredibly fast, and I try to keep up. When I get there, I start barking instructions while stripping off her clothes. I hear growls behind me, and I try to keep her beaten body from the twin’s sight, but I know they have seen some of them. Eventually, she gets stabilized, but she doesn’t wake up.

I saw a small crowd standing by the door. Serene is among them, with a worried expression on her face.

“I’ll be back,” I told a sleeping Kayla. I’m not sure if she can hear me, but I hope so. I walked outside and hugged my cousin, almost in tears. She pauses and starts to convulse. Her eyes roll to the back of her head, and her eyes turn white. She’s still holding my hand. After what seems like a lifetime, she lets go of my hands and puts one over her mouth, backing into a tall blonde-haired man I assume is her husband Matt, and starts to cry.

Everyone is looking back at her, then me, and I realize she must have seen Kayla’s past abuse and each time I had to treat her. I saw some people coming down the hall. Two girls her age. One has deep brown wavy hair and jeweled blue eyes; the other has reddish-orange hair with green eyes. I saw a woman behind them. She is short, but she is like anyone I’ve ever seen. Her presence radiated power, and she moved gracefully. Her hair was silver and curly. Her eyes were jeweled blue. The man walking directly behind her radiated almost the same power with his black hair and golden eyes. The twins looked just like this man, but one of them had her eyes.

That’s our Luna, Alpha, her daughter, and mine. I didn’t know Serene had a daughter. We have a lot to catch up on. I nodded my head to the oncoming group with respect. The white-haired girl reaches her hands out to me.

“My name is Elena,” she says with a small smile. “This is my husband, Mate Roland.” She points to the brooding man behind her. “These are my twin boys, Ethan and Aiden.” She points to the twins, whose eyes are still on Kayla. “And this is my daughter, Elle,” she says, pointing to the brown-haired girl.

“And she is Bonnie,” Serene says. “My daughter.” “Elle is her mate.” The girl gave a small smile.

“Bonnie, this is your cousin Lauren,” Serene said.

“Nice to meet you,” she says in a small voice. I can tell she is shy.

“What happened to our mate?” both of the twins asked Unison. I could feel waves and waves of energy pouring from them, and it almost made me a little sick.

“I will tell you all you want to know, but you should know she isn’t a werewolf. I’ve been her doctor since she was a little girl. She’s human. How did you recognize her as your mate?” I asked.

I could see shocked expressions from everyone. I can tell they just found out that they recognized Kayla as their mate.

Serene goes into the room and grabs Kayla’s hand. She hums, and her eyes turn white. We all watched her. She looks confused.

“She isn’t human,” Serene says.

Hunh? I say to myself,

“Humans have energy that looks pale blue to me. Her aura is a bright red-orange. I don’t know what she is, but she isn’t human,” Serene says.

I turned to them as they looked at me for an explanation.

“I’ll start at the beginning.”

Kayla came to my old pack when she was 11 years old. According to her old pack, her parents were the alpha and luna, but they adopted her since they couldn’t have a baby. They didn’t like children, so they made a treaty with my pack alpha for her to be promised in marriage to his son Liam. ”

I hear growls from the twins, but I ignore them.

“Her whole pack has abused her since she came to us, as they hate humans. I have been patching her up for her whole life.

I see Roland grab Elena as she holds him tighter.

“Once she was married, Alpha Liam beat her and abused her the most. He made her sleep in his small closet, on top of a thin coat, and he kept her locked in there with a chain lock. He cut her, burned her, abused her, and… I trailed off, remembering what I overheard. Serene comes up to me and holds my hand. She must have known and nodded for me to continue.

“They were married when she was 16 years old.” “She told me he took mistresses and bound her hands, forcing her to watch him fuck them each night, and that his mistresses’ would cut into her skin.” She still has the scars on her back to prove it: “I did my best to heal her, to build her confidence when he tore her down.”

“And on her 18th birthday, he drugged her and raped her, taking her virginity,” I said with tears welling up in my eyes. I almost didn’t want to continue.

Everyone growls, upset at my words.

“That fucker abused and raped our mate,” one of the twins said, his aura seething from him as well as the others.

“Tell them,” Serene says, as she holds my hand still. I wipe my eyes and continue.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“I treated her body after the trauma took a toll on her physically and mentally. She went completely mute for a few months, and the alpha still tortured her. He is a sick bastard that gets off on her fear,” I said thickly.

“I nursed her back to health after and secretly visited her each day, giving her inspiring messages, praying with her, or making sure she had enough to eat at different times of the day when I could. She still took his abuse, the punches, etc., but she didn’t let it phase her anymore. She started talking again, but only to me, and even though she wasn’t 100 percent, she was getting better, though the abuse continued.

“And then yesterday,” I started crying,