I woke up more numb than when I passed out.

A sharp ringing muffled the sounds in my ears, but my sense of hearing came back long before my sight. More undetermined time passed before I recognized coherent thoughts.

What happened? Where am I?

I heard muffled voices, including Lumi's, but couldn't make out any discernible words. My eyelids were too heavy to lift and the rest of my body felt heavy and numb.

After several breaths, the ringing subsided enough that I made out some of what they said. Surrounded in blackness, none of the words sounded good.

"Gosh, there's so much blood. Will she be okay?"

"I don't know, Elena. She's lost a lot."

"Her lips are so pale, and blue. That's not good. Hold on, Flower." I recognized Raina's voice, not for the tone but that stupid nickname.

Cracked and dry, my lips parted. They felt swollen and even a small twitch took effort.

"I think she's stirring."

Elena.

A contact weighed down on the top of my head.

"Hey."

Cole.

I still couldn't see anything, but he continued, "Hang on Zara, we're almost there. Twenty more minutes."

"Zara," Elena's voice shook and she sniffled. "I-It'll... be... Cole contacted Alpha Stephen. Luna Rashida is taking you straight to their healers in the infirmary."

My jaw aching, my mouth rounded and twitched, but no sound passed out. The ringing returned and my hearing slipped away. Only Lumi knew what I meant.

Can I please enter one of the territories normally?

"Ahh, there you are, Miss Zara."

A sweet, gentle voice flowed into my ears. It caressed my skin like soothing lotion and released an exhale between my lips.

My limbs sagged like my veins were pumped full of silver, I stirred slowly. Strain pulled on my wrists as I flicked my fingers and curled them in. Swollen, my heavy-lidded eyes fluttered, brushing my lashes over my cheeks. Squeezing my eyebrows together increased the pounding sensation vibrating my skull.

With a flick, I wet the cracks of my dry lips and folded them under. A sting erupted as they split open, exposing the skin with a sting. Dryness choked my mouth and throat, like I stuffed cotton balls in them.

Drawing in a breath pushed my chest into a soft surface. A strong antiseptic smell filled my nose, twitching my nostrils.

"Zara..." A gentle tap danced over my left shoulder. "You need to wake up. It's been two days."

My father.

My father's reunion rushed back into my consciousness, locking up my spine.

The field.

With a jolt, my eyes flew open.

The rogue... Why am I thinking about him?

Stiffness overtook my torso muscles, spreading down like a chain reaction until I was rigid from shoulders to toes. My heart pounded in my ears, pulsing the sides of my neck and threatening to break through my chest.

I'm inside.

White room blurred into my vision.

After a few slow, deep breaths, I realized that I laid on my side in a hospital bed. Something numb pressed into my back. As my father's punishment rose to the forefront of my memory like bubbles in boiling water, I fought the urge to roll over on my back.

"Breathe, Miss Zara," that soothing voice encouraged.

A pair of kind brown eyes moved into my line of vision. Blurry at first, but I forced myself to focus on the earth-rich tones one breath at a time. Her hair was medium brown, thinned with age in some places, and pulled into a bun high on her head. The beginnings of wrinkles sat in the skin at the corner of her eyes and her thin, pale mouth was pulled back into an encouraging smile.

"Miss Zara, I'm River." The soothing voice belonged to this kind face. "I work as one of the healers here in the East's pack house. Rose is here with me today, another healer. She stepped out to get some supplies but you'll meet her soon."

Blinking at a pair of blurry brown shapes, seeing they were River's shoes drew my awareness to the fact I stared at the floor. Breathing lifted my head and pressed my chest down into a hospital bed.

"Where am I?" My eyes took in a tray of bloodied bandages, clothes, and paper wrappers on a metal cart behind her shoes, right next to my bed. Realizing I was sprawled out on my stomach, I groaned. "My back, can I lay on it?"

"Probably best to stay off your back for another day or two." River frowned. "We've closed up and cleaned out your wounds. They'll heal but you'll have some scars after. You came in with a fever but your wolf burned it off pretty quickly."

Thank you, Lumi.

"She's also burning through the pain relievers and morphine we've been giving you." River's gentle touch skimmed down the center of my spine. After an initial sting that tensed my shoulders up to my ears, her touch cooled and soothed the contact points. "The next twenty-four hours will be quite painful, I'm sorry. We'll keep giving both to you every two hours. Hope you're tolerant with needles."

You have no idea.

"S'okay," I mumbled and pressed my ear into my pillow. "I'm sure I deserve it."

My eyes closed at my admission. So many reactions stirred inside me but I was too tired to acknowledge them. Under the weight of her words, tears rose in my eyes. They pooled at the corners and dotted my pillow.

I'll have these scars for the rest of my life.

I knew the thought was selfish as soon as it passed through my head, but was more worried about scarring than the temporary pain. My father gave me a permanent, sobering reminder of my mistake and his resulting rage to prevent further potential disobedience. Now a permanent shackle, my back was to remind me who controlled my life.

He hates me.

A lone tear spilled over my cheek and stained my pillow.

What father would have his child whipped? Then threaten to kill me after?

"Zara, no," Elena's soft voice filtered into my open ear. "Your father did not have to do that. It's the worst thing I've ever seen."

Her voice surprised me because I had no idea River and I weren't the only ones in the room. Shuffled foot sounds demonstrated how far my assumption was from the truth.

"Raina, you here too?" I called out. After she knelt down on the hospital floor in my line of vision, I reached out and clasped her hand. Pressing my dry lips together, I released them and whispered, "I'm sorry I called Lucus weak... I swear he asked me to do it."

"Flower..." Her dark eyes were wide as they looked up at me. For once, they glossed over with tears. "Lucus' ego is the last thing you should worry about right now."

"I want you to know..." I stared at her. "I'm not like my father."

"He's a monster." Hardness covered every word as two lone tears trailed down her sharp cheekbones.

"Raina." Clearing my throat, my voice strained in a hoarse rasp, "I'm... sorry."

"What are you sorry about?" Her lips twitched but not into a smile. She looked down and brushed at the corners of her eyes with her fingertips.

"I'm so embarrassed you saw that." My eyes fluttered closed. "I swear you trained me better than to sit and take punishment, I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about," she gritted out and squeezed my hand again. My eyes stayed closed as she released it.

A soft sigh escaped my lips as my shoulders and hips sagged down into the bed.

Even my toes are tired.

"Don't worry, Miss Zara. You won't sit through this alone." A cold contact pressed against my left shoulder blade as River's words washed over me like a weighted blanket.

At first, I thought she placed an ice pack over my wounds but by the kneading movements, the cooling sensation came from her hands. Wherever she touched, the pain numbed and vanished.

I took a deep breath then exhaled and rested my cheek into the pillow. "Whatever you are doing back there... Thank you."

"It doesn't actually look that bad, Princess," Cole's voice rang out from the foot of my bed. "No different than battle scars. Get a couple of tramp stamp tattoos and no one will notice."

"Not helpful, Cole," I murmured, closing my eyes.

I wanted to turn and glare at him, but my neck was too sore. Instead, I mindlinked, 'Elbow him please, Elena.'

'Done.' Elena added, "What he meant is that we're glad we got you to the healers when we did."

"Can I see it? My back, I mean." I opened my eyes and noticed a medicine cabinet's glass doors on the wall I laid sideways on my bed. Rolling my head, I saw a mirror on the opposite wall beside my bed, but I couldn't move my neck enough to see behind me.

"Here." Elena handed me a round compact.

"Thanks." I angled the mirror in my palm, until I saw - "Oh... wow."

Long, stringy white lines of scars raised up my skin like wax dripped onto it. They dotted my body from my shoulders to my lower back. My entire back, including my ribs, was swollen with various splotches of brown, green, and purple and swollen with bruises.

I shifted the compact to my front, groaning at my neck and cheeks swollen puffy and mixed with the same colored bruises.

"I'm applying this." River showed me a bottle of white cream. "To help them fade. You'll see again tomorrow that it's not so bad. Your bruises already look better but we'll work on you all night, as long as you need."

"Thank you, River." I sighed, averting my eyes from my appearance. "And if someone could please thank Alpha Stephen and Luna Rashida for taking me in like this, then I appreciate it."

Not yet meeting Alpha Stephen and Luna Rashida, as far as I knew, I was ushered into their hospital and blessed with River's healing hands. Not at all the first impression I wanted to make but the East opened their packhouse doors and enveloped me with kindness.

Their actions are already kinder than my own father.

I swallowed hard at the thickness constricting my throat.

"I'll see that they get the message." River revealed a few creases around her mouth as she smiled gently. "They visited you during the first night you were here, and decided it best to delay introducing themselves until you're ready."

I gazed up at her, open-mouthed. The small, considerate act she mentioned spoke volumes with me. My father never altered his schedule for me, demanding strict adherence to his.

Letting that discrepancy soak in left me speechless.

"Elena..." I closed my eyes and pulled my lips into a smirk that I hoped she could see. "I think, for this trip, any backless dress options are off the table."

"At least you can find some humor in this." I couldn't see her face, but by her somber tone, I knew that her eyes were darker. "I have never not wanted to be in the White Moon pack before now."

"Me neither," Cole spat from behind me.

"So... What did I miss?" I frowned as I tried looking at my back again. Twisting my arm at different angles, the view never got any more pleasant. My fair skin looked like the backdrop canvas for a horrendous painting of bruised colors and white scarring.

"Zara," Elena's voice soaked with bitterness. "Right after you passed out, we were attacked by rogues again. Your father..."

"My father what?" I closed her compact with a snap and handed it back to her. Her fingers brushed against mine but she fell silent, as if the words were stuck in her throat.

"...left you in the grass," Raina finished. "Bleeding out."

Tears sprung into my eyes as I remembered being dragged across the field, then dropped like discarded waste. I didn't know what made me feel worse, that he was responsible for my injuries or that he cast me aside without medical treatment.

He... left me behind? Talk about actions speaking volumes.

With the number of warriors he traveled, I doubted that he fled after.

What game is he playing?

"More rogues, or the same ones?" My heavy-lidded eyes closed. "Thanks for whoever saved me."

"We didn't have to." My eyes opened at Cole's louder voice and saw his face. His handsome expression creased with frown lines as he knelt in front of me. "They thought you were dead."

"Maybe they'll leave me alone then." I took a deep breath, slid my eyes shut again, then released a raspy breath.

At Cole's grunt, I cracked open my eyes. His expression, along with the fire burning in his eyes, didn't change.

"I don't think these ones were after you, Princess." He scratched at his chin. "The rogues took the prisoner."

"What did my father do?" I found the concept hard to believe that he gave up without a fight.

Not without keeping a prisoner of interest.

"After several of his warriors died and the rogues retreated, he sent Beta Baron after them but then... he... left." Cole's eyes darkened and he shook his head. "He told us to continue East as planned. Driving as fast as possible, we arrived here thirty minutes later. But... "

"But what?" My strained lips and heavy jaw added to the sensations that too much effort was required to speak. My mind, my lips, my throat, and my entire body felt drowsy.

"You've been out for six hours. We didn't know if you'd make it, honestly."

"You guys should go... get some... rest," I mumbled in a low, warbled sound that didn't sound like my voice.

The longer this conversation continued, the worse I felt. And, despite how I appreciated their company and concern, I wanted to be alone. Hot tears rose up behind my closed lids at my state.

A weak little girl frightened by her father's cruelty.

And now his cruelty is evident. I'll always be marked by his scars.