Seven

With every hit of the whip, more she screamed. It stabbed me in my heart every time she screamed. Mir stopped screaming in English and she just screamed in Romanian. I had to fight for her. I had to show no signs of breaking in front of her. I was her rock now and I was going to be hard like fucking diamonds for her.
When the whips stopped failing onto my back, Mirela stopped screaming. I watched as her father left us in the god damn cellar again.
"Jack I am so sorry," she whimpered, her voice was shot and her Romanian accent was thicker than pea soup.
"Save...your voice Mir," I strained to speak from the pain I was feeling. I tested myself to see how close I could get to her. I got lucky and I was able to crawl to her so she could lean over to meet my lips. She and I kissed briefly and I crawled back to my spot.
"I hope they send someone to get us out of here," she whispered, her voice cracked and sounded like she had sandpaper for vocal cords.
"They have to be worried sick about us," I reassured her, "Someone will save us."

---

I watched Mir as she slept in the confines of her uncomfortable metal torture throne. I wanted to pull her to my chest and have her listen to my heart beat. Unfortunately, both of us were chained to our spots and unable to move. That's when I heard footsteps.
"I have a right to see my son Elizabeta," it was my mom. I got to my knees and when she saw me coated in my blood, she screamed and ran to me.
"He is guilty of crimes against the hunters and he is awaiting his sentence. You have to leave Joyce," Mirela's mother refused to look at her own daughter or her daughter's boyfriend to see what her husband had done to us.
"Look at me," I growled at her. This woke Mir straight up. I felt the anger of my wolf burning inside of me. I didn't care. I wanted out and I wanted justification from her for what she had done to us.
"Joyce you need to leave," she sent my mother away. Then she grabbed the whips from the work bench and she started to hit me on my chest and face.
"Mom, stop please," Mirela screamed. Her mother swung a whip at and it caught Mir on her right cheek and I was sent into a frenzy when I saw her blood flow down her cheek. Her cut healed quickly, but the scar was dark and prominent.
"You corrupted my daughter you monster," her mother screamed as she threw the whips down and grabbed a silver dagger from a holster on her hips. She pressed the blade to my chest and I endured the burning pain of it. I had to be strong for Mirela. I was her last strand of hope. That's when her mom stabbed me in my side and broke the blade off, leaving it there.
"No," Mir screamed. As if on cue, my dad and Rian's dad ran in and cut us both free. I felt my eyes close but I could still hear her, "Jack! Jack! JACK!!!"

---

I woke up in my bed back home, I was covered in bandages and I had my boxers and flannel lounge pants on. That's when my mom came in. She had a cup of coffee and a plate of cheesy scrambled eggs, sausage, and some toast on a bed tray. I sat up so I could eat, I was famished.
"Where's Mir," I asked between mouthfuls of food.
"She's resting in May's bed. May's with her, helping her with mending her voice so she can still speak and sing. I'll be you go see her after you eat," she rustled my now clean hair and smiled. She seemed happy to have me home and safe again.
I finished eating an drink my coffee before my mom helped me stand. She let me lean on her as I hobbled over to May's room at the end of the hall. I saw Mir sitting on the bed holding a pillow in a deadly bear hug, her body shaking in fear from what we had endured.
"Mirela look who I have," my mom said as we crossed the threshold of May's room. Mir threw the pillow behind her as she bounded to me. The force of her hitting me knocked the wind out of me and sent the two of us to the ground.
"Ow that was a mean tackle. You should play for the Ravens' defense," I tried to joke, but she just started crying, "Mir it's okay. We're okay. We're safe."
"We're not safe Jack. They hunt us," she cried in broken English. I pulled her down to my chest and she started to cry harder, making me cry.
"We're going to fight them off Mir. I'm not going to let them win. I won't let them take us down," I comforted her. That's when I heard a bunch of footsteps and I sat us up.
"Dude you got that right," Alex said when he revealed himself at May's doorframe.
"So you guys knew they had us. You watched as the captured us and did nothing to help," I was pissed that my friends refused to act.
"We were out numbered Jack. We would have been caught and no one could bust you guys out," Zack explained.
"You guys are douche bags," I spat at their bullshit excuses.
"I sent word to the elders of the wolves. They are going to see to it that the elder hunters punish her parents for what they did to you," my mom explained, "For now you guys are going to go to school and then come straight back here until you guys all graduate. Then you guys are leaving Baltimore to be All Time Low. While you are gone, you are to not utter a single word about what happened. Am I clear?"
"Yes mom," we all agreed to her orders.

---

We did what mom said and soon the winter thawed and the spring rain washed away some of the blood from our thoughts. The guys and I have been hard at work practicing our material for our touring season. After practices in my basement, Mir joined us downstairs to study for our finals. Since what had happened, Mirela barely talked anymore. She just acted on what she would have said. Mir also barely slept if she wasn't in my arms. She would have night terrors every night, even when I held her tightly to me. She wouldn't even try to sleep on full moons. She'd just sit on the edge of my bed and watched out the window, keeping watch for hunters.
"Mir you need to get some sleep tonight," I was stripping down to my boxers for my full moon transition tonight.
"I...I can't," she stuttered as she darted to the window to watch the street for hunters.
"Mirela, my mom got word from the hunter council that they have punished your parents and that your parents had you removed from the hunter archives. To the hunters, your existence and my status as a wolf never was there," I wrapped my arms around her now boney shoulders but she slipped out of my embrace and sat back down on my bed.
"My parents wouldn't care. They'd still try to hunt you and me. I can't handle this anymore Jack," she started to cry again. Well actually she never stopped.
"Mirela look at me. Once we graduate from school, we are running far from the heartache that your parents caused us and we're going to be happy again," I took her thin, feeble, boney fingers into my right hand and I used my left hand to cradle her sullen face. Since what had happened, she stopped eating enough food. I was watching my girlfriend's fears eat at her alive making her once soft sun kissed skin become grey, cold, and course like death.
"I'm...just so scared Jack. I'm so scared," she cried like a toddler and I pulled to my chest, her cold body felt like an ice cube to me.
"I promise to protect you with my life Mirela. Promise me you'll start living again. Living like we did after homecoming before winter settled in," I looked her in her once bright but now icy blue eyes and she stared back into my chocolate brown eyes.
​"I...promise," she smiled weakly and we kissed gently and briefly. I scooped her up from my bed and took her to the kitchen to get some food into her.

Notes

I know this was very long. But I had to show the battle that Jack had to endure. That and I had to show he came put stronger for Mirela and how Mirela was mentally scarred. I'm terrible for the torture, and I'm sorry. But her parents are monsters. I hope you guys enjoy this. This is not the last of her parents. Mirela and Jack are in for a life of fighting for freedom. Wouldn't be a forbidden romance without a troop of hunters chasing you and your werewolf boyfriend everywhere.

Love,
ToxicxDancefloor