We made good progress and she was able to walk a good fifteen feet away from the clinic before I turned us around and helped her walk back. When we were back in her room lunch was waiting and she managed to feed herself.
With her hands of course and made a huge mess, but she was starting to trust that what we were giving her was okay. That night I stayed lying awake on the couch not feeling the least bit tired. I had flicked my fingers over my thumbs several times because I could still feel her tiny fingers wrapped around them.
'She is making you soft'
I ignored Zeb. He had actually enjoyed walking with her, but was too stubborn to admit it. I looked over at her sleeping body and my heart almost jumped out of my chest when I noticed her one green eye clearly staring at me in the dark.
I sat up some on the couch and tried to adjust my eyes to the dark lighting so I could see her.
"You need to sleep your body is still weak." I said to her through the dark.
Her one green eye never closed though and she stayed staring at me. I glared back at her and I wasn't going to lose this little stare down. She wouldn't even blink though until I finally gave in and looked away.
I got up from the couch and made my way to the bathroom and shut the door behind me. When I was done relieving myself I opened the door, but kept the bathroom light on so I could see better in the room. I watched the girl roll over to her side and look up at me from her bed.
I walked over and sat back down in the blue plastic seat that I had grown to hate. I ran my hands through my hair and looked back up at the girl who had been watching me.
I raised an eyebrow at her and then decided I would try and get her name again. I sat up some and pointed to my chest feeling ridiculous.
"Alpha August." I said calmly as I poked hard at my chest.
Her expression never changed and eventually I saw her put a small finger up to her own chest. She opened her mouth and her voice was low and raspy and it came out barely above a whisper.
"Mutt." she said softly while keeping her eyes on me.
I gave her a confused look and then couldn't stop the small chuckle. I shook my head no and then she gave me the confused look.
"That's not a name, whoever called you that was wrong." I explained.
She furrowed her eyebrows together and after a minute she rolled onto her back and looked away from me and at the ceiling. I guess she was thinking or talking to her wolf because her face would change expressions like she was trying to figure out a difficult problem in her head.
"You could pick out a name if you want." I suggested.
She looked at me and gave me a weird look and then went back to staring at the ceiling. I looked down at my feet and felt guilty. She probably didn't know any names.
"I could name you." I said and slowly moved my gaze up from the floor to see her looking at me with a blank expression.
Her dark green eye was bright and made her other eye look completely black. It was actually a really pretty color and reminded me of a single shining jewel.
"Emerald would suit you nicely." I said after another minute of thinking.
She blinked her eyes at me, but I watched as the small corners of her mouth turned up slightly. It wasn't much of a smile, but it made me feel great seeing it. I smiled at her and nodded my head.
"Okay, Emerald it is. Now try and get some sleep."
I stood up from the chair and cut the bathroom light off and made my way back across the room and laid back on the couch. I looked back over at her, but she had curled herself into a ball and was now fast asleep.
'Soft.'
I didn't say anything back to Zeb and tried to close my eyes and force sleep upon me.
When I woke up the next morning I looked over to see an empty bed again. I groaned from being exhausted, I had been sleeping here for days and it was just always something with this girl.
I stood up from the couch and scanned the room for a second. The first thing I checked was under the bed, but she wasn't there and that's when I started to feel panicky.
"Emerald?" I called out and walked closer to the bathroom door that was closed.
I could smell that she was in there, but when I tried pressing my ear to the door I couldn't make out any sound. I waited around another minute thinking maybe she was confused about how to use the toilet and when another minute rolled by with no noise I started knocking loudly on the door.
"Emerald open this door." I commanded accidentally using my Alpha voice.
After another minute of banging on the door I heard the toilet flush and could hear the sound of the door knob start turning. As soon as the door opened up enough I pushed it back and found her standing there with multiple rolls of toilet paper undone and all over the floor and sink. She looked away from me and tried to kick some of the toilet paper away behind her as if to hide it.
"You're going to be the death of me." I said through an unamused tone.
She looked back up at me with innocence running in her eyes and I rolled mine and stepped out of the doorway so she could come out. She moved one shaky leg in front of the other and leaned her hand against the wall. She stayed leaning against the edge of it all the way around until she reached her bed rail and climbed back into bed.
I walked over and sat on the blue plastic seat again and I had decided after last night that I was going to push her harder today to talk.
We stayed in silence until breakfast was brought and we both ate together without a single word between us. I didn't mind sitting in silence so much though and it was better then her screaming and growling like she had been doing a few days ago.
When we finished I gathered our trays and sat them in the hallway. I came back in the room, but this time I grabbed the bag I had brought and sat back down on the chair next to her. I gave her a stern look and her eyes widened at me as I slowly pulled out the collar from the bag.
She immediately started whimpering and turned her head away from looking at it. She was visibly shaking, but she didn't run even though her hands and feet were now untied.
"Look at it." I said to her and this time I did manage to make my voice sound a little softer.
She sniffled and I knew she was probably crying, but after she wiped her face quickly with her hands before she slowly turned her head back. She kept her eyes on me instead of the collar I was holding out.
"Do you know who put this on you?" I asked changing my face to being serious.
She didn't shift her eyes away from mine and stared blankly back without responding. I sat the collar down on the table in front of her and she flinched back and scooted away from it.
"The man who put that on you did this to me." I said as I dragged my finger across the scar on my eye.
She watched me and kept an unreadable expression on. She stayed looking at me though as if she were waiting for me to continue, so I did.
"He has hurt a lot of wolves. He killed my parents a long time ago when I was a little bit bigger then you are now."
I was actually a good seven years older then she was right now when it happened, but I didn't think details were necessary. I still wasn't sure how much she could understand of what I was saying, so I tried to keep sentences short and simple.
"I have been looking for him for a very long time and this.." I said picking up the collar again to show her.
"This came from him didn't it?" I asked as I narrowed my gaze on hers.
She didn't respond to me, but she didn't flinch away from the collar I held out either. In fact she looked right past it and kept her full attention on me.
"Emerald, I need to know where the man is that put this on you. I need to find him so I can.." I tried to think quickly of something less harsh to say. I didn't want her to be afraid of me, but I wasn't good at being sensitive.
"So I can make sure he never hurts any wolf ever again. Do you think you understand?" I asked trying to make my voice sound friendly again.
She stayed looking at me without saying anything and eventually she moved her eyes to my hand that held the collar. She shuddered when looking at it and eventually turned her head to look away from it and me.
"I promise, I will never let him find you. He will never hurt you again Emerald. If I can find him he will never hurt anyone again."
She let out a snort and cut her eyes back at me like I was a bad salesman trying to get her to buy a car part she didn't need.
I softened my eyes at her and even though Zeb was trying to stop me from saying it I was too desperate for answers to stop.
"Please?" I said to her and she widened her eyes slightly at me and then took in a deep breath before looking up at the ceiling.
"He's the dog catcher." she said mostly to herself in her raspy whisper voice.