Shatter Pieces

Chapter 35: Meeting the Family

Elvira

My eyes felt heavy and my mind was for once, silent. It seemed like ages since I had been like this and wished I could bask in it forever. But something kept nagging at me and trying to pull me from this place of rest. Something ran along my arm up to my neck then to my face tracing my features before following the path back down to my hand. It was soothing, but was also pulling me from the quiet of this world I had discovered and now did not want to leave. Reaching out I swatted half heartedly at the hand which made someone behind me chortled slightly.

"You need to wake up, little mate. I know it is nice to live in a dream world but I need you here. I have some people I would like you to meet." I recognized the male voice immediately as that of Mateo and my sleep addled mind pushed me towards him. That presence I had felt only a few times before seemed to lean forward and urge me towards him.

"He is not going to harm you. He is our mate and he will take care of us better than anyone else we have ever met. Please go to him, it will help both of us if we are near him." I did not like acknowledging the voice as only crazy people talked to the voices in their head but this time I had to agree with her.

So far Mateo had done nothing but take care of us and make sure that we were okay. He didn't yell at me or hit me when I made a mistake if anything he was kinder to me when things like that happened. Unlike everyone else I remembered meeting his first reaction was not to hurt me but to help me. It was so unlike anything I was use to that it still scared me because I didn't understand how he would react to anything I did until I did it. Normally I could just expect a beating and it would probably happen, but here in this other place nothing was like it was with Master.

Suddenly I couldn't help but think of what my Master might be doing right now. He had to be looking for me, Master was never happy when anything he owned went missing let alone a whole person. Master had told me many times that if I ever left he would stop at nothing to get me back and the wounds from those particular lessons throbbed as if in reminder. I was sure he had some other girl with him experiencing what I had until I was back and a shudder ran through my body at the thought. The other thing inside of me growled and for a moment I could not control my body as the growl passed from my lips as well.

The fingers that had been moving steadily along my arm suddenly stopped as if in shock. Had I scared Mateo? I didn't mean to scare him if that was indeed what had happened. The voice inside of me seemed to agree with me and regret scaring our 'mate' as she called. She once again took over my body briefly and a whimper escaped my lips and Mateo's fingers returned to my arm while the other wrapped around my middle pulling my body against his.

"Hey, it's okay. You are fine, and so am I. No one's gonna hurt us." He held me tightly against him as if to reassure the both of us that we were okay.

"It's good to know that all aspects of my little mate are getting better. Even the parts that neither of us seem to be able to reach quite yet." I wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that but since I had already been pulled out of that dream world.

As I cracked my eyes open I found myself lying on the bed but nearly shot out of Mateo's hands when I saw the sitting area. There were a large handful of people sitting over there staring at me. I tried to shuffle backwards but was met with the wall that was Mateo's chest, his arms holding me close to his body.

"Hey, hey now there is no reason to freak out. I promise that you are safe and they are not going to hurt you. They are all nice people and I am not even going to let them touch you unless you give me the go ahead alright?" His question rang in my ears as my eyes darted around the room once again.

There were four men sitting on the couches and chairs that made up the area near the bookshelves. I recognized Karthan, the man who had been my doctor while I had been here and so far had not done anything to hurt me. Well other than pricking me with needles but I usually felt better after he did that for some reason. The other three I didn't know and they were all enormous. Standing at least three inches taller than me and bound in muscle I unconsciously began to curl in on myself in order to protect my stomach and ribs. Their blows would hurt and I would sustain a significant amount of damage and after so long without being punished I assumed it would be a long process.

There were also three women sitting by the men and they were all carefully studying me and my gaze. They tracked my movement and observed exactly where my eyes flew as if trying to read what I was thinking and access what I might do next. They didn't seem like much of a threat and I recognized Mateo's mother in the group. I locked my gaze with hers and I could tell she could read every ounce of fear that was quickly growing inside of me.

Fingers grazed under my chin and with gentleness I immediately associated with Mateo turned my head towards him. His gaze was soft and firm all at the same time and held a command I had not yet seen. My body screamed at me to run that it was surely a sign that the curtain was finally going to fall and Mateo was going to teach us about all the rules I had broken while here. I ignored the unprecedented imaginings of my body and turned my body in Mateo's grasp and quickly locked my arms and legs around him.

He obviously wasn't expecting the action as he stiffened slightly when my body latched onto his. Afraid I had offended him I drew back partially only to once again be drawn to him as his arms wrapped around me once again holding my head to the side of his chest. A purr sounded from deep within him as he leaned down slowly nuzzling my face with his own.

"I know that you are scared Elvira, and I am in no way saying that is wrong or that you shouldn't feel that way. You have the right to feel however you want to feel and I am not going to fault you for that. I recognize that you have been through more than I can possibly imagine and I hope one day in the future when you are more comfortable you will share those things with me. Because I promise you that I will listen and be there for you when you are ready and will not judge you for anything that you say.

But, I am not always going to be able to be right beside you. I am the leader of a pack, a group of people who all depend on me in the same kind of way you depend on me. I help them be able to have the things that they need, counsel them, and protect them from any harm. Because of that I have to leave in order to take care of them as well, not far away just a five or ten minute walk down the road is where my office is so don't think I'm running away to Africa or something." I giggled a little at this.

I may not know a lot of things, but I did know that Africa was a continent far away from where I lived with my Master. I didn't know how far away I was now but obviously far enough away that it was comical to think Mateo would go there. Mateo grinned down at me before continuing with his explanation.

"I know that someday you might be able to come with me and even help me with my job. And let me tell you if that happens I will be so overjoyed that I will probably scream it from the rooftops. But in the meantime I am going to leave you in the care of some of the people that I trust most in order to make sure you stay safe and that you can feel safe as well. That's why I asked all these people to be here, so that you can get to know them and they can become a little less scary. You have already met some of them and they were pretty nice right?" Thinking for a moment I realized he was right but didn't want to admit it.

For some reason something deep inside my chest wanted Mateo to stay with me forever and never leave my side. I knew that he was always going to be there for me and keep the things that wanted to hurt me away. He was charming in ways I had no idea men could be considering all they had ever done to me was bring me pain. I didn't want him to leave and maybe if I refused to admit he was right he would just stay with me.

"I can see the gears inside your head turning El, you know I am right don't you?" His voice was light and slightly scolding so I lowered my gaze and pouted a little as I nodded in agreement.

Laughter trickled over from the seating area as the group took in our conversation. I was glad they were at least comfortable as I was so not ready for all of this that I thought I might actually throw up right on the bed. I was not good with groups of people, bad things tended to happen when I was surrounded by more than three individuals and this was a decent sized group.

"I promise that I won't let go of you but will you please at least go meet them?" There was a question in his voice, and I realized that he was giving me a choice. Mateo was not going to force me to meet these people no matter how much he wanted me too. I lifted my head astonished at my realization. No one had ever really let me make a decision like this before and I was dumbfounded. Slowly I nodded my head and he lifted me up in his arms and approached the sitting area.

"Elvira, meet my family."