Page 73 of The Wild Man

“What do you remember?” comes Dad’s voice.

I open my eyelids, my brows pulling down. Another sharp pain pierces my skull when I try to think back to the last thing I remember. I come up blank. “I don’t remember.”

Dad frowns, his gaze moving across the bed to something on the other side. I turn my head, moving slow in fear of setting off my head again. My brother, Maddox, is there, looking down at me with a worried expression. It’s then that I realize all of my brothers are here. Ethan is over by the window, Joe is sitting in a chair in the corner, his elbows resting on his knees, and Spencer is leaning against the wall by the door. They all look at me warily, like I’m on my deathbed or something and they don’t know how to react to it.

I bring my gaze back to Dad, just now noticing the bruise on his jaw and the cut that splits his eyebrow in two. The area is slightly swollen. I swing my gaze back to my brothers, fight past the dizziness that follows, and note they aren’t in much better shape. Maddox’s bottom lip is swollen and there’s a gash down the middle. Ethan has a black eye and a cut on his cheek. Spencer’s nose appears to be broken, and even through the dim light, I can see the darkness that’s developed just under his eyes. Joe’s the only one who seems to be uninjured.

“What in the hell?” I demand, attempting to push my hands into the bed to sit up.

“Lay down,” Dad orders as he pushes on my shoulders. “That knock on your head has had you out for two days. The doc said you’ll be feeling the effects from it for a few more, so I know you’re still in pain.”

As if my head agrees with Dad’s words, the pounding comes back with force, and I slump back down. Nausea churns in my stomach, so I take in a deep breath, praying that I don’t get sick. I’m sure the pressure of throwing up would feel fantastic for my head.

“Doc?” I ask. The blanket I’m under is down to my waist and I’m wearing a lavender t-shirt. Below the blanket, I have on a pair of cotton shorts. The material against my skin feels annoying. “Dr. Neilson was here?”

“Yes,” Dad answers. He sits forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. He clasps his hands together and lays them on the bed. It kind of looks like he’s praying, but Dad isn’t the praying type. “I figured it was better he treat you here since your injuries weren’t life threatening. Just a nasty bump on your head. Once the word gets out that you were found, which we all know wouldn’t take long, everybody and their cousin would swarm the hospital.”

One bad thing about living in a small town is everyone is in everyone’s business. There’s no such thing as privacy or keeping secrets here.

My mind catches and sticks on one word.

“Found? What do you mean?” My brows pucker, and even that small move has a small niggle of pain radiating through my head.

Dad licks his lips and his eyes drop to his clasped hands. The muscle in his jaw twitches when he lifts them back to me.

“You’ve been missing for six weeks, Ever. Your brothers and I just found you two days ago.”

“Gone?” I choke out.

All of a sudden, a searing pain stabs at my skull, and I slam my eyes shut. The pain is so great that I clutch my head, expecting to feel blood seeping from my ears.

Behind my closed eyelids, visions flash. They come so fast and are so brilliantly vivid that I can’t comprehend them before they’re gone and another takes its place. They repeat over and over again. But then they start to slow, and I get a better understanding of what they are.

Memories.

Of my time in the forest with Wild Man.

My fascination the first time I saw him while he bathed in the water.

Him confronting me afterward.

Sitting in front of the fire and eating.

Trying to leave afterward.

The first time Wild Man fucked me, claiming me as his, and the pain I felt during that experience.

Wild Man standing above me as I peed and him masking my scent with his own.

The first time he took me, and I didn’t fight back.

Hunting with him and the sickening worry I felt when I thought he was going to die from a snake bite.

Meeting Teeja and his family.

Wild Man teaching me how to fish.

The way he always gave me the bigger pieces of fruit.