Patrick didn't cut off the mind link. He looked at the unconscious Gloria, who was lying on the bed.
He walked over and pushed her to the side. Then he slowly lifted her shirt.
As her shirt was lifted gradually, his gaze landed on her waist.
Patrick saw a hideous wound and his pupils contracted.
"Our mate!" Leo said in a pained voice. He couldn't feel his mate. Only a faint breath told him that Gloria was his and Patrick's mate.
"Who did this?" Patrick's voice was as cold as a sudden blizzard.
He saw an ugly scar on the left side of Gloria's waist.
He stretched out his hand, wanting to stroke it. His large hand could not help but tremble.
His slender fingers touched the scar.
Covered by the scar, her skin was no longer smooth.
The second he touched it, he felt as if his fingertips had been scalded.
Sean could tell from Patrick's voice that he was having mixed feelings. He scolded with a teasing tone, "She is different from us. She lost her wolf. Unlike us, she can't recover quickly. Besides, she has been badly injured. How can you still want to torture her? That's cruel."
Patrick, however, didn't seem to hear Sean at all. He felt with his thumb the rough scar on her waist. Suddenly, he made a strange movement. He covered the scar with his entire palm.
He looked at his hand seriously. No one knew what was on his mind.
Sean found that though the call wasn't cut off, Patrick did not respond.
He felt strange.
Sean did not cut off the call either. He picked up a cigarette from the head of the bed and lit it with a click, savoring the taste of nicotine. At the same time, Patrick suddenly said, "It's longer than my palm."
"What?" Sean was stunned for a moment. After a few seconds, he reacted and said, "I see. You mean the scar on her waist, right?"
After all, Sean and Patrick had been friends for years. Sean could easily figure out what Patrick meant.
"Is it longer than your palm?" Sean took a heavy drag on his cigarette and let out a gray smoke ring. Then he said, "It can only prove one thing. She was badly hurt back then. Do you see how jagged her wound is? It means a werewolf did this to her after she shifted. It's a lacerated wound.
"And whoever stitched her up was very bad at it."
"What does that mean?" Patrick asked.
"It means that the doctor who stitched her up might not even have a medical license. Take a photo of her scar," Sean said.
Patrick hesitated for a moment. Sean said, "Let me take a look at her scar. At least this way, I can see things that you can't tell, which are real but hidden. Do you want to know or not?"
Sean blew a smoke ring again. "If you do, take a photo."
Sean did not think he could convince Patrick. He thought, 'Patrick is an indifferent and cold man. During all these years that I have known him, I have never seen him compromise for anything. Gabrielle was the only person Patrick cared about.
In fact, I don't think he cares about Gabrielle either.
After all, Gabrielle was a member of the Black Thorn Pack, and she was the younger sister of Beta Damon. What Patrick had for Gabrielle was a sense of responsibility.
Well, I don't blame Patrick. He is the Alpha of the Black Thorn Pack, and he has more important things to do.'
"Wait." Sean wasn't expecting the photo at all. He wasn't serious when making the request. Just as he was about to change the topic, Patrick suddenly replied.
His reply frightened Sean, and the cigarette in his hand fell and burned his other arm, which lay flat on his thigh. The sudden pain made Sean gasp.
"What did you say?"
Just as Sean finished speaking, his phone suddenly rang. He picked up his phone and found that Patrick had sent him a photo.
Patrick really took a photo and sent it over! Sean was surprised.
Sean quickly looked at the photo. It was a photo of Gloria's scar indeed. There was only a hideous scar in the photo, nothing more.
The photo made Sean feel weird. Somehow, he had a feeling that Patrick didn't want him to see an extra inch of Gloria's skin.
He was even more certain after he studied the scar for a while.
"Are you done? Have you had a good look?" Patrick asked.
Patrick called out to Sean through the mind link suddenly. He sounded unhappy.
Sean coughed a few times and replied, "Yes."
"What have you found out?"
"Whoever stitched her up must have been without a medical license. Her wound was stitched three times, and the sutures were crooked. She didn't even find a doctor with a medical license to help her with her sound. How stingy was she? I strongly suspect that the person who stitched her up didn't give her any anesthetics at all."
Hearing Sean's words, Patrick couldn't help but picture a struggling woman in his mind as she was pressed on the surgery table.
His heart suddenly contracted violently.
"Who was it?" Patrick's voice was very low.
"You know the answer well," Sean interrupted Patrick.
Sean replied through the mind link, "You can't blame them. Don't you know that your attitude toward Gloria and the willingness you show have determined the fate of that poor woman for the past three years? Don't you know what kind of werewolves are locked up in the werewolf prison?"
Sean said those words on purpose. He wanted Patrick to hear them. He continued, "Don't blame me for not reminding you. The scar you saw today might be nothing compared with all the suffering Gloria went through during her three years in prison. You have no idea what happened to her when she was still Miss Carter, and of course, you won't know what she had gone through in the past three years."
Sean was stunned as well. Suddenly, he could see why Gloria, who used to be so confident, had become so timid now.