10 Playing Dumb Charades

The night passed and again it was the morning of another day. But unlike the past few days Ryle woke up early and spent half of the day following the strict schedule made by Sophie - his acting beta.

But today in the middle of the work when generally he would never ask for anything other than necessary, today Ryle asked at least ten times about the girl.

And somehow Sophie felt revealed about that. He was actually caring about something rather than just working like a robot.

Just before noon, medical staff came to inform that the girl was finally awake.

Ryle hurriedly stopped what he was doing and walked towards the medical care unit.

Unlike last night the whole place was pretty calm. Learning from the previous incident, no one had entered the girl's room and were waiting outside.

Ryle took a deep breath, opened the door.

The little girl was sitting on the bed all curled up.

Sensing the movements she immediately shrank back and pulled her limbs even closer, almost merging herself into a ball.

"Good morning," Ryle looked at her with a smile on his face, trying to be as normal as possible.

"How are you feeling now?" He pulled the chair and sat down beside her bed.

The girl peeked out of her arms, just enough to look at him warily.

Maybe the nurse had taken the effort to braid her hair when she was sleeping.

So without those hindering silver hair, her clear forehead was visible.

Freckles on her little nose and pale white cheeks which were almost hollow looked cute.

But her eyes were filled with fear as she looked at him.

"I guess better than before," when she didn't reply Ryle answered his own question.

"What is your name?" He asked.

Again no reply, just stare from her eyes which didn't blink even for once.

"Okay, can you speak? Do you understand me?" Ryle changed the question but again, no reply.

"Generally silence is considered as an agreement. So I take it as you understand me. So let me introduce myself to you," Ryle nodded his head in understanding.

"I'm Ryle Engelson. Alpha of the Bloodmoon Shadows pack. I rescued you a month ago near my territory. Some rouge wolves were trying to  harm you. You were gravely injured and so we took you in. You were in a coma for the last one month due to a head injury. During this time you were being taken care of by the medical staff of Bloodmoon Shadows pack." Ryle explained.

The girl's eyes moved slowly. And she lifted her head a bit from her hand.

Still there wasn't enough trust for him in her eyes.

"I can help you locate your family and send you back to them if you give me your name or other details," Ryle tried again.

But this time the girl turned her head away.

So she doesn't want to talk about her family? He thought.

Ryle massaged his temples. 

He didn't know game of dumb charades can also be boring. He was the one asking questions and he has to guess himself.

"Do you even understand what I just said?" Ryle highly doubted that. He was losing his patience.

But he could understand that the girl was young and hurt. Something very horrible must have happened to her in the past and that traumatized her. If they didn't take care of her well now it might ruin the girl. The wolves can be stronger physically but very fragile emotionally.

"You may not understand my language but how about the language of food? You must be hungry right?" Ryle tried to sound as cheerful as possible.

He looked back and said something through his mindlink.

Soon a nurse walked inside the room with a bowl of hot soup. 

Girl's eyes followed the movements of the nurse and when she saw her putting down the bowl which filled the whole room with aroma her eyes moved a little.

Ryle didn't miss that. A small smile played on his lips seeing her finally reacting to something.

The nurse walked around and placed a small table on the bed and put the bowl, spoon and a glass of water on it. Just in front of the girl before she swiftly left.

"Why don't you try it? It smells good doesn't it? " Ryle said.

But the girl didn't move although she was staring at the food with greedy eyes.

He tried to bring out reactions from her.

But the girl was stubborn, more than him.

"Well, enjoy your food. I have other things to handle. Be comfortable here and I assure you that you are safe in my territory," Ryle stood up with that and after last glance he left the hospital room.

He straight went to his own study and sat down behind the table with his laptop open in front of him.

With just a few clicks on the device the screen displayed the images of a specific hospital room where a girl was sitting on the bed, staring at the bowl of soup with a hungry gaze.

Ryle sat back on the chair as he observed her with a blank face.

After staring long enough the girl finally moved. She lifted her head fully and looked around to confirm that no one was around her before slowly her bony hand touched the table.

Just a table, as if she was afraid to touch the food.

Her movements were very cautious and fear was constantly displayed on her face.

With very slow movements she finally took the spoon in her trembling hands and drank a mouthful of soup.

Her eyes closed in visible delight. Even the basic soup made out of simple ingredients and which was practically tasteless was able to bring out such emotions from her. Ryle was stunned.

And in the next second he saw the girl lifting the whole bowl in her hand and drinking everything in one go.

Some spilled out of her mouth and dirtied her baby pink hospital gown and the sheets. But the girl wasn't concerned about that at all.

"Alpha, you have a meeting with shareholders in an hour," Sophie's voice rang from the door of his study and Ryle closed the laptop before walking out of the room.