Dying For You

Chapter 17

Theo's POV

My cute mate. She's adorable.

Yesterday was a long day. The doctor's appointment took 4 hours and a lot of patience. Nearly every test went like the reflex test the doctor did on her. Drawing blood and giving her shots was the worst of it. At one point, I thought we would have to sedate her. But we were able to do all the tests the doctor needed. We are still waiting on the results from most of them.

It's a good thing her brothers and parents agreed to get all the tests run on them, too, so the doctors have more information to compare her results to since she and her brothers have the same parents, meaning game genetic material to work off of.

The only significant change from yesterday is that my precious soul mate now has glasses, and she looks adorable. Her gorgeous eyes look bigger and shine brighter than I've ever seen. I was watching her get to discover the world and see things. Her face lit up yesterday after we got home from getting her glasses and saw the flowers outside. Goddess, I love this girl.

"What are you looking at, Theo?" Laila smiles at me as she asks.

"Only the prettiest girl in the world," I answer truthfully.

"You've seen every girl in the world?" she asks, her mouth hanging open as her glasses slide down her nose. She awkwardly tries to adjust her glasses; she's still getting used to them.

"No. But I don't need to since I know none of them will be prettier than you."

"But how would you know?"

"I just know." I smile.

"How?"

"I do. It's magic." I shrug.

"You know a lot," she comments.

"Not really."

"Yes, you do. You know a lot. How do you know so much because? People aren't telling me things, or I missed something big. I don't understand, but I want to find out." she says.

"Find out what?" I ask.

"It doesn't make sense." she shakes her head.

"What doesn't make sense?" I ask.

"All of it. I don't understand. People aren't telling me something." she says. "I want to know." She looks determined as she looks at me with her legs crossed on the end of her bed. I sit outside her bedroom door on the floor.

"Laila," I sigh, looking at the ground. "We aren't lying to you. We only want the best for you."

"That's what I thought," she mumbles to herself, looking at the blanket she is nervously picking at. She sounds disappointed like she doesn't think that anymore.

"Laila, have we done anything to make you not trust us anymore?" I ask.

Laila sits quietly without answering my question. Maybe she didn't hear me. "Laila," I say a little louder. She looks up at me with teary eyes. s**t. She nods with a whimper. The glasses are just magnifying her scared, watery eyes. "Tell me what we did that made you not trust us," I beg.

"I wanted to believe you. I don't know what test this is; I even started to believe it wasn't a test. But then you started running tests on me. I knew it! I knew it was too good to be true!" she sobs by the end, burying her face in her hands.

"You can trust us. We would never do anything to hurt you." I sit on my knees, inching closer and closer to her door. "Laila, is it okay if I come into your room?" I ask.

"No!" she yells through her tears.

"Please. I want to help you." I beg.

"No, stay away from me!" she sobs.

Rebecca and Ron stand at the end of the hall, looking at me worriedly. "Will you at least let your mom and dad enter the room?" I ask.

"NO! I want you all to stay away from me!" she cries.

I look at her parents, who look worried and defeated. I take a deep breath and shrug. I don't know what else to do. I get to my feet and watch as she cries into her hands, curling up in a ball. With a deep breath, I do the one thing I swore I would never do.

I enter her room without her permission, potentially breaking her trust in me. I grab her in my arms and sit on the bed as she sobs and tries to fight me.

Eventually, she gives up and cries while letting me hold her. I squeeze her tightly to me, hoping that will help, hoping she knows she's not alone right now. I will always be by her side.

After a few minutes of holding her while she cries, she eventually calms down, crying silently while leaning against my chest.

"Laila, can you tell me one thing?" I ask, looking at her parents, who are now in the doorway, watching anxiously. "Before you met us, when you got upset and cried like that, did they sit and hold you until you felt better?" I ask. I'm not positive, but the hunters aren't known for their kindness towards werewolves.

"No," she answers quietly.

"Did they try to talk to you and explain what was happening?" I ask

"No."

"When they did tests on you, did they do them on themselves too?"

"No."

"Didn't we do all those things for you?" I ask.

"Yes," she whispers.

"Then why do you still believe we are like them?" I ask.

"Because I don't know who else you would be like," she says, picking her head up to look at me.

"We're like you. We are kind, good people who want what's best for you. We don't want to hurt you. Do you want to hurt us?" I ask.

"No."

"I know this is new to you and must be scary, but can you trust that we are like you? We aren't like them; we are like you." I say.

"Like me? But- I've never met anyone like me before," she whispers to herself.

"Now you have." I smile at her.

"You're like me," she whispers, and I nod. She hugs me a little tighter, burying her face in my chest as she cries softly and her body relaxes. It's not a scared or sad kind of cry. She seems almost relieved.

"Laila, why don't you come into the living room with your mom, dad, and me? We will answer all of your questions honestly so you can see that we aren't hiding anything or lying to you," I say.

Laila sniffles and nods, getting up off my lap and wiping her tears. I stand up, grab her hand, and kiss the back of it. Her parents turn and walk away, leaving Laila and me alone momentarily. "I love you." I remind her.

Laila follows nervously as I lead her to the living room, where her parents are getting comfortable on a couch, whispering to themselves. I sit Laila down and sit next to her, leaving a small gap between us so she doesn't feel too suffocated.

"What do you want to know, Laila?" Rebecca asks.

"Everything. I feel like I am missing something big," she says.

"Oh, princess." her mom sighs.

"What do you want to hear about first?" Ron asks. "Do you want to start with the day I found you?" he asks.

Laila looks at him skeptically and nods. "Okay. I'll start with the day we found you at the hunter facility and got from there." Ron nods.

"Okay." Laila nods.

Ron leans back on the couch with a sigh while looking at the ceiling. "Okay, well, it started like any other day. I woke up and went to training in the morning since I'm a warrior for the pack. Before we were done with training, scouts came back- I didn't even know we sent scouts out, but we did- the scouts came back with big news. They found a hunter's layer, so we created plans, and I just happened to be chosen as one of the warriors on the teams going. After you were taken and we had reasonable suspicion hunters took you, I've always had a particular vengeance towards hunters. After a few hours, we were leaving to infiltrate the hunters' layer." Ron explains, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees. "We got there, and everything was going according to plan. I was having a great time eliminating the threats. Once they were all dead, we started searching the building. I was looking in someone's office when I heard another warrior yell that they had found something. I was curious and went to investigate and ensure everything was okay. I walked into what looked like a garage- a few cars parked around, but that's not what everyone looked at. People were gathered around watching a warrior pull a drain grate up off the ground. It was weird, so as more and more people gathered around trying to see what the fuss was about, I felt my wolf getting increasingly anxious and didn't know why. Then, the same warrior that pulled the grate off the ground reached into the hole. It was like an out-of-body experience, and I couldn't do anything but stand there and watch.

Then the guy reaching into the hole looked back at the crowd, saying he couldn't reach it. I don't remember much of that conversation, but that person ended up being dangled upside down in the hole as two other warriors stood on either side and lowered him in. I remember hearing my heart beating loudly in my chest as they pulled the warrior back up, and he slowly pulled you out, too.

I don't know if it's because I knew you were my daughter or if I had sympathy for you since my little girl would have been around your age and taken by hunters, but seeing you like that broke me. I ran to your side and lost my s**t when I couldn't hear your breathing or heartbeat. I did CPR until someone had to pull me off you so the medic could get to you.

Finally, the medic got you breathing again slightly, and then we rushed you back here. I mindlinked your mom as a warning. I couldn't believe it was you- that you were our little girl, and you were still alive and here with us. I couldn't take losing you again. But I had to prepare your mom in case it was.

We were in the hospital for three days before it was safe enough even to run the DNA test, but we never left your side, except when you were in surgery. Goddess, how long before we went to get food and shower? A week?" Ron asks, looking at Rebecca.

"That seems right." Rebecca nods.

"We spent every moment there that we could. It was 15 days after taking you there that you started breathing on your own-that was nerve-wracking. Almost a week after that, you opened your eyes. That was a good day. I'm sure you remember this, but you stayed in the hospital for a while. Then we brought you home, and you sat in your closet and slept for a while because that's where you felt safe. We started writing things down to communicate with you. Then yesterday, we just wanted to make sure you were still on the right track for your healing, so we took you to the pack doctor so he could do some tests. We all did the tests with you, which should give them a good idea of how well your wolf is healing you." Ron explains with a nod.

Laila looks around the room silently for a moment before landing on Ron. "My wolf?" she questions.

"Yes. You're a werewolf, honey. Your wolf can heal you, but she needs time." Rebecca explains.

I study Laila's face to see her eyes starting to water again. She's getting stressed out and overwhelmed. "What's a werewolf?" she asks with a crack in her voice.

Did nobody think to explain to her what a werewolf is? She doesn't even know who she is! How could she know who we are if she doesn't know what we are?!?!?!