SWNOVELS Chapter 76
Chapter 76: Ayla
I woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing on the nightstand next to me. I lifted my head, letting my eyes adjust to the morning light floating through the curtains. I reached over and fumbled for the phone. I didn’t even need to check the screen. I knew it would be Kingston.
“Hello?” I mumbled into the phone.
“Ayla,” Kingston replied, full of relief. “Did I you?”
ke
“It’s okay.” I yawned. “I was about to get up. What’s
up?”
We talked for a few minutes. Kingston apologized for reacting the way he did the night before but said he still wanted me to come home. I told him Alpha Torin had already arranged for extra protection for me. I still didn’t have nearly enough of what I needed, so I couldn’t come home yet. But I did promise that I would try to return as soon as possible. He seemed okay with that.
I got up and went to the bathroom. I had been either swimming or jogging every morning. Since Dasha still wasn’t present enough for me to shift, I found a different outlet for exercise. I decided to go for a swim that morning and threw on my swimsuit. I added a pair of shorts and a cover-up. I went and turned on the small coffee maker in the guest house kitchenette and opened the blinds to let some sun in.
I paused. Theo was sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch. It looked like he was asleep. My brow furrowed as I wondered how long he had been out there. I went to the door. Unlocking it, I opened it gently. The screen door squeaked as I pushed it, startling Theo awake. His eyes shot to me, and he almost looked embarrassed that I had
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found him out here.
“Ayla, sorry,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “I’m leaving.”
“Were you out here all night?” I asked.
“No,” he rushed, shaking his head. “I ran a patrol through the area last night. I made it back a couple hours ago, I guess. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I was just…” He went quiet for a second before clearing his throat. “I’m heading out anyway. I’ve got to meet up with the warriors running the patrol.”
“Theo, you need to go to bed,” I said. “You can’t run another patrol and drive all the way back to the city on no sleep.”
He gave me a small smile as he stood. “I’ll be fine. It’s done before.”
stood. “I’ll be fine. It’s nothing I haven’t
I sighed. “Fine, then, at least get a cup of coffee in you before you go. I stepped back into the doorway, holding the screen door for him to
come in.
He hesitated for a minute but ended up following me in. I pulled a couple mugs from the small cabinet and set them on the counter as the coffee finished brewing. I grabbed the creamer from the fridge and poured the coffee as Theo took a seat at the table. I sat a mug in front of him before leaning against the counter with mine. He really did look exhausted.
“Thank you,” I said, breaking the silence that hung in the air between us. “You didn’t have to stay last night.”
“Yes, I did,” he said quietly. “It’s my job.”
“Regardless,” I replied, “it’s appreciated.
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“I appreciate what you’re doing for my parents,” Theo replied sincerely. “Seriously, Dad’s been in better spirits than he’s been in months. It’s been good for him.”
“I hope so. I’d never want to make things harder for him.”
“Ayla, can I ask you something?” he inquired.
I didn’t know where he would go
With this, but I nodded. “Sure.”
“You said you wanted to do this job because you owed my father. What did he do for you?”
“He saved my family,” I told him. “Ma has struggled ever since Dad died. It started out with drinking, but after a year or so, she got into gambling. She… she got us stuck in some bad situations a couple times.”
“What kind of situations?”
“Let’s just leave it at bad,” I insisted. “One time, Ma owed a lot of money to some not-so-great people. We had to either find the cash, or they would take me as payment.”
I noticed his whole b*dy tense up.
“The one thing Ma managed to do with the money Dad left us was pay off the house. I tried to take out a mortgage against it, but Ma couldn’t keep a job and I had just turned eighteen. I had been working multiple jobs for a few years, but it wasn’t enough. So, no one would lend to us. Legally, at least. But borrowing from loan sharks got her into the mess in the first place, so I was desperate not to go down that road.”
“So you reached out to your Alpha…”
I nodded. “I didn’t tell your dad what was going on at first, but he
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seemed to just know I was in trouble. After convincing him not to go after those guys directly, he helped me get the loan. Since the house was in Ma’s name, I cosigned with her. That allowed me to buy the rest of the debt a few years later and get the deed transferred to me.”
“And the men that were going to take you?” he asked.
I smiled. “They weren’t around much longer after that. I heard a couple ended up in prison. Not
something to do with it, b., the
others. I know
Dar admit it. We
dad had
would have
made it through that without him. Ma tried to get clean initially, but it didn’t last long. Luckily, I had decided to become a little more proactive with her addictions.”
He looked at me curiously and I laughed.
“I made a deal with a loan shark. Using what was left of the mortgage loan, I paid him to spread the word that no one else was to loan to Marie Garner. He would contact me if she ever came to him, and I’d tell him if he could give her anything. That kept her from draining our savings, and I was able to keep her from getting the cr*p beat out of her
or worse.’
}}
“Wait, you got a loan shark to agree to that deal?”
“Okay, I may have also worked for him for a while,” I offered. “I managed one of his fronts.” He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t worry. I stayed away from the money laundering part of the business. For the most part, at least. The arrangement worked out for a couple years until my writing really took off, and I could quit. It helped that he’s actually a half-decent guy. You know, for a loan shark.”
Theo smiled, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Where was Kylee during all this?”
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“She was in high school,” I said with a shrug. “I never told her what happened. I’ll admit there were a few decisions I made that could have made her believe some of the things she said about me. She had already lost our father. I didn’t want her to lose a mother the way I had. So, I let her believe Ma did a lot of the providing. Ma’s explanation for me being gone a lot was that I was out with friends.”
“That doesn’t excuse her behavior, Ayla,” Theo said.
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “But I can at least learn something from all of this. And to do that, I have to accept that I made some wrong decisions somewhere down the line.”
W