SWNOVELS Chapter 82
Chapter 82: Theo
I went back outside to find Ayla. I saw her sitting on the swing in the yard. I didn’t know how much longer I could go on. Watching her relieve my father’s pain. Seeing how she was willing to put herself in danger to help him. The thought of something happening to her. I felt our bond growing stronger. At least, my side was.
I went to where she sat.
“You alright?” I asked.
“Relatively speaking…” She was gripping a blue envelope in her hands.
“What’s that?”
“Hmm? Oh.” She jumped slightly, tucking the envelope into her back pocket. “It’s nothing. Just a card.”
I didn’t believe her, but I needed to deal with one problem at a time.
“May I?” I indicated the spot next to her on the swing.
She nodded.
I took my seat, resisting the urge to grab her hand. I would need to stay away from her for a while. Her kindness gave me more hope than I could take.
“You know what my dad was talking about, don’t you?” I asked, trying to focus on anything other than where we were touching.
“Some of it, maybe,” she said.
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“Ayla, who was your father?”
“I don’t really know anymore,” she said shakily. “You know, he said he wanted to tell me something. Something important. That night he left. Then he never came back.”
“I’m sorry, Ayla,” I said.
“Ten years,” she continued. “Ten years, I wondered what it was. Now that I’ve found out, I don’t know what to do with it. What it means. Why it means anything.”
“You know what he was going to tell you?” I shifted to face her. “How?”
She closed her eyes. “I…” She sighed. “Kingston. He knew my father.”
My chest tightened. “How?”
“It’s complicated,” she said, pushing off the swing and walking toward the trees.
“Hey” – I followed her, turning her to face me – “you can talk to me, Ayla. I promise. I will never hurt you again.”
“Will you hurt him?” she asked.
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“No,” I said, ignoring Kieran’s contradiction. must have doubted me because she gave me a look. I chuckled. “Look, I’m not going to pretend to like the guy, but I just promised not to hurt you again. Hurting him would hurt you.”
”
“Okay,” she said. “What do you know about the Onyxcrown Pack?”
I suddenly didn’t like where this was going.
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“I know enough,” I said. Dad had taught me about Onyxcrown and the conspiracy that brought them down. If all this had to do with them, it likely wouldn’t be good. “What do they have to do with you?”
“My father was from the Onyxcrown Pack,” she said. “More precisely, he was the future Alpha of the Onyxcrown Pack. Before they were destroyed. He escaped the massacre and ended up here. But I don’t know what that has to do with your dad or any promise or any Blessed One. Whatever that means.
“Okay, okay,” I calmed her, brushing her hair behind her ear. “We can figure that out. Okay? Give it a few days and I’ll talk to my dad. When he’s recovered a bit more.”
“I don’t think I even want to know,” Ayla said. “So my dad was from the Onyxcrown Pack. I’m not. I’m a Greytooth… I was born a
Greytooth. Being a Sablemane doesn’t mean I’m any closer to reviving a decimated pack either.”
I tried to ignore the sl*p. I wouldn’t be able to stop reading more into it than there was if I thought about it too long. But while her heritage may not mean much to her at the moment, it meant something to my father. And he was torturing himself over it.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “I’ll talk to Dad about it. For all we know, it may be nothing. It could have just been the ramblings of an addled mind. I’ll let you know whatever he says, and if you want to look further into it, you can.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “Thank you.”
Our eyes held each other’s. It was times like these, when we were alone that I got to see the real Ayla. She was open and honest, and vulnerable. She felt safe with me. They were some of the happiest and most painful moments.
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But, like the rest, it ended too soon. The mask returned and she stepped away.
“I should get the kitchen cleaned before your mom gets back,” she said.
I nodded. “Where did Mom get off to?”
“She called the doctor this morning,” she said as we began to walk back to the house. “She said she needed to go to the hospital in the city to pick up some more meds for Alpha.”
“Yeah, he’s taking some specialty drug,” I clarified. “You can’t get it just any pharmacy.”
“Ah,” she replied. “Oh, and Beta Harry went with her. He said he’d pick up your car for you and bring it back. How did you even get here last night?”
“I ran,” I said with a shrug. “The roads up here wind around through the mountain. Kieran can make the run in almost half the time in a straight shot.”
“Oh,” Ayla said. “I guess that makes them being this far away easier for you.”
“Yes, it does.”
Ayla started clearing off the counters once we made it to the kitchen. She was tense again. It had been a long day already, and she’d had a lot thrown at her. I had a feeling that my unexpected presence wasn’t helping. I had made it clear to my mother that we wouldn’t ambush her again. If I was going to be here, she would know ahead of time.
I know this was an extenuating circumstance, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t hard on her. I needed to stay with my parents for a few days while Dad recovered. There was a risk he would have another episode.
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during this time when he was still disoriented.
I was thinking about what to do when the house phone rang.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Hey, man, it’s me,” Briggs said. “Luna called and said you made it in time last night. How’s Alpha doing?”
“He’s okay,” I stepped into the other room for some privacy. “Thanks to Ayla.”
“Ayla?” Briggs asked.
“I’ll tell you about it later,” I said. “But what’s up?”
“I just got off the phone with Tim, the warrior running the patrol route near Bresdale.”
Bresdale was the small town nearby.
“And?”
“They thought they caught the scent of a strange wolf last night,” he said. “He and a couple of the others followed the trail. They believe it was just some wolf out for a run. They didn’t seem to be heading toward your parents. They just wanted to report it since they didn’t recognize the scent.”
It could be nothing, but I was still suspicious. The news helped me make my next decision.
“I’ll try to check it out,” I told Briggs. “I’ve got to stay up here for a few days. Can you do me a favor?”
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