his forgotten mate

CHAPTER 37b

When I was dressed, I held the wet towel and tried to dry my hair, smiling to myself, it wasn’t a dream; I used warm water and so far nothing bad has happened.  I had put on the soft shirt and pants, underwear and I even got socks, plus shoes. But I didn’t like the shoes. I couldn’t move my feet.

“Kayla, if you’re done can you come out now?” Papa asked me and I stopped smiling, I didn’t want to go out there. But if I stayed in here too long, who knew what would happen, so holding the towel I unlocked the door and then opened it. I thought Papa would be up on his legs but he was sitting on the floor, and he smiled at me when I opened. I didn’t smile back.

           

“Are you hungry?” he asked pushing a tray towards me, when I looked out, I took a step out of the bathroom and saw the women. Juliet and Shavon, they all smiled at me too. The other door was open and I could see my Momma, brothers and sisters sleeping. Looking down at the food I nodded, and sat on the floor. Just as I was picking up a piece of a sandwich and cup of milk, Uncle Logan came into the room. He smiled at me too. They were all always smiling at me and I didn’t know why? 

“How do you feel Kayla?” Uncle Logan asked me, nicely sitting on the bed, I didn’t know what to answer though. So I just nodded, bringing the sandwich to my mouth, biting a little bit and chewing.

I didn’t want to look at any of the grownups too much so I just gazed down at my lap eating slowly, until Shavon spoke to me. “Kayla we need to have a very important conversation,” she said.

“Now that you’ve shifted, you can join the pack…” I stopped moving, finding it hard to even chew my food. I could remember what Papa said before, if I joined the pack, and then they would hear my thoughts. They’d find out that I was bad, and probably send me back to the bad house.

I shook my head, “You don’t want to join the pack?” Uncle Logan asked me, so I shook my head again and went back to eating my sandwich. “Are you sure sweetheart, it’s fine if you do not want too but it would be nice maybe?” Papa asked me, pulling my eyes to his, he didn’t look mad, but his eyebrows where pushed together. I didn’t want to join the pack. So I shook my head one final time and watched Papa and Uncle Logan look at each other. “Well… whenever you’re ready… you can join okay?” Uncle Logan said fake smiling.

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Chris POV

 

Shavon, Juliet, Logan and I sat watching Kayla finish her sandwich, chewing softly and drinking her milk. I wasn’t surprised in the least that Kayla declined being in the pack, the problem was why? Besides the obvious really… that she didn’t want us in her head.

Hold off on asking her about the three to four months for now… maybe you should ask Rainy... I told Shavon and Juliet, I know others were being hurt, but I didn’t want us to add trauma by rushing Kayla. Her mind was a place we had to slowly move into. They nodded and Logan left, stopping at the end of Rainy, Keith and Cole’s bed gazing at them, shaking his head. He took too much on himself… it wasn’t okay for him to take on this entire extra blame when it really wasn’t his fault they weren’t found. Every one of us had a part to play.

I went back to Kayla, noting that her shifting helped her injuries heal, she still had scars but they were faint, pinkish and appeared to be years old, instead of only a few days. “How are you feeling, are you hurting anywhere sweetheart?” I asked wanting to make sure, that she wasn’t hiding and injury. She shook her head, swallowing the last bit of her sandwich, and then slowly finishing her milk.