~Layla~
I was staring bewilderedly at Kade who had just bared all of it for me. He let down his blockings and allowed me to see his memories, all of them.
His parents, Danielle, his uncle dying in front of his eyes. It was all there and I could see how much it pained him but it was so hard for me to figure out which one of the Kades I saw was the one that was standing in front of me.
“Does your mom blame herself for Danielle leaving?”
He shook his head.
“No, she doesn’t but she hates Danielle for what she did. My mom told me to lower my guards and let her in and after I did, she left. My mother never forgave her for that.”
“She was scared that you’d put your walls up again.”
“She was and i did, until I met you.” He looked so sincere and seeing everything he had been through put things into perspective but there were still so many questions.
“Kade, you’ve seen the Emberclaws before,” I said.
His eyebrows pulled down and he look incredulously at me with a questioning gaze.
“You mean Danielle?”
“No, the men who broke into your house when you were a child, the ones that killed your uncle, they were Emberclaws. I saw his eyes, they turned blue.”
“I would’ve remembered that,” Kade said and shook his head.
“You were just a little boy, you had to see a man you loved killed right in front of your eyes and then your mother killed them in front of you as well. That’s trauma, Kade, even for a werewolf.”
“I don’t remember them being there, I just remember-“
“Your uncle being killed.” I said and grabbed his hand.
“That’s what a boy would remember, there’s nothing wrong with that.” I furrowed my brows and the images of that night came back to me.
“They wanted you, Kade. Why did they want you?”
“Who did?”
“The men who killed your uncle, they were there for you. Do you have any idea why?”
Kade thought about it for a moment. He was so young when it happened so of course he wouldn’t remember every detail but maybe he remembered something that could help us figure this out.
“I got nothing.”
“Ask your mom,” I said and narrowed my eyes. “She will know.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew what they were after, she knew where they would go. I think they tried again with that guy who came to your pack, the one that you thought Danielle flirted with. You need to talk to your mom,” I insisted.
It seemed to get through to him and his eyes, previously flickering in confusion, turned to me with a stern glare.
I was standing in my bathroom, Kade had gone back in a fiery determination ready to talk to his mom. It didn’t sit well with him that more questions were piling up, especially since some of them were being kept by someone he trusted with his life. It somewhat saddened me to think that his parents were home and I wasn’t there to meet them. I don’t know why but I was just looking forward to that after hearing everything that Kade had said about them. Hearing that Anna was alright, albeit somewhat pissed off at him for meeting me without her, made my heart settle in peacefulness. I needed her to be safe and okay and it sounded like Kade’s mother was looking out for her.
Before he left he gave me a mixture of herbs from his mother that he told me to scrub all over my body. I opened the compact jar and the smell made me bend over as I hurled and held the jar as far away from me as possible.
“Oh fuck,” i cussed and took a few deep breaths. The stench was filling the bathroom quickly and soon enough I wouldn’t be able to draw a breath without smelling it.
’That’s nasty, why does she hate you?’
Clara said and backed away. Not only did we smell it but we were wolves which meant that our smell was heightened and it was not a quality that I appreciated right now.
She doesn’t hate me, she just doesn’t want us to get caught
’You sure about that? Because based of off this I would say that she hates you’
If she hates me then she hates you
I reminded her.
’Nobody can hate me, I’m a beautiful furry beast with blue eyes’
Let’s just do this
I grabbed the herbs and started rubbing them all over my body. I pretended that it was just an ordinary sugar scrub smelling of vanilla.
’How are you not puking?’
I’m trying to visualize here, Clara. Shut up
After I was done I got in the shower and rinsed it off. It may have smelt like a dead corpse filled with garbage and sweaty gym underwear but it left my skin softer than I had ever experienced it.
I grabbed the jar, about to throw it away when I saw something white sticking up on the surface. I dipped my fingers in the herb mix and pulled out a piece of paper.
“Layla, be careful. I look forward too meeting you soon”
Who was this from? It couldn’t have been Kade, he had no reason to write me a note.
’He wasn’t the one who made the mixture’
It was his mother, I still don’t know her name but she sent this to me. A little smile made its way onto my face as I read it over and over and over again.
I held it against my chest and hid the note in the jar which I placed behind everything in the bathroom cabinet.
I crawled into bed with a fluttering heart and a heavy head. This night I fell asleep quickly but the sleep was anything other than peaceful.
“Again?” I asked as I opened my eyes to see the woods all around me. It was as though the sun shone down and brightened everything up but then I looked up and the trees were tightly grown together and the sky couldn’t even be seen. It was an illusion, there was no light, the forest was as dark as it ever was.
“Hello, Layla,”
“Analise,” i said and smiled as I walked up to her house.
“It’s good to see you again.”
“Why can’t we meet in person? Why do you only bring me here in my sleep?”
“It is when you sleep that your spirit is at its most calm and it is the easiest time for me to call on it.”
“But I can just walk to you,” I said.
Analise smiled and gently turned her head.
“You can’t,”
“Why not?”
“By house is not physically obtainable by others.”
“What does that mean? You brought me to Kade, you brought Kade through the entwining maze that is the forest, why not bring me to you?”
“It poses a greater threat having you come to me than he to you. That is why I sent him to you,”
My head was starting to ache which I didn’t know was possible considering I wasn’t technically a physical person, it was just my spirit.
“Where is my wolf?”
“Her spirit is still in her body, safely asleep within you and you are in your house.”
“My body’s at home.” I said and nodded my head as I realized what all of it meant.
“No, Layla, at your house, not your home. The Emberclaw pack is not your home.”
Her eyes grew serious in attempt to get through with her messages.
