~Layla~
The pain had never made so much sense before. Never had I been reminded of pain in the way I was now. Whether it be physical or mental, a knife, burning fire or heartbreak, nothing compared to this. It was as though my body was turning inside out, my intestines being ripped apart and falling out.
“Make it stop— Please, please make it stop,” I cried and shook my head. I couldn’t push anymore. There was nothing left in me to take energy from; I was drained of every single drop of strength.
“You can do this. Just a few more pushes, and it’s over,” Analise said, but I couldn’t.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. I can’t,” I said under my breath as the air stuck in my throat.
“Layla, sweetheart, it’s almost over,” Kade’s mom, Elisabeth, said.
“No, it’s not,” I cried. It suddenly dawned on me that my baby was safer in my belly than out in the world. I pushed off the bed as another contraction hit, and I pushed as hard as I could and screamed as loudly as my voice would allow.
“Good girl, just one more time,” Analise said in a huff.
“Aaah!” I grabbed behind my legs and folded over as I pushed.
“There we go,” Analise said under her breath.
I fell backward and closed my eyes. Elisabeth wiped the sweat from my face with a soaked towel, and the screams of my child filled the room.
“Oh my goodness,” Elisabeth breathed.
“You’re beautiful,” Tarisa said and leaned over the baby that was cradled in Analise’s arms. They walked over and stood next to my head.
“Do you want to hold her?” Analise said with tear-filled eyes.
My jaw dropped, and non-stop tears fell from my eyes. “Her?” I asked in a beaten voice.
Her head bobbed. “Yes, she’s perfect, Layla,” she said and placed my baby girl on my chest.
She was the smallest, most perfect little human I had ever seen. Her cries stopped the second she touched my skin. Her tiny body lay on my chest, and I looked down, completely hypnotized by her beauty, and watched her small eyes fluttering in an attempt to open.
“Hi, you,” I said and gently graced her chubby cheek. I laughed through the cries. I couldn’t believe this. She was here, and she was perfect, and she was mine.
“I love you so much,” I murmured, hoping she would hear and understand me.
The laugh went away, and the crying intensified.
“You are my one perfect thing. I am already so proud of you, and I love you beyond this world,” Tarisa leaned down. She placed a soft hand on my daughter’s head and smiled from ear to ear. “She’s going to be strong, powerful and much loved,” she said.
Elisabeth placed a kiss on my head and stroked my hair. “Just like her mother,” Elisabeth said.
I looked up at Tarisa through my blurry vision.
“Will she be happy?” I asked. The silence felt suffocating, but only because I knew what waited.
Tarisa bowed her head. “Very much so,” she said.
I sniffled and looked at the one perfect thing I had created in this life. “That’s good. I want her to be happy,” I said, hopeful, through the tears that kept falling.
“You’ll be there to make sure of it,” Elisabeth said and looked a little confused.
Her confusion was appropriate. I looked between Analise and Terisa; should I tell her?
“Yes,” Clara said.
Are you sure?
“I am.”
You sound very confident.
“Remember when I met Analise?”
Yes.
“I got my tea read… finally, and it said that a baby with our strength would be born and that her grandmothers, both of them, would play a big part in her life. They would guide her on the right path and keep her honest and strong. She deserves to know. I think a part of her already assumes.”
I looked up at Elisabeth and raised my baby girl in the air for her to hold. She reached out her hands and carefully took my daughter, bringing her to her chest in a safe cradle. I knew she’d be safe; she had many strong people around her who would protect her from the world’s evils, but it didn’t make it easier because that was my job. She was mine to protect and love.
I heaved a breath and looked at Elisabeth’s joyful eyes, feeling the pride that filled her.
“I’m going to take down Nathaniel and the Emberclaws,” I said.
Elisabeth tore her eyes away from the beautiful bundle in her arms and looked at me. “I know you are,” she said with confidence.
I smiled and gulped. “The only way for me to protect you, all of you, and to make sure that the Emberclaws never hurt another person again is if I take away the strongest weapon. The one they need to finish what they started.”
Her brows furrowed, and she stopped swinging her body. “What are you saying? Layla, you’re the weapon.”
“Yes, I will need to die in order to stop them.” I sounded more confident than I had in a long time. It was easier now that I knew who I was leaving behind and what kind of world I wanted for the people I left.
“Wait— But I— I don’t understand.”
I reached up and tucked the blanket’s edge in as my daughter fell asleep in Elisabeth’s arms.
“She will be safe with you. You will protect her. Kade will protect his daughter. He’ll teach her to be strong, and you will teach her to be loving. I’m putting my most prized possession in your hands. She will not be used as I have been, and she will not grow up in a world where her family is threatened,” I said.
“You’re really going to do this?” she asked.
Tarisa and Analise stood idly by the edge of the bed and watched us.
“I am,” I said and smiled.
“Does Kade know?” she asked me.
A pang of pain and guilt hit me.
“He doesn’t and will not find out until after it is done. If he stops me, there is nothing we can do, and thousands of werewolves will perish. That little one in your arms holds my entire heart, and I can not risk anything happening to her. Please, don’t tell him,” I said, whipping the words as I was afraid my daughter would understand.
Elisabeth looked down at the baby. Her eyes glistened with the tears were building, and when she looked at me, I saw that I had her word. She didn’t need to say it. She bowed her head, and a silent agreement was made.
