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Despite our teasing, Layla doesn’t seem to mind. She and Savannah traipse back up the stairs, and she’s positively beaming, her pale cheeks flushed and eyes glowing. “That was awesome! I finallyfelther, deep in here,” she presses on her chest. “I felt her come out, take over. It was like I was still me, but I was half her, too. Does that make sense?”
The grin spreads across my cheeks. “It makes perfect sense, gorgeous. You’re a magnificent wolf. I knew you had those instincts in there.”
“Yeah, leave it to Savannah to drag them out. But it makes sense. I didn’t want to hurt you guys, let alone fight you. You weren’t a threat, so my wolf refused to surface. I didn’t understand the shift and the wolf are two separate things.”
Truthfully, for me they’d never been two separate things, which is why we had no idea what was happening in our attempts at training her.
But I would not tell her that.
“I’m glad we had Savannah to help us figure it out,” I reply instead.
“She got a few good swipes in here.” Landon has been examining Layla’s body for injury, and his voice is concerned as he stares at her shoulder. “We should get those cleaned up so they don’t get infected while they heal.”
“They’re just scratches. I barely feel them.” Layla shrugs him off. “And I heal really fast. I’ll be fine. These only took a few weeks to heal up completely, even though I had months of physical therapy to re-strengthen my muscles.”
She holds out her arms, displaying the long, silvery scars.
“Woah, where did you get those? I didn’t even notice them.” Savannah reaches out and grasps her arm lightly, turning it for a better look.
“I normally keep them covered. I was attacked one night, back in LA. Some psycho stabbed me in the chest and cut up my arms when I tried to fight back. I guess they were pretty bad, but I was out cold for over a week and by the time I woke up, I was half-healed.”
“My gosh, I’m so sorry! That must have been terrifying.”
The girls grab the rest of their stuff, and we follow them into the house.
“Honestly, I don’t remember too much about it. I remember being jumped and feeling the pain in my chest, but then I passed out and woke up eight days later. I was in pain, but it was already a lot better. Relearning how to move my hands and everything was hard, but I did it.”
Landon was quiet after Layla brushed off his suggestion to treat the scratches on her back, but now that we were back in the well-lit house, he spoke up.
“Hey, Layla? Stop for a second.”
She pauses, curious, and he approaches to lift her arm and twist it gently from the left to the right, looking closely at the silvery scars. With one more glance at the fresh claw marks on her back, his voice turns grim.
“I don’t think those are cuts, Layla. They look like claw marks. I could be wrong, but it looks to me like you were attacked by a wolf back in LA.”
ChapterTwenty-Five
Layla
* * *
“There’s no way. I remember a man. And the report said my friends saw a man with a silver knife or something.” My arms cross over my chest, and I stare at the four of them in disbelief. “Besides, no wolves knew where I was. They didn’t figure it out until my uncle saw my picture on the newsafterthe attack.”
“And everyone believed those were cuts? The doctors, the nurses, everyone?”
I hesitate; to my knowledge, the only people who saw my arms after they moved me, mid-coma, to Cedars-Sinai, were Roxanne and Dr. Rosen, who were sent by the pack.
My eyebrows lower. “We need to talk to Roxanne.”
I whip out my phone and forgo texting, hitting the call button. She picks it up immediately. She’s out of breath, obviously walking. “Hello, Layla? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I need to talk to you about something. Are you near the house?”
“Yep, I’m just walking back from tonight’s run. I’ll meet you in the library in ten?”
“Perfect.”
I hang up without saying goodbye, then explain to my friends. “Roxanne and Dr. Rosen were the only two people who ever took the bandages off at the hospital. I was moved from the ER in North Hollywood as soon as Dom claimed me, put up in a private room. I don’t know what kind of deal he struck to allow them to treat me instead of the hospital staff, but of course Roxanne was using her beta command on me to keep me docile.”
