Layla was surprised when she woke up to the smell of eggs and sausages cooking on the stove, the scent wafting through the apartment. She immediately got up out of bed and headed to the source of the smell.
She found Henry setting a table in the kitchen.
"Hey," Henry greeted as she came into the kitchen. "Hungry?" It was a ridiculous question. They were wolves. They were always hungry
"Starving," she answered. Henry gestured for her to sit down in one of the chairs.
Layla took a seat and waited for Henry. He placed a plate with about a dozen eggs on the table, along with six sausages. He placed another plate of toast and another one filled with tomatoes, beans, and mushrooms. She sniffed everything excitedly. It was as good a breakfast as she would have found at home in the Silva Forest.
After a moment, Henry sat down, bringing a pitcher of orange juice with him.
He filled his plate with everything he could reach, and Layla followed him after a moment. She waited for Henry to take the first bite and begin eating before she joined him in his meal.
It was wolf tradition. Even if Layla was far from her pack and home, she still wanted to stick to it.
This is really good," Layla told him after a minute. "There aren't many wolves I know that can cook this well."
"It's just eggs and sausages," Henry said, but he smiled despite himself.
One of the hallmarks of being a good wolf was to be able to take care of their pack-their family.
Cooking was part of that. They weren't true wolves. In wolf form, they could survive on raw meat, but only as long as they were in wolf form.
It wasn't realistic to stay shifted just to eat, and then stay that way for the entire digestion process. They needed to have skills that fit their human side too.
"Or are you surprised because I'm a guy?" Henry teased.
Layla shook her head. Those kinds of out dated thinking had long since left the packs in the forests. The female wolves hunted as well as the males. The males needed to know how to cook just the same or the pack risked starvation. Each wolf needed to do his or her part.
"No," she told him. "Every wolf should know how to cook, but most still don't. This is really good," she told him again as she finished half of the eggs and sausages on her plate.
"Thank you, I-" Henry cut himself off as his phone rang. He reached to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Henry."
Layla heard another voice over the phone. She tried to focus on other sounds to drown it out, but she couldn't help it. They were wolves, so their hearing was what it was.
"We need your help. Come as soon as you can." It sounded urgent, and the man's voice on the other end seemed just a little panicked.
Henry hung up the phone without answering and got up out of his seat.
"I need to go," he told her.
"Can I stay?" Layla blurted out without thinking.
She knew she should leave, but she also knew that she had nowhere else to go. She wanted some time to figure out a plan before she just left the safety of his apartment.
"I.." Henry seemed to hesitate as he reached for his black leather jacket. He seemed to relent and said, "Of course," he told her. "You're welcome here as long as you need, but I really need to go."
Layla nodded her thanks and understanding.
Without another word, Henry was off, speeding through the apartment as he collected his things.
Layla finished her meal. She thought she would do the dishes as a thank you for the breakfast he had cooked for her. She was just finished putting everything away when she heard her phone ring.
Glancing at it, she saw that it was her mother.
She'd been trying to get through to her for a while now.
With a deep sigh, Layla answered the call.
"Oh my God, Layla," she heard her mother's voice come through first. "Bruce, it's her. She picked up," Azalea called to her husband.
Layla heard her father's rough baritone from across the room.
"Are you alright, honey?" her mother asked her with worry and concern in her voice.
"I'm fine, Mom," Layla assured her mother. She wasn't about to tell them everything that had happened to her since she had left the Silva Forest, especially what almost happened to her that first night in Lunavia. It wasn't like they could do anything about it, and she didn't want them to worry. Well, more than they were already.
"Please come home, Layla," her mother begged.
"Whatever's wrong, we can sort it out. Please, just come home."
Layla felt her heart break hearing her mother beg her like that, but she knew what would happen if she ever went back. She knew that no matter how much they spoke and promised her, nothing would change.
The laws of the wolves in Silva were centuries old. They would never break them now.
"I can't, Mom," Layla answered.
"Well, where are you?" Layla heard her father ask.
"Tell us, and we'll come and get you." Layla sighed. She had known that they were just going to make this difficult for her. She wondered why she had picked up the phone in the first place. She was starting to regret it.
"No, I mean... " She shook her head. "I mean I don't want to tell you where I am. I don't want to Come back."
There was a period of brief silence on the other end. All she could hear was her mother's breathing and some background noise. Pack life was ordinarily noisy. There was always something going on.
"Layla," her father's voice came through stern like a warning.
"Bruce please," Azalea began, sensing the direction her father was going in.
Her mother was always like that, trying to calm her father before he got out of hand, but it never worked. At the end of the day, she had the same thoughts as he did.
"No, she needs to come home," Bruce continued. "You need to get back here now. The entire pack set up an amazing ceremony for you, and you simply ran away."
"A ceremony I didn't ask for," Layla reminded them. Ever since she'd been born, they had simply assumed that she would go through with the ceremony. Never once had they considered that it wasn't what she wanted.
She was about to continue when she realized that there was no point. They were never going to understand. They had no interest in understanding her.
"Layla," her father's voice rose on the other end, you are being reckless."
Layla didn't hear whatever else he said. She hung up the phone immediately. She was tired of this.
She had left to get away from this. She wouldn't let it follow her. They were the same. She knew if she went back, they would just want the ceremony to continue.
She knew that no matter how hard it had been, leaving her pack had been the right choice. It seemed like everyone was out doing the best thing for themselves, even her parents.
But her parent's words played on her mind. Layla knew that she needed to distract herself from it, so she decided she would look around.
She didn't pry through his things. She just studied the ones he had already placed on display. She started on the books. She found that he had many romance novels, and she smiled to herself. Just looking at him, he was the last person she would expect to read them, but she found it endearing.
She even found a copy of a children's book packed away on the shelf.
She turned to an assortment of glass animals.
There were several wolves on display, but there were also a collection of bears and some birds of prey. She even thought she saw a fox or two.
His apartment seemed like he didn't entertain much. There weren't that many seating options available, and it seemed very private.
Later that night, Henry was still not back. Layla decided it was better not to wait up for him. She went to bed, falling asleep within seconds. The day had drained her, even if she hadn't really done anything.
She was asleep when she heard the noise coming from the living room. It was the sound of a door being banged open. She was out of the bed in seconds and heading toward the sound. She was a wolf. By that very definition, she was unafraid.
She was startled to see Henry tripping over everything on his way into the apartment. Layla raced over to him, finding him bleeding and injured.