Layla couldn't believe what he had just said. A gang. Not only that, but he was the Alpha's son.
She no longer wondered about the state of his injuries. She was only amazed that they weren't worse.
The gangs in Lunavia laced their claws with a mixture of everything that was known to hurt werewolves. Their claws, being nail, wouldn't hurt with the substance on them, and the skin around them had been treated to stop infections.
They attacked each other like this, ripping each other apart. Layla knew that because a drifter had come to her pack once. Her father had been tasked with helping the wolf through his stay. He had told them about the gangs in Lunavia, wolves that had strayed so far from their ancestral roots that they had become almost feral-like in their aggression.
Layla took comfort in the fact that she had used wolfsbane to clean Henry's wounds at least. Wolfsbane would cure almost anything that they might have used against him, but it would just go very slowly. Now she understood why Henry had been so unwilling to tell her anything. She had the treatment right already. He didn't want to admit to anything more.
"Oh my God," she murmured and turned to grab her bag off the couch.
She had to leave. She had, by some miracle, put herself in the most dangerous situation that she could, right in the home of one of the worst gangs to run these streets.
Layla turned back to the door. She had no idea where she was going to go, but she knew that she couldn't be here. She couldn't be involved with gangs.
"You can't leave," Henry told her, blocking her way to the door. "Listen, it's not safe for you to just be wandering around outside."
"It's probably safer than being in here with you," she retorted. She was only feeling brave because of how wounded he was. If he had been at his full strength, she never would have crossed him like this.
"No," Henry told her firmly. "No, it's not. We're in the heart of Wolfsbane territory right now. Any other pack member could come past at any moment. You are literally in the only safe place for you for miles around."
Layla considered his words for a moment. She knew that there was some truth behind them. If they were in gang territory like he said, she was definitely not safe going outside and definitely not at night. There was a chance that he was lying, and they weren't in Wolfsbane territory, but why would he lie?
It made sense that the Alpha's son would have his apartment in their territory. That was the only place that he would be safe from a rival gang.
Slowly, Layla put down her bag.
Even if Henry was lying, she could wait until morning to investigate that little fact for herself.
She could wait to determine what really was the case here.
"Alright," she said eventually. "I'll stay the night through."
She wasn't sure if she had just made the decision that saved her or the worst one of her life, but there was no way for her to know. She was in Lunavia, and it wasn't a place that she knew anything about.
"Thank you," Henry told her, visibly relaxing.
"Why do you even care?" Layla pressed as he stepped away from the door where he had been blocking her exit. "Why does it matter to you if I'm safe?"
"Well," Henry said, sitting down and wincing as he did so, "I saved your life. I wouldn't like all that effort to be wasted. Besides, you're the only one around to take care of me, so my life kind of depends on that right now."
There wasn't anything that Layla could argue with about that, so she simply sat back down on the sofa a distance away from himn.
Layla wondered if she was doing the right thing by staying here with him. After al, he had just admitted to her who he was and who his father was. Despite everything, she still felt like she could trust him.
"How do you manage this?" Layla whispered after a while, pulling her legs up under her on the sofa she was sitting on. "How do you live with your life in constant danger like this?"
Henry didn't answer immediately. He leaned back against the couch and shifted before he began to speak.
"It's the only way I know," Henry said eventually.
"This pack, this city, living and fighting like this ... It's the only way I know how to live. You've lived your way in the forest. This is how we live here."
Layla could understand that, but she also felt that he was wrong to just keep going like this. She had left the forest because it held to customs that she felt were wrong. It wanted a life for her that she didn't want.
"But you can change it," Layla told him again.
"Not all of it, of course. You can't exactly change the city. But you don't have to live like this."
It was a difficult thing though. When Layla had changed everything about her life, she'd been forced to let go of her family too. She had to run away from every single thing that she'd ever known.
That wasn't something that was recommended to someone. It wasn't even something that was accepted. Layla had told no one that she was leaving because she knew that someone would have tried to stop her.
"For now..." Henry said again, his voice sounding surer. "For now, I have to while I live here under my father's reign as Alpha. Maybe ..." Henry mused, smiling slightly. "Maybe when I'm Alpha it can be different."
That was even more to ask, but Layla found herself drawn to him because of it. When she had found something wrong in her world, she had left.
Here he was trying to change it and make it better than it was.
It was admirable and possibly insane.
"That's very brave of you," Layla murmured softly, turning to him.
For the first time, she noticed how close together they were sitting. Henry turned toward her, leaning closer, and she matched him on instinct.
She quickly came back to herself and pulled away from him.
"I, er..." she struggled with her words. She hadn't meant to speak, but she hadn't wanted an awkward silence to fall on them. "I should take a shower."
She supposed that seemed like a good enough excuse to get out of the room.
"Sure, sure," he said, clearing his throat. He pulled away from her too, sitting upright on the sofa.
"I'll, uhm, I'll clear up here. Thank you for dinner and lunch, and everything you made today."
Layla nodded, pushing herself off the sofa.
"No problem," she told him.
Without another word, she headed straight to the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and immediately ran the shower. she knocked her head against the wall behind her slightly, unable to process what had just happened or almost happened.
What on earth was she thinking?
Henry watched as Layla got up to go to the shower. He felt like it was somehow a mistake letting her go away. He felt like he should stop her, but he couldn't exactly place why he was feeling like that.
He leaned his head back against the couch and exhaled deeply. He was too restless to sit still. A few days of being on the couch unable to move would do that to any wolf. Glancing at the dishes on the table before him, he took them to the kitchen and cleaned them.
He straightened the pillows and blankets, folding them up. He was strong enough to sleep back in his room tonight, so he might as well sort out the living room properly.
He picked up Layla's bag, the only thing that she had in her possession, and took it to the room that he had started to think of as hers. He placed it down on the chair and was about to leave when he noticed something had fallen out.
He bent down to pick it up and found that it was a necklace with a carved pendant.
For a moment, Henry just stared at the thing in his hand as understanding dawned on him. It was an engagement charm. He hadn't known the packs still practiced these rustic traditions.
It meant that Layla was engaged. Henry felt his body go ice cold. Was that why she was here in Lunavia? Had she come to find her fiancé? Henry shook himself out of his trance, placing the necklace back where he had found it. This shouldn't have mattered to him.
So, why did it bother him so much?