Brand New Day

Lya

My eyelids were heavy, and it was a monumental effort to just crack them open. I was surrounded by white, and everything smelled sterile. I tried to shift positions, but searing pain ran through me. I gasped.

“Hey, take it easy, kiddo,” a familiar voice said from the corner of the room. I turned my head to look at him. Trevor gave me a half smile. “You certainly do like making a scene, don’t you?”

“I’m sorry,” I croaked.

He reached over and handed me a cup of water from the bedside table. “Had to expect something like that with the bombshell I dropped on you,” he muttered.

“Where are we?” I asked.

He looked at me with a sad expression. “You are in a hospital. My first aid knowledge doesn’t quite cover bullet holes.”

I gulped. I guess I wasn’t in any condition to run. When they found out about Ted, it’d be really easy to just waltz up and arrest me.

Or maybe it would be really easy to suggest he shot me and I killed him in self defense. I breathed out. I had a defense, at least.

“Are you going to stay?” I asked. He nodded. “Are you still going to take me to your pack?”

Trevor chuckled. “We are already here,” he said. “Had to get you to a place with the proper blood supply.”

I nodded. I didn’t know how I felt about that.

I felt a rustling in the back of my head. Welcome back, motherfucker. I looked down at my wrist.

“Where’s my bracelet?” I asked frantically.

Trevor’s eyes darkened. “I imagine it broke when you shifted. Besides, you don’t need that here.” The presence in my head gloated at his comment.

“I shifted?”

He leaned forward in his chair, looking at me. “Lya, you were attacked by four hunters. Your wolf bought us enough time to get you out of there alive.” His words were intense, and his eyes bored into me. I stayed quiet.

The door opened and a man in a white coat walked in. “Ah, Lun-Leah. My name is Dr. Whitledge. Good to see you awake,” he said with a warm smile.

“Lya,” I corrected. “Hard I. Like Lyall, minus the last Ls.”

“Lya,'' he nodded. “Well, you certainly gave us all quite a scare. Three gunshot wounds is a lot for a body to take.” I didn’t speak. “Well, Lya,” he emphasized the correct pronunciation, “you were pretty lucky - a fractured collarbone we had to put a plate in to secure, a bit of damage to the left kidney and spleen, and damage to your thigh where we removed a bullet.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked him. He was too friendly.

“How long do I have to be here?” I asked, desperate to get out of here.

“I’d like to see you here for at least another few days, but if everything is healing well, you should be able to go home on Thursday or Friday,” he said.

Home. I didn’t have a home.

Trevor piped up. “I think we have a room for you in the packhouse, so you’ll have a place to go once they kick you out of this fine establishment,” he said with a wink.

“Since you are up, I’ll have someone send along food. I’ll be out of the hospital over my lunch, but if you need anything, just let your friend over here know. He knows how to reach me,” Dr. Whitledge said. He turned and headed out of the room, the door closing with a click.

I started to panic. I was truly and utterly trapped. Trevor must have sensed it, because he came and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Hey, calm down,” he reassured me. “You’ll be safe here, I promise.”

“I-I-I,” I choked on my words. “I killed Ted,” I finally managed to blurt out.

“I know,” Trevor said. His matter of fact demeanor was off putting. Why was he so willing to help me?

“They’ll come and arrest me,” I pointed out. I didn’t think a pack of werewolves would want a slew of human police descending upon them.

“It’s been dealt with,” he assured me. “You are safe here.” I didn’t say anything. Words were hard. “Look, we get that you don’t want anything to do with your wolf. You’ll stay here as long as you need to to learn and accept things, and then you can decide what’s next and where to go. Until then, you are under the protection of the pack.”

“Will you be here?” I asked. I was pretty good at picking up and moving on to new places with no connections, but relocating to a pack of werewolves was a little out of my area of expertise.

“For at least a little while.” Trevor squeezed my hand. “I’ve got that thing I’m looking for, remember?”

I nodded. I guess it was too much to expect him to hang around and babysit me.

“Do try to make friends here,” Trevor said, looking intently at me. “Rose, one of our scouts, helped get you back here, will want to come say hi, and you’ve already made a good impression on the Alpha.” Another wink and a sly smile.

I scrunched up my nose. What even is an alpha? All of this was getting overwhelming. I really just wanted to go to sleep and wake up to find this was all a weird dream.

“So what do I do now?” I asked.

Trevor shrugged. “Sit and heal, I guess. Read a book?”

'You can always talk to me,' the voice said.

I sighed. “Will I ever be allowed to leave?”

“We don’t keep prisoners without a cause. But Lya, you’ve already seen how dangerous it is to be out in the world so cut off from your wolf. It would be to your advantage if you planned on being here for a while. Besides,” he chided, “you might decide you like it here and want to stick around.” He gave my shoulder a playful shove, which had me doubling over in pain.

“Oh! Oh my god! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he gasped.

“It’s… fine,” I said through gritted teeth, tears pricking my eyes. I guess broken collarbones were no joke.

'I’d do what I could to help you out if you’d just let me in,' the voice said.

I had a lot of questions.