“Shouldn’t you be getting back to the pack?” He groaned and took a large bite of food. “They need you, Caddy. You’re the Alpha now.”
“I don’t want to be the Alpha,” he pouted. I giggled and threw a pickle towards him. “That was rude.”
“You need to go back,” I smiled sadly, not really wanting him to leave.
“Don’t you want me here?” he asked, confused. I knew Caddy didn’t have a lot of friends back in his pack. He was probably lonely.
“Of course, I do.” I rested my hand on his arm. “But the pack deserves to have an Alpha like you. Theirs was just murdered, and their new one is MIA.”
“I know, you’re right,” he grumbled, setting his sandwich down. “I’ll go back soon."
“Good.”
Theo came back from showering and in a new change of clothes. He didn’t speak much. Caddy held most of the conversation until he left to go back to the packhouse and sleep.
“You know you can talk to me, right? If something’s bothering you,” I offered Theo. He sat in the corner of the small room, slumped against a cabinet. He didn’t even move when I spoke. “Because I’m getting tired of this, Theo. I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong, and you’ve barely said five words to me in the past week.”
He moved around and stared down at his hands. I reached back and grabbed a pillow from my bed and threw it at him. He looked up, shocked. It was the first time his expression had changed in days.
“Will you just say something!” I yelled loudly. His eyes remained wide and unmoving.
A nurse came into the room. “Is everything okay?” she asked softly, looking between Theo and me rapidly.
“It’s fine,” Theo said softly.
“No, it’s not fine,” I called out, trying to hold back tears.
“Oh,” the nurse said awkwardly.
“Just go if you want to go,” I told him, crossing my arms over my chest. “But don’t stay here and stare at me because you’re upset.”
“No,” he said, too quietly for me to hear, but I saw his mouth move.
“Well then, get up out of that chair and talk to me! Do you think it makes me feel any better having you sit and sulk while I lay here? Because it doesn’t.” I didn’t mean to be cruel, but if it got Theo to open up, it was worth it. Even if he was angry at me, that was better than this unimaginable silence.
The nurse left the room. Theo stayed where he was, and I pushed the button to adjust the bed so I was sitting up further.
“Theo, I'm serious.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You might as well. This isn’t helping me at all.”
“I’m the reason you have a broken leg!” he screamed back at me. I tucked myself inward. “If I had been more careful, you wouldn’t be here.”
“That’s not true,” I denied.
“You know it is, Margo. My job is to protect you, and I couldn’t even do that. You needed me, and I wasn’t careful enough. I’m trying to find a way to get over that and be the man you need me to be. And I don’t know how to do that yet, so I’m going to sit here. And sulk. And not talk until I can do that.”
I didn’t have a response to him immediately. He settled back in his seat and his constant, unwavering gaze.
“You didn’t let me down,” I told him softly. “You could never let me down.”
“Go to sleep, Margo.”
“No,” I shook my head. “We’re going to have a conversation about this.”
“I don’t have anything else to say,” he growled.
“Well, then listen to me. What happened last week was no one’s fault. Did we say some mean things before that? Yes. Should that conversation have waited? Probably. But that wasn’t even the reason that all of this happened. Tansy was the one who ran out the door, and we’re not going to sit here and blame a child for something that wasn’t her fault. You would’ve done the same thing as I did, we all would have.”
“That wolf shouldn’t have been there.” He shook his head.
“No,” I sighed. “It shouldn’t have.”
“And where the hell were the guards? Why didn’t the border catch them? There have got to be holes in our security, and I can’t figure out who they are, and I don’t know what to do.”
“We can figure it out together,” I suggested.
“Where the hell were the guards?” he asked, not paying attention to me.
“Theo.”
“Was it a planned attack, or was it random?” he thought aloud.
“Theo!” His head snapped up. “Stop!”
“I can’t!” he shouted, standing up. “I can’t stop thinking about. I can’t stop seeing it in my head over and over again like it’s a rerun! All I see is that wolf’s teeth sinking into your leg, and it’s like I’m back there. Every time I close my eyes!”
“Will you just come and sit with me?” I asked.
He paused and dropped his shoulders.
“If that’s what you want,” he mumbled, walking over to me. He moved to take the chair next to the bed, but I grabbed his hand and tugged him towards me. He hesitantly moved onto the bed, one leg hanging off slightly. “You have to tell me,” he began to say, but paused and swallowed the lump in his throat. “You have to tell me if you ever begin to resent me for not being there for you.”
I opened my mouth to protest, the intention clearly on my face.
“No, Margo. Promise me.” His eyes were serious.
“I promise,” I said to soothe him. “I promise to tell you if I’m ever angry with you, even if it’s just because you put mustard on my sandwich. I’m going to tell you so often that you’re going to get sick of me and glue my mouth shut."
He cracked a smile.
“There he is,” I greeted, grinning up at him.
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened
