“You’re right,” he said, surprising me. “But I know what it’s like to lose a parent, and I can’t imagine if my mom was gone, too. I don’t know what I would do, but I know that I wouldn’t want to die because of it.”
“I don’t want to die,” I seethed. “I wanted to have the damn choice to my own body. This isn’t you cutting my hair or changing my clothes. You took away everything about me that made me who I am. You changed the chemical makeup of my body, my genetics. I can never go back to being human. I don’t care if I was dying, I should’ve had the right to choose, and you knew that.”
“There wasn’t a choice to be made,” he snapped. “You were dying, Margo.”
“I hoped you would respect me enough to let me go.”
“And I hoped you loved me enough to fight.”
“You hoped I loved you enough to fight for a life I don’t want?” I stood up from the chair. “You hoped that my love for you outweighed everything else I liked about myself? You hoped my love for you would make up for the fact that you took this from me?”
“I didn’t take anything from you!” he yelled, his face growing red. “I saved your life! What part of that don’t you get?”
“I didn’t want to be saved!” My body shook under the weight of my anger. Theo recoiled. “I didn’t want to be saved, Theo, and you’re selfish to think that this is some kind of gift you’ve given me. You’re being selfish.”
“Me?” he questioned. “I’m the one being selfish? Can you take one minute to understand that being alive and a werewolf is better than being dead? Can you at least acknowledge that?”
“No.” I shook my head firmly.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “We’re not going to agree on this.”
“Then get out.”
“What?” he asked, stepping closer to me.
“I said get out,” I growled. “This isn’t something we get to agree to disagree on. If you don’t think that taking away my choice to my own body is a mistake, then you need to leave. This isn’t something I can live with.”
“I’m not leaving you here alone,” he vowed.
“You’re not. You sent Gemma, and I’m sure you can send Sloane and Gabriel and Cam and Reese and Eli and anyone else you can think of to check on me. And they’ll report back to you because you’re their Enforcer. But you aren’t mine. I don’t care if I’m a werewolf now. You aren’t in charge of me. And I don’t care if this is your house,” I pushed against his chest roughly with both of my hands. “I want you out. I want you to leave! Get out! Now!”
“Margo,” Theo pleaded. He allowed me to push him back but stopped firmly near the front door.
“Can’t you see that you’re hurting me?”
His jaw quivered, and he closed his eyes, stilling briefly before he threw the door open and walked out of it quickly. My chest tightened, and I placed my hand over my heart to make sure it was still beating correctly.
I stumbled back to the couch, where I spent the remainder of the day staring at the wall until late afternoon when Gemma came back for her evening routine. She brought a premade dish over that she finished off in our oven as I sat at the kitchen counter.
“How d-did it go?” she mumbled while slicing a loaf of bread.
“Fine,” I breathed.
“That’s not what I heard.”
“He doesn’t understand.”
She pursed her lips. “D-did he try to?”
“I’m not even sure,” I sighed. A muscle cramp surged in my stomach, and I tried to ignore it until the pain felt like it was twisted around all the organs in my belly. I made a small noise of discomfort, and Gemma’s head snapped toward me immediately. My hand clutched at my stomach, and I heaved in deep breaths, wincing again.
“M-margo, you need to shift,” she snapped, slamming everything down on the counter.
“No.” Another ripple of pain rushed through me, and I stumbled out of the stool I was sitting on, leaning against the nearby fridge for support. This time, a louder cry broke free from my mouth, and it sounded more animalistic than human.
“G-go outside.” Her eyes glazed over, and I knew she was mind-linking someone. It was an expression I had grown accustomed to.
“Don’t tell him,” I pleaded, staggering toward the back door. The cool wind touched my skin, and I felt like I wanted to leap out of my body. My whimpers turned to bellows and bellows to screams as muscle cramps took over nearly every inch of my body. I dropped to the ground and let my head fall in the grass.
I should’ve been able to smell Theo before I saw him, but my mind was clouded. He dropped on the ground next to me and moved my arms away from their position clutching around the middle of my body.
“Margo,” he said sternly, trying to make eye contact with me. I blinked rapidly but looked back at him. “You’re going to shift.”
“No,” I whimpered, trying to break free from his hold. He placed my hands on the ground and moved my feet, so they were laying out away from me. “No, please.”
“Margo, your body is readying for a shift, whether you want it or not. It’s happening, but I am right here, and I’m not going to leave you.”
“No, I don’t want-”
“I know this is not what you want.” He nodded, stroking my cheek sadly. “I wish I could take it all away for you.” He paused for a minute, petting my hair back from my sweaty forehead. “Do you want to let it happen naturally, or do you want the pain to be over now?”
“Make it stop,” I pleaded softly, closing my eyes
