Shayla is sitting on her bed writing in the notebook. The same book I gave her I at the hospital. Suddenly that note comes to mind. But I quickly dismiss it. She stops writing and looks up at me. Giving me a look, asking why I'm here.

"You've taken quite a liking to that book." sitting on the end of her bed. I don't know why, but I'm slightly joyed that I gave her something she liked. Odd I know. It wasn't even meant as a gift.

She sighs closing the book with the pen serving as a bookmark and places it on the nightstand. She sits up a little straighter before crossing her legs. Placing her right elbow on her knee, so her arm can serve as a stand for her head.

"Why are you here?"

I want to tell you. I really do.

"My stitches have been removed. I'm healing perfectly fine. And I'm keeping a good body weight. There is no reason for you to be here."

My reason for being here is more important than any other.

"Why do you insist on bothering me?"

Am I still just a bother to her?

"My intention was never to bother you, Shayla."

How am I able to bother her so much anyway? No one else seems to?

Could it be.....

'Yes.'

'Shut up.'

"Why is it that I managed to bother you so much anyway?" fighting back my smile.

"You just do." rubbing her eyes.

It is.

"So, I managed to get through your thick exterior?" allowing myself to smile.

"Yes." she answers reluctantly, giving me a bothered smile.

But I still have the feeling that I'm only scratching the first of many layers. But that's still an achievement. I huff a laugh, gaming me a short glare.

"So you have decided against ignoring me today?" still with a smile placed on my face.

"Well, it wasn't working on you, now was it? You don't seem to be able to take a hint."

"Then, what might that hint be?"

"Well, normally, when a person is avoiding you and refusing to talk to you. It means that they want to be left alone or that they don't want anything to do with you." she states quite plainly.

Well, fuck that hurts.

No.

Stop it.

She's just angry. trying to say whatever she needs to for you to go away. Right now you are nothing but an irritating stranger that just so happens to run her brother's pack.

"Is that the same message that you are trying to send to your brother?" I ask still a little hurt.

"No." with her eyes now shooting daggers at me.

"No? But you're giving him the same treatment?"

"What happens between my brother and myself is none of your business." sternly stating the incorrect fact.

"It is my business." I state trying to remain calm.

"No. Nothing that concerns me is any of your business. Nothing. What happens between my brother and I has absolutely nothing to do with you. I am not trying to push Chris away. I'm just too fucking week to talk to him. To tell him what I must. Chris has every right to be frustrated with me. he has every right to yell at me. He has every right to hate me." stopping for a moment. Holding back her tears. Swallowing the log in her throat. Taking a breath in. And regaining her composure. She speaks again. "But you do not have a right to any of those things. The only thing that concerns you is how I interact with your pack. And I think we can both agree that I have been quite civil."

Five seconds ago she was about to break down. But now all that remains is her anger, that she's keeping at a simmer.

"You have quite the control over your emotions." I simply point out. Not knowing what else to say.

"Not always." She states sharply. Anger still holding the larger share.

"Yes. I do agree with you. You are always polite. You are very careful with what you say. On that, I do agree with you."

She is surprised for a moment. Her anger seems to be subsiding. She leans back on the headboard.

"I know that you put a lot of effort into it."

She rolls her eyes at that.

"And I know you don't understand or know why. But everything that concerns you, concerns me. Henceforth my business."

She opens her mouth in protest, but I cut her off.

"That is a fact. There is no changing it."

She bits her tongue.

"And despite what you may think this is not out of any ill intention towards you. And I don't visit you with the intention of bothering or irritating you. The only reason I visit you is to see how you are. Well, and sometimes out of curiosity. Like today, all I wanted was to have a conversation with you about the girl."

"Her name is Nicky." avoiding everything else that I said.

"I know."

She just sits there looking at me, trying to figure me out. And I return the gaze.

"What did you want to ask me?"

"How did you know she was in trouble?"

"I saw it happening through my widow."

"What made you help her?"

Shayla shrugs her shoulders, "She needed help."

And that was all it took.

"Did you consider the possible risks?"

"No."

That's unlike her.

"Why did you bring her here?"

"I couldn't leave her there. And I couldn't take her back to her house. And she had a few cuts that needed cleaning."

"You didn't see any outcome where you could have gotten hurt?"

"No. I saw about twenty of them."

So, she did analyse the situation.

She saw twenty outcomes where it could have ended badly for her. And yet she still chooses to do it.

"You just didn't care."

No, that doesn't sound right.

"You weighed up the pros and cons. And in your mind ensuring the child's safety outweighed the possibility of risking your own."

She just sits there quietly, looking at me slightly surprised. I have the feeling that she's a little more surprised then she's letting on.

I'm right. I caught her out

But that brings up another issue.

"Why do you put so little value in your own life?"

"You don't need to know."

"Shayla." I warn her.

"I have my reasons." she re-answers, somehow thinking that that is a better answer.

"Shayla." I warn her again.

"And I am not going to share them with you." matter-of-factly.

I growl at her.

"Nothing you say will change that." unfazed

I growl at her again.

"And no amount of growling will either." she plainly informs me. Somehow giving me a bothered and pleading look; tiredly asking me to drop it.

There is a silence between us for a moment before I decided to break it.

"It never ceases to amaze me how nonchalant you are with the whole werewolf thing."

"Well, I have had five years to accept that you and other supernaturals exist."

Well... yes, but not really what I was getting at.

"But even still. You're constantly putting yourself in tough situations. when someone threatens you, you just shrug it off. And when I growl at you, you're completely unfazed. And I've seen my best warriors shake in their boots when I growl at them. But you? Nothing."

"Well, yeah. You're their Alpha. And you're yet to issue me a threatening one. But I doubt that my reaction would be much different." Getting lost in her thoughts. "Anyway. Maybe this will help you out a bit. I'm not weaker than you."

What?

"No, let me re-phrase that. How can I explain? I'm not weaker than the average wolf. Sure they are stronger and faster physically. But I'm not weaker than them. But I am weaker than you, yourself." she 'explains'

????????

"How?" Beyond confused.

A small smile takes place on her face before she shakes her head. "Now that's for another time." Huffing a laugh.

Her smile helping me regain some of my sanity. I made her smile. Genuinely.

"I'll try not to be so bitchy the next time you visit, if I may ask for something in return?"

"Don't ever refer to yourself in that manner again." quite freely showing my dislike in the term.

She just raises one eyebrow, before shaking it off.

"Yes, you may."

"If I ask you to leave, you leave."

"Is that all you ask?"

She nods

"May I ask why?"

"Some days human interaction is just out of the cards for me. Well, you get what I mean." She answers leaning back on the headboard.

"I think I can manage with that." I need to give her this.

"Thank you."

"May I ask one more thing from you?"

She thinks about it for a moment before nodding.

"Please talk to him. I don't care about what. Just please talk to him. "

She sighs swallowing the log in her throat, "I'll try."