Chapter 29 Leo
LEO
My body hurt.
Not that endless agony consuming every moment of my existence like at the lab, but a steady ache still permeated all my bones.
It had only been a week since I had returned, so perhaps it was na?ve of me to expect to be fighting fit by now, but even Ven seemed puzzled.
A day or two after I’d accepted Miranda and Jason into our pack, she cautiously approached me to ask if I had a theory as to why my healing was taking longer.
I hated that she was walking on eggshells around me.
It was as if she was afraid even her voice would rattle me, or perhaps she simply didn’t trust me.
I had been quite violent when I was fighting against being captured, but surely she understood that.
At least I hoped she did. Of course, I could ask her outright, but part of me was afraid of the answer.
Then came the matter of me giving Ricky orders behind her back.
While she hadn’t brought it up, Ricky had told me he didn’t appreciate being put in the middle like that.
I didn’t blame him, but I was immensely grateful he’d gotten Ven out of there.
As crazy as it sounded, I would go through that entire torturous experience three times over if it meant keeping Ven safe.
I didn’t use the question about my healing taking longer as an opportunity to talk about such heavy topics.
Instead, I told them I must have been consistently dosed with wolfsbane so the scientists could test my limits as a wolf.
Hopefully, Jason and the others blowing up the lab meant all their research had been destroyed.
One could only hope.
Ven had seemed satisfied with that at the time, but we still tiptoed around each other.
I was happy to be around Ven again, and I was sure she felt the same, but we were avoiding very specific conversation.
I knew we had to have them eventually, but surely after everything I’d gone through there was no harm in procrastinating a bit.
Well, that was what I told myself.
“You really want me to pluck the heads off your flowers?”
I sipped at my tea as I listened to Ricky and Ven tending her flower patch. It was difficult not to resent Ricky for taking my place as Ven’s helper, and I wondered if I should go out and help. Then again, what if I was more hindrance than an aide?
“Ha-ha. I know it may sound counterintuitive, but dead heading makes sure your flowers continue to reproduce.”
“How’s that work again?”
I leaned toward the window, eager to hear Ven’s explanation. While I was glad to have Ricky back, I missed when Ven and I fooled around in her garden, when she taught me about all the little things I never even knew existed.
“Well, you see, basically all plants want to reproduce. That’s kind of their whole purpose.
The way most flowers reproduce is by the seeds that come once their flowers dry up and die.
Not all, but a majority. So, if you cut off the blooms right before they start to dry out, it tells the plant it needs to make more flowers in order to produce more seeds and make more babies. ”
“Huh. That’s so crazy. I never would have thought of that.”
Ven chuckled. “Plants are fascinating.”
It was a sweet moment between my beta and Ven, but I wanted to be the one out there with her.
Even though we were both so happy to see each other again, and I knew I loved her down to the bottom of my heart, there was an awkwardness between us.
Something a conversation would fix, I was sure, but I simply didn’t have the energy for it.
Funny how I could face off against powerful warlocks with little-to-no trepidation, but speaking to the woman I was in love with seemed like a monumental task.
Come on, Leo, get yourself together.
Easier said than done.
I stood there, waffling for several moments about whether to go outside, until I felt a very deliberate thunk against the side of my leg.
I looked down and met Goober’s wide, beseeching eyes.
He had one of his streamer toys in his mouth.
I’d never met a cat who would drag a toy to its owner like a dog, not even Andromeda’s, but Goober clearly didn’t care about his canine leanings.
“Well, I suppose I am free.”
Was it exactly what I wanted to do? No. What I wanted was to be out in the garden with Ven, acting like nothing had happened, like I hadn’t been captured and tortured for days on end. But I had to admit, playing around with the giant Maine Coon wasn’t a terrible consolation prize.
Just when I thought we were having fun, Goober abandoned all interest in the toy and marched to the back door of the kitchen.
“What, was my technique off?” I teased. I knew the cat couldn’t actually understand my words, but all of Ven’s furry charges had a very strong grasp of tone.
Goober looked at me with those big eyes of his and let out a truly egregious meow. It was almost accusatory in nature and demanding as well. Certainly not the usual gentle giant sounds I heard from him. Whatever he wanted, he was adamant about it.
“Oh, I don’t think you’re supposed to go outside. Don’t you have a kitty tunnel for this?”
Before I met Ven, I probably would have felt like a dolt talking to a cat like a human, but Ven did it all the time, so I figured they were used to that sort of communication.
It was kind of comforting, like having three little nonverbal friends who found increasingly creative ways to share their opinions.
And boy, did they have opinions.
But apparently, my gentle parenting wasn’t working because the large cat continued to chew me out like I had offended him.
If it was Mud Pie or even Fork—the eternal chaos goblin that he was—I would have chalked it up to a temper tantrum.
But Goober wasn’t so temperamental, so after several long moments of absolutely no negotiating with him, I opened the door, hoping I wasn’t about to piss Ven off by letting one of her indoor cats out into the great outdoors.
Strangely enough, Goober didn’t try to go out the door. Instead, he practically ran away from it and went out the flap to his tunnel.
“That was weird,” I said, and made to shut the door, only for Goober to race out of the tunnel and back to my side. “Buddy, what do you want?”
After a few more head butts to the back of my legs, I guessed he wanted me to be outside for some reason. Obliging, I took a step outside. Goober gave a satisfied meow, then ran right back into the tunnel, until he was parallel to me in his protected passage.
“Well, you got me out here. What now?”
At that, the cat let out a chirp and began to strut through the winding structure, pausing after a few feet to look behind him. Those big eyes of his landed on me, almost as if he was asking why I wasn’t following.
I shrugged. Even alphas had to follow the orders of a very determined cat.
More amused than anything else, I followed him.
It amazed me how much personality each of Ven’s cats had.
What amazed me even more was how fond I’d grown of them.
I’d never been against cats, but I’d always preferred canines, what with kind of being one myself.
However, there was something so comforting and entertaining about having three family members who didn’t speak my language but still loved cuddling with me and purring every chance they got.
I was so fixated on Goober and how he continued to stop every few feet to ensure I was still following him, that I didn’t realize how close I’d gotten to Ven and Ricky until my beta called out to me.
“Hey, man. You sure you’re ready to be walking out and about?”
I smiled at Ricky, but my gaze was fixed on Ven, who had shot up from the flower starts she was planting. Did I know what they were? I had a feeling she’d shown them to me when they were smaller, but I wasn’t nearly the expert she was, so I couldn’t identify them.
“Probably not, but a certain someone was pretty insistent I get some fresh air.”
With the type of timing that could only come from a sitcom, Goober gave a very proud meow from within the greenhouse, poking his large head out of the window.
“I didn’t know Goober had gotten his medical degree,” Ven joked with a smile.
Although her grin was genuine, I could see the apprehension in her eyes.
Was that because she was angry at me? Did she pity me?
Did she think I was weak for becoming a prisoner and needing her to help me?
That last one didn’t seem likely, but my ego had taken a huge hit after everything that had happened.
I was used to being the rescuer, not the rescuee.
What kind of alpha was I if I needed my pack to save me?
It was hard to sort through my dark thoughts.
I didn’t know when my anxiety had gotten so powerful, but I hated the hold it had on me.
“Hey, not that I’m not having a rip-roaring good time,” Ricky said, “but I want to go on a run with Miranda and Jason to connect with one of America’s cousins. They’re close by. If you two don’t mind holding down the fort, I could actually get a head start now.”
And there it was, the two of us being forced into close proximity with no polite way to disengage. I couldn’t tell if Ricky was doing it on purpose, or if he simply didn’t pick up on the tension between Ven and me.
“Sure, I would love to help. That is, if I have my doctor’s permission.”
I looked at Ven, trying to analyze everything about her expression.
She definitely looked conflicted, and I liked to think that was because she was worried about my health, not because she was uncomfortable being alone around me.
Really, she hadn’t done much to make me feel so insecure about everything between us, but I supposed it was an aftereffect of being so powerless for over a week.
“Let me go get a chair for you to take breaks in,” she said finally. “And you gotta promise that you’ll stop the moment you start to feel too tired or sore.”
“I promise.”