Chapter 354

I looked away, little did she know that little me was bad and that’s why I was taken, “I don’t know how to read,” I blurted out instead. Ashamed I looked down at my thighs, trying to pull my hand from hers but she didn’t let go and well I wasn’t really trying so I gave up, enjoying the warmth in her hands for a bit longer. “The people that took you didn’t teach you?” she asked carefully, sounding unsure. I shook my head, “Well if you want to learn Aunt Julia can teach you,” she shrugged, I shook my head, I knew how stupid I was, that’s why they never taught me – “I can’t do it,” I whispered, no need to have more people in her family witness to my failure. “It’ll be hard but you can, I know you can,” she said confidently nodding, the smile I liked on her face. I was already a disappointment in so many ways, I know I wouldn’t be a good friend and I didn’t want to fail her anymore, so I just nodded even though I just knew I wasn’t smart enough to learn to read. I wiped at my face with the hand she wasn’t holding. My breathing back to normal, but there was something I couldn’t understand; there was a feeling that had covered me from head to toe. I couldn’t remember ever feeling this way, not in my life at the facility and I’m sure that if I could recover my memories from before I hadn’t then either. . . . Chris POV I was probably the only father on the planet that would want a boy to be near their daughter. In fact I remember when dad was introduced to Nico, Lucy was already twenty-two years old and no longer a baby, but she was his baby. I watched as Ben walked away from my baby and it was so noticeable that she was retreating again that I nearly ran after him and chained him near Kayla. Again something I’m sure no other father was thinking. It was irrational, it was so far out from normal, but sleep deprivation had come to mean a whole new thing to me and I went to medical school many times, I endured surgical residency – three times – in my long life. Sleepless nights studying, long drawn out surgeries that would keep me away from my family; but this was worse. I never got a day off, and with twelve children, eight of who couldn’t sleep without a nightmare or whimpers in their sleep I was exhausted. We slept in planned and assigned intervals. We didn’t want to give them medication to put them so far into their sleep that it was like a coma. The alternative that had been working for nearly a week. We found was waking them from restless sleep before the shrieks of agony kicked in. keeping them awake for brief periods and letting slip into slumber. I shook my head, gazing as Kayla lifted the spoon, filling it with some soup and brought it to her mouth, “Did you like spending time with Ben?” “Saxon,” she murmured the wind was louder than her voice. I blinked; Kayla never gave information unless she was asked something directly. I wanted to reward her for just saying that on her own. That was what we were doing to help them acclimatize in the real world. Praising when they behaved or completed a task, in short terms we were reconditioning their fragile minds. They wanted cues and structure, unsure of what they were allowed to do or what was appropriate but just a simple praise went a long way. It would be something they knew as okay to do. The process was fairly tedious but I didn’t… we – Rainy and I – didn’t mind doing that so they could grow. “Saxon?” I questioned even though I knew that it was probably the name of his wolf. That her wolf told her that, but again to draw her out I acted like I needed her to explain to me. She nodded scooping more soup and bringing it to her mouth, “That is his wolf name,” she reached for her juice. “Oh did he tell you that?” she shook her head, pausing before bringing her finger up to her skull and tapping, “my wolf.” “He drew me a picture,” the words again soft and calm, she pointed to it where it rested on top of her tablet. Again I smiled at her sharing, “Oh what is it of?” “He is building a boat, he told me what it was yesterday but today he drawed the picture of one,” I smiled at her, “that was very nice of him… maybe you can draw something for him,” I said not sure if that thought had crossed her mind or not. She still didn’t join Chelsea’s pack, not that she needed to since Chelsea could read her thoughts Rainy informed me. So as of now, Kayla’s mind was a mystery… to us.