Her Forever VS Her Right Now

Her Forever VS Her Right Now
Laura
I leaned against Stu, clinging to him for a moment. I had been able to put the suspicion of my parents to the back of my mind for a few hours, but now it was time to go home. I had called my parents on the way back to Scarlett’s house to tell them that Stu was coming for dinner. They seemed excited, which now raised warning bells. I hated it. He pulled back to tuck my hair behind my ear.
“I love you, Laura.”
I raised my hand to touch his cheek. He covered my hand with his own, pressing it onto his face before turning his head to kiss it.
“Link me as soon as you’re sure, either way.”
I kissed him again. “I will. I promise.”
Elena gently led me away from Stu. I hated this next part of our plan. He was going to watch me take a beating from Silver and Elena. I took a deep breath before nodding.
“Okay. Do it.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, Laura.”
I tensed up. “It’s fine. Just do it.”
I closed my eyes as she pulled back her fist. My wolf knew not to heal us. We needed to go home, like we had been in a struggle. It was a key component of our plan. I didn’t even flinch or make a sound when her hit took me to the ground. All I did was get back up to take my position in front of her again. I inhaled and exhaled before ending up on the ground again. Before I could get up, her foot slammed into my ribs, drawing a small whimper from me. Above me, Elena let out a small, startled cry, making my eyes snap open. Stu stood above me while Elena was on the ground a few feet from me, with Beanie standing protectively in front of her furious. Stu held his hands up.
“Sorry, Beanie. I can’t allow her to kick my mate in the stomach. We are trying for a cub, and she was just in heat,” Stu said.
Elena slowly got to her feet, dusting herself off before beaming at me.
“Oh my Goddess, Laura, Stu, that’s incredible. I hope you guys have a whole litter,” she sang as she put her hand on Beanie’s arm. “It’s okay, Beanie. I understand.”
Beanie bared his teeth at Stu. “Watch yourself! I will hurt you for going after my mate,” he growled.
Stu lowered his head respectfully. “I understand.”
Elena reached down to pull me to my feet. “Alright, you look pretty broken. You have a broken nose, a busted lip, and a black eye, and I’m pretty sure I heard a rib break.”
I gingerly cradled my side. “You did.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” I turned to look at Silver. “Are you ready?”
He nodded. Stu slammed his hand into Silver’s chest, forcing him to stop as he walked over to me.
“I’m warning you; I don’t give a fuck who’s protection you are under. If you seriously harm my mate, I will kill you!” He growled.
Silver lowered his head. I knew that he was now an Omega in the sleuth, but it was still weird to see him so subservient to people who were once below his rank. I put my hand on Stu’s shoulder.
“I’ll be okay. I promise.”
He turned to me to take me in his arms. “I love you so much, Laura. Please, be careful. Link me when you get back to the city.”
I kissed him softly. “I will, I promise. I won’t tell you that I love you until after I figure this out, but just know I do. I need something to focus on, and telling you that I do is my favorite thing,” I murmured as I ran my fingers through his hair.
He nodded before pecking my lips again. “I understand.”
I let him go to walk over to Scarlett, who instantly enveloped me in a tight hug.
“I’ll see you as soon as I can,” I told her.
She squeezed me before letting me go. “Make sure that you are careful. You are one half of the glue that holds our families even remotely together. We need you.”
I touched her cheek for a moment before nodding. “And you’re the other half.”
She beamed at me. “You damn well know it.”
I stepped back to shift, purposely tearing my clothes. I needed to make it look like I panic shifted and torn clothes were the way to do it. We walked over to Stu to nudge his leg, and he reached down to rub our ears for a moment before dropping his hand.
“Goddess speed, my love.”
We whimpered before taking off into the woods, flying quickly over the ground while Silver’s wolf chased us, tackling us and nipping at our legs. Sometimes his teeth caught our skin or our fur and ripped small chunks out of us. Every time he did, I had to shore up the wall I had up against Stu’s link so he didn’t feel any of the little bites. A few miles outside of the city, Silver’s wolf rolled us again, clawing at our legs and chest while biting down hard enough on our throat to leave punctures deep enough to make it look like we had healed some before letting us go. We slowly crawled over the forest floor, gathering leaves and dirt in our fur.
He trotted over to us, carefully helping us back to our feet before melting into the trees to escort us home from a distance before going back to the town to report to the others. When we were half a mile out, we started sending up calls of distress before whimpering loudly while pushing out scents of fear and pain. As soon as we could see the apartment complex we were now living in, we sent up a howl that we knew would come across as a desperate plea for help. We stumbled into the main courtyard before allowing ourselves to fall to the ground, whimpering.
I shifted back, curling up into the fetal position with my arms wrapped tightly around my knees. I immediately reached for my link with Stu to let him know I was back as my pack started to fill the courtyard. Jarrod rushed to my side to scoop me up just like we had planned, screaming for the pack doctor, who was a close personal friend of Jarrod’s and had already agreed to make my wounds look worse than they were. Jarrod rushed past my parents, who followed behind him as he carried me to our apartment. My parents opened the door for him, and he took me straight to my room, where he placed me on the bed before walking out and shutting the door behind him.
Dr. Jacob tossed me a nightgown off the top of my dresser before coming over to sit on the bed next to me. He began to ask me questions while linking me the answers he wanted while I uttered small whimpers and soft pain-filled moans as I continued to push out the scent of pain. After about ten minutes, he had me lay in bed on my side, pretending to be asleep. He went out into the hallway, leaving my bedroom door open.
“I have sedated Laura. She is suffering from more than just an attack,” Dr. Jacob told them.
“What do you mean?” Jarrod growled.
“Well, here’s the thing. She is not healing like she should be. There are only two reasons that can happen. Either her wolf is dead or she is grieving.”
“Grieving?” My mother asked almost excitedly, making my heart sink.
“Yes, Ruth. We have to keep the possibility of her mate being killed or dying in the realm of what happened.”
“How likely is it that he is dead?” My father asked.
“Having looked her over, I’d almost guarantee it. You will need to take care of her for the next few days. She is not going to want to eat or drink. I will be back to check on her tomorrow, but if you need anything before that, please link me and I will come immediately.”
“Okay, Jacob. How long will the sedation take to wear off?” My mother asked.
“About 8 hours. It was a highly concentrated dose that was also meant to help her heal. Do you have any other questions?”
“Not at this moment. Thank you, Doctor,” my father said. “Ruth will walk you out.”
I kept my breathing steady as my mother walked away from my room with Jarrod and the doctor while my father watched me. I heard my mother speaking to Jarrod for a few minutes before coming back to my room.
‘I’m right outside if you need me,’ Jarrod linked. ‘I’m sorry, Laura. I had hoped it wasn’t true.’
I couldn’t stop the tear that crept out of my eye when he confirmed what I already knew was the truth.
‘It’s them or my mate,’ I whispered. ‘And Stu is my forever, so there is no choice.’
I shut the link to focus on what my parents were doing. They had entered my room and were checking out my wounds. My father sighed as he sat on the bed next to me.
“Ruth, what did we do?’ He asked. “We put our daughter in harm’s way. What if they had killed her, too? They weren’t supposed to kill anyone. Just kidnap the girls. Now, our daughter is suffering, and we have to find a way to reward the assholes who caused her pain. How is this fair to her?”
‘Don’t care now,’ I thought to myself.
“Stop being such a little bitch,” my mother snapped. “Your Omega is showing. She will forget all about that boar in no time. She will choose a wolf from our pack, and we will all be happy when she provides us with a stronger Beta than the James family.”
‘Not fucking likely,’ I growled in my head.
“Come on, Saul, let’s go celebrate that boar’s death. He was never good enough for our daughter. She should have just listened to us, and we might have let him live.”
They shut the door behind them, and I waited until their bedroom door shut before opening my eyes. I pulled the blankets up to my mouth to stifle a sob before taking a deep breath to calm my devastation over my parents betrayal. I hated this. I sat up before taking the two syringes filled with wolfsbane out of my bedside table drawer. I crept silently through the house to their room as my wolf started to heal us. I paused outside my parents room with my hand on the doorknob, trying to figure out what they were doing. When my mother’s soft moan filled the air, I turned the doorknob, sprinting into the room to stab both of them with a syringe before deploying the plungers to inject the wolfsbane into them. They both collapsed while I watched in horror as they started convulsing with foam spewing from their mouths. I sank to my knees, sobbing.
“Why couldn’t you just be happy for me?” I cried. “I love Stu, and he loves me. We are happy together.”
I didn’t get an answer—not that I expected one. After letting out a grief-filled cry of sorrow, I buried my face in my hands, sobbing uncontrollably. Less than a minute later, Jarrod’s scent grew closer to me. He sat on the floor behind me, wrapping his arms around me as he rocked me back and forth.
“I’m so sorry, Laura. I’m so sorry.”
I buried my face in his chest. “I hate them,” I sobbed. “Why didn’t they love me enough to let me be happy?”
He rubbed my back. “I don’t know, cousin; I just don’t know.”