CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: HALF TRUTHS AND PROTECTION

For two days after my confrontation with Kieran, I avoided him completely.

I couldn't look at him without feeling the complex mix of hurt and confusion that came from learning someone you're falling for had initially seen you as a useful tool.

But I also couldn't stop thinking about the genuine love I had sensed from him when he said he cared about me.

On the third day, Kieran found me in Mrs. Chen's garden, where I was helping her tend to the roses while trying to sort through my feelings.

"Laila," he said softly, approaching carefully like I might run away.

"Could we talk?"

"I told you I needed time to think," I said without looking up from the flowers.

"I know, and I've tried to give you space. But there are things I need to tell you - things about your safety that can't wait."

The urgency in his voice made me finally look at him.

His silver eyes were filled with worry and something that looked like fear.

"What things?" I asked.

"Can we go somewhere private? This is important."

Reluctantly, I followed him to a secluded clearing in the forest where we had talked before.

The place where he had first started to open up to me, before I learned about his hidden motives.

"Laila," Kieran began,

"I know you're angry with me for not being completely honest from the beginning."

"I'm not angry," I said, which was partially true.

"I'm hurt. There's a difference."

"I know," he said quietly.

"And I know that my apologies can't undo the fact that I brought you here for reasons that weren't entirely pure."

I could sense that he was choosing his words very carefully and there was still something he was holding back.

"But what?" I prompted."But I need you to understand that everything I did, I did to protect you."

The words felt partially true, but there was deception woven through them.

He was framing his actions in a way that made them sound more noble than they had been.

"Protect me from what?" I asked.

"From Damien, yes, but also from other threats that you don't even know about yet."

"What other threats?"Kieran ran his hand through his dark hair, looking conflicted.

"There are people in the werewolf world who would want to hurt you if they knew what you were capable of."

"Because of my healing abilities?"

"Because of all your abilities," Kieran said.

"The healing, the emotion sensing, and others that haven't manifested yet."

I felt a chill of fear mixed with curiosity.

"What other abilities?"

"That's... complicated to explain,"

Kieran said and I sensed he was deflecting again.

"Try me," I said firmly.

"Laila, your bloodline carries powers that haven't been seen in the werewolf world for over a hundred years."

"Powers that some people would consider threatening to the natural order."

"What kind of powers?" Kieran hesitated and I could feel his internal debate about how much to tell me.

"Powers over life and death," he said finally.

"Not just healing, but the ability to affect the very life force of other beings."

The words sent a shock of fear through me.

"You mean I could kill people?"

"Theoretically, yes," Kieran said carefully.

"But Laila, the fact that you're horrified by that possibility proves that you would never use your abilities to harm innocent people."

I sat down heavily on a fallen log, overwhelmed by this revelation.

"So you brought me here not just to get to Damien, but because you were afraid of what I might become?"

"No," Kieran said quickly, sitting beside me.

"I brought you here because I knew other people would be afraid of what you might become and I wanted to protect you from them."

I could sense truth in his words, but also careful manipulation of the facts.

"What people specifically?" I asked.

"There's a group of traditional werewolf leaders who believe that anyone with powers like yours should be... eliminated before they become dangerous."

"Eliminated?" I felt sick.

"They call themselves the Council of Purity," Kieran said grimly.

"They've been hunting down and killing werewolves with unusual abilities for decades."

"And they know about me?"

"Not yet," Kieran said.

"But word travels in our world. Eventually, stories about your healing abilities and your heritage would reach the wrong ears."

I could feel that he was telling me the truth about this threat, but there was still something else he wasn't sharing.

"Kieran," I said, turning to face him,

"you're still not telling me everything."

He looked startled.

"What do you mean?"

"I can sense that there's more. Something about why you specifically wanted to protect me, beyond just general kindness to someone in danger."

Kieran was quiet for a long moment, and I felt his struggle between wanting to be honest and wanting to protect me from difficult truths.

"There are things about your parents' deaths that are connected to Seraphina's death," he said finally.

"What things?"

"I believe they were both killed by the same people," Kieran said.

"People who are still out there, still dangerous."

I felt the truth of his words, but also the weight of what he wasn't saying.

"You think Damien was involved in my parents' deaths too,"

I said, following my instincts.

The shock that rolled off Kieran confirmed my guess.

"I don't know for certain," he said carefully.

"But there are... similarities in how both attacks were carried out."

"So when you brought me here, you weren't just trying to draw Damien out to ask about Seraphina. You were trying to protect me from him because you think he might try to finish what he started with my family."

"Yes," Kieran admitted.

"That's part of it."

"What's the other part?"

Kieran looked at me with an expression I couldn't read.

"The other part is that I believe you're the key to stopping the people who killed both our families."

"How could I be the key?"

"Because your abilities are stronger than anything they've encountered before," Kieran said.

"Strong enough to expose them, to fight back against them, to make sure they can't hurt anyone else."

I felt the truth in his words, but also the weight of expectation and responsibility.

"So you saved me because you need me," I said quietly.

"Because I'm useful to your cause."

"I saved you because you deserved to be saved," Kieran said firmly.

"The fact that you might be able to help me get justice for our families is... secondary."

But I could feel that wasn't entirely true.

The usefulness had been a factor, even if it wasn't the only factor.

"Kieran," I said,

"I appreciate that you're trying to protect me. But I need you to understand something."

"What?"

"I can't be in a relationship with someone who keeps saving me for strategic reasons, even if they develop genuine feelings afterward."

"I need to know that someone values me for who I am, not for what I can do for them."

Kieran's face filled with pain.

"Laila, I do value you for who you are."

"Do you? Or do you value who you think I could become if I embrace these powers you're telling me about?"

The question hung in the air between us and I could feel Kieran's realization that I had identified something he hadn't fully acknowledged to himself.

"I..." he started, then stopped.

"You don't know, do you?" I said gently.

"You care about me, but you're not sure if you care about me or about the powerful witch you think I'm meant to be."

"That's not fair," Kieran said.

"Isn't it? You've told me I have these incredible abilities that could help you get revenge for Seraphina and justice for my parents."

"You've told me I'm the key to stopping some evil organization. But you haven't once asked me what I want to do with my life."

Kieran went quiet and I could feel his realization that I was right.

"What do you want, Laila?" he asked finally.

"I want to be valued for who I am right now, today, without any expectations about who I might become," I said.

"I want someone who would still care about me if I never developed another magical ability in my life."

"I would still care about you," Kieran said.

"Would you?" I challenged.

"If I told you right now that I never wanted to use my powers to fight your enemies, that I just wanted to live a quiet, normal life helping people heal from small injuries, would you still think I was worth protecting?"

The pause before Kieran answered told me everything I needed to know.

"Of course," he said finally, but the hesitation had been too long.

"I need more time to think," I said, standing up.

"Laila, please don't let my mistakes drive you away from the possibility of us being together."

"I'm not driven away," I said.

"But I need to figure out who I am and what I want before I can figure out if we can work together."

As I walked back toward the pack house, I felt Kieran's eyes following me.

I could sense his love, his regret and his fear that he had lost me.

But I could also sense something else - his ongoing belief that I was destined for something greater than I was right now.

And until he could love the person I was instead of the person he thought I should become, we couldn't move forward.

No matter how much it hurt both of us.