No Escape

Chapter Fourteen

Lily woke up in an unfamiliar place. There were bright lights, and everything was white. She came to the conclusion that she was in a hospital. No! She thought as she examined the wrappings and the IV needles in her arms. Why? Why did someone have to find me? I would have been so much better off; everyone would have.

"Hey," a soft voice said from beside her. Adrienne looked exhausted and beyond stressed. She was holding tightly onto Lily's hand and looked relieved to see that she was awake. Then she looked down at her hands, "I'm sorry," she said, then looked up. Lily didn't know why she was apologizing; Adrienne hadn't done anything wrong!

But Adrienne felt guilty. She knew what Charlotte meant to Lily. She knew that Lily considered the girl her daughter, and knew it destroyed her when she was taken away. But Adrienne hadn't been there for her. She felt like a horrible friend. "I should have been there for you, but I've been so focused on everything that's been going on with me that I forgot that you'd been through worse." She explained with tears rolling down her face. Lily shook her head, but Adrienne ignored her and continued, "and especially after Charlotte was taken from you, I should have been there. Sometimes we get so caught up with our lives, we forget other people are going through so much worse."

Lily wasn't sure why she ended up comforting Adrienne, "don't. Please don't do that to yourself. You should be focused on you. You have a lot going on too. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

Adrienne was the one that shook her head at Lily this time, "no, Lily. No, you're not. And that's okay."

At that moment, Jackson walked in. All the tenseness and worry he had washed away when he saw that his mate was awake. But Lily turned away from him and he felt defeated all over again. If he'd had just done or said something to try to keep Charlotte from being taken away from Lily, it was possible that none of this would have happened.

Lily didn't know whether to still feel angry with Jackson or to be embarrassed by what happened. Either way, she couldn't force herself to look at him. She looked back towards Adrienne, who had a sad smile on her face. She got up to leave, but Lily gripped her hand tighter and begged with her eyes for her to stay. Adrienne ignored her though, "I'll be right back. I'm just going to grab something to eat. You want anything?"

Lily shook her head in response and froze as she walked out of the room. The silence that followed was tense and uncomfortable. It left Lily to her thoughts which weren't the best. If only she had succeeded or tried another way, she'd be happy with her mom and no one else would have to be bothered with her anymore. But the way she felt was a completely different story. An immense feeling of hatred for herself and guilt arose in her and she couldn't figure out a way to lessen it.

Jackson was standing in the corner watching his mate. She was refusing to acknowledge that he was even in the room. It hurt him that things were this way. He wanted to whine and pout and to beg for her forgiveness, but that wasn't something an Alpha did. Everything just felt wrong, and it was wrong. He and Lily were meant to be together, happy. With the amount of time they had known each other, she should have known about werewolves and been at least marked by now. But life was insistent on throwing major curveballs their way. So, he settled for apologizing, "I should have done something to stop them. I'm sorry I didn't."

Lily was dumbfounded. Why were people apologizing? It didn't make any sense and she needed them to stop. It was making her feel even worse about herself, more guilty. But she still didn't dare to look at him. Jackson sighed when she didn't respond to him in any way. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him sit down in a chair at the far side of the room. She was determined to ignore him until Adrienne returned. Lily wasn't ready to face him yet. Apologies from anyone meant nothing unless there was some type of action for change. Not a lot of people realized that.