Luna Cherry

39. compassionate heart

He stirs first. His hand lays softly on my shoulder shaking me awake. I grouchily open my eyes, a slur of curse words leaving my lips. Levi snorts at my attitude and encourages me to be a little nicer. I tell him where to shove his advice, "The prosthetics team worked all night on your prototype. We need to go meet them."

"Oh." I groan looking down at my healed numb, "What?"

"Wolves can heal incredibly quickly. While we were sleeping, your wolf was repairing the skin. You should be ready to try on some prosthetics today."

I lift myself and tun. He helps me up onto the crunches and guides me over to the closet. I let him grab my dress of choice. Levi drops it behind the changing screen and I hop my single leg self behind. His slight offer to assist is tempting, everything in me purring at the idea of him touching me so intimately, but I refrain and decline. Levi doesn't seem to take offense, something that I have learned to appreciate in our short time.

"You look great." He mumbles when I come around the corner. My necklace dangles against the pale blue fabric of the dress. I tried to come to an understanding on the meaning behind the engraving, but I didn't have any luck, "Here. I had someone go out and pick this up for you. The pack just closed on a deal with a phone company. I figured to help you adjust, learn about things, you would enjoy having a cell phone of your own." He holds out a touch screen device. I grab it from him looking over the sleek model. It's much thinner than the phones I remember, the brand being unfamiliar. He has to help me unlock it guiding me through the most common apps that are available.

"Thanks. I'll have to learn how to use this... it seems complicated." I shove it into the small purse I take off the wall. He laughs at my unease with it.

"I promise it's not hard. You can ask any and all questions that you may have. Now, are you hungry darling?" I see him covering his mouth from the laughter. It must be rather comical to watch someone so confused with the world around me.

"I can eat." Right as the words leave my lips my belly screams in protest to its empty nature. Levi waves me into the hall and down the stairs. The dinning tablet this morning is packed with people, everyone grinning at me as I enter. Levi lets me breath when I take breaks, the pack just as encouraging while I work my way to the empty seats at the end. Some of the pack members slam that backs of their knives on the table, others following soon after, "What are they doing?"

"Celebrating. They are very happy to see you alive and well."

"A rather odd way to celebrate."

"You've said that before." He retorts setting me down in the same seat as yesterday. Tiki, Mary, and their boyfriends sit in the same spots as well. I give the girls a smile, they return without hesitation. I give Mary a nice finger when she wiggles her eye brows. Something seems easy between us. She seems like comfort. I can't pin point where my trust for her comes from, but I appreciate my gut telling me that she's a friend.

"Luna! So good to see you!" Tiki tosses onto the table. I shove a fork into my eggs then place as much as I can into my mouth. The smell of food awoke something with me, "And hungry."

"She must be adjusting to the wolf appetite." Mary chuckles showing a bunch of eggs into her mouth as well.

I nod with a mouth full of food giving an internal agreement. The inner being encourages me to eat faster. I take another mouthful as soon as I swallow. No one pays too much attention to me, some making sure to avoid looking at me so I can pig myself in peace. Levi watches me, giving me a blank face. When my plate is clear he slides his over, "I can grab more from the kitchen, eat love."

So I do. I take his too. I work through it just as fast as the first one. A servant swings by dropping his on the table. I laugh at the sight of the servant grabbing my two plates that sit in front of me. It took all my energy to fight licking it clean, "It'll take some time to adjust. Your wolf is working hard to heal you, and will forever fight to regrow your leg. You'll always have a larger appetite than the rest of us." Sanders adds. He takes a moment to study his food and grins at the extra sausage tossed onto his plate by his wife, "But if you have any questions I can help. Your mechanical leg is sitting in my office. We can head over there right after breakfast if you would like."

"That would be most preferred." I groan leaning back into my chair. While I feel like I could pop, the desire to eat more is calling to me. Sanders snorts at my position, Levi finally starting into his food. I pull out the phone that he gifted me working through the apps again making sure I know what is what. The message app has a lot of tiny faces that I didn't remember. Even emoji's have evolved. The news app was my first stop. Everything that could have happened in my time of forgotten, did happen. Legalizing weed, LGBTQ marriage laws have finally been put into place, however I laugh at all the president drama I have to catch up on. It seems I have plenty of politics to learn over again for a more informed decision at election time.

"Ready?" Levi drags me from my thoughts. I lift my head to meet his eyes. My insides turn into putty at the look of him. Something within me wants to drag him to the backroom and screw him until I can't stand. The other part of me wants to hide in a corner and never come back. I scramble to standing with a red blush covering my face. My arousal can be scented, Levi's nose flaring. I turn and walk towards the door begging him not to say anything, and thankfully he doesn't. Sanders follows behind us with his wife in tow. The others that were at the table call out to us where they plan on going. I don't bother to pay attention trying to get out of the wolves noses as fast as possible.

Ten minutes, and a whole lot of embarrassment later I'm standing in the office looking at a metal leg, "We were unable to recover your lower leg in a way to save the foot as a bendable joint which means you'll have a more complex system to use. Your wolf will have some trouble getting used to it as well. Due to some wolf magic, this should shift with you, however we find that it can be a hit or miss."

"Hit or miss?" Levi crosses his arms looking him up and down.

"It depends on Cherry. Her strength will allow her to shift or not. If she is tired, the magic that runs through her veins won't allow her to shift. The center of these metal parts of made with bone we recovered from the leg. These bones are connected to her and her internal magic. The complex part of it is the wolf attempting to shift bones that are no longer connected to the main system. That's why it's hit or miss, Alpha. I promise it's not my lack of performance."

"Ignore him Sanders. He's just being protective." I wave my hand at Levi trying to calm the heat coming, "Thank you for spending so much time on this. Can you show me how it works?"

"Of course, come sit."

And so it begins. Levi stands over me watching Sanders work through all the mechanical systems. I force the thoughts of my bones in the metal away and focus on the kind smile of Sanders who is doing everything in his power to help me. Levi seems, however, more than out of it. As he watches Sanders hook the leg to my numb his creases deflate, eyes going sad. I reach my hand out trying to comfort him, but it doesn't work. He tugs his hand away turning his back to us and stepping out of the small office.

"Ignore him, Luna. He's just beating himself up for letting this happen to you."

"From the few hours I spent with him, I doubt he let this happen."

"And you would be right, Luna. You would be most right."

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