Page 95 of Ava: Part One

And then the smile slowly started to fade.

Last night had been different. The separation had caused this need to be together, to heal the pain by touching each other. But his mind was settled now, so he knew Ava was also okay. She would start to think more clearly now.

She moved out of his arms quickly. The separation nearly killed him, but he had to give the human time to process this. He had already warned her she would end up in his bed. The only thing that had changed was that it would be sooner rather than later, and he would welcome it.

The human would have his mark by the next full moon.

“Sorry,” Ava mumbled.

Her face went red, probably from the realisation that she had been clinging to him. And then she looked down at her hands and realised she was holding his shirt. He’d seen it on the bed and realised she had needed something with his scent to comforther, the way a wolf would have done. Her face turned redder as she put it down and rushed out of the room.

‘She doesn’t know what’s going on,’ Derek said. ‘She was half out of her mind the night you went into isolation. I still don’t know what was happening, but we had to sedate her. I don’t think she remembers any of that.’

‘Don’t tell her. I don’t want to scare her off.’

He would find the right time to tell her. For now, it was enough that she was safe in his house.

‘So shall we discuss what we will say to your father? We can’t miss another call, and he’s already angry that there has been no progress for a whole week with the vampires.’

He sighed and sat up in his bed.

“I’ll shower and eat first. I can’t think of my father right now,” he said aloud.

When his friends didn’t make a move to leave the room, he knew what they needed to hear.

“I’m okay,” he assured them.

It was a lie. Not because the Council had broken him, but because the times they had gotten into his head, they had shown him just how broken he already was. He and Shadow were the same. He deserved his demon wolf.

Chapter 67

The shared bathroom was nothing like Ezekiel’s. It was still spacious and decorated well, but it didn’t have the large clawfoot bathtub that Ezekiel had in his.

Her face started burning again at the thought of the Alpha. Last night was a blur, but she remembered throwing herself at him. She remembered the way he had kissed her, the way she had ground herself on his hard body. And then to wake up with her limbs tangled in his...

She didn’t know what had come over her. Ezekiel was a wolf, the most dangerous one she had ever met. The aura around him was always dark. He always looked at her with such heat in his eyes that she knew his threat that he would have her in his bed if she didn’t leave was accurate.

It could have happened last night.

She pushed that thought aside and chided herself for being so foolish. Ezekiel had done nothing to deserve her body.

Nothing except save her a few hundred times.

She pushed that away again, afraid that if she thought about it, the images in her head would pull her under again.

She bypassed the big tub and went straight into the shower. Even if this tub wasn’t as inviting as Ezekiel’s, she still didn’t have the time to soak in it. The time on her tablet said it was already breakfast time, so she had to get a move on if she didn’t want to be late for her lessons.

Would Ezekiel be excused from his lessons? Not that she cared in that way, but he looked exhausted. He needed to rest. What had happened to him while he had been away? He’d come back different.

She, on the other hand, felt absolutely fine today. She had no pain, and the confusion and depression were gone. It was almost like it never happened, only that she would never forget the things her mind had conjured. All that darkness seemed tattooed on her mind; she had to make a conscious effort not to think about it.

Her shower was quick, and she took the opportunity to wash her hair. By the time she had finished, she felt ready to face the day. The coach couldn’t pick on her today; she would do her best to keep up with everyone.

She left the bathroom wrapped in a towel and almost bumped into the last person she wanted to see when she was practically naked.

Ezekiel stopped.

His eyes burnt through her the way they always did and took her breath away. And then they slowly travelled down her body. Her body reacted instantly, as if she were standing there naked. She didn’t move, yet she knew she needed to. She had to run as fast as she could from this wolf. She didn’t know why, but she knew the moment she ended up in his bed the way he wanted, she would be destroyed. He would own her. Every inch of her.

---