Page 98 of Ava: Part One

‘Tell him we will be Alpha with or without his consent,’ Shadow growled.

He wanted to say it. Shadow was right. But this man was still his father, and up until his mother had died, he had been a good one.

“Did I make myself clear?” Alpha Ezra shouted.

“Yes, Alpha,” he answered.

‘Pussy,’ Shadow said before he curled up and turned his attention back to Ava again.

“Good. I expect it to be resolved by the time I come to visit. Now for the matter of the rogues...”

His attention strayed as he listened to Ava leaving her room. His father was still speaking, but he had already stood from his chair to wait in the doorway. Where was she going? Claire could reappear any moment, and Jared was still out there.

She was really quiet for a human. He had noticed that before. She stepped so lightly that if Shadow’s senses weren’t stronger than most, she could have managed to sneak past him.

As she came down the stairs, she noticed him and froze. Her heart started pounding again, but he knew she wasn’t scared—at least not of him. She was afraid of what she knew he was going to do to her.

“...increased the patrols, but the attacks are almost daily now...”

That got his attention. He looked back at the phone as his father finished speaking, a frown on his face. He would need to go and sort that out himself. It seemed his father had allowed it to go too far if they were fending off rogues every day. Organised rogues, by the sound of it.

“I will speak to Beta Lawrence and see if I need to come home,” he said to his father.

His eyes went back on Ava. She was still standing in the middle of the stairway as if she was unsure what she should do next. He inclined his head for her to come down, which she did, still stepping lightly.

“...see you at Parents’ Weekend with the future Luna...”

He looked at the phone on the table quickly and willed his father to shut his mouth. With everything that had happened after his father’s phone call, he had completely forgotten about this. The wolf that his father had chosen for him would visit soon.

“In the meantime, do what I fucking told you to,” his father continued.

And then the line went dead. He breathed a sigh of relief as Ava came to stand in front of him. He had never cared if a girl thought he was with someone else, but with Ava...

He would have to fix this as soon as possible. Somehow.

“I’m going to call my family,” Ava said quietly. “I didn’t speak to them last week; they will be worried.”

“Use our phone,” he offered as he walked to pick it up from the coffee table.

“I... I just wanted some air. I think—”

“Take the phone and go sit outside.”

He knew that wasn’t what she meant. She wanted space from him, but that wasn’t happening. She wasn’t safe out there, and she knew it.

She saw a little fire in her eyes, and then it died quickly as she looked away from his gaze.

“Fine,” she said.

He placed the phone in her hand and then watched her walk towards the back. He had work to do. His father was bringing another woman to the academy; he needed to mark Ava before then.

Shadow practically wagged his tail. Being one mind with such a beast was a little bit terrifying. But no one was taking Ava from them.

Not even Ava herself.

Chapter 69

Ava took a deep breath to calm herself. She had chosen to sit with her feet in the pool while she thought of what to tell her family. She didn’t want to lie to them, but she also didn’t want them to know the full horrors of what she had gone through. She had tried to go home to them and failed.

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