Page 112 of Ava: Part Two

And that was when the coach spared the man beside him a look. There was surprise on his face. And then realisation. And then fear again.

"And you said you couldn't take me anywhere fun," he said to Alpha Morgan as he stepped away.

At least the coach would be put in his place before they left.

Because they were leaving tomorrow, no matter what Mr Patrick said. They couldn't sense Ava's feelings as he could. His mate had already given up.

Chapter 69

"Youcan'thandyourselfover, Ava," Mr Patrick said quietly.

Ava opened her eyes and looked at the professor who'd sat in front of her on the floor the moment her father had gone to help Zeke clear his head.

"You really need to stop doing that," she sighed.

"I can't help you if you remain so closed off. I have to do it."

"That's what this is about, isn't it?" She frowned in irritation. "This isn't about meditating; it's about you having free access to my thoughts."

"Something is blocking you from your wolf, probably something to do with the trauma of your first shift. If you don't let me do this, you'll need a lot longer than this week to figure it out," Mr Patrick said, without even an ounce of remorse. "You don't have time to mess around, Ava."

He had no right to look into her head! She couldn't hide her anger as she stood and walked out of the living room. She didn't know how she was feeling, and Mr Patrick was sorting through that mess in her head anyway.

Without another thought, she went out to the back. She was barefoot already, so she just sat down at the edge of the pool and put her feet in the water. This was pointless. Zeke was right about that. Wasting time for nothing. She should have gone to the dean as she had planned to.

"No, Ava. That's a bad idea," Mr Patrick said from behind her.

"Stop!"

She hadn't heard him follow her out, so she wondered if he had just appeared like he had done last night.

Mr Patrick sighed and then bent to take his shoes off.

"What are you doing?"

"I need a break, too," he answered as he took his socks off and carefully folded his trousers.

The man had come to meditate in a suit as if he was lecturing his students.

"Well, someone has to look good around here," he said as he sat beside her and put his feet in the water.

They remained silent for a while, but she knew she might as well have been having a loud, one-sided conversation with him. Her head was too messed up to allow her to shield her thoughts from him as well as she usually did. Or at least she thought she used to shield them well. She wasn't sure how much he'd still managed to read.

"You can't hand yourself in," Mr Patrick repeated.

"I killed people."

Hearing those words come out of her mouth brought all the guilt back again.

"How am I supposed to live with myself if I don't own up to that?"

"I understand where you're coming from, but Ava, it's not just you anymore," Mr Patrick said.

"If you find a way to keep Zeke out of the way, he will be fine after some time. He can find someone else to mate with eventually."

Mr Patrick looked at her as if she had said something strange before he looked at the water in the swimming pool again.

"Do you know what a true mate is?" Mr Patrick asked.

---