Page 14 of Ava: Part Three

The row behind him remained seated as the room emptied.

"Is there a problem, Mr Michelson?" the dean asked from the stage, amusement colouring his voice.

"None at all," he replied as he stood and held his hand out to Ava to help her.

The dean's eyes went down to their hands.

"You might want to read the rules as soon as possible," the dean said.

He ignored the dean and looked at the students behind him. Claire still had a smile, but the other students were looking straight ahead as if they were just shells of their old selves.

What the hell had happened to them?

They walked out of their row with all the eyes in the room on them, and Ava's heart was still beating too fast and too loud. Even if he hadn't been able to sense her fear, he would have seen it in the stiff way she held herself.

He gently squeezed her hand, hoping she would keep it together until they left the hall. They would have to go back home and speak privately to make a plan. How was he supposed to let Ava go her own way to her lessons with Claire back in school?

But outside, the presence of the guards seemed to have doubled. And they were all directing the students to get to their classes, blocking off the ones who were trying to go back to their residences.

"Be more prepared tomorrow. No one is allowed in the dorms during lesson time. Straight to class!" a guard said firmly to one of the students.

'What do we do?' Derek asked.

'Library.'

That was the only other place they could be guaranteed some privacy.

He was still holding Ava's hand when they approached the building and saw the guards at the front of it. At the main doors, a couple of them checked the students' tablets before letting them in. They were checking the timetables.

"This is bullshit," he snarled as they stopped walking.

"I'm fine. I'll be fine," Ava said as she extracted her hand from his.

She wasn't fine.

"I have to get to my class before I get another detention," she continued. "I'll see you at lunch."

"Ava—"

"There's nothing we can do, Zeke. I'll see you later."

Was this it? The end?

He watched his mate walk away from him and tried not to think about the fact that the end for him had probably started in the forest.

'I'll go and keep an eye on Claire,' Myles said.

Would it matter? They were completely fucked anyway.

Chapter 8

Avafeltalltheeyes on her as she made her way to her Needlework class. It was back to the same old rubbish again.

Only it wasn’t the same now. Over the weekend, she’d gone and got mated, then beat the crap out of an Alpha, and to top it all off, she'd willingly walked into the darkness of the forest. She was not the same person as before.

Instead of shoving her, they were moving out of her way. She couldn't be sure whether it was because they had heard what she had done or they had seen her holding hands with Zeke. However, she didn’t think Zeke’s dad would have publicised what she had done to him.

But none of that mattered now, anyway.