Zeke waited for the phone to ring, but his attention was on the human pacing her room upstairs.‘You almost marked her.’He looked at Derek sitting as far away from him as possible in the lounge. Understandable. This was the second time he’d almost snapped his Beta’s neck.It was true. He had been ready to mark her. Sink his teeth into her and then drop her towel and sink into her. It was taking all his willpower to stop himself from doing that right now. ‘Sorry. Shadow is territorial.’That had been more than territorial. And it was a lie; he couldn’t put this on Shadow. He had been the one who’d lost his temper because of Derek’s timing. He’d been the one who wanted to see his mark on Ava’s smooth skin. He’d been the one who’d wanted to pin her down underneath him. And Ava had been willing.So willing.He looked up again to concentrate on her movements. He could sense what she was feeling a lot more than before, and she was kicking herself for what happened. His little human still
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.And in the process, something had changed. She could feel it. She would never be the same again.Trying to escape had been selfish, and yet she knew she would try again somehow. But she didn’t want her family to come and get her; she wanted all the blame to go on her. Maybe then she could plead for the Council to leave them alone, and she could suffer the consequences by herself.With another breath, she dialled the number. Like the last time she had called, someone picked up straight away.“Ava?”She sucked in a breath.“Hi, Dad,” she said, but she sounded like she was going to cry. She cleared her throat.“What happened?” he asked straight away.“Nothing.”Everything.“I’ve been calling every
Zeke stood on his pool deck and cracked his neck as he sensed his woods. It didn’t matter that the boundary of his territory didn’t extend to the woods. Shadow had still marked his territory, and everyone knew this.There were six of them there—six of Jared’s pack—and they had been watching Ava. They had already started retreating, but it didn’t matter. It had been a long time since he had gone on a hunt.Shadow was already tracking them, ready to be let loose.‘Kill them,’ Shadow growled.‘Don’t be fucking ridiculous,’ he answered as he started to jog.And then he shifted. It took him only an instant when it took other wolves longer. Shadow’s huge paws thundered on the ground, and then he ran toward their chosen prey. They ignored the little animals they would have normally hunted as they tracked the wolves. If he wasn’t mistaken, that scent belonged to Jared’s Beta. He was getting fucking answers from him today. What the hell did Jared want with Ava, and had he realised the truth ab
Ava hid in her room for the rest of the weekend. She had waited in her room, watching from her window to see if Ezekiel and his friends would come back okay. Why had the wolves been watching her? Had Claire sent them? Was it Jared? His threats were still clear in her mind. She had not chosen any side, but it was clear she was now involved in whatever issues these packs had.She’d heard howling and then silence. Ezekiel’s friends had returned alone, but she hadn’t seen him until much later. She’d waited by her window the entire time and still couldn’t understand why she had been so scared for him. But the moment she saw him, she stepped back from her window with her heart in her mouth. Ezekiel had strolled casually out of the woods, naked and with blood all over him.Blood.It was the beginning of another school week, and she still felt the icy fear rolling down her spine. This was the man she had almost mindlessly given herself to. A dangerous man. A murderer?What had he done to the
Zeke watched Ava walk into the First Year block before he turned and joined Derek and Myles.“Are you sure about this?” Myles asked.He wasn’t sure about anything except the fact that Ava belonged to him. “The pack might tell your father. We don’t know who his spies are yet,” Derek added. “The fact that she’s human—”‘She’s still mine,’ he said in the mindlink with a growl.‘And we accept that. We witnessed the bond, remember,’ Derek said. ‘I’m just saying if we don’t have a plan yet, we’ve just put a giant target on her back.’Ava always had a target on her back, but at least now she had his protection. Only the really foolish would even dare.He stopped walking when he saw Jared coming out of his car. He and Shadow watched him as he looked around and then stopped his gaze on them. Shadow growled.Jared’s eyes glowed in anger before he turned away and started walking towards his classes. Shadow didn’t like that. That wolf had sent his minions to spy on Ava, and then he dared turn hi
Ava was angry that Ezekiel and his friends practically walked her to her block, but once she was alone, she realised they probably knew something she didn’t. She still had no idea where Ezekiel had been most of the previous week, and now she didn’t have the guts to ask what he had done to Claire. Was the she-wolf waiting somewhere in the background to take her revenge? Corner her in the bathroom again? Was she going to send her minions? Or was Claire not here at all?The other students had surprisingly left her alone, but it hadn’t stopped the whispers. What she wouldn’t do for supernatural hearing right now. Not that she would do anything about it, but she would probably find out what the hell was going on.“When that demon wolf tires of you, let me know. I could use a bed warmer—”She looked up to see Douche Dexter in front of her, but someone nudged him, and he stopped talking. And then, surprisingly, he walked past her without another word and without shoving her. She knew why.
Ava was hungry, so she rushed to the dining hall for lunch, hoping Ezekiel wasn’t there. She didn’t want another repeat of what had happened in the morning. Though people had mostly left her alone, she seemed to have been branded as Ezekiel’s property. Her heart fluttered stupidly at the thought, but she pushed it aside. She wasn’t property. She belonged to no one.Besides, Claire mentioned that Ezekiel’s pack wouldn’t allow him to be with a human, so if anything did happen with him, she would be nothing but his plaything. Not that she was trying to be his Luna or his plaything. Thinking about that brought her thoughts back to Claire again, and with that, all her guilt came flooding back. What had she done? Ezekiel would never have had to do that if she hadn’t been so weak. And now the most fearsome people in their community were coming to ask her about that. How would they do it? Could they sense it if she lied? Did they use magic to read minds? Were they like Mr Patrick?Would th
Zeke watched Ava walk into the dining hall before heading towards the Administration block.‘He told her to run away from us,’ Shadow pointed out.“Hmm,” he answered with a frown.‘He must die.’He rolled his eyes. Jared would die soon enough. Right now, he had the Council members to deal with. He couldn’t blatantly break the rules just before going to the meeting. But surprisingly, Shadow had been very laid back about that interaction with the bastard. They had followed Ava from when she had left her block and heard the whole conversation, but Shadow hadn’t tried to kill him on the spot.It was probably true. Jared had been messed up pretty badly after last year’s evaluations and the death of his friend. Jared hadn’t spent nearly as long in Isolation, but it had still fucked him up. Things didn’t always work out for him, as if his wolf senses sometimes failed him. Sometimes he was sure that was the reason he was doing so many fucked up things this semester. But he didn’t give a shit
Ava looked out of the window in her dorm room. The sun was still out, and she couldn't see anything besides the woods. But she could feel Zeke there. Her door opened, making her turn quickly, but it was just Emily returning with her bags. Training had been strange. Claire and her friends hadn't made a single move. Besides the initial snarl when she walked in, the session had gone without incident. Her new coach, Coach Henderson, hadn't targeted her like Coach Baxter, so she had stayed in the background the whole time. She'd sparred with the vampire Max, so even that had been stress-free. But all it had done was make her a little anxious about when Claire would attack. Would it be another ambush?"Shall I pack this away for you?" Emily asked. "No!"What was wrong with this wolf to make her so eager to be someone's maid?"Thank you for collecting my things, but we need to talk now," she said as she finally walked away from the window and sat on her bed. The room was still empty. It
Zeke was still struggling to stop himself from going on a bloody rampage when he sensed he wasn't alone. He looked over at the lake to calm himself. It really wasn't Mr Patrick's fault, he knew that. But still, he wanted to rip his head off."Calm down, Zeke," Mr Patrick said from somewhere behind him. "Don't tell me to calm down. I should never have listened to you. To either of you."Ava's father was the first to come down to the bank and stand beside him as he looked over the water. Ava was going to kill him for this but damned if he was going to send away the only other person there who would lay their life down for her."And what was your plan?" Alpha Morgan asked. "Charge out of here and protect my daughter out there alone? Try to outrun the Council?"Zeke snorted."I think we all saw that she doesn't need protecting," he growled. "But none of that matters if she doesn't talk to her wolf, Ezekiel," Mr Patrick said. Did he want her to talk to her wolf? At this point, he wasn
Ava came out of the Administration building, and the first person she saw was Zeke. She had felt him there even before the guards opened the doors for her to leave. She made her decision the moment she saw the way the guards stood at attention with their hands on their weapons, ready to hurt him. Zeke's eyes were red, and his fists clenched at his sides. He stood like a statue, but she could sense the danger emanating from him as if one wrong move would end everything. She knew he'd been waiting to save her. He would put himself on the line if she were in danger. She'd condemned him to her fate. She lowered her gaze and started walking down the steps. "I'm fine," she told him quietly. "No, Ava. You're not 'fine'," he growled. So she wasn't hiding it as well as she thought. "I will be," she said truthfully. Whatever was going to happen next was her fight. Zeke needed to stay out of it to stay safe. At least he would have a chance that way."What did he want?""I've been removed
Ava closed her eyes when she felt Zeke's pain mixing with her own. "Move."The guard behind her nudged her, causing her to stumble, but she righted herself quickly and continued walking down the hallway. "Faster, human," the guard said, and then he grabbed her arm and half pulled, half dragged her the rest of the way.This was no school. The Council could dress the academy up all they wanted, but it took more pride in the training than the academic side. And now, with the Council soldiers manhandling students, there was no way they could hide it.When she entered the dean's offices, Penelope was already looking right at her. She wasn't typing and ignoring her as she usually did. Her allure felt different. It was still strong; it still drew her towards the woman, but it didn't feel threatening. Penelope looked at the guard who came in beside her and then at his tight grip on her arm. And that was when she felt the full force of the vampire's nature."That's unnecessary. Let her go,"
Zeke sat on the bench in the Quad, watching the seven students standing in the middle of it. They weren't talking; they just stood there as if they were waiting for something. Or someone. He tilted his head and focused on each of them. Their wolves were still there, but he could barely sense them. So, did that mean they couldn't shift anymore?The Council had found them when the dean and his guards had failed. Dead or alive? That was what he couldn't figure out. What the hell had been done to them? And was this Ava's doing or the Council? Claire turned her head to look at the building behind them. Then they all turned. Shadow snarled inside him because he knew what they could sense. Ava. Ava was in that building, still in her lessons, and her heart pumping away. Terrified. He had been tracking her all morning, on the verge of shifting at any little thing, waiting to run to her aid the moment she needed him. If she needed him. He pushed thoughts of the forest out of his mind and
Ava felt all the eyes 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.She’d felt something in her chest the moment Claire and her friends had walked in.The first had been the brief joy when she had realised that she hadn’t killed them. She wasn’t a murderer. She didn’t have to hand herself in to the Council.Then came the feeling of dread. The darkness she felt was coming to claim her had been coming from those stu
Zeke pushed down his emotions as much as he could, but Ava could clearly sense some of them. She'd been looking at him since they'd woken up. He hadn't expected Mr Patrick's plan to work at all. He'd thought it would be exactly like the last time when he'd felt her pain and run into the forest raging. But instead...He looked down at the woman sitting next to him and felt like going back home to hide away. Like what Shadow was doing. He hadn't heard anything from the beast since they'd had their heart broken. But it wasn't Ava's fault. He had to keep reminding himself of that. He sensed Ava's fear seconds before he smelled it. The stench of death and decay. The stench of evil darker than anything Shadow had hidden in his soul. His beast unfurled and paid attention. Something wasn't right.This thing was coming closer to the assembly hall. For Ava? For him?And then he caught a scent that he had thought he would never smell again. It was just a hint as if it was fading, but it was
Ava gasped for air and clawed at her throat as she sat up. Something was squeezing her throat, making it hard to breathe. The darkness was inside her. She could feel it. "Shh. It's okay. You're okay." She felt Zeke's warm, hard body against her bare back as his arms circled her. The relief was instant as she greedily inhaled and exhaled deeply. Zeke's large arms tightened around her as he brought his lips down to her mark briefly. The security she always felt in his arms failed to ease her mind. There was danger all around them, danger inside them, and she didn't think she would ever feel safe again. But still, her breathing evened, and her heart rate lowered. Zeke didn't need to say another word, but her body relaxed as if the nightmare hadn’t happened. "My dad?" she asked."Gone. I did what you asked," Zeke said. Her heart squeezed again. She would have wanted a better goodbye. If the pain she’d felt all over her body was anything to go by, her dad would have been traumatised a
It was almost lunchtime when her father returned. She had been on her way downstairs to eat something when Alpha Morgan knocked the broken door out of the way and marched in.She stopped when he noticed her and her heart squeezed in her chest. Her father was in pain. She could sense that as if her wolf senses were helping her, even though she still couldn't feel anything different inside her. "They're all over the boundary," her dad said. "We have to find a hidden place to cross into the forest."He was still saying 'we'. She walked down the rest of the stairs and went into his arms. When his arms tightened around her, she felt him tremble a little, and her heart broke again. This could be the last day she saw her father.But he would have to go. When the car came for him to take him to the airport, he would leave alone. He had the boys and the whole pack to take care of. She'd had the entire morning to come to terms with that. It was the only way. "I will go into the forest, and