AVABy the time we’d all wrapped up round one, it was late. We made our way back to the Beta’s house since Callum and Oscar have the biggest bedroom, not expecting that all of the pack’s senior wolves would be sitting in their living room having drinks when we walked in.“Ava!” Alex called out, face amused. “Why don’t you join us for a drink?”I growled at him through the mind link, making him snort.“Come on Ava,” Jacob added. “One drink for our young Alpha.”I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Alex, if I’m hungover for our run tomorrow, it’s your fault and I will not hold back when we spar next after your ribs have healed.” I gladly took the rum Jacob was offering me, still scowling at Alex when I sat down in between him and Jacob.“How are you feeling now, Alpha Ava?” the pack gamma, Jamie, asked.“All good, Gamma Jamie. Ribs are healed and everything. Confirmed healed too since this lot,” I motioned over my shoulder to the twins, “wouldn’t let me swim without an x-ray, so I got an x-ray.”Th
AVAI woke up sweating a couple hours later. Callum was hot, really hot.“Artemis…” a new voice whispered. “Help me.”My eyes snapped open, trying to identify the voice. Callum? Surely not. His birthday was still months away.I rolled over to face him, to see sweat pouring down his face, his face contorted in pain.“Callum,” I stroked his hair reassuringly. “It’s okay, I’m here with you.”I nudged Oscar awake. “Oscar, get me a clean flannel and a bowl of cool water.”“What?”“Now, Oscar.”He turned the light on, running down the stairs.“Callum,” I whispered. “You’re okay, I’m here with you. Your wolf is coming early, but I’ll help you through it, okay?”He whimpered. Oh this was awful to watch.“Ava…” he groaned, grabbing my hand, his eyes flying open.His wolf’s eyes were bright green, a beautiful colour, but the pain in them was awful to see.Once I had the cool water, I damped the flannel, using it to wipe Callum’s head, cooling him down. “I’m here with you, I promise,” I whisper
CALLUMI woke up dripping with sweat and in agony to the sound of another voice in my head. It was awful, uncomfortable, and just really unpleasant. If Ava hadn’t been there to help me through it, I don’t know what would have happened.When I shifted, it was like there was a string tying me to Ava. I didn’t want to be away from her. I don’t think it was a mate bond, we were both too young to recognise our mates. But… there was definitely something there. I planned to talk to my dad in the now I could through the mindlink.When Ares told me he wanted to hunt for Artemis, I wasn’t sure what to think, and I definitely didn’t think he’d go for a deer. Artemis insisted on sharing the deer with him, and he practically melted, rolling around in my head with happiness.Ava and I made love as the sun rose, before shifting back to run to the training ground.I wanted to meet Lloyd.Somehow, despite our distractions, Ava and I beat my dad and Alpha Jacob to the training ground, so we settled dow
AVA“That explains it,” Alex murmured.“Is he freaking out because Artemis didn’t say it back?”“I think Ares is, I’ll be honest.”I bit my lip again, before talking to Artemis. “How do you feel about Callum and Ares?”“I want them around, I miss them right now. More than anything, I want to go roll around with Ares. I’ll be honest, Ava, I’m freaking out.”I sighed before looking back at Alex and Jacob. “As Artemis just put it, she wants them around, misses them, and more than anything, wants to roll around with Ares. But she’s freaking out. I’ve slammed a block down on my emotions to try to stop them bleeding through to Callum.”“I think you two are mates, Ava,” Jacob’s voice was low. “All the things you’ve described say he is your mate. Lycans are rare, really rare. I don’t know how that would affect the mate bond. Perhaps on his birthday, it will fully click into place?”“Maybe,” I shrugged.“I’m curious to see if you react in the same way to Oscar when he gets his wolf, Ava. Twins
AVAI wasn’t sure what, but something was telling me that I needed to run back to the pack house. So I did.What I didn’t expect to see was two almost identical wolves staring back at me. “Oscar,” I whispered through the link. “You’re stunning.”Both Oscar and Callum were sandy brown wolves with bright green eyes, there were just subtle differences. Oscar’s fur was speckled with darker brown hairs, much like his hair in his human form, and Callum was very slightly taller. Callum’s wolf eyes had a blue ring around the irises, just like his human did.Artemis sat down on her haunches, a little confused. There was a bond there with Oscar too. When she closed her eyes and we just felt for it, it felt like I had two gold threads, one running to Callum, one running to Oscar.I shifted back, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Oscar’s wolf trotted over to me, and lay his massive head down in my lap. I reassuringly ran my fingers through his fur, revelling in how soft he is.“Oscar, can you sh
AVAThe three of us ran together, jumping over and into each other, all laughing over the mind link. We slowed to a stop when we reached the pack house and saw Callum and Oscar on the stairs.Once we stopped, the three of us shifted back, but not by choice. It was like something yanked Artemis back, leaving me (and Theo and Noah) face down in the mud.“Fuck,” I swore, rolling over and wiping the mud off my face.“Ava!” Callum shouted. “Are you okay?” He ran towards me, pulling me up to stand.I nodded, and when we touched, it was like a jolt of power moved through me into him. His eyes immediately flared gold, and he fell to his knees. “Ares is trying to shift,” he growled, fighting it.“Callum, don’t fight it, let it happen, baby.” I fell to my knees in front of him whilst everyone watched the display. Even Jacob and Alex were on the steps of the pack house now.He shifted, and he had completely changed. His wolf was now midnight black, the same colour as mine, his eyes gold, and on
AVAAfter dinner, my new King Consorts joined me in my parents’ living room with tea and cake. Mum and dad looked nervous, really nervous.I put my plate back on the coffee table, cake half eaten.“Mum, dad,” I whispered. “What’s going on?”“Ava… I’m sorry we kept things from you… but I promise, we’ll tell you everything now.” Mum was almost crying as she spoke.When they felt my aura start to suffocate the room, Oscar and Callum took my hands, calming me instantly.I took a deep breath, before sitting back and nodding for her to start.“The first thing, sweetie, is your name. When you came here, we started using a shortened version of your name to make it easier to keep you safe. You go by Ava Wright, but you were born Avelina Wroblewski.”“I knew that,” I whispered. “Artemis told me.”They didn’t need to say anything for me to know that my eyes were shining gold.“How long have you known?” Mum’s voice was quiet.“Since I was ten.”“Ten?! You didn’t get Artemis until you were thirtee
AVAThe faces of my Kings were all stoic, uncertain. “The Moon Goddess, Ava?” Noah asked.I nodded. “The short story is that I need to have mated and marked the four of you by the full moon, which is only a week away.”“Why that soon?”“Because that’s when the rogues will come for me, and if they do before I’ve got all the four marks, they’ll win.”“But we don’t have time? If we have to wait in between each one and we don’t know how long we need to wait, seven days isn’t really enough time?”“I will know when Ava is ready for the next mark, Noah,” Artemis said. “Ava is strong. I am strong.”I took back over from Artemis. “She’s right, Noah.”He sighed, nodding. “So how do we do this?”“In the order you came to me, so Callum, Oscar, you, then Theo.”“Don’t look so smug, Callum,” Theo growled, his aura flowing. Of course Callum’s flowed back, and as the two boys stood off against each other, their respective twins came to stand behind them, also growling.I stood in between them, lettin