Four days until the full moonAVAThe next morning, I needed to do something normal. Something that didn’t involve magic of any kind, or whatever threats might be trying to sneak up on me, and definitely not about the problems I was having with Theo.The solution? A 5am run with Alex and Jacob, of course.I knew Callum wouldn’t want to let me go on my own, but I managed to convince him to stay behind at the packhouse. Somehow.I wouldn’t go too far, so he’d be able to reach me within a couple minutes if it came to it. I also promised that I would keep my mindlink with him open so he could keep an eye on me.Artemis loved running. She always had and always would. With everything that was going on, we hadn’t really had a chance to stretch our legs in a while. I’d suddenly gone from nervous schoolgirl to assistant trainer with the Beta, to finding out that actually I could overpower even my Alpha because actually the legends I grew up on are true… and finally to where I am today, with th
AVAOf course, our bliss could only ever be short lived. We hadn’t even sat down for dinner yet when shit decided to hit the fan again.I was sitting in my office studying the old Lycan legends when the message came. Well, two messages.The first was from a team I sent to scout out the Eclipse Mountain pack. I knew what I was destined to do, but I didn’t really know what the situation actually was at the pack. Turns out… It was bad.The territory was being attacked by rogues most days, they were constantly attempting to push through the defences. No one was entirely sure why, but it was happening. The pack, my pack, had lost ten wolves in the last month, and another twenty seven were in hospital, critically wounded. Of the twenty seven wounded, six were children under the age of ten. Six.What absolute scumbag targets children?“Jacob, Alex,” I called through the mind link. “Can you both meet me in my office?”They were in Jacob’s office, so reached mine in less than a minute. When t
NOAHI stared at the note, dumbfounded.Theo wouldn’t do this. It just wasn’t possible.“That’s his handwriting,” dad whispered.It was… but the message wasn’t right.“He physically held the pen, yes… but he didn’t write that message.”Dad glanced at me, eyes concerned.“Can I see it again, Noah?” Ava asked, voice low.I nodded, passing her the paper. She read it again, before stopping and pointing about half way down. “This isn’t right. Theo wouldn’t say this.”“Theo wouldn’t say what?” Dad asked.“Theo and I have… shared girls before, dad. That’s happily shared too. Me being in the group wouldn’t be a problem. It would have been more believable if he’d said Callum or Oscar were the problem, but not me.”“I agree, Jacob,” Ava replied. “I’m sure you don’t like hearing about your sons’ sex lives, but I completely agree with Noah.”“Theo was also happy. He was working with the rest of us to plan something to apologise to you, Ava, to make up for pushing you away.”At that comment, I saw
Three days until the full moonAVAThe next morning, Callum and I still hadn’t stopped arguing. The four of us went for breakfast together in the packhouse dining room, and as soon as we walked in, mine and his auras were so overpowering it suffocated the room.I managed to drag mine back in, as did Callum eventually, but you could still feel the anger that surrounded both of us.Callum was completely convinced that the only way to approach the issue was for me to hide for the lead up to the full moon and the day itself. That absolutely was not going to happen, and for some reason, he just couldn’t understand this. Neither he or Ares would hide away, so why he expected that I would was a mystery.At no point did I say I’d go on my own. He could even stick to me like glue the entire time, I just absolutely was not going to hide away.“Ava!” a feminine, excited voice shouted from across the room. My mum.I smiled, jumping out of my chair and running towards her to wrap her in a hug. We
AVA“AVA!” Callum shouted, his hands on my shoulders, shaking me. “Fuck, she's not breathing.” He sounded really far away.I felt Oscar and Noah drop to their knees beside me, each of them holding one of my hands, Callum’s hand stroking my hair.“Come back to us, Ava,” Callum whispered, tears in his eyes. “Please, come back to us.”I suddenly snapped awake, sitting up so quickly I headbutted Callum in the face.“Ava! You're okay!” He flung his arms around my neck, not even caring that blood was streaming down his face from where my head collided with his nose.“Fuck,” I whispered, voice hoarse. “Water, please,” I mumbled.Noah and Oscar helped me sit up whilst Callum grabbed me a bottle of water. Apparently we were back at the training ground.I sipped it slowly, soothing my sore throat.“What happened?” I whispered.“You blacked out, Ava. You suddenly stopped, your eyes clouded over, and you collapsed. You screamed as if you were in pain, and stopped breathing.”I rubbed my chest; th
AVAOnly two trains ran through Matthew's territory at that time, none in ours and only one in Eclipse Mountain. Much more workable!“What next, my Queen?” Oscar asked.“Well, my King. We go for a run.”He raised one eyebrow. “To where?”“Eclipse Mountain,” I smiled.The room was silent as if I'd said something unexpected. “We can tackle the one train route in Eclipse Mountain quickly. They are also fiercely loyal to me and so are loyal to you all, which means they'll lend me warriors to speed up the process of checking Matthew's territory.”“Ava… why not use our warriors?” Noah asked.I met his eyes, my face stony. “Because we've got a leak.”Their mouths all fell open.“How do you know?” Oscar asked.“Matthew knows things he shouldn't know. They must have an insider here, and until I know who, I don't trust anyone.”“Alright then,” Noah replied. “We go to Eclipse Mountain. When do we leave?”I pulled out my phone, checking the time. “It's a five hour run with no breaks to Eclipse M
Two days until the full moonAVAI woke up in a tangle of sated bodies, but it wasn't right. It wasn't right without Theo. I still felt like something was missing.We all went for a run before breakfast, which definitely wasn’t as relaxing as normal, thanks to the security escort Michael had insisted upon… and by the time we returned to our suite, the room had already been made up and handmaidens must have picked our outfits for the day… including my heels and tiara.I groaned when I saw the ‘casual wear’ that had been laid out for us. The men had dark blue chinos with black formal shoes and shirts, each in a different colour, whilst I had a blue chiffon cocktail style summer dress with black heels. Fortunately the tiara laid out with the outfit was a delicate one, as close to casual as it's possible to be… but it's still a tiara.“You look amazing, my Queen,” Callum smiled, taking my hand and spinning me around. “This royalty thing suits you.”I rolled my eyes.“He's right, Ava,” Osc
AVAThe run back to Blood Moon was faster this time, we managed it in only four hours. But that will be because part way back, I felt Theo being tortured. There’s nothing like the feeling of your mate being tortured to help you somehow run even faster.We set up my twelve warriors in one of the guest houses, one nicely close to the pack house in case we needed the backup quickly. I’d agreed with Callum, who was essentially my head of the Queen’s Guard, that I’d have two warriors tailing me at all times, not including him.I could deal with that.With everything that was going on, being tailed by two warriors is hardly a concern. I was planning on insisting each of my mates had a tail too once my Queen’s Guard was fully in place. They wouldn’t like it either, but they’d have to learn to deal with it.Until they didn’t, I’d keep knocking them on their asses in training.Of course, we hadn’t told Jacob and Alex yet that I’d brought twelve Lycan warriors back with us from our adventures,