Page 101 of Ava: Part One

That deflated her anger immediately. She stood and followed him while looking at the woods, but as always, she didn’t see or hear anything. The last time a pack had cornered her, she had ended up half-dead, and the last thing she wanted was to repeat that experience.

When she walked in, Ezekiel had taken his shirt off and was in the process of lowering his sweatpants. She turned around quickly.

“You could have warned me!” she shrieked.

“Why? I don’t mind you looking,” he chuckled.

“What are you doing?”

“Just going for a run.”

“You just said there are other wolves out there.”

Ezekiel didn’t answer. Instead, he grinned at her as he walked back out of the house, stark naked. Her eyes were drawn lower to the muscular cheeks and firm, powerful thighs. She could bounce a coin on him. Why was he so perfect?

But she remembered why he was naked and pulled her eyes away from him. Running into the house, she called out Derek’s name. Why had Ezekiel gone out by himself? Damn wolves.

Chapter 70

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 about their bond?

‘If we kill them all, we won’t have to worry about that anymore.’

Shadows' thoughts didn’t scare him now. After all, that demon was the other half of him. These were his thoughts, unfiltered, unburdened with all the rules and restrictions of his world. He would kill them all if he could. He and Shadow were one and the same.

The wolves went in different directions, but he easily kept on the Beta’s tail. He wasn’t even running fast, just toying with them. Even a distance away from them, he could sense their fear. Not fear. Terror. The wolves were terrified. Rightfully so.

His paws easily navigated the fallen trees and roots, the bushes, and the rocks in his way. These were his woods, even if the Academy forbade them from carving out their own spaces. The woods were extensive, but because the cursed forest lay on the other side of them, there was only so much space for all the wolves at the academy to run. And there was only so much space for them to run away from him. There was nowhere they could go that Shadow wouldn’t find them.

A big brown wolf came into his view, leaping over bushes and tree trunks to get away from him.

‘I grow tired of this game,’ Shadow declared as he sped up.

And then he had the Beta’s hind leg in his jaws. The whines, whimpers, and howls did nothing to faze him as he shook the wolf from side to side and then threw him against a tree trunk. The wolf was obviously stupid because he got up and tried to run again. He had him by his other leg and gave it the same treatment.

This time, the whining wolf didn’t get up, but he rolled over and showed his stomach. He didn’t try to fight back because he knew it was a death wish. Shadow was twice his size and much stronger; a challenge would be fatal.

He knew Jared’s pack could hear their Beta’s cries, and he was probably calling for help in the pack link. But Jared had played dirty, and these were the consequences. That coward would have known he would retaliate for being sent to isolation.

The Beta shifted and kept his eyes down.

“Please... Don’t kill me.”

‘See? He’s expecting me to kill him. Let’s do it,’ Shadow said.

He had been pretty calm since their time in the dark and having Ava under their roof. Before this, Shadow would never have discussed this; he would have gone straight for the throat.

He shifted and walked to stand in front of the wolf. His pack were already circling him as if they thought there was something they could do to stop this.

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