Page 43 of Ava: Part One

The whole time he waited outside the infirmary, his senses had been tuned to her beating heart, and Shadow had thrashed inside him. He’d wanted to stay there to make sure Ava was okay, and at the same time, he’d wanted to find Claire and rip her head clean off her body.

Today, he had been tortured on a level he had never experienced before.

Claire had known. Somehow, she had known that he was drawn to Ava. How else could he explain that look she had given him before she had felled Ava, slamming her to the ground? That glint in her eyes as she used all her strength on Ava’s fragile body?

His claws extended again as he thought of his girlfriend—his ex-girlfriend. He could never be with her again after what she did, and after what he did, kissing Ava like that. How could he want anyone else now?

He could still taste Ava on his lips. He hadn’t planned on doing that, but after seeing her walk out of the hospital on her own, he had needed to. Needed to touch her. To taste her. To fill himself with her scent, just to reassure himself that she was okay.

‘Go back to her,’ Shadow commanded.

He couldn’t. No matter what feelings Ava dug up in him, he still couldn’t.

Shadow snarled at him, which turned into a growl when the unwelcome stench of a vampire hit his nose. Shadow had found someone else to take his anger out on. A growl left his lips as helooked in his rearview mirror. Now was not the time for this shit! Shadow was ready to take over and rip everyone’s throats out; he couldn’t attend to any official pack business now.

He saw the vampires coming up his driveway and fought the shift. His face tightened as his deadly teeth elongated, but he gripped the wheel as if his life depended on it. It did depend on it. He pushed as hard as possible, but Shadow wouldn’t let go of him.

‘Derek! Myles!’ he said through the pack link. ‘We have company.’

He couldn’t leave the car. The moment he did, it would be a bloodbath, and everything would be over. He would never be Alpha and take his revenge.

Derek and Myles came out of the house quickly, dressed only in their pyjama bottoms and ready to shift in an instant.

“We mean no harm,” Gideon called out, his palms raised as he stopped a distance away. “We had a meeting, but you didn’t turn up. I was under the impression our negotiations were time-sensitive.”

Shit. The vampire prince was right. He was supposed to have met with him after training to try to reach an agreement that suited everyone. But Ava... He had been unable to move or think until he saw that she was okay.

‘Zeke!’

Derek's shouting in his head brought him back to the present. But Shadow was also in there, growling at him to find Claire. Ordering him to go and take care of Ava. Ordering him to kill all the vampires and everyone who stood in his way. His beast wanted to go hunting.

‘Not now, Derek. Tell them I’ll find them.’

He cut the pack link so he could concentrate on calming himself down. He was in no state of mind for delicate negotiations, no matter how urgent.

He didn’t know how long he sat there gripping the wheel, but the vampires were gone when Derek knocked on his window.

He took a last calming breath and watched his claws retract as he finally muzzled the beast. When he left his car, Derek sniffed the air briefly before he looked at him pointedly.

“Seriously? You blew the meeting off because you were with a girl? They have one of ours; we need this information.”

He slammed the car door and walked into the house, Derek and Myles hot on his heels. He knew exactly what was at stake. The vampires had a wolf in their ranks now, a female from his pack who’d gone and mated a vampire. His father thought this was the greatest insult to their pack and wanted blood. It had already caused too many rules to be broken during the break.

If the Council got involved, it wouldn’t end well for anybody.

But he could still smell Ava’s blood; he couldn’t think about that.

“What’s really going on here, Zeke? You pace your room all night; you’re not fucking sleeping, and then you bite people’s heads off all day,” Myles said.

He trusted them with his life. He trusted they would always have his back. But on something like this? He couldn’t.

“Which girl has you wound up like this? I can’t believe you’re going to get us into trouble with your father over a piece of—”

He had Derek by the neck against the wall before he could finish that sentence.

“Say it,” he growled. “Finish your fucking sentence!”

“Zeke, man, he can’t breathe,” Myles said with a hint of fear.

---