Page 50 of Ava: Part One

Shadow ignored him and walked in. He ignored the medics, attendants, nurses, and doctors who asked if they could help him as his nose led him straight to Ava’s room.

She was asleep and hooked up to several machines. The stench of her blood was heavy in the air, but somebody had cleaned her. She looked so peaceful like this. Untroubled. Her skin was so pale that her freckles stood out on her face, but she didn’t look like anyone who had just been seriously hurt in a training match.

Was the match not as bad as he had imagined it in his head? Had it not been like yesterday, with all that blood and all the punches? Why didn’t she have even a single bruise? They had healing potions here, but he’d had them before, and they weren’t that good. There would have been signs of injury for a while after taking it.

A thought struck him, but as he sniffed the air again, he knew he hadn’t made a mistake. Ava was very much human.

‘You would have killed people for nothing,’ he told Shadow.

‘They still deserve to die.’

And that was what he was afraid of. This diversion was just a reprieve for those who’d put their hands on Ava. Shadow was still going to hand out his brand of justice.

‘Tell me what I need to do.’

Negotiating with the devil was never a good thing. That was what dealing with Shadow felt like; he was a demon from the very depths of hell sent to torture him for the rest of his life. But this had to be done. They had to agree on something so he could get some sleep and rebuild his mental walls against Shadow.

‘She is mine,’ was all Shadow said.

‘Can we wait? Can you give me time to think of something to make us both happy?’

Shadow didn’t respond as he walked over to a chair in the corner and sat.

‘Why should I wait? She is yours, too,’ Shadow said. ‘I’m not the one who touched her. I’m not the one who kissed her until she burned for me. You can’t fight this, Ezekiel. Time won’t change anything.”

Chapter 35

Ava opened her eyes slowly. Groggy and confused, she turned her head to look around. It was the infirmary again, but she was in a room this time. All sorts of beeping machines were hooked up to her, and an IV needle was in her arm.

“I’m alive,” she whispered.

How the hell had that happened? Dexter and Claire had attacked her as if they were on an actual battlefield. Every punch, kick and knee had been excruciatingly painful as her bravado deserted her. She’d lost count of the number of timesthey had thrown her across the training hall, the number of times she had smashed into the walls. And she had lost count of how often she had heard something break. She was pretty sure she left all her teeth on the mat.

The way those two had been going, she had a feeling they’d continued attacking her long after she lost consciousness. That bastard coach wouldn’t have stopped them.

She moved her arm. It had bent the wrong way when she had landed after Dexter had smashed her into a wall and just before Claire had delivered the blow that had made her pass out from the pain. There was no cast on her arm. She frowned as she lifted it and tested her range of movement.

“Damn,” she said to herself.

She needed to marry Jared’s witch because that was some potent stuff she whipped up. Though her head felt a little bit fuzzy because she had taken more hits this time, there was absolutely no pain in her body! She would have to ask Jared if she could get hundreds of jars of this stuff.

She brought both hands to feel her ribs that had broken again and then the shoulder that had been dislocated. She felt along her collarbone because she’d heard it when it snapped. She lifted one leg and the other, moving her ankles in circles. And then she felt her face. Claire had been particularly hard on her face, but she didn’t feel any tenderness or pain. And she had all her teeth!

Though this meant she had no evidence to take to the dean, a part of her was glad she would stick this in Claire’s face again when she saw her. The doctor would likely force her to go to lessons again, so there would be no avoiding that psycho.

She was about to pull the IV out when the familiar spicy cologne filled her nostrils. Her heart did a little flip before it started the usual hammering. She didn’t even need to be hooked up to the now incessantly beeping heart monitor to know it was out of control; the loud drumming was all she could hear.

Ava slowly turned her head and met glowing red ones. Ezekiel was stock-still as he watched her. And the anger she felt from him... She wasn’t a wolf, but she could feel the white heat of his rage battering her body. It made the heart monitor crazier as she shrank back on the bed.

Someone walked in, but she couldn’t look away from Ezekiel to see who it was. She felt trapped in his gaze.

Only when the monitor stopped and silence filled the room did Ezekiel’s gaze release her. He looked at the unfortunate person who had walked in to unhook the machines with the same murderous expression.

“Is she okay?” he growled.

His voice was different. It was gravelly and deeper, like his wolf was talking. She had heard the wolves in her pack speak this way when they struggled to control their wolves, but Ezekiel seemed very much in control.

“I can’t discuss my patient’s confidential information with another—”

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