Page 97 of Ava: Part One

‘You almost marked her.’

He looked at Derek sitting as far away from him as possible in the lounge. Understandable. This was the second time he’d almost snapped his Beta’s neck.

It was true. He had been ready to mark her. Sink his teeth into her and then drop her towel and sink into her. It was taking all his willpower to stop himself from doing that right now.

‘Sorry. Shadow is territorial.’

That had been more than territorial. And it was a lie; he couldn’t put this on Shadow. He had been the one who’d lost his temper because of Derek’s timing. He’d been the one who wanted to see his mark on Ava’s smooth skin. He’d been the one who’d wanted to pin her down underneath him.

And Ava had been willing.

So willing.

He looked up again to concentrate on her movements. He could sense what she was feeling a lot more than before, and she was kicking herself for what happened. His little human still hadn’t got her head around the fact that it was all inevitable now. There was no turning back.

She was human, but she had pulled him out of the darkness, something no one else could have done.

‘Is he always going to be like that?’ Derek asked.

Was Shadow always going to be a maniac when it came to Ava? Probably. So would he. A raging maniac.

‘I don’t know,’ he lied. ‘I need to learn more about this, I guess.’

Maybe the librarian could help him again. He couldn’t mark Ava until he knew what it would do to her. They didn’t turn humans for a reason; most died during the process. He couldn’t risk Ava’s life like that.

“Something’s changed,” Myles said from where he was sprawled on another chair, throwing and catching a ball.

“What do you mean?”

“I thought you would be more... I don’t know; you seem to be in perfect control of your wolf. Not saying you weren’t before,” Myles added, “but you seem a lot calmer.”

“Are you sure the Council didn’t...”

Didn’t break him. That was what his friends were scared of. But the Council couldn’t break something that was already broken.

“I’m fine. Just need to get my strength back up,” he lied.

His whole life had been about taming his beast, controlling his beast, and keeping himself separate from the beast. But it hadn’t been possible to do that in isolation. There were no walls between them anymore.

The phone rang on the table in front of him. He sighed and answered, making sure to put it on speaker.

“Hello, Father.”

“What the bloody hell have you done? Isolation? What sort of Alpha gets himself put into isolation like you can’t fix any situation that comes your way?” Alpha Ezra started.

“It was unavoidable. I’ll fix the problem; don’t worry about that.”

Jared wouldn’t live past graduation. It was only a matter of time.

“Yes, while you were there taking a break in isolation, the vampires were still walking all over us,” his father growled.

A break. He clenched and unclenched his fists.

“The vampires don’t need to be handled. I killed enough of theirs when we first tried to get our wolf back. We’re even.”

He didn’t know where he got the balls to say that, but the silence on the other end of the phone screamed his father’s displeasure.

“Listen to me very carefully, boy, because I will tell you this only once. If you don’t bring that bitch back home, then you will never be Alpha,” his father growled. “I will not be made a fool of by a bunch of blood-sucking, undead ass wipes. Am I clear?”

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