Page 101 of Ava: Part Two

“I... I didn’t. I was on a call with my father when you came up the driveway covered in Claire’s blood,” Zeke said quietly.

“What? I don’t understand...”

She’d heard his growl. She’d seen how terrified Claire had been before she passed out.

But still, her screams and all that blood plagued her nightmares. As if she had seen it.

She looked down at her hands and could almost see the blood on them. And the claws, ripping into their flesh...

“I... I need some air,” she said as she stood.

That didn’t make sense. It was impossible.

“It happened the same way when you were a pup, little one,” her father said gently.

“It’s not the same. It was an animal attack,” she said, backing away to the door.

It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t her. She was not a killer.

Chapter 64

Theirvoicesweredistortedand echoed like they were in a tunnel. They all sounded far away. Ava’s thoughts whirled in her head, making no sense. Her heart pounded against her chest so loud it was all she could hear.

She turned away from them to open the door, but it wouldn't budge.

She was trapped.

And they were still speaking to her, surrounding her, their concern heavy in the air. How could she feel that?

"Let me out!"

She couldn't tell whether she screamed it or said it. The three men in front of her stepped back and looked at her as if she had grown three heads.

What her dad had said was impossible. That nightmare started after she had been nosy and read the newspaper articles about the time her birth father was murdered and those dismembered bodies were found in the forest.

It had nothing to do with her.

Impossible.

She had been six when the police found her. Six! Alpha Roland might have believed that her wolf had forced a shift and saved her, but even he'd never heard of a pup shifting. She was wolfless. Human. That was why she hadn't shifted when she'd come of age.

Everybody in her pack knew this. Everyone at this academy knew this.

She felt the burning in her chest that indicated a panic attack and turned back to the door. She had to get out. She needed air.

"Please let me out," she sobbed.

She didn't realise she'd started crying until her tears fell down her cheeks.

"I can't breathe. Let me out!"

Mr Patrick came beside her and touched the door. Then she was free.

She didn't think about where she was going as she started to walk down the hallway. Then she started to jog. But still, she couldn't shake this darkness inside her, this loud noise in her head that said maybe it was true. She was a murderer.

All this time she'd been scared of Zeke, of what he had done to Claire... But she was the monster?

It was dark now, and there wasn't as much activity as she burst through the front doors into the fresh air. She fell to her knees on the pavement and took a deep breath, but it didn't help. It felt like it wasn't enough. Like she would never breathe again.

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