Page 17 of Ava: Part Two

“Good morning, Mr Michelson,” Iulia said as he approached, without even turning back to see him. “I trust you slept well?”

Sleep? Very funny. Andrei chuckled beside her, but the demon wolf remained quiet.

“Good morning, ma’am,” he answered.

Yulia reached into the base of the fountain and ran a hand through the water. The silver in the oval ornament in the middle glowed briefly before he sensed a change in the air. He had always known the fountain was significant, with its silver markings in an ancient language, but he still didn’t know the purpose of it. But now it seemed it had something to do with the Council’s magic. He would stay as far away from it as possible.

“May we help you?” Alpha Diego asked, finally turning around to face him.

He leaned against the fountain and put his hands in his pockets.

“I came to ask the results of your investigation.”

“Oh? Why?” the Alpha asked.

“Because you alluded that I was a suspect. I want to know what’s coming.”

“We did no such thing,” Andrei said as he turned around, too. “We simply questioned everyone who had seen Miss Hubert the seventy-two hours prior to her disappearance.”

“And now we’re going home,” Iulia said with a shrug as a car came up the driveway and went around the fountain.

Going home?

“What about your investigation?” he asked carefully. He didn’t dare let them into his head now.

“What about it?” Andrei asked as he offered Iulia his arm.

“There are students missing.”

“Oh, yes. Them. We found them,” Andrei said.

And then he helped Iulia into the car without further explanation. Found them where? Were they all back in school? Would they tell him what the hell had happened? Councillor Andrei followed after the witch and slammed the door shut.

Alpha Diego was still leaning against the fountain when he turned back to him, and it didn’t look like he would offer any explanations either.

“How have you tamed your wolf?” the Alpha asked as he straightened and started walking to the car.

“Like everyone else, sir,” he answered.

“Only your wolf isn’t like everyone else’s, is it? It’s more like mine,” the councillor said as he opened the other car door. “I look forward to seeing you at the evaluations, Mr Michelson. Perhaps teach your Omega some manners until then.”

And then he got into the car, too. He watched them drive off for a while and didn’t move until he started to feel Councillor Yulia’s magic start to dissipate. He had no idea if she could still get him from such a distance, but he didn’t dare let his walls down as he started making his way back to his house.

The others had just woken up when he let himself in and then let out a deep breath. The tension left his body as he stood in the entranceway.

Was this shit really over? Claire wasn’t dead, and he did not need to worry about Ava’s fate?

“Where have you been?” Ava asked as she approached him quickly. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to separate yourself from your pack right now. We don’t know what the Council is going to do.”

Her concern felt genuine. If any good had come out of the Council’s visit, it was the fact that she wasn’t terrified of him right now. She seemed to have forgotten that she had hidden away from him all weekend after he had dealt with Jared’s pack, though why she had been so scared was beyond him.

‘Maybe because she knows you want to mount her.’

Shadow had a way with words. He said nothing about that as he looked into the big blue eyes of the human whose soul had been intertwined with his.

“They’re gone,” he told her.

Derek and Myles walked out of the lounge when he said that, looking at him for confirmation of his statement.

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