Page 45 of Ava: Part Two

Stubborn woman.

The whistle sounded, and Ava went into a fighting stance. The picture she painted was so different to the softer version from yesterday, the version that had been gentle with Gideon’s young vampire. She was anxious; he could sense that from where he stood, but she still looked ready. She was going to have to speak to him after this match. If this day went like the last, there was no telling who she would be fighting next. With all the weapons involved, he had a feeling they would end up in the infirmary again.

“Alpha Ezekiel.”

He turned away from Ava to concentrate on his own match. He didn’t like that someone had put him among the first to fight, and there were magical barriers between him and Ava. How would he help her if she needed him?

His opponent was a third-year witch who was quite an impressive fighter, but she wouldn’t be much of a challenge to him. Maybe on the third day, when she could use her magic, too, but not today.

He lifted his two battle axes and watched the witch swallow, even when she tried to keep a brave face on. She came at him first with two daggers similar to the ones he had seen Ava use. They had removed those weapons from the beginners when they were the only ones she had trained on. He knew who to blame, but Ava didn’t seem phased by it.

He side-stepped the witch easily and brought the hilt of one of his axes down on the back of her head. Even keeping his eye on his opponent, he could hear Ava as she fought hers.

The witch was dazed for a moment but swiftly turned to attack again. He didn’t give her a chance to get a single hit. He had no time to be nice; he had to protect his mate. In less than a minute, the witch was bloody and had his sharp axe right against her neck. The instructor called the match, and the barrier around the ring was lifted to allow them to come in and check on her. He immediately walked out of the ring to head to Ava’s and wasn’t surprised to see her walking out as the winner.

When she looked up at him, he cocked his head for her to follow him. They needed to talk about this before she advanced to fight at the next level, which he was sure she would.

But Ava looked away from him and sat down in the bleachers as if she hadn’t seen him.

The little...

‘I can’t see anything out of the ordinary, Zeke.’

Derek interrupted his murderous thoughts as he gave a status report. His Beta had luckily not had to fight first, but if things worked out like they had yesterday, there was a chance they would all be in the ring at the same time again. Then who would watch his mate?

He realised this was probably the reason they didn’t allow Alphas to mate with humans in the first place. Instead of worrying about his own performance, he was trying to keep his human alive. He hadn’t even thought of the fact that his father would expect the regular weekend call at lunchtime, and he would have to tell him things he didn’t want to hear. His spies may have already called him by now.

‘I’ve not heard anything, either,’ Myles said. ‘It had to be a witch; who else could whip up such undetectable potions?”

‘I want to know everyone she looks at, everyone she talks to. Don’t let her out of your sight,’ he ordered.

He decided to walk to his dressing room anyway. He needed to think things through. After a few more days, he could try to secure their way out of this place, but until then, he needed to know who her enemies were. Because they had become his enemies.

At the exit, he saw the one person he really didn’t want to see in his foul mood. Jared was looking him straight in the eye, with his hands in his pockets like he wasn’t standing at death’s door. Was this where the coward tried to negotiate for his life? Sure, he wanted Jared to keep quiet about the kiss he saw, but not at the expense of his revenge. Nothing would ever stop that.

“We need to talk, Zeke,” Jared said.

“Alpha Ezekiel,” he growled. “And no. Go fuck yourself.”

He walked past Jared without giving him another glance.

“Ezekiel, please. Hear me out. We were friends—”

Shadow snarled, and he almost gave in to his beast’s urges to rip Jared apart. He needed a run to let off some steam, but he couldn’t do that until he knew Ava was safe.

He ignored the dying man's words as he stormed to his dressing room. He needed to calm Shadow down before he killed someone.

Chapter 30

Avastayedinthebleachers for all the matches for the beginners to complete. She was just being a coward. Between his matches, Zeke had paced up and down the whole arena, and every time he stopped at the beginners’ section, his eyes burned through her.

She’d kept her eyes down even though she was obviously frustrating him. If other people hadn’t heard the rumours about them by now, she was sure his behaviour had made them aware. He was scaring the shit out of everyone.

But it was okay. She wasn’t going to be at the arena much longer. She’d won some matches already but would tap out on the next one to avoid winning a spot in the top ten. This day wouldn’t end like the last one.

Predictably, the coach called her name first.

She ignored Zeke as she went to pick a weapon and chose a very small chain. It could still be deadly in the right hands, but she didn’t want anything that would intimidate her opponent. They’d all been wary of her already during the earlier matches. She hoped that in time, they would realise that she had just been lucky with Dexter, and they could do the same if they trained as hard as she had. Maybe she could have taught them that if she wasn’t planning on leaving the academy.

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