Page 58 of Ava: Part Two

All around them, the arena was quickly emptying, the students being forced out by the security. He saw Derek and Myles being manhandled as they struggled to return to his side, but the security guards were specially trained by the Council. And through the other doors, more security guards entered.

Now, that was overkill.

Okay, so he had almost killed Jared, but the coward was long gone now. Did they really need all these people to subdue him? He would have shifted back, but now he felt like Shadow was the only thing stopping them from acting.

‘Someone is playing with us,’ Shadow said.

He was right. Everyone knew they could never pair him up with Jared for anything. They had different classes and different training sessions, and for evaluations, they didn’t fight each other. It had been an unwritten rule for three years. But someone had set this match up and then trapped Jared in the ring with him. Someone was trying to make him fuck up.

“Miss Morgan!” the dean repeated.

He growled in warning and the dean took a step back.

“I didn’t mean to,” Ava whispered.

She had fully turned to the dean now, and her fear had returned to unbearable levels.

What did she mean? What had she done?

“Miss Morgan, you need to step out of the ring so we can deal with this first.”

Ava looked back at him pleadingly before she spoke to the dean again.

“He didn’t do anything wrong. Jared is fine,” Ava said.

“That’s true. But you still need to step away. We can’t continue the day with Alpha Michelson occupying the ring.”

Ava looked back at him. Her fear was now clearly written all over her face.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,” she whispered to him, and then she slowly rose to her feet.

He was still trying to understand what she meant when she slipped out of the ring, and the barrier immediately fell back over his ring.

He growled as he rushed forward and slammed against it. Ava stood on the other side, tears slipping down her cheeks. What the fuck was going on? Why was she crying? Tensions eased all around the arena as the security mobilised.

His ears picked up some whispered chanting, and when he tracked it, he saw three witches in a circle holding hands. He knew they were the ones responsible for the barriers. Why did they trap him here? He hadn’t broken any rules; there was no need to punish him.

“Miss Morgan, you know the rules. Follow those two—”

“But I had to! You were all just standing there like you wanted Jared to die,” Ava said. “If I hadn’t done that, you would have been cleaning up a mess in the ring and then having to call his family to tell them an Alpha had died on your watch.”

“The rules are the rules, Miss Morgan. And we are perfectly capable of handling any situation that arises in our rings. Alpha Anderson was never in any real danger.”

He wanted to snort at that, but his heart pounded too hard as he waited to hear what the hell was going on.

“Dean—”

“Take her away,” the dean said to two guards. “One day in Isolation, Miss Morgan.”

What?

He shifted back, not caring that he was naked as he gripped the ropes.

“What do you mean Isolation?” he growled. “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“She yielded, Mr Michelson. Rules are in place for a reason.”

He stepped back as the dean’s words hit him like a tonne of bricks. Yielded? Shadow thrashed around in his mind as he struggled to get out. This had been a setup. Someone had put Jared in the ring with him to bring his rage out, and now Ava was paying for it. No one would have thought a little human would throw herself into a dangerous situation that everyone else knew to stay out of.

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