Page 62 of Ava: Part Two

He was on his driveway before long, and shifted back to run into the house. Once he was in his room, he sat on his bed and closed his eyes. And then he took a calming breath as he thought about Ava and his favourite place.

And there on the cliff, with a smile on her lips and her eyes closed as she felt the sun on her face, was his little human mate.

No pain. No darkness trying to push its way into her head. She was fine.

As if she sensed him, she turned her head to face him, the smile still on her lips.

“You’re okay,” he said, disbelief colouring his words.

“No. I think I’ve lost my damn mind,” Ava laughed.

And it was the most glorious sound he had ever heard. It rang out clearly over the water and washed over him, warming him up from the inside as if she were the sun itself.

“Why are you here?” she asked him.

“Because I’m yours.”

Now. Forever. Human and wolf. She was his, and he was hers. And he would kill the next person who tried to take her from him.

Chapter 41

Avalaughed.Shesatfacing her imaginary Zeke, who had been amazing to talk to. She hadn’t been this free since arriving at Phoenix Academy, and his dry sense of humour had cracked her up for...

Well, she had no idea. The sun was still up in the sky, and she knew it was all imaginary anyway, so she couldn’t use it to judge how long she had been stuck in Isolation. And even though this Zeke was imaginary, too, she couldn’t help wondering what it would be like if this was the real him.

The conversation had been light and carefree. She hadn’t steered it towards what she imagined was happening to her body in that dark room or what was happening to Zeke now.

A dark cloud formed quickly and blocked out the sunshine.

“Focus on me, Ava.”

She quickly did just that. Every time she had even the slightest thought of how terrifying her reality was, the weather in this place changed.

“I wonder how I’m even here,” she mused as she watched the dark evaporate. “I’ve never seen a beach before. Our forest has plenty of lakes and rivers, but we’re not near the ocean.”

“This is my favourite place,” Zeke said.

But how could she have known that? Was it the magic in the Isolation room that made this possible?

“Why don’t you tell me about your favourite place,” Zeke suggested.

Could she bring it to life like this place? She closed her eyes and imagined the one place besides her house where she had been free, where she had been safest. And when she opened her eyes, the scene had already started to change. It was blurry at first and slowly came into focus.

On the western border of their territory, there was a wide river that was either calm or deadly depending on the season. She preferred it when it was calm and not threatening to flood the valley below it. There were no wolf territories beyond the river, so it was usually very safe and quiet. And even when it was not, she could usually see the danger right away because her favourite spot was an abandoned forest fire lookout tower.

It was huge and spacious, like her very own treehouse away from everyone else. And from there, she could see miles all around her. It was so green and spacious, untouched by humans. She was away from the large school that had brought her nothing but trouble, the packhouse, the training grounds.

Here she wasn’t Ava, the human. She was just Ava.

“It’s beautiful,” Zeke said. “You should bring me here one day.”

“I really doubt you’d want to visit here,” she snorted.

The future Alpha of the largest pack in the country would have better things to do, and she couldn’t imagine him not getting bored in her pack after a day.

“Of course, I’ll want to see where you’re from,” Zeke said. “You’re not getting rid of me now, Ava. You’re the most important person in my life.”

She felt the heat in her cheeks and wondered why she had to blush if it was all imaginary. This Zeke had said in many different ways that they belonged together. Her subconscious had to be making all of this up from all the dirty dreams she’d had about Zeke since she arrived. She had only seen Zeke laugh once, but here he had laughed several times; he had smiled several times. Here, there was no coldness or anger. The real Zeke wasn’t like this. She had to remember that before she fell for her own imagination.

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