Page 68 of Ava: Part Two

Jared just couldn’t help himself, could he? That bastard really wanted to die.

Chapter 45

Avaslowlywalkedbackup the front steps and stopped at the open door. She tried to hide her horror but didn’t think she succeeded.

Jared was wearing only a pair of shorts, and his whole body looked like a giant bruise. He also had huge open wounds on his stomach shaped like teeth. Huge teeth that could only belong to one person.

What the hell? Had Zeke come after him again while she had been in Isolation?

She met his gaze and saw the dejection in his eyes. The complete helplessness.

“I don’t think you should be here,” Jared said.

She ignored his statement to look at his wounds again. Why wasn’t he in the Infirmary? Why was his pack letting him walk around like this?

“What happened? Did Zeke come again?”

She didn’t know why she was surprised. She had witnessed Zeke go after the wolves watching her in his backyard, and he’d come back bloody. Zeke was very much capable of this. His wolf was capable of this.

She didn’t know why she always pushed such important facts to the back of her mind. She didn’t understand why she felt so safe around Zeke. She’d seen his wolf, and he was a beast. Twice the size of any Alpha she had ever seen and had nothing but darkness around him. That was not the type of man she should kiss or lose her head with.

“No,” Jared sighed.

And then he stepped back to allow her in as if he didn’t care about the repercussions now. She followed him in and then closed the door behind her. The house was so quiet she wasn’t sure if anyone else was there. When she had stayed over before, it had been just the two of them and two Omegas, but surely his pack members should have come to attend to their future Alpha?

“Then what happened? Where’s your pack?”

“They don’t want to do anything that would upset your Alpha,” Jared grunted as he gingerly walked towards the stairs.

“He’s not my Alpha,” she said, “and they should be here regardless. You’ll be their Alpha when you graduate.”

Jared looked back at her for a second. She couldn’t decipher the look in his eyes, but she knew what she said had upset him.

“I hope you don’t mind; you’ll have to talk to me in my bedroom,” Jared said, ignoring her statement. “I’m more comfortable lying down.”

“Maybe I should take you to the Infirmary instead?”

His back looked worse than the front and had a matching row of teeth marks. Why were they not healing? When had Zeke done this?

“No,” Jared said quickly. “I’ll be fine.”

She didn’t say anything else until Jared led her into his bedroom and settled on his huge bed. She hadn’t been in his room before, but it was as flamboyant as expected. It was similar to Zeke’s in size and design, but Jared had shown his personality with bold colours and artwork on the walls.

Once he settled himself on his side on the bed, he let out a breath of relief.

“Sorry it took so long to get to the door,” he said.

She pulled a chair over to the side he was facing and sat.

“If I had known you were like this, I would have just walked in. What happened, Jared? When did he attack you again?”

“He didn’t. This is from the evaluation match.”

What?

“But that was two days ago!”

He should have completely healed by now.

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