Page 22 of Ava: Part Three

"Get out of my fucking head," he cut in with a snarl.

Both men were quiet for a while until Alpha Morgan sighed and sat next to him.

"Why don't you tell me what you saw?" he said.

"Why? So we can do that shit again? Did you not see the state your daughter was in when she came back out? Facing all of that is not a game, Alpha Morgan."

"I'm not saying it is. But I want to know what happened to my daughter," Alpha Morgan said. "Do you have any idea the shit she's gone through in our pack because she had no wolf? And now it turns out I was right all along; she did shift as a pup. She needs to find her wolf, Zeke."

Zeke turned to the man who had raised Ava like his own. Was his pack the reason he had taught her how to fight like a warrior? If there was ever a doubt that he had taken on the role of her father wholeheartedly, that was blown out of the water now. His father would never have stayed to help him go against the Council.

"I just want my daughter to survive this," Alpha Morgan continued. "And her wolf is... It's her only hope."

He was right. Whether Ava's wolf wanted him or not, it was Ava's only chance.

"I waited too long," he started, looking over the water again. "The last time I saved her, she was hurt, but those things were not so close to her. The whole forest is full of these different bloodthirsty creatures; I don't even know what the fuck they are. When I got to her, they had already surrounded her."

He couldn't get the image of her lying there, bleeding out of his head. He'd thought he was too late.

"And?"

"I attacked the closest one, and she passed out," he said. "These things were everywhere. Coiling around her body, appearing out of thin air... I was getting to them as fast as I could when Ava just got up and shredded them herself. Like they were nothing."

And her eyes... Her eyes had been glowing.

Shadow had immediately gone to his mate, happy to finally meet her even among all that evil and magic in the forest. But Ava had turned on him and attacked him, too. It had been her wolf in control as she had made her way back out of the forest herself.

It was her wolf that didn't want him.

"And then she came out and passed out. You know the rest," he said, unwilling to discuss the part that had hurt him the most.

Mr Patrick sighed as if he'd still been listening to his thoughts. Without waiting to warn him again, he stood and lunged at the teacher, only to end up with a handful of air.

He growled as he turned back around.

"This is what I mean. This is why I won't trust you," he snarled. "You appear and disappear like that shit is normal. You mess around in people's heads and keep secrets, but you're still spying in our heads and asking us to trust you. I am done with you."

Mr Patrick didn't seem concerned about his anger, which pissed him off more. He turned to walk away. He had a mate to protect, so he had to find a weakness in the patrols. He had no time for games.

"You're right," Mr Patrick said.

He stopped but didn't turn back around.

"I do ask a lot, and I do keep secrets. I can't risk the Council finding out what I am because they will come for me. Ironically, I've been their prisoner here for years without them realising it."

He turned back and saw Mr Patrick looking over where the lake flowed into the darkness of the forest.

"I don't know what they've done, but their forest has strengthened in the past few decades. And all of that dark magic has trapped me here."

"You can't even leave when the students go home?" Alpha Morgan asked with a frown.

"I can't go through the forest at all. I even tried flying out of here in the beginning..."

Mr Patrick turned to face them.

"There aren't many of my kind left. The Council made sure of that when they started doing all of this," he said.

"And what kind is that?" he asked.

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