Page 91 of Ava: Part Three

‘Nicks?’

‘No. N.Y.X.’

And then she was gone. The jumble returned, and she opened her eyes to look at Zeke. He looked at her so hopefully. How was she supposed to tell him that the wolf he was relying on wanted nothing to do with her?

But that longing for love and acceptance hadn’t been her imagination. She would have to work on that. Somehow. Maybe not when her head was foggy and she was worried sick about her father.

“What did she say?” Zeke asked.

He was excited and a little nervous. Like he was meeting a lover for the first time. It was cute but a little heartbreaking because she couldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. She hadn’t spoken to her wolf long enough to find out why she had run away from Zeke after her first shift. She didn’t know if her wolf was rejecting them both.

“Her name is Nyx.”

Zeke’s smile widened.

“That’s a beautiful name. Fitting. In Greek mythology, she’s the goddess of the night, the daughter of Chaos. Shadow and Nyx,” Zeke said. “You see, you were always meant for us.”

Yes, but Nyx didn’t think so. She messed that up for Zeke just as she was going to mess things up for the whole school and get people killed.

‘Mark him.’

The voice startled her again, and she somehow ended up in Zeke’s arms, her heart pounding. How the hell did anyone ever get used to that?

‘I said mark him.’

She looked up at Zeke with her eyes wide. It was the male wolves who marked their mates. The female never did that, but she was supposed to show Nyx she could trust her. She had to do it.

At least she had an answer to one of her questions. Nyx wasn’t rejecting Zeke at all—just her.

Zeke was looking at her curiously, and she bit her lip. Could she mark an Alpha male?

‘I’m an Alpha, too. If you want us to live, claim our mate.’

Chapter 53

Thesunwasstillshining, and the guards were still positioning themselves all around them when Ava pulled his head down and kissed him.

She had never initiated anything before.

But like all the other times, it didn’t matter what was going on around them when his mate touched him; her kiss floored him. He could taste the alcohol on her tongue as she grew bolder with each passing second. And he grew harder.

He reluctantly pulled his lips from hers.

“There are guards in the woods,” he warned her as he stood and helped her to her feet.

This wasn’t supposed to be what they were doing right now, but this could be their last day together. He wasn’t going to deny his mate. At least that pain she’d felt when they’d taken her father was in the background.

He had them in the bedroom in record time, then crashed his lips to hers again. Mate bonds were supposed to settle down after a few days, but with Ava, he still lost his head when she touched him. Heat spread through his body as he ripped her training kit off her.

The thought of not getting to have this for the rest of his life stabbed his heart. He lifted his head and looked at his beautiful mate. Was he pushing her to make the wrong decision? They could live longer if they rolled over and took whatever Mr Hansson did to them. Maybe graduate and live together. Find a pack that would accept them or start their own. And have children. Many of them so they wouldn’t be lonely like he had been.

Ava’s fingers fumbled with his clothes. Someone had given him a training kit to wear because he’d woken up in one of the rooms in the Administration building fully dressed. But he ripped the kit off to help Ava out and stood in front of her naked. Her eyes heated up, and the scent of her arousal filled the room. And when she looked at him from his toes all the way up, he felt like puffing his chest out with pride.

Ava’s gaze stopped at his neck, and she bit her lip thoughtfully. Something was going on in his mate's head. He could sense it clearly as if her speaking to Nyx had somehow changed things.

Or it could have started before her wolf had spoken to her. For a moment, he’d thought he could hear the waves crashing into the shore and smell the ocean. His eyes were wide open, and he hadn’t been trying to connect with her the way they had connected in isolation. He didn’t think Ava even knew she had done that.

“What are you thinking of?” he asked.

---