“This year like all the others before it since the founding of the Mountain Coast pack, we celebrate the cycle of life and the fact that we have seen yet another year thanks to the faithful and steadfast guidance of the Moon Goddess and our Alpha.” He turned around regarding everyone.
“Our Alpha will be here soon to properly address us but for now I, Adrian Gavin, declare this bonfire started. Please engage in the group activities and bond with your pack mates who you barely talk to and let the new rains usher in a new tide of love and devotion to the pack.”
Wolves cheered and others howled. Ava felt herself smiling along with the speech even though it was almost the same every year. Everyone drifted to their bonfires.
The younger ones had their mini bonfire some paces away with the older people’s bonfire some yards away where they sat quietly sharing stories. The kids played around a lot and had some adult supervision so they wouldn’t fall into the open flame where they toasted marshmallows.
The games started and the one that started next to Ava was one of the most popular ones they usually played among the older teens and young adult wolves. Ava usually didn’t play these games but she was so desperate to avoid that conversation with Jenny that she entered the large circle.
The game was easy. A jar filled with ice cubes sat on a cooler in the centre of the circle. An ice cube would be passed mouth to mouth and anyone who dropped the ice, refused to collect the ice, swallowed the ice or turned the game into a makeout session would be out of the game. Then a tiebreaker would be issued between the top two.
The game started naturally with Gabrielle passing the ice to Adrian who then passed it on. People dropped out of the game and Ava almost left the game because she really wasn’t looking forward to swapping saliva with the guy next to her.
Thankfully he swallowed the dwindling ice and had to leave the game allowing her to choose a piece of ‘new’ ice. Jenny scrunched up her face and left the game rather than swap saliva with Ava and the circle grew tighter.
Gabrielle dropped out too but Adrian remained. Soon they were down to five and Adrian was next to Ava. Adrian leaned in and Ava opened her mouth to accept the ice, their tongues touched in the exchange and she nearly swallowed the ice.
They pulled apart and Ava had to remind herself to pass on the ice because she was too busy staring at his soft cold pink lips. She passed it onto the next person.
It shouldn’t have surprised her that she and Adrian were the last people standing.
“Tiebreaker!”
“Tiebreaker!”
“Tiebreaker!”
The wolves cheered. A line was drawn and they had to get each other past it using any means necessary.
Adrian could have easily plucked her off the ground and thrown her across the line. She would have put up a struggle but she’d seen him move and she knew he could more than take her. Instead, he moved into a fighting stance. The crowd oohed and cheered, most of them shouting Adrian’s name.
Ava readied herself and charged. She swung, lunged, and ducked at an exceptionally fast rate but soon enough she was down inches away from the line, Adrian was on top of her and their faces were inches apart.
She stared into his green eyes, the world fell away and her heartbeat accelerated. Ava licked her lips and Adrian followed the motion. His green gaze looked darker as his pupils dilated and their breathing harmonized.
Ava touched his cheek and her fingers drifted to the back of his neck. Adrian closed his eyes moving down for a kiss and then Ava moved. She used his weight against him and flung him with her supernatural strength way outside the line. Wolves cheered and whooped. Ava stood and smiled tightly trying not to show she had been affected by being in such proximity to Adrian.
Adrian stood up with a rueful smile on his face and looked at her seemingly in disbelief. He laughed and she smiled in return. For a moment it was alright until everything went to hell again.
Calvin ran in bumping into different wolves as he moved, his blond hair was everywhere and his blue eyes looked bloodshot. The crowd quietened as he moved closer to Adrian.
“Calvin?” Adrian asked questioningly.
“For the announcement, I went to get… Alpha Sean has collapsed. The doctors say he is now in a coma, Alpha.”
Ava saw Adrian shake. Saw him smooth his features over to not worry the pack. Watched him become Alpha.
The mood in the pack was downcast and tense, honestly, Ava felt like nothing could ever go back to normal.
Even though she was the daughter of the Beta everything was still hush-hush. She’d heard whispers about a stroke when she’d passed by the closed door to her parent’s room.
Adrian had announced to the pack that Alpha Sean was on the mend but Ava didn’t think anyone really believed that. Adrian had stepped up to take care of major pack decision-making alongside Ava’s father.
His Alpha training was also being sped up as much as it could. These were uncertain times in the pack and everyone was on the edge looking for a sign of stability. Continuity.
Younger women and ladies now began to converge with Gabrielle to tell her their woes and she eased them as much as she could. Gabrielle was quickly becoming a beacon for other women to follow and rely on. It was almost like she had been crowned Luna already.
The conversation Adrian wanted to have with Ava never happened and Ava was left to wonder what he might have wanted to share with her that had been so important. Ava had told Jenny everything.
It had felt like she was baring herself but also good in a way. She was Adrian Gavin’s mate. It had felt relieving to finally admit that to someone who knew her. Someone who was her friend. Jenny had looked at her with so much pity and love then embraced her and she’d wept in Jenny’s embrace.
Jenny hadn’t given her any sage advice or castigated her. She’d just said “You’ll be fine, Ava. I know it.” And somehow, that was enough.
Rumours abound about a mysterious young woman with hair as white as snow with purple eyes now staying with Adrian in the pack house. Ava didn’t believe it but then again it wouldn’t be the first time she would be wrong about Adrian.
She hadn’t seen him since the bonfire. She knew Gabby hadn’t either. It made her wonder exactly what was going on.
Ava went to the clinic as usual for her volunteering but she’d been sent back as Adrian had commanded that anyone who wasn’t a staff couldn’t be allowed to enter the clinic except as a patient even though the Alpha’s treatment area had already been cordoned off except for trusted staff and the warriors who guarded the entrance.
Everything was under lock and key now it would seem. As the pack house was now closed to the public and no one, not even the warriors could enter without being summoned by Adrian.
So Ava went to the training grounds instead.
Ava spent all her time there now. She didn’t see Tyler anymore and when she’d asked Nelson about it, he’d just said.
“Adrian.”
Then shrugged.
Adrian never showed up at the training grounds anymore; he now trained in the pack house.
Ava was shocked by how much she missed him. She thought of him constantly and sometimes when running in the woods, she could catch a whiff of his scent in the wind. She was losing it and she knew it. But what a way to go.
Ava noticed that Gabrielle was now acting closed off with her. She didn’t know if it was because Gabby was missing Adrian or because she was mad at her.
Ava tried to hit up a conversation with her one morning as their parents slept in after a particularly late all-night-long meeting with Adrian.
They were eating cereal.
“So you’ve been busy with Luna business and I barely get to see you or catch up. How has that been going for you?”
“Good. I’m not Luna, Adrian hasn’t marked and mated with me yet. I’m just doing my duty and helping out whoever I can.” Gabby said, woodenly stabbing a veggie with a fork.
“Oh, we all know that’s just a formality. Very soon Adrian will pop the question.” Ava joked trying to get a smile out of Gabby.
Gabby paused and smiled stiffly. “Of course, he will.” She continued eating her food. Ava at a loss for words continued eating as well wondering what was going on.
While they were finishing up their breakfast, someone knocked on the door and Ava went to get it. It was Calvin with his blond hair mostly slicked back and his clothing impeccable.
“Calvin. We were just having breakfast. Care to join in?” Ava was shocked to see him at the door but her manners prevented her from being impolite.
“Oh, there is no need for that. Is Gabrielle in?” Calvin asked.
“Sure.” Ava opened the door and let him in.
Gabrielle also looked equally surprised to see Calvin there.
“Calvin?”
Calvin stood with his hands behind his back formally. “Incumbent Alpha Adrian has summoned both of you to the pack house.”
Both of us?
What on earth was Adrian planning now?