Gabrielle wore leather. She was usually a gown and skirt kind of girl. Leather was a no-no. It was too constricting, she had said.
It would seem like she had changed her mind. She wore leather pants and low-heeled boots paired with a beige tank top that went in line with the dress code for all werewolf mating ceremonies. Only forest and earth tones.
Her blond hair hit just below her nape and fell in short loose waves that were so uncharacteristic of Gabrielle. She had cut her hair. Gabrielle loved her hair.
The conversation at the party was stilted as some wolves cast furtive glances at Gabrielle then Ava and Adrian who stood with Nelson and Jenny unaware of Gabrielle’s entry into the reception.
Gabby ignored Ava and headed for the couple to wish Nelson. Ava should have expected Gabby to come anyway. She was a friend of Nelson after all.
Ava couldn’t help but watch Adrian’s reaction to seeing Gabrielle again. He stiffened pulling back ever so slightly from Gabrielle when she came close to wish the couple. Gabrielle hugged Nelson and gave Jenny a warm smile which Jenny returned a more hesitant version of it looking towards my direction as if to ask if Ava minded.
She shook her head.
It wasn’t like she could prevent her from going wherever it was Gabrielle wanted to go. Besides, it was good that she was starting to get out. It meant she would soon get over the entire issue.
Someone else went to greet Jenny and Nelson.
Ava was about to turn away when she noticed that Gabrielle said something to Adrian that Ava couldn’t hear over the din of the reception.
Adrian looked mad then he gripped Gabrielle’s arm before dragging her away. Nobody seemed to have noticed as their attention drifted from the three of them seeing as a fight wasn’t forthcoming.
Ava didn’t want to check it out. She wasn’t interested in following Adrian to find out why he was leaving with Gabrielle. She didn’t care.
Her gaze kept straying to the section of the woods they had disappeared into and Ava’s legs seemed to move independently of her mind.
She was out of the reception in seconds. Using the mate bond as a compass, she soon found Adrian.
Gabrielle was backed up against a tree and Adrian stood in front of her. The space between them was practically nonexistent as Adrian lowered down at her and she looked up at him.
They weren’t doing anything wrong at least not yet but Ava felt a gut-wrenching pain seeing both of them together. She turned away quickly, breaking a forest branch while moving, drawing Adrian’s attention.
“Ava! Wait.”
Ava ignored him and walked on but he easily caught up to her with his extremely long legs.
He blocked her path. She tried to walk around him but he blocked her at every turn.
“Let me pass Adrian.”
“Ava look at me.”
“What?” Ava retorted looking up at him trying to hide this strange pain that squeezed at her chest.
“Ava, it wasn’t what it looked like. She just got me angry and…I would never.”
“Except you already have. Two years ago, remember? You were with Gabby but it didn’t stop you from kissing me. Just forget it. We aren’t really even mates. Not in the true sense of the word. You have a right to be with anyone you want to be with. You’ve loved her for years. I came between the both of you, if you really want her–”
Adrian kissed her mid-speech shutting her up. Ava stood shocked for a minute before she reacted to him, her tongue sliding against his, her hand slipping around his shoulder to touch the back of his head, her fingers in his curls.
Adrian pulled away from her before the kiss went any further. He kissed the single tear that had fallen from her eyes during her impassioned speech, then her forehead.
Then he spoke so softly into her ear, his breath brushing against her outer ear sending tremors moving through her.
“I’ve only wanted one person for years now and I think you know that. You knew it when you left. You knew it when I touched you at the riverbank. You knew it when I held you after your disastrous date. You know it now. You are all I can think about sometimes and it scares me. Kissing you, touching you, fighting with you. I know you feel the same way about me. So I’ll wait. I’ll wait for you to realize what I have. That you are it for me.”
Ava looked up at him and moved back. She did what she had always done when she was faced with a truth she wasn’t ready to accept. She ran.
Ava still wasn’t speaking to him. Adrian looked over at her sleeping in the airplane chair.
They were on the flight to Washington. After that kiss last night, Ava had left the party feigning tiredness and giving her heartfelt congratulations to the couple.
Adrian had thirsted for a shot but remembering the look Ava had given him when she had thrown out all his alcohol kept him on the wagon. So he’d also apologized for leaving early. Citing the trip as an excuse.
When he entered the room, she was already under the duvet when he got in. He could tell she was still awake because of her breathing pattern but she closed her eyes so it was obvious she wasn’t ready to speak with him yet.
Adrian left Alexander and Calvin in charge of the pack in his stead. Alex was still unbearably formal with him and he secretly wondered if he’d lost his long-time friend forever.
For the first time in years since his father passed away that he felt somewhat free. He would always worry about his pack like an anxious father but he felt relatively relaxed all things being considered.
Ava shifted in her sleep, turning her head slightly to the side away from him. Her hair shifted and he could see the edges of his mark on her.
Had it been presumptuous of him to tell her that she was into him? What if she wasn’t?
Had she run away because she was or because she wasn’t?
Adrian closed his eyes and massaged his temples. Ava was aging him before his time. Who on earth could understand women?
He didn’t understand what Gabrielle was up to either. When he’d seen that she cut her hair coupled with the attempted suicide attempt that Alex had informed him about, he’d been worried that she was on the verge of doing something drastic like actually ending her life. He had been worried over nothing. Gabby was in form as usual.
She had whispered to him. “Congratulations on your mating, Alpha.” Then she inhaled deeply. “Oh, you haven’t even consummated your bond yet. I wonder why that is. Is it Ava? Did she find out about the long line of women you fucked while ‘waiting’ for her?” Noticing the intense look he was giving her, she laughed.
“Oh, you unlucky man. You didn’t tell her and she still didn’t put out for you? Maybe my sister still has a loyal bone in her after all. Should I tell her, let’s see if she still stays after that?” Then she’d turned as though to go and actually carry out her threat. That was when he had caught her arm and dragged her out to give her a stern warning.
He wasn’t that person anymore. He had slept with so many women and drowned himself in alcohol trying and failing to forget Ava. Did that mean he felt all he had done was justified? No, but he knew Ava would judge him for it either way. Their situation was already so delicate he didn’t want any more complications.
Maybe he should have realised when she kept moving back practically egging him on to back her against a tree as he spoke. It was only when he heard the branch crack and saw Gabby’s snide smile that he realized what she had been doing.
“I won’t let you be happy Adrian. Especially not with her. Never.”
Adrian opened his eyes and he was no longer in the woods hearing Gabby’s threats but on the plane with Ava. He wasn’t perfect but he’d try to be better for her. For her. Because she deserved someone way better than him.