“The patient is conscious.” The doctor came out and informed them. Ava’s mind cleared and she nearly ran into the room, Adrian right behind her.
Cynthia sat on the bed wearing a hospital shirt looking a little pale and small but she was alive.
“How is the baby?” Ava inquired anxiously.
“It’s fine.” Cynthia said and sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes. “I was so scared. I thought I’d lost…” She choked back a sob.
Ava went to her bedside and embraced her making sure to steer clear of the injury area. “It’s okay. You are okay.” She soothed her.
After Cynthia’s tears dried up, Ava pulled back and looked at her. Cynthia’s cheeks were a bright red. “Sorry. It’s the pregnancy hormones. I cry a lot all the time.”
“That’s alright, Cynthia.” Ava glanced at Adrian still hovering at the entrance of the room looking at Cynthia sceptically. “I need you to answer my question honestly. What are you doing here, Cynthia? You are supposed to still be in Antarctica until resummoned by the pack.”
Cynthia looked between them and spoke. “I’m sorry for everything I did to you Ava. I was wrong. When I was banished from the pack, I was angry. So angry. I wanted to get back at you for a while and when I went to stay with the wolves in Antarctica, I hated it. I hated it so freaking much. It was cold and uncomfortable and the wolves there were so uncivilised and in tune with their wolf sides. But I met Dorian and I fell in love.”
Ava watched as a variety of expressions crossed Cynthia’s face. Happiness, love, loss and pain. It almost felt too private to watch her as she spoke.
“We were so in love. He made me a better person. Made me realize how conceited I was but he still made me feel I could be a good person. That deep down I had a heart was against the rules but we travelled when we could and it was beautiful. Until the werewolf hunters got him. I couldn’t save him. I tried to but I couldn’t.”
“When I returned home with his body, they blamed me for his death. It’s not their fault. I was a foreigner sentenced there to serve out her punishment for a crime I never disclosed because I felt stupid about it. And I had come home with their son’s body and what they felt were bogus tales about werewolf hunters. How else could they have reacted? They cast me out and I decided to hunt down the hunters that killed him.”
“I have been tracking them for the past two months and the trail led me here. That’s how I found you. I planned to abduct one of them and find out who calls the shots and I don’t know, report them to the council? I can’t shift anymore not without harming the baby so I can’t even take them alone on my own. But I couldn’t stop because each time I close my eyes all I see is Dorian and…” Cynthia broke down in tears again.
Ava’s heart ached for the hard life that Cynthia had lived. All because she and Adrian wanted to keep the fact that they were mates a secret.
After consoling her until she fell asleep, Ava followed Adrian to their room.
“We have to let her come back with us.”
“No, Ava, what are you saying? How can we bring her back after all she did to you?”
“Adrian, she is pregnant, alone and defenceless. Going after very dangerous people. She will get hurt, possibly killed. I can’t just let that happen because of one wrong decision she made when she was still immature. She needs a support system right now. A family. Her family.”
“Ava, how are you sure she isn’t lying? She is pregnant so you can’t even detect a pulse shift because she has two constantly overlapping each other.” Adrian’s voice went low. “I can’t risk anything happening to you, Ava, it would kill me.”
Ava’s pulse accelerated. “Nothing will happen to me. We caused this to happen to her so we have a duty to fix it. Please, Adrian.”
Adrian looked at her and shut his eyes groaning before speaking with great reluctance. “One day I’ll learn to say no to you. I just hope we don’t regret this. If she wants to come with us, she can.”
Ava embraced Adrian, her mind finally at peace. She had corrected a wrong that had persisted for so long. She only hoped like Adrian that they weren’t borrowing trouble.
It was easier said than done asking Cynthia to come with them. She outright refused and Adrian had to order her as the Alpha of her pack to not throw away her life for a fruitless endeavour.
“But I have to, for Dorian. He would have done the same for me. Surely you understand, you would do the same for Ava, wouldn’t you? And you aren’t even true mates.”
Adrian nearly winced. If the girl didn’t want to follow them, why were they forcing her hand? One look at Ava’s expression made him clear his throat. Right, she’d saved his mate’s life. Because of her, he could be with Ava today.
“Look, firstly, Ava and I are true mates and I would do the same for her but I wouldn’t want her to do the same for me while carrying our child and unable to shift to protect herself. I doubt Dorian would want you to risk the life of your child to get revenge for him. There is no further discussion to be had. You will go with us and that is the end of the matter.”
“But…” Cynthia looked towards Ava for help but Ava looked at the sky as though a rainbow had just appeared or something, avoiding her gaze.
“It’s an order as your Alpha. We leave in thirty minutes.”
Cynthia was quiet throughout the entire flight home despite Ava asking her every other second if she needed something. She looked like she was actively trying to disappear and eventually, Ava stopped trying to engage her, letting her sit quietly staring out the window, her hand on her belly.
Things between him and Ava however felt different. Somehow new and yet uncertain. It was like something had shifted after the entire hunter issue when they had been forced to face the prospect of life without each other.
That hour had been the worst hour of his life. The chase, hearing the gunshots and knowing he was too far away to do anything. Scenting blood mingled with the scent of Ava’s sweat, the cold fear that pumped through his veins.
Finding out it had been Cynthia who was injured, not his mate had calmed both he and his wolf, Ray down enough to think. And think he did. Of a life without Ava.
That night, when they had gone to bed, he closed the space between them and hugged her to himself. Scenting her, listening to her heartbeat and convincing himself that she was fine. It was Ava after all. She could handle herself. He owed Cynthia Ava’s life. Ava let him hold her as though she too couldn’t believe that they had more time to be together.
Once they touched down, Adrian excused himself while their luggage got cleared off to call Alex to get Cynthia’s parents out ready to meet their daughter. When he returned, their luggage was ready and Calvin was waiting to pick them up.
“How was the honeymoon?” Calvin grinned at them roguishly. Then he noticed Cynthia with them and did a double take. Adrian looked at her from an outsider’s perspective and realised she looked good. Mostly.
She had a ghostly pallor probably from all that time at the South pole. And her hair was pulled up into a loose bun with several blond strands escaping to frame her face. If one ignored the dead look in her eyes, she was a beauty even with all the sophistication she was associated with stripped away.
“Hi.” He waved at Cynthia awkwardly. And she bowed slightly at him, having heard from me that the Gamma of the pack would be coming to pick us up.
Adrian saw the question in Calvin’s eyes. ‘Later’ He whispered down the mind-link to Calvin and he nodded, escorting us to our ride home.
Cynthia rode upfront with Calvin who tried to engage her in a conversation during the drive home. She answered with one-word answers obviously wanting more time to brood but Calvin’s charm never faltered. Adrian almost laughed. He would have to tell his friend that he was barking up the wrong tree.
Adrian looked at Ava noting that she was tense. He lowered his voice. “Hey. You good?”
“Oh. Sorry I was just realizing that we were back here again with everything going on.” Ava tried to smile but it came off as looking too unnatural as though she was forcing it.
Her parents, the friction with Gabby and the uncertainty of the pack members having her as their Luna, everything was coming crashing down around her. “You’ll be great.” Adrian took her hand. “You always are.”
Ava smiled at him, the knot in her chest loosening. The way he said it, she almost believed him.
They arrived on the pack grounds some minutes later.