I did it because I can’t bear the thought of losing you.
“I did it for the pack.”
Ava’s cheeks were on fire and she only hoped that Adrian didn’t notice.
“The pack?” He intoned.
“Yes, the pack,” Ava said now confident. “They have already lost one Alpha. They can’t afford to lose another so soon. It’s not as though you have an heir to survive you.”
Adrian looked at Ava but she averted her gaze.
“Ava,” He began, his tone thoughtful. “You aren’t keeping anything from me, are you?”
Ava fought to keep the shock off her face.
How did he know that she was keeping something from him? Had it been so obvious from her expression or was he really that good at reading her?
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Adrian.” Ava said avoiding his gaze as she shifted in bed, ignoring the pain as she shifted pulling the covers. “I feel weak and I need to rest. Please excuse me.”
She felt Adrian hesitate behind her. She counted her breaths till he finally left.
There is only one thing you can do to save your mate bond. You must come clean to Adrian.
Ava thought about the advice that Anya had given her. She hadn’t done as she had advised and now as she lay in the hospital bed, alone, in pain she wondered if she had sabotaged her chances with Adrian in order to save her sister’s life.
Ava was already half asleep when the door to her room opened.
It was Gabrielle.
She wore a t-shirt and jeans, it had to be the least feminine outfit Ava had seen on her sister.
“Gabrielle.”
Gabrielle didn’t say anything as she moved towards the bed. She stood just out of reach staring at Ava with an emotion she couldn’t decipher in her eyes.
“Why did you lie for me?”
Ava sat up slowly in her bed.
“Gabby…”
“All the while you stood on that podium, I waited with bated breath for you to expose me. I thought about how you would do it, what our parents would say, what my defence would be, what the pack members would say, who they would believe. Then you went ahead to protect me…”
Gabrielle closed the distance between them and took Ava’s hand. Ava looked at her sister with her blond hair pulled back into ponytail and her face clear without make-up, her brown eyes looking at her, wide and innocent.
“Gabrielle–”
Gabrielle’s grip on her hand tightened almost painfully and Ava looked up at her in surprise.
“What did you think? That I would fall for that. That I would stop this war because of that ‘sacrifice’, that I would lay my guard down for you to attack me?”
Ava pulled her hand from Gabrielle’s firm grip, her eyes were glossy with unshed tears.
“Goddess, Gabby. I didn’t save you because I had any ulterior motive or because I wanted you to forgive me. To forgive me or not is your right and decision to make. I saved you because you are my sister.”
“I did it because I would rather fall under suspicion for something I didn’t do than endanger your life. Because we are family. There is so much between us right now but something that will never change is the fact that we are sisters. We should be there for each other. I regret this change in our relationship, Gabby. I love you. I have already forgiven what you did to me. I want us to be as we were before all this happened.”
Gabrielle broke their staring contest and put some distance between them as she looked away from Ava’s earnest gaze for a second before returning to look at her, her eyes were like steel, immovable.
“Well, that’s too bad for you. Not only do I not believe a word of what you are saying, but the reason you did it is also no longer my concern. Keep up with your plan whatever is and I will focus on mine. I will get Luciano back no matter what, you just wait and see. I will become the Luna of this pack by any means necessary.”
Ava watched her sister leave the room with a ladened heart. She felt the gap between them enlarging. She knew within her that a day would come when they would stand as strangers.
******
“The verdict needs to be given to calm the pack down.”
“Yes, a quick sentencing with a speech calling for the calm of our pack members while we are investigating the shooting will go a long way.”
The elders bickered back and forth almost making Adrian’s head hurt.
Why again was he listening to this conversation? Right, he was the Alpha of this pack.
They wanted him to impeach Ava. Adrian recalled the way she had taken the bullet for him without hesitating.
I did it for the pack.
It made sense. Far more sense than Ava doing it for him. She had made it clear on more than one occasion after all that she didn’t feel that way about him. And yet, he didn’t believe what she’d said. Now more than ever Adrian knew in his gut that Ava was lying to him about something.
“I have come to a decision.”
The elders quietened around him although they shared looks of mutual confusion. The decision had already been made. It was the how of going about the announcement that was stumping them.
“Ava is innocent of the charges against her and the charges will be dropped.”
“But Alpha,” Elder Elvis said with no small amount of resistance. “The elders have already decided based on the evidence stacked against–”
“Ava, your Luna, asked the pack to trust her as she trusts us. She went a long way to show how much she trusts us by endangering herself to keep the pack together, she started the daily drills that if our dealing with the Primo pack has taught us anything, it is that we need to prepare for the unexpected or bear the consequences.”
” We will not forget the service she has done and the ones she will carry out on our behalf. Inform our people that she has been found innocent and anyone who has a problem with that can challenge me.”
Adrian stood up feeling emotionally exhausted and done with the meeting.
He made eye contact with all the elders, noting the ones that were still defiant about his decision.
Then he left them to continue with the tiny bickering that made them feel special. Meanwhile, he had more important issues to face. Calvin had just informed him via the mind link that the shooter had been apprehended.
Adrian began to move towards the dungeons where he’d requested the person be put. Now, he would get some answers on why exactly anyone would try to assassinate him in front of his pack.
********
Cynthia was livid. No, she was more than livid, she was furious.
She had planned everything out. She found the girl just before the Primo pack left.
She had played on her emotions and incited her so subtly. Not that she had needed to do much anyway as she was already on a roll. Then she’d snuck her back to her house.
Did anyone know how difficult it was to get a full-grown she-wolf into a house without two grown werewolves and two pups noticing? No.
Least of all feeding that she-wolf or acquiring a gun for her. And now all her efforts were about to go up in smoke. Not only had the wolf failed so miserably to kill Adrian, but she’d also managed to get herself captured.
If she gave even a hint of where she had stayed in her time away from the Primo pack, Cynthia’s plan would be stopped before it even started. She would be caught out by Adrian.
She needed to do something but what? Cynthia paced as she thought. The easiest solution was to kill her. But that was easier said than done. How could she break into a well-guarded dungeon?
Cynthia realized that she needed more power in the pack. How could the dungeon prove such an immense obstacle when she planned to kill the Alpha and the Luna of the Mountain Coast pack and throw the pack into chaos?
That was a problem to unravel later. She needed to solve this problem now. The idea came to her as she pondered on how stupid the members of the Primo pack were that they could botch even a simple assassination.
The Primo pack. Of course.