The colours used to paint the doctor’s office were a warm cherry yellow with touches of maroon. If only the cheerfulness could have transferred to Ava’s mood. She was so anxious.
The room was silent as the doctor opened the envelope and brought out the report.
She went through it, her features unchanging yet Ava knew.
She felt a sinking feeling in her belly as the doctor shattered what little hope she had left.
“I’m sorry. She has multiple system Lycatrophy, intermediate stage. She has a year at most to live…”
Adrian’s suit pinched and he sipped at his wine.
He was at Enzo’s, the spot he and Ava had chosen for their dinner and ironically the same spot that Gabrielle and Ava had gotten shot at. It was a solid fine dining place with the added plus of proximity to the pack. Plus it had private tables for couples.
Adrian had called her immediately after he was done with his work for the day and she’d told him that she would meet up with him.
Apparently, the tea party had taken longer than anticipated -whatever that meant- so she still had to go to the hospital with her mom.
Adrian hadn’t even known Martha Black was ill and he was supposedly a part of the family. When he’d volunteered to tag along, Ava declined. She said her mother hadn’t gotten around to forgiving him about the whole Gabrielle situation especially now that she was gone.
Besides, the diagnosis wasn’t even out yet, she’d said, so it could be something minor and he would have troubled himself for nothing.
That was two hours and thirty minutes ago. Ava’s line wasn’t going through. He would have been worried but he didn’t feel any dangerous surges in the bond.
Ava had told him of how she had been able to enter his head during the rogue attack. It had stunned him silent but now he wondered if he could replicate something like that – slip into her head – to know if she was good. She was the one who had insisted on this dinner after all. It was strange that she wasn’t here yet.
“Looking for company?” Ivy said and slipped into the seat opposite him without invitation.
Adrian barely glanced at her as he looked down at his phone, no calls or texts. “That seat is taken.”
She laughed airily as though he had told a joke. “Right. Luna Ava. But she isn’t here now, is she? I’ll just keep you company until she gets here. You are welcome.”
Adrian looked up from his phone. Ivy’s black hair was pulled back from her face leaving some strands to frame it with her half Oriental features, elegant dress and confidence, she looked like a queen and behaved like it too with her father spoiling her silly only reinforcing that opinion.
He had known her passively since they were little the same way people who often moved in the same circles often knew each other. Distant and I’m personally
However, he was not in the mood for whatever games she or her father wanted to play. Their interests were always intertwined so much so that all of Ivy’s movements could be used to read into her father’s political agendas. Politics be damned, this was his free time. His time to spend with his mate who was currently nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps he should just leave and go to the hospital. If she was still there.
“What do you want, Ivy?” He asked impatiently.
“You.”
Adrian looked at her like she had gone mad.
“What?”
She leaned across the table, her red lipstick a sharp contrast to her olive skin.
“I said I want you. That night we spent together has been tormenting me, Alpha.” She spoke sultrily, her voice becoming low and husky.
What night?
He didn’t have any such recollection but during the two years of Ava’s departure, he had bedded so many she-wolves in a bid to forget that he had a problem recalling every face. It just blurred into one nightmare of a time.
“What does Elder Elvis want? You don’t have to degrade yourself before I hear you out.”
Ivy made a face and relaxed back on her chair.
“You are hurting my feelings.” She pouted. “This isn’t political. It’s personal.”
Adrian almost rolled his eyes. “Ivy, everything you do is political.”
She smiled. “Okay. You might have a point. But is it so hard to believe that I might have a thing for you? I did sign up to be your consort after all.”
Adrian didn’t have the patience for this. “Even if you did, I have a mate. A strong, beautiful, stunning, intelligent mate who happens to be your Luna. You would do well to remember that.”
He stood up and dropped some bills on the table to cover for his meal and was about to leave when he heard Ivy’s voice, low and serious.
“Ava isn’t capable enough to be Luna. I’m not being vindictive when I say this. You know it too. Gabrielle trained all her life for this, not her. When you are ready to have an ally to talk to, I will be here. I am not just my father’s creature.”
She gave another enigmatic smile and then she was gone leaving Adrian standing staring after her.
*********
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.”
Adrian paused at how quiet Ava sounded. She was seated on the edge of their bed still in the clothes she had gone out in. Her head was down, she hadn’t even looked up as he walked in.
Adrian crossed the distance between them, kneeling in front of her.
“Baby, talk to me. What happened?”
She finally looked at him with red-rimmed eyes and a red nose.
“You look all nice and dolled up.” She tried to joke but her voice cracked.
“Ava. What is wrong? Is it your mom? What did the doctor say?”
Her face shuttered and her lower lip quivered.
“Mom is… she’s going to die in a year.”
A single tear dropped to her cheek.
“Goddess.”
Adrian hugged her unfolding her in his arms, his mind going to how down he had felt when he lost his mother. His had been unexpected which was painful but at least it was a clean break.
Ava would live every day of that year knowing her mother was months away from dying.
“You know what the worst part is? The fact that I am a medical practitioner and I can’t do a thing about it because it’s incurable. I always felt like I would be able to save the people I loved. The people that mattered to me. But now my mother is dying and there is nothing I can do about it. What did I waste those years learning about, Adrian?”
Her voice had become a sob now as she fell apart in his arms.
“Ava.”
“I feel so fucking useless.”
He hugged her tight as if that would ward off the pain and anguish she must be going through.
“You are not useless. The opposite in fact. You are strong and brave and so versatile. You saved the lives of our pack members by enforcing that mandatory training and making the women fight alongside the men, something we had never tried or done before.”
“You tried to save your sister at your own expense. You are not allowed to term yourself useless just because you can’t cure an incurable ailment. I forbid it.”
Ava melted in his arms.
“Thank you, Adrian.”
That night as Adrian drew Ava a bath and helped her into it, as she kept retreating into her mind, he thought of what Ivy had said.
No. His mate was more than a perfect fit to be Luna. It was fine if no one but him saw it. She didn’t need any training because she was born for this. She was not only strong but someone who felt deeply and would do anything to protect her people. It was who she was.