Ava helped out at the hospital. She should go to the house and relax but even if she had just seen Adrian alive and well she was worried.
She wouldn’t be able to relax until she checked in on him again so she would help out here until she was sure he was asleep again. Then she would go and see him again.
She had eaten some fruits at Gabby’s insistence and she had also gotten some juice as well as a quick shower and a change of clothes.
It was crazy that she could be so angry at him yet care so much about him.
She didn’t want to think too much about it so she moved. It wasn’t like there was much work to be done anyway. The rescue operation had mainly been Adrian. He had come to Spain after Gabby informed him.
“I had to tell him. He is your mate no matter what happened. I’m not saying what he did was right or even justified. But you were missing. I had to do something. Plus he could track you with the bond.”
While she had been initially mad at her sister, she understood why she had done it. It had been to save her life and it had worked.
“Can I help you with that?”/
Ava paused. It was Adrian. His torso wound was bandaged up and there was some blood on the bandage like he had re-injured himself trying to come here to see her.
Ava ignored him carrying the set of duvets in her arms to the storage closet.
“Ava, you can’t keep ignoring me, we need to talk.”
She wanted to turn around and scream “Watch me!”
But that would only give him an opportunity to speak to her. An opportunity that could leave her a blubbering mess.
She reached the closet and opened the door before flipping on the light and entering the room.
Adrian entered right after her and caught her arm as the door shut behind him.
“Ava, please for the sake of the goddess, listen to me.”
“Listen to what exactly?” Ava almost yelled as she turned to face him, her face a mask of anger since he wasn’t letting her go. “Please tell me what you think is so important.”
“Ava, I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I messed up. Big time. And as though that weren’t enough, we are fighting the same battle we thought we’d won. It is our doorstep again and to just make everything better, I just found out about the fact that Rhea drugged me and Ivy took advantage of the situation.”
“I know.” She really didn’t know but she got the gist.
He’d been drugged, he had slept with Ivy and gotten her pregnant then he had hidden it from her while making her think she was acting weird and being too sexually demanding.
Adrian looked surprised.
“You do?”
“Yes. Ivy briefed me but if that was what you wanted to tell me, it doesn’t matter. I’m not interested in what you have to say. I told you before and I’ll say it again. I don’t love you anymore.”
She was surprised at how even her voice sounded. With the intensity of her lie, it should have faltered. Stop loving him. Ha. It would be easier to make the sun disappear than her love for him.
“I don’t believe that.” Adrian said evenly. “I believe you are mad at me and you probably harbor secret fantasies of beheading me but not that you don’t love me.”
Ava huffed in anger. “Believe what you will.”
She moved past him to leave the storage closet but Adrian moved with her so he pressed her up against the closed door.
She gasped lightly at the sudden brush of their bodies against each other.
“What are you doing, Adrian?” Her voice shook as her breath came faster due to the lack of space between them.
His broad shirtless shoulders suddenly seemed like way too much skin showing to her because all she could think it was kissing and biting get way around it as he moved within her taking her up against this door and he would feel so–
No, she couldn’t think of that. She would get aroused and he would scent it on her and then she would be unable to deny the truth. She looked up into his eyes hoping that would be easier. She was wrong. His green eyes looked so hypnotic that she couldn’t look away even if she tried.
“Proving you wrong and our love right.”
Then he kissed her. She couldn’t move. She fought her instinct to pull him closer and deepen the kiss. She wanted more, needed to feel his skin in hers, the chemistry they had that sizzled and burned at every slight provocation.
She lost the fight with herself and lost herself in the kiss. It was a no bars held kiss and felt more like a communication between their souls than a kiss.
When Adrian pulled away, a tear ran down her cheek. He wiped it like it was something precious. Like she was something precious.
“Do you still believe that you don’t love me?”
She looked at him.
“I never believed that.” Her lower lip wobbled as she reached behind her. “I told you before I left that I love you more than anything else. I wasn’t lying but the truth is our love isn’t enough anymore.”
“Ava…”
“You broke my trust, Adrian. You might have my heart but I don’t think I can trust you anymore. That’s why this can never be.”
She turned the handle of the door and then she was out of the room, tears on her cheeks, as she wondered if she was crazy for loving him even while she had problems with trusting him.
********
Elder Elvis sat in the cold dark dungeons, his legs folded beneath him while he meditated.
He had underestimated Adrian and overestimated himself. It would not happen again.
He heard the sounds of chaos. The sounds of opportunity. He stood up.
“What is going on?” He questioned the guard who stood by his cell.
The guard ignored him and he added out leaving his cell unmanned.
It was the moment he had been waiting for. He slipped out of the silver cuffs whose locks he picked almost as soon as they were clasped on him. The cuff drooped to the ground and he shifted his hand using his claws to take care of the lock on his cell.
Moments later, he was out of the dungeon expecting the guards to notice his escape but what he saw outside was so confusing that for a moment all he did was stare.
They were under attack. And this time there was no Adrian and no Ava to rally the people. Some of the rogues had gotten through and the entire pack was in chaos.
As an elder of the pack, it would have been his duty to fight against these rogues but Adrian had ensured that would never happen by locking him up.
Elder Elvis smirked and wished the pack the best of luck as he made his escape. Maybe if he got lucky and Adrian died here, he would make his return.