“I’m fine, I promise.”
Cynthia refused to move from where she stood.
“Ava and Adrian are returning today. Why do you even need to be anywhere at all?”
“Come on, you can’t really expect me to stay here when they’ll be coming in any moment now.”
“Then you must not know me very well.”
Calvin glared at her with mock anger for a second before shaking his head as he laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Cynthia pouted.
“You.”
He kissed her slowly and tenderly. She was stiff at first not wanting to yield to him then she melted in his arms. He ended the kiss and stared at her with his unfairly beautiful eyes.
“I love you, Cynthia. I love the way you worry about me. I love the way you melt in my arms and I love the fact that you are the mother of my favourite child.”
Cynthia blushed. “You only have one child. All this flattery won’t work.”
Calvin groaned. “Fine then, you can come with me. Make sure I’m fine. But only if you can find someone trustworthy to babysit Cole–”
“Done. I called my mom an hour ago.”
Calvin looked at her in surprise. “Nice, you were so sure I would give in.”
“Yes. I was counting on it in fact.” Cynthia said smugly and Calvin laughed before stealing another kiss from her.
***********
Ava and Adrian arrived together with their luggage that was quickly carried off by some pack warriors.
Calvin met Adrian across the foyer of the house and embraced him. “Welcome. We were waiting eagerly for you.”
He looked at Ava. “I’m so glad you were able to return now.”
She smiled absentmindedly but her attention was on Cynthia and her features hardened unexpectedly.
Ava signalled to a group of pack warriors that had just come in.
“Cease her.” She pointed at Cynthia. Even Adrian looked at Ava in shock.
“What for, Ava?” Adrian asked.
“She was the one who leaked information to the rogues, she masterminded the entire plot of my ‘cheating’ with Shawn and she is the same person who manipulated Gabby into doing her dirty job for her. The Goddess knows what else she has done that we do not know.”
This was a lie, a misunderstanding. He knew Cynthia. She wouldn’t have done something like that.
“But, Ava. Are you sure?” Adrian seemed uncertain as well.
Ava glared at Adrian. “Would I just make baseless accusations? Warriors, cease her.”
Cynthia stood frozen with shock.
Calvin looked at Ava alarmed.
“What are you doing, Ava?”
Ava was impassive. “She is a traitor, Calvin.”
She gestured for the pack warriors to cease Cynthia.
As they moved forward, Calvin blocked their path to Cynthia.
“If anyone so much as touches a hair in her head, they will have me to contend with.”
He looked at Ava. Never had he thought that in advocating for Adrian to bring back his mate that his own partner would be at the receiving end of such a terrible suspicion.
“Ava, please I know you are mistaken. You brought Cynthia back here yourself since then not once has she displayed any suspicious behaviour.”
“Bringing her here was a mistake I made and I will rectify it. She is guilty. Why don’t you ask her for yourself? Since I accused her, had she said a word to defend herself? No. Because she knows that I am right. If you don’t stand aside, I will have you removed. Forcibly.”
“Ava.” Adrian said moving to take her hand perhaps in a bid to calm her down but she merely evaded his touch.
Calvin turned to look at Cynthia, the love of his life, the woman he wanted to be the mother of his future children. She was crying silently.
He refused to take this as a sign of guilt. There was a mistake somewhere and he would be by her side until Ava saw the light.
“My heart look at me,” Calvin cupped her cheeks. “You don’t have to cry. I believe in you. I know you would never betray us like that.”
Cynthia looked at him, tears sparkling in her eyes. She was beautiful. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” He asked uncomprehendingly. He didn’t want to understand. He didn’t want–
“Ava isn’t lying.”
Calvin stumbled back from her in shock and the pack warriors moved past him to take her away. She didn’t struggle. She just looked at him with so much sorrow in her eyes that he almost cried.
The best moments of his entire life were a lie. Their first kiss when he’d seen her in Adrian’s office hadn’t been because she was so crazy about him that she’d cornered him there. It has probably been to steal information.
He thought of everything that has happened since then. How much had been genuine and how much was manufactured? He thought of their home, their planned mating ceremony, and their child Cole.
His shoulders shook with silent sobs.
“My condolences, Calvin. I loved her as a friend too. I understand your pain.” He turned to see Ava next to him, her features warmer now that they had carted the love of his life away.
He wanted to tell her that she didn’t understand. Cynthia was everything to him. How could life dare continue without her?
Ava hugged him briefly and he was sure if he wanted to yell at her for destroying the facade of the perfect life he had been living or if he just wanted to cry.
“You can and will do much better than her.”
Calvin could but he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
“If you want we can take the child and give him to–”
“No. Cole is my son. He’ll stay with me.” He wasn’t sure when it escaped his lips but it did and came out sounding more confrontational than he had meant it to.
He cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so–”
Ava smiled at him weakly. “I understand.”
He nodded gruffly and walked out, Adrian giving him a shoulder pat of solidarity.
As he left, his mind stayed on Cynthia and their life.
Even if everything had been fake, it hadn’t been fake for him. It still wasn’t but the pain of betrayal still stung.
He thought of the people the pack had lost because of Cynthia. People who would never be with their loved ones again because of what she had done. How could he forgive that? If he did, what sort of person would that make him?
****
Ava poured herself a glass of water acting as though she hadn’t just separated two people who were so in love with each other. Adrian crossed the distance between them and took the glass out of her hand.
“Serious Ava, couldn’t you have done that in a more sensitive way? Calvin was so distraught.”
Ava paused to look at him. “I did what needed to be done. It was better to get it done with quickly. Rip it off like a bandaid so to speak.”
“Better for whom? You or him?”
Ava rolled her eyes. “You are being way too sensitive about this. But then again what else do I expect from someone who prefers lies over the truth?”
“Ava.” Adrian growled.
She was so aggravating. Could she not see how insensitive she was being? The only reason he didn’t counter her decision with Cynthia openly was that he didn’t want to undermine her authority and the fact that Cynthia had looked guilty as hell.
“Don’t pull that with me.” Ava looked angry and her blue eyes crackled like there was a little thunderstorm going on in there.
“You don’t have a right over me anymore. You can’t tell me what to say or how to say it. Or you could but I would never take it. I’m done with giving you power in my life, Adrian. I’m only here for the pack and nothing more. I have not forgiven you, drug or not, so don’t mistake my silence for what it is not.”
Adrian’s gaze dropped to her lips and the strongest urge to kiss her came over him. Oh Goddess, he had a problem.
They were literally in the middle of an argument yet he felt this way. He thought it might always be like this between them. He wondered if she was also feeling the same. When he raised his eyes to meet hers again, he saw that she had noticed his stare and her cheeks had reddened.
Entranced, he lifted his hand to touch her cheek, his thumb stroking it and she let him for half a second, her eyes fluttering close. Her lashes were dark and full, he wanted to press little kisses on her eyelids, her cheek, her lips.
Somehow, they were drifting towards each other like pieces of a puzzle fitting together and their breaths coming rapidly.
He was a second away from kissing her when a voice penetrated through the haze they were falling headfirst into.
“Alpha, the council has sent–”
The pack warrior broke off mid-sentence as though realising what they had just interrupted.
Ava pulled away from him, turning herself away from him. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole.
“I’ll leave you to your work.” Ava mumbled under her breath before walking away as quickly as she could manage. What was wrong with her? She facepalmed as she walked away. She needed more self-control over herself than that.
Yet she found herself wishing that they had been alone for a moment more.