“You animals don’t need us to bring you down when one of your leaders already is. You can torture me all you want but I know nothing, if I did I wouldn’t.”
Going over the phrase the captive told her over and over in her mind, Ava felt her feelings of disquiet rise. Something dangerous was afoot.
She looked at Adrian still in a coma in front of her. She kissed his hand/and placed it against her cheek. He felt cooler than he used to.
“I wish you were awake. You would be able to figure this out. I barely know what I’m doing.” Ava blinked back her tears. She couldn’t keep crying like this. Damn it.
“You would probably chastise me for what I did to Cynthia. I overreacted and she–”
Ava paused suddenly recalling the look on Cynthia’s face when she had yelled at her about knowing something about what was going on.
She’d looked guilty. Was it possible that she knew about the treacherous leader the woman spoke of? There was only one way to find out.
“You shacked up with a council member?”
Ava looked at Cynthia shocked beyond belief.
Cynthia blushed. “I didn’t know that at first.”
Ava kept staring at her.
“And he’s Cole’s dad?”
“Yes.”
When Ava had come to threaten Cynthia to talk to her the last thing she had thought of was this.
Cynthia had taken one look at her thunderous expression and scented the blood on her before letting her in and telling her what had to be the surprising thing that Ava had heard since the beginning of this fiasco.
“Bloody hell, does Calvin know about this?” Was she the only one to be blindsided by all this?
“I… I haven’t gotten around to telling him I guess I just wanted it to go away.” Cynthia brushed her hair out of her face. “He’s the only father that Cole will ever have. The only father I want my child to have. I thought if I ignored it, it would stay that way.”
Ava looked at her like she had hit her head on the wall one too many times. Wanted what to go away? For all they knew this was probably the reason the pack had been attacked. What wolf male in his right mind would leave his first son to be raised by another? None.
“More secrets? Seriously, Cynthia? If Calvin is going up against a member of the werewolf council and keeping his son from him, he needs to know. You can’t just hide stuff like that and expect it to go away. And if Dorian is anything like you told me, his life is in danger every minute he is with you.”
“You think I don’t know that?!” Cynthia said with so much pain and anger that Ava paused her berating for a second.
“You think I don’t know and dread it every minute? I love him, Ava. I never thought I would ever get to feel something so profound in my entire life. I know I don’t deserve him, I’m too unworthy of him.” Cynthia’s voice lowered as the fire slowly faded from her voice until all that was left was the pain.
“I’m too dark, problematic and selfish. Yet he stayed and I didn’t want to tell him about it, not because I was scared of him leaving me. I didn’t tell him because he is a good person. He would want to do something crazy like go after Dorian and I can’t lose him like that. It would kill me, Ava.”
Cynthia sat on her sofa and began to cry. Ava felt the urge to go and comfort her. Cynthia might be lying again for all she knew but she couldn’t leave her like that. Ava sat next to her and embraced her. That seemed to be all the permission that Cynthia needed to collapse into her arms in tears.
By the time she stopped crying, Ava felt the animosity that had been in her heart towards her since finding out the truth about her vanish.
So she had made a mistake – many mistakes – but Cynthia deserved another chance. Everyone did. It was wrong of Ava to regard her with a deep-rooted suspicion for everything she did. If she turned out to be wrong again then she would take that risk.
“I’ll tell him.” Cynthia said finally, her voice quiet and low.
“I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say to that.
The door suddenly opened and Cynthia hastily wiped at her cheeks.
Calvin walked with a letter in his hands and his cheeks devoid of colour.
Had he been listening to them? Did he know–
“A letter has come to you from the Werewolf council.”
Suddenly after hearing Cynthia’s story, Ava felt a wave of fear as though Dorian had personally mailed her the letter.
She took it from his hands and ripped it open.
She read the contents and looked at Cynthia who stood with her arms wrapped around herself like that would protect her from what was coming. If only.
“Cynthia. You need to talk to Calvin. Now.”
“Talk to me? About what?”
Cynthia looked between them and a tear dropped on her cheek.
“Everything.”
******
They had been at the meeting for an hour now and there were no forthcoming solutions.
Alex and Zee arrived an hour ago and had been brought up to speed.
Calvin had been surprisingly tolerant of Cynthia’s hiding the truth about Dorian from him and had just taken her hand like he would be there for her no matter what.
Ava’s heart almost melted at the gesture and she couldn’t help but think about Adrian and how he would have reacted in such a situation as well as what he had done, what they had both done in all their trying situations.
How they had overcome all their issues together.
He had to wake up. He needed to take up already because she refused to accept any other outcome.
“We can’t find a solution to this problem but think about it. He is going to become our king, is it wise of us to go up against him?” Zee said tentatively.
Ava couldn’t count how many times that thought had run through her mind. If he was going to rule pretty much their entire continent, would it be smart of her, of them to even think of going up against him?
“I share your concerns, Zee, but think about it. If he could do all of this, instigate the murders of so many people, the destruction of so many packs just because he wanted a little more power, what sort of king would he be? Will he plunge us back into the days of interpack wars?” Ava said.
Alex released a heavy sigh and reclined back in his seat.
“So what do we do now? We have zero leads, hell we don’t even have a plan. We can’t go after him because he is all but untouchable. We can’t even petition the council to take care of him because he pretty much owns the council at this point, he can easily make sure it is never read.”
Cynthia was quiet and just sat next to Calvin who held her hand tightly as though he feared she would fall apart any moment now. It was a valid concern. Ava could only imagine how scared she must be at the thought of confronting Dorian now after he had acquired even more power and she now had more to lose.
“I have no idea. I really don’t. How do we get rid of someone that powerful?” Ava mused.
“Maybe I should go.” Cynthia said timidly and Calvin looked at her with shock.
“What?!”
“I could go with you to the coronation and you can act like you don’t know about anything. He will no longer have this pack in mind to attack and maybe then–”
“No way.” Ava disputed. “You will not do anything like that.”
The letter had not only contained a mandatory summoning of Adrian’s presence at the coronation, but it also included a special summon of sorts for Cynthia to be brought along.
That was so obviously Dorian using his power as the new incumbent king and former council member as a ploy to get to Cynthia.
“I agree with that.”
Ava turned in her seat, shocked to see Anya. Where had she come from? Ava hadn’t even heard the door open much less her footsteps.
The other occupants of the room all so regarded her with the same shocked and awed look.
“You are back?” Ava didn’t know what else to say.
“And not a moment too soon. You, people, seem to have gotten yourself into a pickle again.” Anya tooted before settling on an empty seat. “I see you have gotten rid of the geezers. Good riddance if you ask me. Now fill me in so that I can see what I can do to help.”
Stunned but realizing the gift for what it was, Ava told her everything.
“Oh. But the solution is rather easy. You are a small pack that can’t do anything.”
“So we just wait for him to gather more power and attack us again?” Ava asked, frustrated.
Anya smiled.
“I never said that. Alone you can’t do anything but if you were to get a hold of the other Alphas attending this meeting and convince them of your claim then together before the coronation you can impeach him in front of the council which will also happen to be present.”
How hadn’t she thought of this? It was so simple that it might actually work.
“That is if you have proof.” Anya said.
Ava thought of the injured but still, very much alive hunter in their dungeon who knew Dorian’s face and Cynthia, the mother of Dorian’s son.
“We have proof alright.”