My mate stares at her like Avery is some sort of experiment.
“Come here child,” she says to my mate but she doesn’t budge just stares at me and I could smell her fear seeping out of her pores.
“Go to her now,” I tell her but she shakes her head.
“Now,” I tell her and she trembles as my Alpha Aura washes over her before all but stumbling over her feet and going to Avery. Aamon grips her arm, steadying her before placing her on the ground in front of Avery who turns her seat.
“Please, I didn’t do anything,” my mate says to me. Her eyes filled with tears. She thought we were trying to hurt her.
“Hush child I mean you no harm,” Avery says to her before gripping the sides of her head in her hands. Her hands glow gold then green as she uses her magic, seconds pass.
Avery makes a choked noise before I see her bottom lip tremble a single tear rolling down her cheek. Her eyes glow brighter and her lips part before blood dribbles down her nose.
“That’s enough Avery,” Aamon says, grabbing her arm.
“No I must see, I need to know”
“Avery enough,” Aamon says gripping her face which had turned pale almost grey as she strained to see whatever it was in my mate’s head.
Aamon rips her to her feet, “I said enough it’s not worth your life” he snaps. Avery sways leaning into him before he places her back in her seat.
“Come here,” I tell my mate who moves away from Avery sitting at my feet.
“You okay Ava?” I ask, her eyes still trained on my mate.
Avery presses her lips in a line, her bottom one she pulls between her teeth.
“No one should ever live like that, no one should only ever see darkness”
Aamon looks at her worriedly.
“Ava my love you should rest,” Aamon tells her. I have to agree with him, she is making no sense.
“No, I don’t need to rest, Aamon,” Aamon throws his hands up walking over to lean on the doorframe. “Stubborn ass woman”
“Mind your tongue or you will lose it” she warns him. Her eyes are not leaving my mate.
“You, my child know pain like no other I have witnessed, to endure that and survive I am surprised you’re not insane, how did you do it?” She asks my mate, making me look down at her. She was watching Avery back curiously.
I nudge her, wanting her to answer whatever it is Avery has asked her.
“My wolf, she bared it so I didn’t have to,” she says.
“You must have been lonely, all them years trapped in her confines, only to listen to her screams”
“Okay, are you going to explain what you saw?” I ask, getting annoyed.
“I told you what I saw, darkness, that is all, the sound was horrendous,” Avery says.
“How does darkness have a sound”
“Where she came from, it did. The agony behind the noise was deafening. Could hear their souls breaking”
“Okay then anything else like a name, I can’t keep calling her “-
“46, yes that is her number. The number signifies the number of times she survived their experiments before she died before they awoke the hybrid gene before that she was called worse than a number,” Avery says.
“Great, I have a number for a mate,” I tell her.
“Watch your tone, don’t forget who you are speaking in front of Ryker. As for your mate, what do you think of Reika,” Avery asks her.
“Reika?” I ask, trying the weird name out.
“Yes, means the power of the wolf,” Avery says, reaching over and touching my mate’s face. I nod at least it’s a name.
“Aamon take Reika out. I need a moment alone with Ryker,” she says, and I nod to my mate.
“Come little one I won’t hurt you,” Aamon tells her. She reluctantly follows after him, stepping through the door and out the beaded curtain.
“So can I keep her or do I kill her?”
“I don’t know Ryker, but she has suffered and you tying her like a dog when she spent half her life caged and tied to steel tables is no way to treat your mate,” Avery says, her eyes sparkling dangerously.
“She can’t be trusted until I can trust her I will deal with her how I please”
“You’re right she can’t be trusted, but all I know is she has a reason”
“Reasons? Care to tell me those fucking reasons Avery”
“You may be our closest friend but you are in my city and you will show respect, Ryker. I did you a favor don’t you forget that” she snaps pointing her finger at me.
“I’m sorry Ava.”
“I know you are but I didn’t get a chance to see, Aamon made sure of that. But until you figure it out she will do what they asked of her”
“What is that?”
“To kill your family”
I laugh. She truly thinks she could take on pure-blooded Lycan hybrids.
“I wouldn’t be so amused if I were you, she is quite capable. Her wolf is savage but you know that. But she is different from Lily, Reika craves blood in both forms, she is the same her blood as pure as yours, but with a twist”
“Stop talking in riddle Ava I haven’t got time for this,” I tell her, pinching the bridge of my nose. I needed sleep and I still had five more hours of driving.
“She drinks hybrid blood Ryker she hunts hybrid’s, hunts her own kind, she needs them to survive”
“What do you mean, she needs them to survive?”
“Same as Brax, your wolf needs blood, the same as your sisters. She grows weaker without blood and she needs hybrid blood, not human a bit of a twist to what Lily is”
“Anything else,” Avery shakes her head. “I couldn’t see much and I can’t see her future being a mutation. Her future is uncertain, her future depends on you”