AVA
I was still sore the next morning when I got up for my run with Alex. At least this time he knew I was there from the beginning, so he even had a cup of coffee waiting for me.
I took it gladly. “This is why you’re my favourite, Alex,” I sighed contently as I sipped the coffee.
“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that, Princess,” Callum had suddenly appeared behind me, Oscar just behind him.
I turned and smirked in their direction. “Are you two joining us for training this morning?”
They both nodded. “Theo and Noah are meeting us at the training ground too, and Izzie and Leo might be, depending on what time Leo wakes up.”
I rolled my eyes, before turning back to Alex. “Shall we run to the training grounds, Alex?”
He raised one eyebrow. “All fours or by foot?”
“Mmmm…” I pretended to think about it. “All fours.”
“That’s not fair!” Callum shouted.
“All’s fair in love and war.” I stood, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips before turning to leave the room, winking at Oscar on my way past.
As soon as I was outside, I dropped the t-shirt of Callum’s that I was wearing on the floor, and let Artemis come forward.
By the time I’d shifted and shaken out my fur, Alex had left the house and shifted too, standing before me as his wolf. He bowed, showing submission, and I tilted my head down in acceptance of that. Callum and Oscar were standing on the front stairs, shocked at their dad’s obvious display of submission to Artemis.
Beta Alex and I had a great run. Right up until we were ambushed by rogues.
“JACOB!” I shouted through the mind link. He didn’t reply. He was possibly asleep. I shouted again, this time throwing my aura behind it.
“AVA! Are you okay?!”
“Alex and I were running. Rogues. Send backup, as many as possible.”
“On the way.”
He must have immediately sprinted outside and shifted, howling for backup. I returned the howl, giving him an idea of where we were. Within minutes, I could hear wolves sprinting towards us from all sides.
Once they reached us, Alex and I had taken out ten between us, but there were another thirty or so to go.
I took out another larger wolf, but at the moment my jaws closed around his neck, another four jumped me. One of the wolves sunk their teeth into my front left leg, giving me an opening to take him out.
Another three joined the group I was fighting. It looked like I was winning as more and more of them ended up lying dead around me, but the numbers just kept growing. The biggest wolf wrapped his jaw around my neck, and threw me into a tree.
Artemis whimpered when we hit the floor, her head spinning.
She pulled us up to stand, and I was suddenly very aware of the claw and bite marks that littered my body, combined with a likely concussion.
As soon as Jacob and his backup finished taking out the rest of the rogues, Alex and I let ourselves fall to the floor. We’d both gained some nasty injuries when we got jumped.
We’d live, but healing them would hurt like a bitch.
And no matter who you are and how well you heal, a concussion is still shit.
Once the rogues were all disposed of, Alex and I shifted back, laying on the floor trying to take inventory of our injuries. My head was spinning, my entire body was sore and it felt like I’d broken a rib or two.
Jacob assigned a handful of wolves to help Alex and I back to the pack hospital; we both needed to just get checked out. We’d both heal, but if anything could be done to help that, all the better.
The twins, Izzie and Leo all joined me in the hospital just as the doctor finished cleaning the bite on my arm. I hadn’t bothered getting completely dressed because the doctor wanted to check all my wounds, so I was sitting in front of them all in just a bra and my underwear.
Callum and Theo came to stand behind me, reassuringly squeezing my shoulders, before suddenly stopping.
“Ava…” Callum started, voice low, almost disgusted. “What are those scars on your back and tops of your legs from?”
I froze. It wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have.
CALLUM
We were all frantic when we heard the howl of wolves on the hunt and Ava’s howl in response. It must have been the rogues again.
Alpha Jacob met us all at the training ground, and our stomachs dropped when we didn’t see either Ava or dad with him.
He shifted back, pulling on a pair of shorts. Even though he was covered in bruises and scratches, he was healing quickly.
“Alpha…” I started. “Where is my dad and Ava?”
He bit his lip, face tense. “Some of our warriors are taking them both to the pack hospital.”
My heart sank. “Are they okay?”
“They’ll be okay. The two of them were jumped by a pack of rogues,” he sighed. “Ava called for backup quickly, but there were still fifty or so rogues and only Ava and your dad for a few minutes. Between the two of them, they’d taken out fifteen or so by the time we got there, but it had taken its toll on both of them.”
“Can we go see them?” I asked, voice low.
“Of course,” Alpha Jacob nodded.
When we reached the hospital, we burst straight into Ava’s room. She was sitting up on the bed, a doctor cleaning her wounds, focusing on a deep bite mark on her arm. Her ribs were littered with bruises, and her face was pale.
“Ava… are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine, Callum,” she smiled. “Just sore.”
“What’s the damage?”
“All my odd cuts and scratches have healed. All that’s left is this bite on my arm, three broken ribs and a concussion.”
“Ava.. there’s something stuck in the bite, I need to get it out,” the doctor’s voice was low.
She nodded, taking a deep breath.
Theo and I moved to sit behind her, reassuringly squeezing her shoulders.
Right until I saw something awful.
“Ava… what are those scars on your back and the top of your legs from?”
She froze.
For wounds to have scarred like that, they would have been before she got Artemis. They were from when she was a child.
“Ava, please, you can tell us.”
She winced when the doctor poked around in her wound some more. “We can talk about this when bits of fur and nature aren’t being pulled out of my arm.”
“Promise me, Ava. Promise you won’t deal with whatever this is on your own.”
“I promise,” she whispered.