AVA
“We need to drag my parents in for this bit,” I bit my lip as I spoke. “Alex, there might be some things
you can answer too, since you’ve always been like a second adoptive father to me.”
They all nodded. I opened a link with my mum; her and my dad would be here within ten minutes.
She even promised to stop by the kitchen for a tray of Paula’s cookies… she’s just the best, and
Paula’s cookies are just the best.
They reached us in no time at all, complete with what was easily one of the biggest trays of cookies
I’ve seen in my life. We suddenly had a room full of wolves with watering mouths.
“Paula’s also made you one of those caramel shortbreads you like so much, Ava,” my mum smiled.
I clapped excitedly… It was bloody good shortbread. Paula made this salted caramel that was just spot
on. Never had anything quite so good.
Once everyone was settled with cookies and another cup of coffee, we got straight down to it.
“Mum, dad… we need to know whatever there is to know about what happened before I came to this
pack. I know most of it… but if there’s anything else, we need to know.”
Mum nodded, glancing at my dad with concern in her eyes. He reached out and held her hand,
squeezing her fingers reassuringly.
“As you know, you moved here when you were nine. There were five people in Eclipse Mountain that
were involved in the plan, and then three families ready to take you in depending on which direction
we got out of the pack. The plan to get you out of Eclipse Mountain had been in development since
you were five or six, we just had to wait for the time and circumstances to be right.”
“What had to be ‘right’?” Callum asked.
“We… We all knew your birth parents were going to get attacked when they announced they were
calling off the betrothal. They knew too. We wouldn’t be able to get you out until that happened.”
“So you were all waiting for my parents to die?!”
“They were watching your parents so closely we never would have managed to even sneak you out of
the house, and your parents were watched like a hawk any time they left the house. We were taking
out the Lycans tailing your parents daily, but they just kept being replaced, Elijah and his parents had
ridiculous resources, and, of course, they had the entire council in their back pocket. This went on for
years, we just weren’t making any progress.” She turned to meet my dad’s eyes, the pain clear to see.
“The plan had been to let them think they were going to win. The idea had been to smuggle you out
whilst Elijah’s cronies were distracted with your parents, and then they’d catch up to us.”
“They never made it out of the house,” dad’s voice was low. “No one knew that they had witches.”
My face fell, and when it did, Callum and Theo reached out to squeeze my hands reassuringly.
Mum wiped her tears. “The witch trapped them in the house. She brought down the ceiling in the
tunnel we used to smuggle you out, and then…” She sobbed.
“Your parents were betrayed, Ava. One of the members of staff that looked after your household was a
traitor and had placed explosives in the cellar. Once the witch trapped your parents in… the
explosives were detonated.”
I threw my hand over my mouth, unable to stop the tears.
I pulled myself away from my mates, walking to my mum and pulling her into a hug, both of us
sobbing on each other’s shoulders.
“We were followed on the way out of the pack,” dad continued. “Fortunately so many of Elijah’s men
were caught up with your parents that they only sent a couple after us. They were taken out… but we
lost two people in that fight.” He looked down, as if broken hearted. “You left the territory with five
Lycans. By the time you were a couple miles away from Blood Moon territory… you had one left.
From there, you were told to run as fast as you could in our direction, and just keep running until you
found the next border patrol. You were only young, any border patrol would have had to help you,
even if you’d gotten lost and ended up somewhere unexpected.”
Mum’s head was still buried in my shoulder when she started talking again, her voice ending up
slightly muffled. “You ran those two miles as fast as you could. There were Lycans chasing you still
when you got here, but you were a smart little one,” she gave a small smile. “You managed to lose
them in the woods, I believe you hid in a hollow tree. Even when you were that young, Artemis was
able to hide her scent. If she hadn’t been able to… I don’t know what would have happened.”
“I found you at the border,” Alex took over. “Fortunately, Jacob and I knew enough about the
adoption that we knew where you needed to be.”
“We couldn’t tell them much, Ava,” mum carried on. “But we could just tell them enough for them to
know just how important you are.”
“We got you settled in quickly. You knew enough to understand that it was safe here, and, as you’ve
now told us, you could already talk to Artemis, so I’m sure she helped you adjust.”
“She did,” I whispered. “From what I can remember… I don’t know how I’d have gotten through it
without her.”
“You’re strong, Ava. Stronger than you know,” Jacob gave me a small smile. “You always have been.
Even when I didn’t know much about you other than the pack you came from, I knew you were
destined for something special. You could see it in your eyes, the raw power and determination.”
“Even after everything you’ve been through, which is far more than any one person should be
expected to deal with, you’re still this amazing pillar of strength, who gives everyone hope without
even realising what she’s doing. If you weren’t heir to the pack and really the kingdom, I would
seriously tell the heir to abdicate to you anyway,” Alex smiled. “Both you and Artemis really are
destined for great things, Ava, prophecy or not.”
I wiped my eyes, pressed a kiss to my mum’s forehead, and walked back around the table to sit back
down.
“And after that? Once I was settled in?”
“We didn’t enrol you in school immediately, we wanted to give you time to adjust to the new pack.
You came to us in February, and we didn’t start you in school until September,” mum replied. “We
needed you to be settled and comfortable, because everything was stressful enough without you being
under even more pressure.”
Her eyes welled up again. “They started bullying you almost immediately after you started. We knew
kids can be cruel, everyone knows that, but it was almost immediate, and we were never entirely sure
what started it.”
She met Alex’s eyes, his eyes were wet too. “We tried to stop it, so many times. But every time we
did… it just got worse. When you were twelve, you told us to stop trying,” Alex wiped his eyes as he
spoke. “It completely shattered me to do it, but you wouldn’t let us do anything else.”
“All we could do was kick our sons’ backsides if we heard anything to suggest they were being cruel
to you, but no one ever told us anything to suggest they were,” Jacob’s eyes flicked between Noah and
Theo’s eyes, both of whom were looking guilty. Callum and Oscar looked just as guilty.
“Of course we know now that none of them were innocent in this, and I’m really sorry, Ava, that I
didn’t manage to stop it,” Jacob added, with Alex nodding next to him.
“Even though the kids in school were the biggest culprits, and beyond these four, I mean, we’ve
always wondered where it actually started. Kids can be cruel, absolutely, but it was immediate. No
one would have known anything about you at all, and some of the things these kids came out with…”
Jacob rubbed his eyes, exasperated.
“What are you talking about…” I growled under my breath. “You think someone set me up to be
bullied?”
They all glanced at each other, looking guilty. “We’re not 100% sure…” Alex started. “But it’s
possible.”
“No ideas as to who?”
Alex shook his head. “I wish I did, Ava, but no.”