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“After that, the village became eerily quiet. The last person they dragged before Ciru was my cousin. There was surprise in his eyes, his mouth dropping open in the first hint of emotion since the killings began.” Ava’s jaw tightened. “His mother backhanded him and told him not to show weakness.”
As his parents had begun to drain the life from Zina, Ciru had looked away, his expression blank again. His eyes speared around the town square as if he was looking for her, searching everywhere until finally, he found her.
Underneath the pile of blankets, hidden away from the pair of psychotic killers that were his parents, Ava’s heart had skipped a beat.
Ciru had seen her. His eyes had searched hers, something below the surface that seemed on the tip of his tongue but was never spoken. He didn’t look away from her as her cousin met her end on the edge of his mother’s knife, not even when the younger girl had cried out to Ciru to save her.
Nor when he made no move to do so.
Sighing, Ava’s fingers skimmed along the picnic table, needing the reassurance that she wasn’t still beneath those blankets, struggling to breathe and watching her world burn around her. Glancing up, the raw emotion in Cortana’s features urged her to finish the story.
“The best friend I’d known for five years, the boy I’d thought was my first love, was the son of monsters and a monster himself.”
Ava spoke the words that she believed with all her being. Only one question remained in her mind: why hadn’t he revealed her hiding spot to his parents?
When his parents had laid their hands on him and all three disappeared within a split second, Ava had known they weren’t human. Raeths. The word became synonymous with murderers in her mind.
From that moment on, she’d spent every second of her life trying to claim revenge for her village and her family.
“I’ve been searching for them—that trio—for eight centuries, Cortana. It’s one of the reasons why Aidan volunteered me for sorting out the HVAC systems with Remmus. There are hundreds of clanless joining the established Sovereign networks—many in Nina and Zeke’s territory, but I can’t go and check them out if I’m petrified of Raeths. I have contacts at every major pack in the world, sending me information about clanless Raeths who might fit the description, but the changes brought on by the Heat mean I need to go straight to the source.”
Ava took out her phone, flipping to the three pencil drawings of Ciru and his parents that she’d updated only a few weeks ago. She showed it to her alpha.
“I have these to keep their images fresh in my mind.”
“I can’t imagine the pain you must’ve gone through, Ava.” Cortana reached across to squeeze her hand. “And as a child, no less.”
“Aidan—and Riaz—have been phenomenal alphas. They know where my boundaries are and push me when I need to be pushed. They’ve been helping me along on my quest for vengeance all these centuries. Any time they interact with a clanless Raeth—which is rare—they clue me in.”
Something darkened in the vampire’s expression. “But Ava, Raeths can join clans, and leave them, at will. They might have been clanless then but be part of a clan now.”
“I investigate any Raeth I interact with,” she replied. “Last summer, when you called on Toni for help with our wildfire problem, I did my due diligence. As soon as you said a Raeth was going to taxi her back and forth, I sent a message to Aidan. He has already assured me that our new friend Remmus couldn’t be Ciru. He was born into Nina’s clan. He wasn’t clanless at any point in time, nor did he have clanless parents.”
“That’s a relief.”
“It is indeed.” At the sound of Riaz’ laughter, Ava glanced up. “Look what the cat dragged in.”
The beaming alpha strolled over to them, the pair of wolves behind him nipping each other playfully. All had settled after their dominance battle, and they’d become the best of friends once more. They weren’t yet a century old, and they’d likely continue to develop throughout the next decade or so. This wouldn’t be the last of their challenges.
“If it isn’t my two favorite people,” Riaz greeted. “Good talk?”
Nodding as her alpha sat down beside Cortana, Ava pulled out her phone and glanced through the blueprints for the St. Louis facility one more time. When they went back—and they would need to—she wanted to be prepared.
“You did well today, all things considered.”
She knew Riaz well enough to know there was something he wasn’t saying, and it wasn’t the fact that she’d choked the Raeth when he’d steamrolled her out of the way of a bullet.
“But?”
“But having him underfoot in the den is going to be vastly different than tolerating him for an hour.”
“I realize that.”
A glint in his eye. “Then you realize that, for the good of the Accords, you can’t commit murder?”
“If I accidentally choke the life from him again, will a written apology suffice? I’ll use the good cardstock.” Ava grunted. “It’s unlikely he’ll be missed. He did very little at the Citizens’ facility.”
“Ava.” Her name was said like a chastisement. “Ignoring the fact that he saved your life, which you’re too stubborn to admit, he then saved all of us when he put up that shield and got us the heck out of dodge.”
