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Days passed.
Time skipped by, and Ava clung to a hope that seemed to be slipping further and further away. Kaien continued his attempts to heal Remmus’ mind. He murmured about having had to watch while Zeke’s burned away the poison, when Remmus’ screams gradually faded to nothing, as his eyes shifted from agonized and fearful to bleak and blank.
Ava listened as Kaien explained how Zeke had used psychic fire to cure it, the cross-webbed structure of their dual clan networks allowing the sovereign to cleanse the poison from where it’d taken root.
They weren’t sure what was left of his personality, his breed-driven abilities, and whether or not he’d have psychic scarring.
Or if he’d ever wake up.
Ava didn’t dare leave her mate. Knowing what she did now, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen the signs. Regardless of the conversation they’d had where he’d spoken of his childhood abuse, she had no idea it’d been so severe.
She’d curled around him on the bed where he lay, still unresponsive.
The steady in and out of his breath tickled over her skin. Gently, her fingers traced the tracks of the X on his chest, the roughened skin over his heart. It thudded beneath her palm. For the thousandth time, her emotions welled over and her tears slipped down her cheeks.
Footsteps echoed in the hall, unhurried.
Kaien had been her constant while she’d been here, his mate nearly as much so. Fierce but friendly, Blair had been a silent sounding board, listening to Ava as she ranted about the unfairness of it all, of how she’d do it differently given the chance.
Blair revealed that she’d kissed Remmus once, startling a laugh out of Ava for the first time in what seemed like ages. The other woman had no form of filter, and she delighted in the vampire’s honesty.
Entering the room on the fifth day, Kaien’s disapproval was apparent. “You need to eat, Ava. If Remmus wakes up and finds you withering away to nothing, guess who’s going to get flogged on your behalf?”
Ava stared at him blankly. “You?”
“Precisely.” He matched her stare before dragging his gaze to her mate and sighing ruefully. “Aidan is in the kitchen with his mate. Go eat something. Refresh yourself. Remmus isn’t going anywhere.”
Idly, Ava fiddled with a lock of Remmus’ dark blond hair. She’d tried to ignore the protests of her stomach. She hadn’t wanted to leave him unattended. It felt like a betrayal somehow, considering how she’d abandoned him when he needed her most.
As if sensing her reluctance, Kaien softened and said, “He won’t be alone. Go Ava.”
Though she bristled at the command, she ultimately gave in. Gingerly, she extracted herself from where she’d coiled around him and stood. She forced herself to walk toward the door even though every stride took her further away. Casting another apologetic look back at her mate, she continued down the hall.
Her wolf was restless beneath her skin. She continued to war with a deep-seated need to shift and sprint off the excess and the anxiety, but she’d find no release there, not unless Aidan went with her over the unfamiliar lands.
The moment she was within sight of the other wolf, tears flooded her eyes. Aidan, having instinctively known Ava was coming, enveloped her in a massive hug. He gently cupped the back of her head as she cried, letting his touch soothe a portion of her soul.
It didn't matter that he hadn’t been her alpha in centuries. Once pack, always pack.
After what seemed like an eternity, she slowly released him. He turned, then shoved a bowl of baked macaroni into her hands.
“Eat, Ava.”
She devoured the comfort food, her stomach finally satisfied after days of starvation. While there’d been food placed in her general vicinity, none of it had passed her lips. Too much had happened, and it’d strung up her stomach in knots.
Depositing the empty bowl in the sink, Ava murmured a thank you to Aidan’s beaming mate, but the sorrow that’d been her constant didn’t dissolve. Her resulting sigh held more melancholy than relief.
When Aidan grabbed her arm and dragged her outside, she trailed on feet that felt numb. The massive black werewolf that appeared seconds later turned to look pointedly at her. Leaping into the shift, Ava’s higher reasoning gave way to the simplicity of the animal. Both halves of her soul relished the freedom to run off the stress that’d impinged on her ability to function.
After a half hour, the pair of wolves returned to Nina’s home. Anxiety pinged through her, making her movements jerky as she turned the knob and entered Remmus’ room. She found that he wasn’t alone. The woman she’d attacked only days earlier was by his side.
Celeste.
Hot pink hair was worn in loose waves down her back, her petite frame leaning over the bed. For a moment, Celeste didn’t even know Ava was there.
And in that same moment, Ava noticed that the other woman was crying. Celeste’s hands gently held one of his, her fingers shaking. The pink-haired woman bent and pressed her lips into his knuckles.
There was nothing more than platonic affection in the way she held Remmus’ hand, and while Ava’s wolf had hackles raised, she knew these weren’t actions of a woman in love.
