Chapter 12

Zeke was still struggling to stop himself from going on a bloody rampage when he sensed he wasn't alone.

He looked over at the lake to calm himself. It really wasn't Mr Patrick's fault, he knew that. But still, he wanted to rip his head off.

"Calm down, Zeke," Mr Patrick said from somewhere behind him.

"Don't tell me to calm down. I should never have listened to you. To either of you."

Ava's father was the first to come down to the bank and stand beside him as he looked over the water. Ava was going to kill him for this but damned if he was going to send away the only other person there who would lay their life down for her.

"And what was your plan?" Alpha Morgan asked. "Charge out of here and protect my daughter out there alone? Try to outrun the Council?"

Zeke snorted.

"I think we all saw that she doesn't need protecting," he growled.

"But none of that matters if she doesn't talk to her wolf, Ezekiel," Mr Patrick said.

Did he want her to talk to her wolf? At this point, he wasn't sure.

"Her wolf is still a part of her, and because you've bonded, it's a part of you," Mr Patrick said. "And she did not reject you—"

"Get out of my fucking head," he cut in with a snarl.

Both men were quiet for a while until Alpha Morgan sighed and sat next to him.

"Why don't you tell me what you saw?" he said.

"Why? So we can do that shit again? Did you not see the state your daughter was in when she came back out? Facing all of that is not a game, Alpha Morgan."

"I'm not saying it is. But I want to know what happened to my daughter," Alpha Morgan said. "Do you have any idea the shit she's gone through in our pack because she had no wolf? And now it turns out I was right all along; she did shift as a pup. She needs to find her wolf, Zeke."

Zeke turned to the man who had raised Ava like his own. Was his pack the reason he had taught her how to fight like a warrior? If there was ever a doubt that he had taken on the role of her father wholeheartedly, that was blown out of the water now. His father would never have stayed to help him go against the Council.

"I just want my daughter to survive this," Alpha Morgan continued. "And her wolf is... It's her only hope."

He was right. Whether Ava's wolf wanted him or not, it was Ava's only chance.

"I waited too long," he started, looking over the water again. "The last time I saved her, she was hurt, but those things were not so close to her. The whole forest is full of these different bloodthirsty creatures; I don't even know what the fuck they are. When I got to her, they had already surrounded her."

He couldn't get the image of her lying there, bleeding out of his head. He'd thought he was too late.

"And?"

"I attacked the closest one, and she passed out," he said. "These things were everywhere. Coiling around her body, appearing out of thin air... I was getting to them as fast as I could when Ava just got up and shredded them herself. Like they were nothing."

And her eyes... Her eyes had been glowing.

Shadow had immediately gone to his mate, happy to finally meet her even among all that evil and magic in the forest. But Ava had turned on him and attacked him, too. It had been her wolf in control as she had made her way back out of the forest herself.

It was her wolf that didn't want him.

"And then she came out and passed out. You know the rest," he said, unwilling to discuss the part that had hurt him the most.

Mr Patrick sighed as if he'd still been listening to his thoughts. Without waiting to warn him again, he stood and lunged at the teacher, only to end up with a handful of air.

He growled as he turned back around.

"This is what I mean. This is why I won't trust you," he snarled. "You appear and disappear like that shit is normal. You mess around in people's heads and keep secrets, but you're still spying in our heads and asking us to trust you. I am done with you."

Mr Patrick didn't seem concerned about his anger, which pissed him off more. He turned to walk away. He had a mate to protect, so he had to find a weakness in the patrols. He had no time for games.

"You're right," Mr Patrick said.

He stopped but didn't turn back around.

"I do ask a lot, and I do keep secrets. I can't risk the Council finding out what I am because they will come for me. Ironically, I've been their prisoner here for years without them realising it."

He turned back and saw Mr Patrick looking over where the lake flowed into the darkness of the forest.

"I don't know what they've done, but their forest has strengthened in the past few decades. And all of that dark magic has trapped me here."

"You can't even leave when the students go home?" Alpha Morgan asked with a frown.

"I can't go through the forest at all. I even tried flying out of here in the beginning..."

Mr Patrick turned to face them.

"There aren't many of my kind left. The Council made sure of that when they started doing all of this," he said.

"And what kind is that?" he asked.

"I'm Fae."

"Fairy? Like Tinkerbell?" he asked again.

Mr Patrick didn't seem amused.

"The Fae's abilities made us the only threat to the Council when they were just starting. We have the vampires' speed, wolves' strength, and the witches' control of the elements, among other things," he continued. "The Council wouldn't try to use me as a weapon; they would destroy me straight away.”

The teacher walked forward and stopped right in front of him.

"I can help your mate here," he said again. "But you will be on your own out there. Think about that before you do anything drastic."

"I will do whatever I need to," he said.

He turned to walk away, and before he'd even got to the ridge, he could sense the two men were already gone.

Mr Patrick could assume he could protect Ava all he wanted, but none of them knew what was coming. All they knew was that they were trapped here with Claire.

But he would do what he said. He would do what needed to be done.

He shifted and went for a run to calm himself down before Ava came for her things. The forest was quieter than it usually was when Shadow ran through it. Even the animals could sense the doom that was coming.

He was heading back home hours later when Myles linked him.

'There's an Omega here to collect Ava's things.'

'What? Where's Ava?'

'She's not coming, Zeke. She went to her dorm straight after detention.'

Shadow stopped in his tracks and then forced a shift. He was left gasping for breath on his knees, trying to handle both his beast's and his own pain.

If that wasn't proof of her rejection then he didn't know what was.