Chapter 31

Ava realised that Derek, Myles and Jared were backing away from her as if she was the monster, not the wolf she had protected them from. She looked back at the damage she had done. Not all of them were dead, but...

With her anger gone, her mind cleared.

But there were too many scents and too many emotions in the room. Too much noise. She could hear everything. People talking at once. People screaming. Leaves blowing in the wind. Cars. Heartbeats. The harsh breathing of the students who were too terrified to run from the room. The dying breaths of others. She could see the tiniest splatter of blood on the wall. She could smell that somebody had pissed themselves.

Everything tumbled down on her in a confusing avalanche as she backed away from her friends. They were terrified.

“It takes a special kind of person to kill the same people two times. I’m very proud of you, Ava,” Councillor Andrei said.

They had done this.

Her anger built up again, mixing with everything else. But she knew she couldn’t attack them. One of them could end her life without any effort, but three of them together would be a fate worse than death. She wouldn’t stand a chance.

Her wolf lowered her head, and she felt her get ready to attack anyway. Without her permission. Without her consent. It was a terrifying experience not to have any control over her own body. She felt like a passenger in a truck aiming for a brick wall at a break-neck speed. The wolf’s muscles tensed as she prepared to launch at the vampire.

She screamed in her head for the wolf to stop. Begged it. The councillors were not the least bit afraid of her, so this would not be a challenge. But the wolf took a step forward and growled.

She caught a scent in the air, one that thankfully pulled the wolf’s attention from the suicide mission. Zeke’s cologne. Only now she realised it wasn’t cologne. It had been his scent all along. She had smelled it even when she thought she was human. A woodsy sandalwood scent with spices so intoxicating that she had to take a deep breath to savour it. And then she heard his footsteps thundering down the hallway. She didn’t know how she could pinpoint him with all the noise in her head, but the closer he got, the calmer she started to feel. He was okay. They hadn’t hurt him. That had been her biggest fear because that was the only reason Zeke would have stayed away from his pack mates.

When he opened the door, she felt her heart soar. She felt so much love for the man who stopped to look at her. There was no fear in him like the others. Because he was her mate, and their bond was unbreakable. Despite the noise and confusion in her head, she knew Zeke would make this situation better as he always did.

But she felt her wolf’s intentions, and her bubble burst.

What?

Her wolf lowered her head and snarled.

Snarled at the man she had given herself to for the rest of her life. Her anger blasted through her and left her more confused. Because even with the anger, she could feel the pull towards him. Zeke’s scent wrapped around her until that was all she could smell. His steady heartbeat was all she could hear. He was hers, but her wolf was still snarling.

What the hell was happening?

And then she ran. She went past Zeke and shoved the doors open with so much force they came off their hinges. Only when she struggled to fit through did she realise just how big she was. Shock rippled through her even as the wolf ran down the halls and made it outside. She was as big as... No, that couldn’t be right. The wolf didn’t stop running even when she started to think about everything she had done when she had shifted. How small the other wolves had been. How easily her teeth had sunk into their flesh. How much she had liked it.

Guards and students jumped out of her way as she ran towards the woods. Away from the noise and scent of blood. Away from the confusion. She didn’t stop running until she reached the lake—their special place.

Did her wolf not like Zeke? But they were mated. They had a bond! Zeke had marked her and said it was for life.

She was agonising over these thoughts when she sensed that Zeke had followed her. This time, her wolf didn’t react to him. She just withdrew. The pain pushed away all her confusion as her bones broke so quickly and reformed. Her muscles tensed and relaxed. She fell to the ground and saw her giant paws in her direct line of vision. Black like Zeke’s wolf. The fur started to recede, and the pain prevented any more thought.

By the time Zeke came beside her, she was naked, trembling and breathless, back in her form on the grassy bank. All her energy had been sucked right out of her. Her senses were muted, and there was no noise in her head—nothing except her own confused thoughts.

“I don’t... I don’t understand,” she whispered.

“Shh,” Zeke said as he stripped his clothes off.

All of them. She didn’t understand what he was doing until he gently picked her sore body up and walked towards the lake. The water was warm when he lowered them into it and then started to wash her. She looked down at her body and saw all the blood. She had lived her nightmare in real time. She had ripped other wolves apart like they were nothing.

“Look at me, Ava,” Zeke whispered.

She pulled her gaze away from the blood to look into his eyes.

“Focus on me,” he said gently.

His touch soothed her as it always did. But he was taking care of her as if he hadn’t seen her wolf’s reaction to him. Had she not hurt his feelings?

“Zeke... Why did I..? My wolf, I don’t understand—”

“You’re still mine, Ava. And I’m yours,” Zeke said. “Let me take care of you.”

“Didn’t you see what I did? I took lives as if they were nothing. I... I liked it,” she admitted hysterically.

Zeke pulled her closer and put his forehead against her.

“I will teach you how to co-exist with your wolf. I will teach you control. Because there is no one else here who will understand that more than I do.”

Because they were the same. That darkness she always felt around him was within her, too. So why was it that her wolf didn’t want to know him?

“What’s your wolf’s name?” Zeke asked as he continued to wash her.

The exertion on her body was too much; she could feel it start to shut down. Her eyes were closing when she answered him.

“I don’t know. She didn’t speak to me.”