Chapter 1

It was late when Zeke left his mate sleeping to make her something to eat.

There was some magic in the air, but he couldn't sense Mr Patrick or Alpha Morgan in the house. He found Derek and Myles in the kitchen, looking at some dishes of food on the table.

"Is it poisoned?" he joked as he opened the fridge to get a bottle of water.

"Maybe," Derek snorted. "Jared's Omegas brought food for Ava."

He paused as he opened the water and sniffed the air before he suspiciously looked at the food, too. First, Jared was in his house, and now his Omegas were sending food?

"I'm cooking for her," he decided as he joined them at the table.

The urge to throw the food in the trash was strong, but he didn't want Ava to get upset with him. Why had they cooked for her in the first place?

"We heard what happened. We were having lunch in the dining hall when they came over, or we would have warned you. I'm sorry, Zeke," Derek said.

"I'm sure my father planned it that way."

"What's going to happen to the pack now? I mean... He's going to get challenges from every direction now if they all think a human defeated him."

"I don't know," he admitted. "I think Beta Lawrence will have to take over."

"Temporarily, until you take your place?" Derek asked.

"I don't know if that will happen anymore. I'm never going to be the official Alpha once I leave. We have to accept that. Your dad wants what we want; he will be the perfect Alpha."

"But he's still not an Alpha, Zeke," Derek pointed out. "He'll get challenged, too."

"When I leave, the Council will make my father pay the price, anyway. Your father was always going to have to be in charge. He's the one in charge anyway when we're here."

"It will be different when people know you're not coming back."

Derek was right to worry, but they had no other choice. Especially after what he planned to do before they left.

"Are you sure Ava is willing to do that to her family?" Myles asked.

The real question was if she was still thinking of turning herself in.

"Running away was her idea. And technically, she's part of our pack now," he pointed out.

"The Council doesn't deal with technicalities," Myles said.

"We'll figure it out."

At least, he hoped they would. He would be long gone by the time that became an issue.

"Are your fathers gone?" he asked.

"Yes. It took a while for them to talk your dad into leaving, but it was Ava's father who persuaded him in the end. I can see where Ava gets her attitude," Myles answered. "I know I shouldn't say this about our Alpha, but I'd have given my left nut to see him getting knocked out."

He grinned before he stood to start cooking for his mate. Ava would be starving when she woke up. That was always the case after she fought like that.

"So, has she found her wolf yet?" Derek asked.

"No, I can't sense it, either. But we've run out of time, anyway."

His senses pricked, making him pause what he was doing and pay attention. It was Jared. Again. Why did that imbecile keep testing him?

He stormed out to the front of the house and saw Jared standing across the road from his driveway. Out of his boundary but still close enough to make him want to rip him apart.

"I didn't tell those Omegas to make that food," Jared said quickly.

"And you've risked your life to come here and tell me that?" he growled.

"I need you to know what happened today."

"I'll hear it from my mate. Leave."

Before he lost control of himself. Shadow was all for his plan to kill that bastard; he was already drooling as he watched the wolf in front of them.

"Your father commanded me to kill her and then wait over her body for you to find me," Jared said, ignoring what he told him.

He growled, and Jared quickly lowered his gaze. The cockiness from the beginning of the semester seemed to have disappeared. Jared looked like a shell of his old self. But that wouldn't stop what was coming to him.

"I was going to do it. I couldn't stop myself," Jared continued. "I stepped into your house, I had my fucking claws out, I was going to..."

He growled again.

"Ava stopped me," Jared continued.

"What?"

Jared looked up and met his gaze.

"Ava used her Alpha command to stop me."

Ava had commanded an Alpha?

"And then the next thing I knew, she put me in the basement, and she went and beat the shit out of your dad."

What did this mean? Her wolf showed up when she was in danger?

"I knew from the beginning that she wasn't an Omega," Jared said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "And I gave her this cream to help her heal, but when she came to see me the other day, it sounded like she expected it to work instantly, but that’s not how it works—"

"What are you doing?"

Jared stopped speaking.

"I told you to go, and you're still standing here talking to me like we're friends," he growled. "Don't stand in front of my house like an idiot. Fuck off."

He turned to walk back up his drive.

"I care about her, too, Zeke."

He turned back, his eyes glowing red and his muscles tensing as Shadow tried to force himself out.

"Go," he growled.

Jared left immediately, but it took him a moment to calm himself down. That was the last thing he wanted to hear, that his mate was friends with the man destined to die by his hand.

When he walked up to the door, Myles and Derek stood there, looking in the direction Jared had gone.

He knew they had heard that conversation, but if they had questions, he couldn't answer them. He didn't know how the hell it was possible that Ava's wolf hid that well. Especially from Shadow, her mate.

"I need to cook for my mate," he said as he walked past them and back into the house.

At the door to the kitchen, he stopped, and Derek and Myles stopped beside him.

He was going to have to put a 'No Visitors' sign in front of his house.

"Ah, good. You're here," Mr Patrick said as he helped himself to the food on the table. "Let's talk about tomorrow."