by May Sage
She closed her eyes, willing herself to stop thinking of it.
“Good.”
The bitch had deserved to die, just like her old enforcers did.
The tiger chuckled low. “Good? What if she had her reasons?”
Ava shrugged. “You had kids, and she sent an army against you, regardless. There’s no reason that could justify that. How did you get out of it, by the way?”
Her mind went directly to Knox. Had he been there? Was he still around?
“You’ve heard of Scions?” the tiger asked, and she rolled her eyes.
Had she ever.
“I’m from Italy. Most Scions are still based around Rome and Athens, you know. Except the Scandinavian lot, I guess.”
She bit her lip, wondering if she’d said too much. Damn her stupid babble mouth.
“Italy? You don’t speak with a Mediterranean accent.” He replied. “If anything, you sound British.”
She forced a smile. “British mother.”
At least she wasn’t lying. She just didn’t add that her Russian, her Spanish, her French, and her Chinese also had no trace of Italian.
She may not have been raised to run for her life, but blending in, making foreign dignitaries comfortable, that had been drilled into her early and often.
“Anyway, you were saying about Scions?”
He was frowning when he explained they’d received help from their kind, perhaps not understanding just how rare that was. Scions were as selfish as they were self-centered. Which was understandable, because well, they were deities.
“They’ll ask for a favor in exchange one day,” she said, and the tiger nodded, not questioning her.
“All done.”
She looked down to her bandage. It was probably overkill; he’d wrapped it all around her torso, breasts included.
Now that he was done, he sat up, and took a step away from her. She felt the absence in a way that made her question her sanity. Like he’d removed a part of her. Which was point-blank ridiculous.
“As soon as I get out of this door, my Alphas are going to ask me about you. I’ll tell them I owe you, and they’ll agree to let you stay for the night.”
She nodded.
“Thank you. You didn’t owe me anything. I was just…”
“I did, and now my debt is repaid,” he replied, interrupting her.
Pain flashed through her, a pain that wasn’t caused by her stupid wound. He was being nice about it, at least; he could have told her to get out of here right away.
“So,” the shifter carried on, “if you want to stay come morning, you’re going to have to come up with a story. A good story. Preferably the truth.”
She opened her mouth and closed it. The truth. Telling them the truth right away wasn’t only trusting them with her life; it was trusting them with the lives of all her kind. Could she do that?
“Rest up. I’ll bring some broth in a bit. You have time. Just not much of it.”
He turned on his heels as she bit her lip. Before he’d opened the door, Ava stopped him, suddenly aware of an embarrassing detail. She’d observed him for weeks, but…
“Hey?” she called. When he turned back to her, she asked, “What’s your name?”
Eagles had keen vision, but there was no way she could have caught what he was actually saying from high up in the sky.
His eyes softened a bit. Ava watched, dazzled and practically shocked as he smiled. She hadn’t seen him smile, not like that, not even to the children. It was like someone had suddenly lit a candle in the darkness.
“Coveney. Coveney Walker. I’m the Head Enforcer here.”
Chapter 6
Disobedience
Coveney made his way to Rye’s office as soon as he was done taking care of Ava, knowing the Alpha was running out of patience.
He’d looked at him without uttering a word when he’d brought the naked woman into the pride house. Rygan was kind like that. He could have just told him to get out, or to let her bleed out on their doorstep.
Rain had offered to take care of her, of course. He’d shaken his head.
“I still have some of the salve left that you made for me. I can do it, it’s the same poison,” he explained, all the while knowing it wasn’t actually an explanation.
In the absence of a healer, now that Ola was gone to hell where she deserved to be, their witch ally was indubitably the best person to take care of a wounded patient. But Ava didn’t know Rain.
She doesn’t know you, either.
He shut up the voice in his mind and got to work, cleaning her wound until she woke up.
Coveney didn’t have an explanation. He should be done with her. Now that she was safe, she should be inconsequential to him. Everyone else was. He owed Rye, Kim, Christine, and Ian. He’d spent enough years with Daunte and Jas to have developed some sort of affinity with them. He liked the kids. That was it.
Yet this stranger made him pace and mutter, wonder and worry, like nothing and no one else ever had, even before he’d become the cold, single-minded motherfucker he was.
Maybe he should let Rain have a crack at her. Witchcraft could very well be the issue there.
The Alphas were waiting for him; Rye sat behind his desk, Ace standing at his side. They hadn’t doubted he’d come, because, well, that was just who he was.
Rye was still glaring in silence, his eyes bright, and the mating marks peeking from under his clothing blazing. Yeah, he was pissed. Ace, however, just seemed curious.
“I gave you a clear order,” the Alpha male finally said, an edge to his voice.
Coveney bobbed his head, taking a seat. “And I willfully disobeyed.” Which did support his theory: some witchcraft may be going on here. “I will accept the consequences. Demote me if you have to.” His heart practically gave out, but he also added, “I’d understand if you banished me.”
Aisling snorted. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen, Coveney. Neither. You’re the best at what you do, and Rye and I know just how lucky we are to have a workaholic like you at your post.”
She said all that while pointedly looking at her mate, who sighed, dropping some of his glowering.
“That’s right,” he admitted. “Which is why acting like that is definitely not like you. Speak.”
He wanted an explanation. Great. How could he spell it out for his Alphas when he didn’t even know what made him act like a bloody lunatic?
“I told you she saved me,” he replied. “I figured she might have been hit. I couldn’t…” he stopped talking, knowing how lame it all sounded. “There’s no excuse. I disobeyed.”
Ace rolled her eyes.
“Oh, drop the crap. Rye was in an overprotective mindset, or he would have sent you after her right away. Without her warning, we might all be dead right now. She helped us save our son, and the rest of our pride. I’m sorry I hadn’t heard about all this before, or I would have intervened.”
The Alpha male’s shoulders finally relaxed, and he nodded curtly.
“I’m not used to you challenging my authority,” he told him, pausing for a beat before he carried on. “But it’s good to see you’ll do it if you think it’s right.”
Wait, what? He messed up, and got praised for it? Today was so weird. Rye didn’t hand over compliments every other day; on the contrary, he always looked at Coveney with something akin to disappointment.
“Still,” the Alpha went on, “It doesn’t change the fact that we don’t know nearly enough about that girl to have her in our pride house, under the same roof as our kids. There’s a reason why I sent the rest of our potential members to Ace’s old place.”
“She’s wounded,” Coveney pleaded, tense.
He thought about banishing Ava to one of the outer homes, by herself, vulnerable. Now that the potential members had been fully accepted in the pride, they’d be living with them, which meant she’d be well and truly alone there.
“Shifter healing is pretty quick.”
“This poison will slow it d
own. I cleaned my wounds after minutes; hers have been festering for hours. I’ll take responsibility for her. If you need to send her away, I’ll go with her. But I’d prefer to have our resources at hand while she gets better.”
Whatever Rye was about to say was cut off by Ace. “I’m good with that. If you’re happy to take responsibility for her.”
Coveney couldn’t recall ever having been responsible for a person, on a one-on-one basis. He had a responsibility to the pride, and he saw to everyone’s safety, but this seemed so different. Still, he acquiesced.
Before he left the office, he glanced at his Alphas again, and felt a little weirded out. He didn’t chat away like everyone else did, and he stayed at a distance from the rest of the pride, but he saw and understood more than he let on. After what had happened to him, he’d started to pay a lot more attention to people: their expressions, the things they didn’t say.
He’d seen Daunte’s thing for his new mate, Clari, long before either of them had seen fit to do a thing about it. He’d wondered whether Ace could be Rye’s mate very early on, catching something eerie about the way they glanced at each other.
Now, he saw something, too, as easily as if there had been a dialog bubble atop Ace’s head. The Alpha female was cooking up something. She had a plan in mind, and it involved him.
He narrowed his eyes. He didn’t think the woman had any reason to dislike him, so he might be overreacting.
But he’d been wrong before.
Chapter 7
The Alpha
She woke up feeling like a shark had set its jaws around her middle and refused to let go. The slightest movement hurt, and her bandages were bloodstained.
On her bedside table, there was a full glass of water, and a bowl of something that looked like soup. She recalled Coveney saying he’d bring broth; obviously, he was a man of his word. He hadn’t woken her up for it, and she was pretty grateful. Being conscious sucked. She hadn’t been in pain while she slept, at least.
Her throat was dry, and her mouth felt downright disgusting, so she moved to grab the drink.
Shit. Wrong decision. She wasn’t moving again - ever.
“Let me get that for you.”
She froze.
The light was dim - it was clearly the middle of the night - but she should have heard him, sensed him. There was a stranger in her room, sitting on an armchair not too far from her, and it hadn’t been the first thing she’d seen. Some shifter she was. She should have noticed him immediately.
Coveney brought the glass to her lips and tilted it slightly to let her take a sip.
She groaned, before managing to croak, “Thank you.”
“Save your strength,” he replied, apparently not one for pleasantries.
Good. It wasn’t like she was up for a discussion right now.
“I need to look at the wound. The balm I put in there will prevent you from healing.”
She narrowed her eyes and tensed, ready to bolt. That explained why she felt like she’d been run over, but why would he use something like that?
“To make sure your skin doesn’t regrow over the poison,” he explained, wincing. “Sorry. I’m not used to… speaking to people.”
“You’re part of a pride,” she retorted, confused.
He shrugged. As she carried on staring, the tiger sighed, reading her annoyingly communicative silence. “You want me to clarify myself.”
“Yep.”
Unexpectedly, she saw him smile again.
“Well, there’s that. No one expects me to explain myself these days.”
She stared again, until he chuckled.
“A long time ago,” he said, while undoing her bandage with care, “something happened that pissed me off. A lot. I stopped talking for a while after. I just couldn’t speak because I felt like I was going to yell and explode, but the people around me were my friends, and they didn’t deserve it. I started speaking again after a few months. I guess they were relieved, so they never pushed it afterwards. It suited me. I don’t really…” he paused. “I don’t have much to say to people.”
His callused hands caressed her skin, and the pain became irrelevant, just like it had the day before, for an instant.
Needing a distraction, she asked, “What happened?”
His jaw set, and he kept it shut.
“If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to. But you need to say ‘I don’t want to tell you.’”
“I don’t mind telling you,” he replied. “It’s just going to take a second. I’ve never talked of it.”
Were those butterflies in her tummy? Yep. Yep, they were.
“I was accused of rape.” Oh shit. “Falsely,” he clarified immediately. “And I was cleared since. Almost lost my neck, though. But I was young, and there wasn’t enough proof, so I was banned from my pride instead. The friends I didn’t want to yell at are those who left the pride with me and formed this one.”
Oh, well. That explained why he didn’t feel like being an ass to them. Still.
“That must be hard on you. Talking, communicating… I guess people are different, but that’s how you know you’re part of a community. Especially as a shifter. We need to feel like we belong. Talk, touch…” she trailed off again, because talking about touching him stirred something a little too intense for the circumstances.
Besides, she wasn’t saying anything he didn’t know.
“I don’t touch people, either,” he added, which only served to make his hand feel hotter against her. “It looks better. I’ll clean the balm off, so you can heal up naturally.”
He was very meticulous, and very thorough, too. He didn’t even comment when her damn nipples got hard. Although he did bite back a grin.
“How do you feel?”
“Better already.”
She could feel the healing process kicking in now; it made her sleepy, achy, and hot. Yeah, right. The hot part was all due to the fact that she was healing.
Liar.
“Good. I’ll let you rest.”
He returned to the armchair next to the large bed, and grabbed a book from the floor.
When she woke up later, the room bathed in morning light, he was still there, looking down at her.
Breathe, Ava. Just breathe.
They were all there. All the larger than life shifters she’d seen from a distance. The room looked much smaller when they occupied it, expectantly staring at her.
Coveney had gone to fetch his Alphas, but he’d also brought his Beta back.
“Will you give us a minute?” Aisling Wayland-Cross asked, and although she’d formulated it as a question, everyone nodded, heading towards the door - everyone except Coveney. The Alpha female turned towards the Head Enforcer, clarifying, “That wasn’t a suggestion.”
Ava admired the Alpha’s ways. She’d noticed it when she’d seen the pride interacting in the past, and it was evident now. Aisling wasn’t one to wave her dominance left and right; she respected her pride, and it showed.
Visibly reluctant, the tiger turned on his heels, and closed the door behind him.
Finding herself alone with the Alpha, Ava felt the strength of her gaze a little harder. The woman was downright terrifying; yet for some reason, she didn’t feel too uncomfortable in her company.
“I don’t know much about eagle shifters - your kind stay pretty secluded – but, from what I’ve heard, you take your honor very seriously.”
Ava nodded cautiously. That was one way of saying it. Pride was absolutely everything to their race.
“So much so that when someone loses their pride, they often kill themselves. It’s also not uncommon for Alphas to condemn whole families for the sins of one.”
So much for not knowing much about eagles; she’d nailed their custom.
“Cats aren’t like that,” Aisling assured her. “No one here would judge you for someone else’s crime.”
Ava still felt uncomfortable, because she could have said as much in front of her prid
e. Yet she’d asked them to leave.
“But that’s not what I wanted to say,” the Alpha added. “See, I’m not like them.”
She waved her hand towards the door, including all of her pride in the gesture.
“I don’t have the same moral compass. My brain doesn’t work the same way. I took your thumbprints and your DNA while you slept, and I got someone to track everything about you. I’m sure the report will be waiting on my desk.”
Well, shit.
“You know why I did it?”
Of course she did - she’d wanted to know if she was a threat to their pride.
“Because you saved my kid yesterday. You warned us, and, given the fact that we had our asses practically handed to us in mere minutes, without that heads-up, we’d all be dead. That means I’ll work out who you’re running from. I’ll hunt them down, and I’ll slit their throat.”
She was matter-of-fact, conversational.
“I’m not what people would call civilized, or sane, for that matter. I’m saying that even if you did something, I would have your back. Understood?”
Actually, she didn’t understand, not really. That wasn’t how the world worked. But the Alpha female wasn’t lying, she was sure of it. Shifters could feel, almost smell, blatant lies.
“You’re saying you want me to trust you. And the thing is, I don’t actually have any choice,” she sighed. It was always going to come down to that. “You may want to call your mate back in for this bit.”
So, a minute later, the five dominant shifters looked at her intently again, ready to listen to her explanation; the Alpha and Beta pairs, and Coveney made for a pretty intimidating audience. Clearing her throat, she wondered where she could start.
Her story hadn’t started six months ago. It hadn’t even started twenty-six years ago, when she’d been born.
“This is going to be a long tale, but I don’t think there’s any shortcut. I’d appreciate if you could keep the questions until the end, so I can stay on track.”
There were nods all around.
“You’re probably not going to believe a word of what I’m about to say, but this is the truth as I know it.”
