Chapter 4
1501 Words
Ava's POV
"Drink this."
Michael Blackstone pressed a cup of tea into my hands. We were alone now in his penthouse, the Elder and everyone else gone. My hands shook as I lifted the cup to my lips.
"What's in it?"
"Chamomile. Honey. Nothing that will hurt you." He sat across from me again, maintaining that careful distance. "How do you feel?"
"Like I've been living a lie for two years." I laughed, but it came out broken. "God, I'm so stupid. How did I not know?"
"Forced bonds feel real to the victim. That's what makes them so dangerous." His jaw tightened. "What he did to you was unforgivable."
"Why do you care?" I set the tea down, finally looking at him properly. "You don't know me. I'm nobody. Just a weak omega from a small pack."
"You're not weak." He leaned forward, his ice-blue eyes intense. "Your wolf has been suppressed by the forced bond. Now that it's broken, you'll discover what you really are."
"What do you mean?"
He opened his mouth to answer, but my phone rang. My father's name flashed on the screen. My stomach dropped.
"You should answer," Michael said. "He'll just keep calling."
With trembling fingers, I accepted the call.
"Ava Winters!" My father's voice boomed through the speaker. "What have you done?"
"I didn't—"
"You've destroyed our alliance with the future Alpha! You've humiliated our pack! Get home immediately."
"Father, he was using dark magic—"
"I don't care! You've ruined everything. Luna is heartbroken. The wedding is off. The pack is in chaos. This is all your fault."
Tears burned my eyes. "How is it my fault that he forced a bond with me?"
"You must have led him on. Done something to make him think you were available."
"I was seventeen when he started pursuing me!"
"Enough excuses. Come home now, or you're no longer pack."
The line went dead. I stared at the phone, feeling empty.
"He's disowning me," I whispered. "My own father is disowning me because his precious Luna lost her cheating fiancé."
Michael was suddenly beside me on the couch, not touching but close enough that I could feel his warmth. "You don't need them."
"They're my family."
"Family doesn't treat you like that." His voice was rough with anger, but not at me. "Family protects. Family believes. Family loves unconditionally."
"What would you know about it?" The words came out harsher than I intended. "You're the great Michael Blackstone. Alpha of the most powerful pack in the country. You've probably never been rejected in your life."
He was quiet for so long I thought he wouldn't answer. Then: "My parents tried to kill me when I was fifteen."
I turned to stare at him, sure I'd heard wrong. "What?"
"I was born different. Stronger than any wolf they'd seen. By fifteen, I was already more powerful than my father, the Alpha. He saw me as a threat." Michael's eyes were distant, lost in memory. "So he and my mother decided to eliminate the threat."
"That's... that's horrible."
"I survived, obviously. Killed them both in self-defense. Took over the pack at fifteen." He looked at me. "So yes, I know what it's like to be betrayed by family."
Without thinking, I reached out and touched his hand. The moment our skin made contact, electricity shot through me. Not painful like before, but warm, right, perfect.
He turned his hand over, interlacing our fingers. "Do you feel it?"
"Yes," I breathed. "But I don't understand. I already had a mate."
"No, you had a forced bond. This—" he squeezed my hand gently, "—this is real."
"The Elder said the Moon Goddess has plans," I said. "What did he mean?"
Michael was about to answer when the lights suddenly went out. The entire penthouse plunged into darkness.
"Stay close," he commanded, pulling me against him.
Emergency lighting flickered on, casting everything in an eerie red glow. Michael's men burst through the door.
"Sir, we're under attack," one of them said. "Wolves from the Winters pack. They're demanding the girl."
"How many?"
"Fifty. Maybe more."
Michael cursed. "They're violating territory laws."
"They say she's pack and they have the right to retrieve her."
"She's under my protection."
"Sir," another guard rushed in. "There's something else. The girl's sister—she's here. She wants to talk. Says she has information about Ava that you need to hear."
I tensed. "Luna? What could she possibly—"
"Bring her up," Michael commanded. "But search her first. And have guards ready."
Minutes later, Luna walked in, looking nothing like the confident woman from earlier. Her makeup was smeared, her hair disheveled. But her eyes when they landed on me were full of malice.
"Well, sister," she said. "Enjoying your new protector?"
"What do you want, Luna?"
"To tell the truth." She smiled, cold and sharp. "The truth about what you really are."
Michael stepped forward. "Speak quickly. My patience is thin."
"Oh, I'll speak." Luna's eyes never left mine. "Did you know, Ava, that you're not really my sister?"
My heart stopped. "What?"
"You're not our father's daughter. Our mother had an affair." Luna was enjoying this, I could tell. "Your real father was a rogue Alpha. One of the most dangerous wolves ever born."
"You're lying."
"Am I? Haven't you ever wondered why you look nothing like us? Why Father could barely stand to look at you after Mother died?" Luna pulled out a folder, tossing it on the coffee table. "DNA results. Birth records. Your mother's diary. It's all there."
With shaking hands, I picked up the folder. The DNA results were clear—zero percent match to the man I'd called Father my whole life. The diary entries in my mother's handwriting talked about a mysterious man, a powerful wolf she'd met in secret.
"His name was Marcus Shadowbane," Luna said. "He killed over a hundred wolves before they finally stopped him. And you're his daughter."
"No." I shook my head. "That's not possible."
"Your real father was a monster, Ava. A killer. And that's why you've always been weak—Father had the pack healer suppress your wolf with herbs in your food. He was terrified you'd turn out like your real father."
I couldn't breathe. Everything I knew about myself was a lie. First the forced mate bond, now this.
"There's more," Luna said, her smile widening. "The Winters pack isn't here to take you home. They're here to kill you. Father put out the order an hour ago. He says you're too dangerous to live now that your wolf is free from the false bond."
Michael snarled, the sound pure predator. "They dare come to my territory to commit murder?"
"Oh, they dare." Luna laughed. "And there's something else you should know, Alpha Blackstone. The reason the Council hasn't intervened? They agree with my father. A daughter of Marcus Shadowbane can't be allowed to live."
Howls erupted outside. Many howls. The attack was beginning.
Michael grabbed my arm. "We need to move. Now."
"Where?" I was drowning in revelations, barely able to think.
"Somewhere safe. Somewhere they can't follow."
"There is nowhere safe," Luna called after us as Michael pulled me toward a hidden door. "The entire supernatural world will hunt her when they find out what she is. The daughter of the most evil wolf who ever lived."
The hidden door led to stairs. We ran down them, Michael's guards surrounding us. But I could hear the fighting above, the snarls and screams.
"Michael," I gasped. "Maybe I should just—"
"Don't you dare say you should give yourself up." He stopped suddenly, turning to face me. "You're mine, Ava. My mate. I'll burn the whole world down before I let them hurt you."
"But if I'm really his daughter—"
"I don't care whose daughter you are." His hands cupped my face. "You're not your father. You're not evil. You're mine, and I protect what's mine."
A massive crash shook the building. The wolves had broken through.
"Sir!" A guard skidded around the corner. "They're in the stairwell. We're surrounded."
Michael's eyes flashed gold. "Then we fight."
"Wait." I grabbed his arm. Something was happening inside me. Heat building, power rising. My wolf was stirring in a way she never had before. "I think... I think something's happening to me."
"Ava?" Michael's voice was concerned.
The heat became unbearable. Power crashed through me like a tidal wave. And then I was shifting—but not into my small, weak wolf form.
When the transformation ended, I stood taller than Michael in his human form. My fur was pure black with silver markings that seemed to glow. Power radiated from me in waves.
Everyone, including Michael, took a step back.
"Impossible," one of the guards whispered. "She's a Prime."
Prime. The rarest type of wolf. Born only once every hundred years.
And I was one of them.
- Writer
