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“Owen and Miles had already prepped a basic stew for dinner. They said we just needed to simmer it over the fire for a while longer.” Nick looked from the pot to the fire, like he wasn’t sure how to make that happen. River and Ryder swung into action, showing off their outdoor skills, and expertly got the pot set up in the fire. Nick gave them an enthusiastic high five when they were done, which made me grin.
Everyone settled back down onto the comforter, but Ryder was restless. He fidgeted with a stick and shot a look at River, who frowned at him. My calm evaporated as my stomach sank. I didn’t know how much more I could take today. Ryder, with his heart spilling out of his blue eyes, could easily break me.
He finally sighed and swiveled to look at me. “I have some questions.”
eleven
IlookedatAvasnuggled up in Wolf’s brawny arms. The young girl I knew was gone, and I couldn’t get her back. She was all woman now. We’d missed so much. The Palace had robbed us of those years with her. I knew I was older too, and different from the boy she knew. Yet part of me had always expected thirteen-year-old Ava to come running out those doors towards us when we could finally come for her.
It was almost a shock seeing her again. Especially the way she’d appeared when we’d arrived here last night. The poised omega princess that had walked back through those ornate doors had felt foreign and untouchable. Seeing her out here, amongst the trees, was better. She felt more like my Ava, even if she looked different.
I searched her face, and her huge green eyes begged me for something I couldn’t define. I used to know every expression in them.
“Okay,” she finally said, with that same quiet, softness in her voice that I remembered. It stirred so many emotions in me. I’d always felt fiercely protective of her, so had River. Even before we presented as alphas. It had been an instinctive, yet innocent, feeling, though. She’d been our best friend, a partner in our adventures. I felt the same protectiveness now, but stained by my anger and fear.
How had Wolf let his fear go?The second we’d heard her scream, he’d been off his bike and running. Yet, so had I. I looked at him now, unsure what to do. My emotions were veering around wildly. He gave me an encouraging nod.
My obvious torment must have been too much for Ava, because she slipped off Wolf’s lap and crawled on her knees toward me. She’d never been able to see us in pain without trying to fix it. I don’t think she meant to, but she looked sexy as hell. Her t-shirt gaped loose around her chest and I tried not to look at the swell of lush cleavage it exposed. It had never felt like that between us before, but we’d been so young. I had to fight the possessive growl that tried to force its way out of my chest.
She stopped right in front of me and sat on her knees, looking at her hands folded primly in front of her. She suddenly went from sex kitten to pure virgin sacrifice, accepting her fate from a wrathful god. My alpha was clawing at my chest, wanting to pin her down and claim her. Needing her in a carnal way I’d never felt for her before. My head had other ideas, though. It had my body at war.
“What do you need to know, Ry?”
I hesitated. So much was running through my mind. A swirling mess of accusations and fear that had me on edge. But there was one question raging through it all. “I need to know why.”
“Why?” she asked, confusion clouding her gorgeous eyes.
“Why did you leave without a word? Was it us? Was it me? Did you so desperately want to be a princess you’d give up your freedom for it?” I knew my words were harsh and unfair, my tone far too rough, but the fear we hadn’t been enough for her had been burning a hole in me for a decade.
Her eyes widened as she gasped. “No, Ry. Leaving you and River was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Then why? We would have died to keep you safe.” They weren’t words I spoke lightly. I meant them. If it came down to me or her, it would be her I’d save. Even now. Even if she didn’t want me.
“Exactly. You both would have died, Ry. And I would have ended up here anyway, having to live the rest of my life without you. At least this way there was a chance.”
“A chance for what?” A part of my brain was screaming for me to stop, but my heart felt twisted. I had to let it all out. I had to know. “A chance for you to find another alpha?”
“Is that what you think?” She seemed shocked. I noticed movement behind her, as if the others were getting up to leave, but River motioned for them to stay still as he glared at me. So be it. We were having this out now, no matter who was here.
“Ava, everyone thought you were a beta, and we didn’t care. But that night at the barn dance changed everything. Your scent came in so suddenly while you and I were dancing, as if lightning struck us. You’d always been our best friend, but suddenly you were so much more. River felt it too. We both knew instantly you were ours. Our true scent matched mate. Happy is too small a word for everything I felt at that moment. I could see the entirety of our future reflected in your eyes, and it was perfect.”
“I felt it too, Ry. That moment, when River joined us and you both held me in your arms, the world made sense in a way I’d never known before. You’d always felt like my home, but suddenly it was my every heartbeat belonged to you,” she whispered. “I’ve always held that memory in my heart. But everyone at the dance freaked out. Then, when we got home, my uncle was frantic. He said the Palace would come for me, and if you stood in their way, you’d die.”
I clenched my jaw as her words tried to pull my world apart even more. “I know. That’s why we decided to run. We only left you to go pack some survival gear and food. When we got back, you were gone.”
That moment felt etched in my brain forever. Every second apart from her had filled me with a rushing sense of fear. Running back to her house loaded down with gear, but ready to swoop her up in my arms and carry her to safety, only to find her gone. It had shattered me. Parts of me still lay scattered over the floor of her uncle’s house, where I’d left them.
She dropped her head. “And all this time you thought it was because I rejected you? That I wanted a different life?”
I couldn’t swallow suddenly, my throat was so dry. This was my truth. “I was still going to come for you, get you out, the way River planned. But that future I pictured for us, only hours before. It felt gone too, and it fucking hurt. You tore a piece of me out I couldn’t get back.”
The last rays of the sun had finally disappeared into the twilight while we were talking. Only the dancing flames of the fire illuminated us now. It was enough for me to see the silent tears as they fell from her cheeks. Her eyes, when she finally looked up at me, were distraught. Each tear, a bucket of ice, dousing the fire inside me.
“I never, ever imagined you would have thought that of me, Ry. That I would cast you aside so callously. Did you know me at all? You and Riv were my world. My foundations felt built on yours.”
“There was no note, nothing. You were just gone.” I realized suddenly how childish and defensive I sounded. All my long-held rage crumbled into ash in my arms.
She looked over her shoulder at River. “Did you feel like this too?”
