Ava
“The royal command doesn’t work on her,” Braiden says to Samuel, his hand running through his hair in utter
frustration before fisting at his side again.
While he has stopped pacing in front of the large metal door leading into a stark white interrogation chamber, his
frustration is no less evident. His rage fills the small space we are standing in, but another feeling sizzles on the
outer edge of it. Hurt. De ep and coming from a place where long-term, life-altering impacts are seeded. His
mother's betrayal would shake his foundation and make him question every person he trusts now. A shitty gift for a
mother to give a son. Doubt and mistrust.
As a mother, I cannot understand. I would give up my life to save Aliana, so how could she have done this?
I look through the small one-way window, the only one, at the horrible being eliciting such negative feelings in me.
There is no remorse on her face, and it still holds the hatred it had when she exploded in front of the pack house
earlier. Then I glance at the other room next to hers, the woman sitting there trembling with fear. Her face, which
was perfectly made up just an hour ago, is now streaked with mascara, while her blotchy skin and red nose allude to
the tears she has been crying. This even before the Black Death has interrogated her.
“Who is she?” I can’t stop the question from slipping out of my mouth.
My senses tell me she is more than just a she-wolf in this pack.
The Black Death freezes, and then his gaze meets mine. I can already tell I’m not going to like this.
“She is my fiancée. Ex-fiancée,” he corrects when my eyebrow raises in voluntarily.
“Ex-fiancée since when?” My hands find their way onto my hips as jealousy bubbles up. I have no reason to be
jealous, mate or not, since I haven’t been around, but I can’t help it. I am seeing red.
The Black Death smiles, his eyes raking my stance and then locking with my gaze.
“You’re jealous.” He dares to smile, and I blink a couple of times, trying not to get sucked into its brilliance and
ke ep the edge of my annoyance.
“Since I found you again, Ava. My mate.” My heart misses a beat as I fathom what he is saying.
“So, if you never found me, you would be mated to her? She is your chosen mate?” The hurt in my voice cannot be
helped.
Sensing it, the Black Death st eps toward me as I drop my hands and st ep back.
“Ava, you are my fated mate. She was a woman chosen by my mother. A woman I do not love but who my mother
could manipulate and use to maintain power behind the scenes. It was not something I wanted, and I only agreed
because the pack was falling apart. I have a responsibility to them as well.” He takes another st ep towards me, and I
take a st ep back.
“When I lost you, I lost myself. I couldn’t continue. It impacted everything. Everyone. Not just this pack but other
packs as well. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”
I’m trying to understand, but I feel hurt, the two feelings warring.
“Do you love her, Black Death?” I call him by the only name I know, his eyebrows drawing together and telling me
he does not like that name.
“It’s Braiden to you. And no, I don’t love her. I love you, Ava.”
“What?” He sounds sincere, but I cannot understand it. He loves me. Hurt flashes across his features.
“This is not the first time I have said this to you. And you have said it back to me before. You may not remember,
but I do. The feeling is as real for me now as it was then. It hasn’t faded or been wiped away. Just because
you don’t feel love for me, doesn’t mean I share that same feeling.” His voice is flat. Hurt. I feel sorry for him, and
he takes a st ep back when I st ep towards him.
So this is how it feels when I do it to him. My heart aches, and tears prickle my eyes that I try to blink away—first
his mother and now me. Guilt ravages me as I look at the man shutting down in front of me. Walls are coming up
that I feel powerless to stop.
“Samuel, take Ava back to the house. I will be there shortly.” He is looking through me now, and then he turns
away from me, his eyes back on his mother.
“My Queen,” Samuel says softly, his face filled with remorse. For what I have said perhaps, or how I have made
the King feel.
The walk back to our house is filled with silence as I try to figure out how to fix this.
“I hope you will forgive me, but you must know some things.” His omission of the usual ‘My Queen’ does not go
unnoticed. He must be angry with me, too, or disappointed, or even worse.
I look at him, an indication that he should continue.
“My King almost died when you went missing. I think a part of him did die that day. He has always held so much
guilt about what happened. He was supposed to protect you, and he didn’t. No one actually blamed him, as the
situation was out of our hands, but that is how he felt. How he still feels.
He was truly happy with you for the first time in all the years of knowing him. And then to have you ripped from
him like that. It destroyed him. He shifted and became the name you call him so easily, but that came at a cost to his
soul. The Black Death. Perhaps if you understood you were the catalyst of that creation, you would have more
sympathy for his situation.”
Yes, Samuel is definitely angry with me. I don’t blame him, as shame overwhelms me. I didn’t try to understand. It
has just been me, me, me.
“Your loss forced him into a constant state of edginess, leaving his animal at the surface all the time. His eyes
became that of his wolf, not changing back until he saw you and Aliana. Do you even understand how that must
feel? To be in that state constantly? Fighting to be in control? It’s torture.
And I’m not saying what you went through isn’t. I’m just saying that you weren’t the only one that suffered. You
lost your memories, and he lost you.
His mate. And three years of his own daughter's life.”
Damn, Samuel is going for the jugular. I look at the floor, his words sinking in until I feel so bad a lump has formed
in my throat.
All that time lost. So much in my life that was out of my control. Out of his control. I was sick of it.
While I k ept asking myself why this had and was happening to me and to us, I had to start asking myself how to fix
this.
And then it dawned on me. Years gone, years missed. I couldn’t bring them back, but I could close the gap.
A little spark of hope has me stopping in my tracks.
“Samuel, I need your help with something.” Samuel is looking at me like I have lost my mind—the crazy smile on
my face is probably the cause.
I explain my plan to him, and by the end, he has a big smile.
“So, what do you think? Will you help me?”
I hold my breath, waiting for him to either tell me I am mad or say he will aid me in my scheme to win the Black
Death, Braiden, back. Or at least put us back onto a path where he isn’t constructing more walls to ke ep me out.
“I love it! Let’s get to the house and finish this before he gets home. Nick will want to be in volved, and Aliana will,
no doubt.”
Excitement fizzles in me, and then nervousness sets in as I start doubting my plan.
What if he doesn’t like it?
“Don’t second guess yourself. He will love it.” Wow, Nick’s mate is a mind reader. He hugs me, and then we run
towards the house.
Time will tell, I think, heading into our house with renewed vigor. I stop, realizing what I have just said.
Our house. This is our home now. The truth of that comes bounding up to me with a smile on her beautiful face,
which has only become brighter since being here. She was never like this with Jerry. She was never like this, even
in our little house in the forest. Something was always missing. I can feel it de ep in my heart. Feel what it was
longing for.
Braiden.