Ava, Part One (Phoenix Academy #1)

48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48

T he rage in him was indescribable.

He felt his own anger mix with Shadow’s as he barreled into Claire and clamped his jaws down on her hind leg just as she launched herself at Ava. Claire’s father was a Beta, and Claire had taken after him, so she was almost as big as an alpha. She whimpered and tried to snap at him, but he caught her in the middle and tossed her the way she had done to Ava.

Blood lust took over him when he saw the blood trickling down her fur. She had almost killed Ava. Blood for blood. He didn’t give a shit when she whimpered and tried to roll onto her stomach. Her submission meant nothing to him and Shadow. They were ready to finish Claire on the spot when several enemy wolves surrounded him. His rage increased, and he knew the bloodbath wouldn’t end with just Claire.

He released the wolf’s throat and snarled in warning at Jared’s pack and friends. They were no match for him, and they knew it. The stench of their fear was heavy in the air as they took several steps back from him. They were right to back off. They would share Claire’s fate if they took this kill from him.

Claire whined beneath him, bringing his attention back to her. Clamping down on her again, he continued to snarl, almost frothing at the lips with his rage. She had dared. Even after the warning in the bathroom, she had dared to attack Ava again.

A small moan brought his attention to the fragile little human on the ground, and his rage cleared a little.

‘Claire needs to die,’ Shadow snarled.

Ava groaned again. Her heartbeat was so weak, and the ground underneath her was already soaked with her blood. It brought him back to his senses faster than anything else could have.

‘And then there will be no one to protect Ava if they take us away.’

That was enough to make Shadow release Claire because his mate’s welfare was his top priority. Shadow tossed Claire and rushed over to inspect her wounds while listening to her weakening heartbeat. Her life was slowly slipping away.

He shifted quickly, uncaring that he was naked among a bunch of enemy wolves as he put pressure on the wound on her stomach and linked Derek and Myles to bring the car urgently.

“What the fuck is going on here?”

He growled as Jared approached with a couple of beers in his hand. There were all these wolves here, and none of them had been able to protect a little human. Where hell had Jared been while this was happening?

“You had her here to protect her, and you’ve failed even that,” he snarled as he urgently stemmed the bleeding.

Jared seemed to notice who was on the ground because he dropped the beer and rushed forward towards her. He growled and let Shadow take over, forcing Jared to stop in his tracks. He was not buying this act. Had this been his plan all along? Hurt Ava because he knew he had been hanging around her too much? Because he’d sensed him following her? Jared was playing a deadly game.

“This is still my territory. Stand down and leave; I will take care of Ava,” Jared snarled.

“You can’t take care of anyone, and you fucking know that.”

A light seemed to go out of Jared’s eyes for a moment before his anger replaced it again. But he didn’t give a shit about the asshole’s feelings. Jared was an incompetent Alpha and shouldn’t be allowed to be in charge of anyone.

“Nevertheless, you have come into my territory uninvited. You’ve broken the rules.”

“Fuck the rules. She’s fucking bleeding out, and you’re talking about rules?” he snarled as he saw Derek and Myles shove their way through the crowd.

He breathed a sigh of relief that they had been so quick and had not hesitated to break the rules for him. He was sure Jared wouldn’t miss the opportunity to make them pay for this, but he would worry about that later.

“Where are you taking her?” Jared asked.

“It’s no longer your concern,” he said as his packmates helped him carry Ava and keep the pressure on her wounds.

He took a last look at Claire as she lay whimpering on the ground. If she stayed in her wolf form, she would be fully healed in a few hours. He hadn’t done nearly as much damage as he had thought he had. But her time would come. He was sure Shadow wouldn’t let this go. And that meant his time was coming, too. Ava and Claire would be his downfall if he didn’t escape this situation.

The ride to the infirmary was made in record time. He’d sat in the back seat with Ava and rushed her inside the moment Derek stopped the car.

The doctors told him to wait outside as they worked on her, but he hadn’t left the room. They had cut her clothes off to inspect and clean her wounds while a nurse hooked her up to an IV to put the healing potion directly into her veins. One of the nurses gave him a blanket to cover himself.

As they wiped away the blood, he saw something that made the rest of his anger disappear.

She had no wounds.

The doctors turned her over to look at the puncture wounds on her back, but it was the same.

Like the last time she had been in here, there was absolutely nothing wrong with her body.

“Is this a prank, Mr Michelson?”

The doctor looked at him sternly as Ava stirred on the table.

“We have no time for these juvenile games. Please take your friend out of here and tell her the next time she comes here, I’ll have to report her to the dean.”

He was still speechless long after the doctors left him in the examination room. He sniffed the air again, and yes, Ava was still very human. So how had she healed so quickly? He was willing to bet Claire was still trying to recover from her wounds, and she was a wolf.

Ava didn’t wake up. She looked like she was peacefully sleeping now, as she had that night he sat in her hospital room. Her heartbeat had returned to normal.

He saw a pile of blankets on the counter and picked one up before carefully wrapping it around Ava and carrying her back out of the infirmary.

How long had he been in there? Half an hour?

Maybe the healing potion worked faster on humans because it wasn’t meant for them.

“What happened? Won’t they see her?” Derek asked as he opened the backdoor for him

The back seat was full of her blood. He paused as he took it all in. That was a lot of blood. He looked down at Ava’s sleeping face. She was very pale, and that was the only indication that she had lost all of that blood.

“They saw her. She’s fine.”

What else could he say? He had no idea what the fuck just happened.

Once they got back home, he carried her straight to his room and placed her on his bed. She looked right there. He knew it was the bond talking, but he didn’t have the energy to fight it tonight.

He unwrapped the blanket he had been given to cover himself and then pulled a pair of shorts from his drawers.

And then he got on the bed behind Ava, carefully pulling her into his arms. The scent of her blood was still all over her when he buried his nose in her neck and took her scent in. But it didn’t rile him up as much as it would have any other day.

Because she was in his arms.

Where Shadow said she belonged.

And for the first time in a long time, he closed his eyes and slept.