Ava, Part Two (Phoenix Academy #2)

13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I n his free period, Zeke casually strolled into the busy library. Trying to have this conversation where they could be overheard was stupid, but he needed to know. He couldn’t resist Ava anymore, especially when she was under his roof.

Her scent was everywhere. And even if she denied it, she couldn’t hide that she wanted him, too. He only had to touch her, and she’d be his.

He had to fix this situation so he could concentrate on everything else.

When he walked into the atrium, Miss Donovan was at her desk dealing with some students. Her sharp gaze was already on him, as she had probably sensed him coming. Fucking in the library was not allowed. This wasn’t an academy rule, it was Miss Donovan’s, so he was on her shit list. Would she still help him out?

He imagined she’d had many reasons to enforce that rule with all the soundproofed study rooms around the library. Things around the academy sometimes got hairy, especially when a female was in heat. But Miss Donovan told all of them to take that shit away from her precious books.

Miss Donovan’s eyes narrowed on him, and then she looked away to continue speaking to the student she was helping. He sighed and walked around the room for a little while until he saw she had no one left to serve. Then he made eye contact and then started to walk up a set of stairs to the second-level study rooms.

Would she follow? If the Council had been in the library straight after their meetings with him and Ava, they must have come here to look through one of their restricted books. Miss Donovan must know by now that something bad was up. Maybe she wouldn’t want to get her hands dirty at all. Anything that involved the Council was likely a death sentence.

He paced the room while he waited. Shadow wanted to go back downstairs and make her talk, but this situation wouldn’t be resolved by showing his teeth everywhere.

He’d given up and was about to go back to his lessons when the door was pushed open. Miss Donovan walked in with her head held high and not an ounce of fear. Her hair was in a tight bun on top of her head, and her pale skin was flawless. She was the definition of ageless.

He backed away from her to lean against a desk, not once looking away from her angry gaze.

“You lied to me. How?”

With her allure, he shouldn’t have been able to lie.

“I didn’t lie.”

“You’re lying right now. You made me believe you wanted to help the vampire prince,” Miss Donovan hissed.

“I do.”

“You’ve done this for yourself! You think I didn’t see that yesterday?” she snapped angrily. “I should have known better than to trust you. Now you have knowledge you shouldn’t have and are on the Council’s radar.”

“What you saw yesterday... I apologise for getting carried away—”

“You were in a mating frenzy! If that human hadn’t stepped away, then you would have tried to kill me!”

Mating frenzy? Just how old was Miss Donovan to know about such things? Had she been around at the time true mates were common?

“I apologise. But I didn’t lie, Miss Donovan. I just didn’t tell you everything. As you’re now well aware, I’ve found myself in an impossible situation,” he said.

Impossible was putting it mildly.

“I need to find out—”

“I won’t help you break the vampire and the wolf’s true mate bond,” Miss Donovan declared.

“I don’t want to break it,” he answered honestly.

He was going to tell Prince Gideon his decision tonight. His father would threaten to disown him, and he would threaten to make someone else the Alpha, but deep down, everyone knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop Shadow. It was time he asserted himself.

Miss Donovan’s surprise was apparent as she stood by the door with her arms crossed.

“Then what do you want from me, Mr Michelson.”

“I want to know what would happen if I marked the human. I don’t want to hurt her.”

There. It was out. Someone other than Derek and Myles knew his intentions, and he didn’t know if he could trust her with this information. But she was the only one who could help him.

Miss Donovan stared at him for a while before pulling a chair out of a desk and sitting down. She indicated the chair opposite her. He settled himself in it before he met the librarian’s stern gaze again.

“You want to make a human the Luna of the biggest pack in America?”

“I want to make her my mate,” he corrected.

He knew she would never be accepted as the Luna unless he broke away from his pack or challenged his father. But that was a problem for another day.

“And how would that help the vampires?” she asked.

“Because I will be Alpha one way or another. Prince Gideon knows that. If I tell him I’m not pursuing the matter, then it is my word he will take, not my father’s.”

Miss Donovan studied him again. She was probably wondering why her allure didn’t work on him, but after Shadow threatened her when she came into the study room while his head had been filled with the need to mark Ava, she probably knew why by now. He was not like other wolves.

“Why are the Council delegates interested in you?” she asked suddenly.

He inclined his head.

“Did they say that?”

“Let’s just say that helping you right now may be quite detrimental to my health,” Miss Donovan said as she stood.

“But you’ll help anyway?” he asked.

“I’ll give you the books you need to help yourself,” she answered as she left the room.

He spent the rest of his free period pouring over Miss Donovan’s old books, cursing her for not just telling him what he needed to hear. A simple answer. Yes or no? Would Ava die if he marked her? Would she break if he made love to her? Would he die if he didn’t mark or fuck her?

Because it felt like he would, with every passing second.

It was time to head to training when he finally returned the books to Miss Donovan and walked out of the library with only half the answers he needed. Ava wouldn’t die if he marked her, but she had to accept this bond, too.

But how would he get his little skittish human to accept that she belonged to him for the rest of her life? That she would be forever bound to his broken, irredeemable soul? And what would happen if she was the one to reject him?